Board of Education · Work Session · November 7, 2024

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Board of Education

November 7, 2024 · Full Transcript

Oh all right good afternoon good afternoon oh that was quiet let's try it one more time good afternoon everyone good afternoon apologize to those who are streaming us we did start a little late this evening but the November 7th 2024 work session is now in session we're gonna begin our meeting.

Is general public comment we're going to do a quick review of the rules first please state your name and you're speaking for organization please state your name and the name of the organization second our speakers are asked to present their comments within three minutes when the yellow light comes on you'll have one minute left to start winding up your remarks when the red light comes on it will beep and that'll indicate that your time is up complaints about named staff students or parents should not be voiced in Open session however we are very interested in hearing your concerns with regard to public education the safety of students or to the operation of the school system finally the board members will listen carefully and consider your comments but we do not engage in a discussion with our speakers our first Speaker tonight and please correct me when you come to the podium if I mispronounce your name Adia Juma G Galia oh thank you next up I'm going.

To read a couple more names so that you all are ready will be Elizabeth Jones followed by an Fields good day my name Isa and I'm representative of the student from giens middle school on just on this August I entered the USA I joined Duke University and this was the first experience when my children started to study at Durham public school and immediately from the first day we met the school bus transportation problem because within three weeks the school bus was not assigned to us so it was very difficult in the morning we took taxi which was very expensive for us and after school we used public bus Which took approximately 2 hours in the hot weather so that I saw that my children was was very tired after school after this long way home and we just spent some time in order to for them for rest and only then early in the evening later in the evening they were able to prepare their homework and right now it's of course it's better but.

Sometimes the school bus are cancelled and there is some lack of information because we don't receive information at in time that whether we our bus will arrive or not and also I I would also to forget to mention that even when we started to to receive the service of of school bus there is some some period when the number of school bus was wrong in this system you do lock application that's why we were not able to understand whether it is our boss or not thank you thank.

You hello my name is Elizabeth Jones I'm a DPS teacher and a DPS parent urging you to take action tonight to solve the ongoing and unacceptable Transportation crisis affecting some of our most vulnerable students and Families First I want to ground this crisis in current national political moment it is more important now than ever that Democratic strongholds like Durham prove that we can deliver at a minimum basic services to our residents it's time for DPS to focus on and prioritize goals that are core to our mission what is more core than ensuring our kids can get to school I cannot overstate the impact that the lack of reliable bus service has had on our schools in our community I'm not sure which has been worse having my students Miss days in a row of SCH school because there is no bus or having schools repeatedly find out at noon that students who came to school on a bus have no way to get home giving teachers and administrators no good choices will.

Students whose parents don't have cars be left stranded at school should teachers or administrators put themselves at legal risk and drive students home I do not understand how we hired two three I don't know I've lost count Consultants to study classified staff pay and we still arrived at a starting wage over a dollar less per hour than bus drivers in Chapel Hill and Wake County this seems like basic math that many of our students could have done for you maybe while they had extra time being stuck at home I know at this point there may no be no easy solutions however I do know that the one proposed solution of stripping away promised bus service with a month's notice from over a thousand elementary students who can walk to school is completely unacceptable and flies in the face of the equity this District claims to uphold ask school-based staff to Step Up ask central office to step up find money to compensate people for their extra time do what it takes but if DPS is.

Going to rebuild Community Trust we need to demonstrate that our word matters we need to demonstrate that we can keep our promises and if nothing else we need to get our kids to school thank. You next up after Anne Fields will be Lauren stin Jenna CER and Kristen B. Can I start yeah you can go ahead okay I come here this evening my name is an I am a DPS parent I have a kindergarten who you may have seen last time she's out in the hall and she was telling me today how she had to wait a really really long time for her bus and I I asked her if she wanted to share that with the group tonight and she was a little nervous to do that so I'm going to share it for you but I come here this evening with an extreme amount of privilege privilege to be able to figure out different options even at the last minute on 10:31 I was notified at.

2113 that there would be no bus for my child when school gets out at 2:15 that's what time I was notified that is completely an utterly unacceptable I privilege to even at the last minute to keep my child safe so many others do not have that privilege or option privilege to have a car that would even get me here tonight to talk about this and to have a job that ends at 5:00 this is an equity issue that none of the solutions printed by DPS address I want you to put yourself in the position of a parent that has no other way to get their child to school that is waking your 5-year-old up at 5 something in the morning do you not have kids how is it okay that a child has to wake up an hour and a half earlier than the child whose parents have a car and a job that permits them to provide other forms of transportation to and from school that same child is then sitting.

At school and on the bus for 2 hours after school during which time they can't study eat if they're on the bus for over an hour which my child is use the bathroom do physical activity so so many things it really honestly makes me sick to my stomach to even be standing up here having this conversation today I didn't expect during public schools to be perfect and I understand restraints but as a former DPS employee and as a current DPS parent it's simply unbelievable that we cannot find another solution that prioritizes our families and students many of whom are staff that also have students in DPS I also encourage you to consider The process by which bus drivers are trained for their jobs and what the requirements are including how the the drug test is administered and how the components of the drug test are broken down upon with the results of those components and how that compares with other districts that are is preventing people from even why why would you work in.

Durham thank. You hi my name's Lawrence hartin I'm a DPS parent since nothing has changed since two weeks ago I have nothing new to say so I yeld my time to Jenna and I promise I will not speak for six minutes I'm Jenna Crowther mother of a second grader and a three-year-old DPS is in the second quarter of the Academic Year and students still do not have reliable bus transportation to and from school the busing situation in Durham is a crisis and yet 12 weeks into the school year I have not seen DPS treating it as such at my child's Elementary School and at many possibly most schools across the district at least one of the buses serving the school does not run each day we have had multiple days with no bus service schoolwide perhaps the most distressing experience I have had as a parent is reading the Frantic messages following the bus service alerts my child will not attend school today because of no bus.

Service I have to work this is not okay this also means that our principal and assistant principal are spending four total hours a day transporting student students which is for Less hours they have to manage activity inside the school building DPS is in the first year of implementing the growing together student reassignment plan one of the primary goals of this program is to Foster diversity equity and access to DPS academic programs at the October 24th board meeting this room board members and Senior leadership applauded growing together implementation at a time when we can not get students and arguably some of our most vulnerable populations to school reliably at this same meeting the transportation discussion that was on the agenda was pushed children cannot learn if they cannot make it to school no matter how Innovative and bold the academic programming the legislative environment in North Carolina is not kind to education the new federal Administration will not be kind to education but you all you have the chance to be kind to.

Education I'm not talking about performative social media posts about meeting politicians or providing Equity resources for teachers I'm not talking about the misstep of publicly celebrating New buses for which you have no drivers and then doubling down when you received feedback that the messaging didn't land well with your your impacted families the Ripple impacts of this crisis are significant and cannot be ignored our most vulnerable School populations are being disproportionately impacted by this crisis which also has likely impacts on job food and housing security for many families just sit with that for a moment and then do act now tonight no more excuses let's solution thank.

You hi I'm Christian badir and Richard Hardy he also is on the list we're here together so if we could goine our time all right and we're here for honoring Bill Bell I'm actually reading a letter from a former member house US Representative and professor emeritus Duke at Duke University David E price he wanted to be here but he couldn't for other reasons so I'll be reading his letter on his behalf dear board members I wish to submit this letter for your consideration as you contemplate naming a new school building in the honor of The Honorable William Bell Bell I have known and work with Bill throughout the years of our contemporaneous Public Service not only during his years as a member and the chair of the County Commission and his time as mayor of Durham but also in his lesser known but important roles as executive of the Udi Community Development Corporation chair of the North Carolina railroad board and the champion and board member of the nccu and the UNCC system North Carolina.

Was fortunate from the day bill first located here with the IBM Corporation he immediately plunged into a career of Public Service often motivated by injustices that needed to be corrected he has been consistent powerful advocate for public education most notably as a commissioner and pushing the cause of merging the city and the County School Systems even in the face of political headwinds Bill's wisdom and Leadership have already been Vindicated and improved opportunities for thousands of students in an attractiveness and prosperity of the Durham community in my view Bill's leadership and the mder struggle alone would suffice to justify the honor you are considering tonight but of course there is much much more Bill's lifetime of service has left a lasting imprint on Durham and North Carolina and the determination Vision skill and inclusiveness with which he has led provide a model and inspiration for young people and indeed all of us who have known him I commend you for considering this richly deserved honor sincerely David E price former member us.

House representative North Carolina 4 professor emeritus D Duke University and this is also my fellow classmate will so we'll start the time over again as a separate thank you public comment my name is Richard Hardy and I'm speaking on behalf of honoring bill Bell I'm the red star and assistant director of academics for the accounting program at UNC Chapel Hills Keen Flagler business school and a member of the Hillside High School class of 1999 as a proud alumnus of Durham Public Schools I want to speak in support of the proposal to name a DPS building after Bill Bell in honor of his history of public service including his total 26 years on the County Board of Commissioners 12 as chair and an unsurpassed 16year tenure as mayor of Durham inspired by his own experiences with discrimination and observation of the unequal resourcing of City Public Schools like the one in his neighborhood compared to the county schools he committed himself to making this merger happen and paid a political price for it.

Losing his seat as County Commissioner my own experience at Hillside as a result of this merger gave me a high quality education that enabled me to gain admission to my desired School UNC Chapel Hill with with a years worth of AP credit while also exposing me to a diverse student body that looked like Durham fostering friendships I retain to this day I believe mayor Bell is the kind of person we should be giving this sort of honor to I figure it's such fundamental importance to our schools and community and as my classmates previously remarked better to do so while he is still around to receive this honor after having already given a lifetime wor worth of service thank you all for your consideration thank you the next group of speakers will be Britney parue Beth Clifford and Tanya.

Shatto hi everyone I'm Britney Pardue and I'm the eighth grade ESL teacher at Brogden Middle School as an ESL teacher I teach refugees immigrants and children of immigrants and my students are disproportionately affected by the bus crisis as we know consistent and High attendance rates are linked to positive outcomes in life and in academics higher grades higher literacy rates faster English attainment better mental and emotional health higher test scores and higher graduation rates in fact when our ESL team was brainstorming ways to improve our student learning for the school year the the thing we identified was that we wanted to tackle chronic absenteeism amongst our students we established an attendance intervention plan we received a grant to better collaborate with families and built community and we were rece and we were getting good results it was exciting in quarter 1 chronic absenteeism in my classroom was down to 20% Which was compared to 31 for the school average unfortunately we've hit a major roadblock the buses aren't running in quarter 2 my attendance has plummeted.

44% of my students are now chronically absent this is now surpassing the school average which is also raised to 41% it's hard to have High attendance when the buses aren't running I urge you to consider the bus crisis from an equity perspective not only investigating the impact that this is having on onor mcken vento students our students in the EC program but also the students in the ESL program as you know the current High School graduation rate for our English language Learners stands at 62% which is behind the graduation rate for our EC cohort which is 68% and our economically disadvantaged students which is at 81% it's hard to have High attendance when the buses aren't running and your family doesn't have a car it's hard to have high attendants when the buses aren't running and your parents come from Minority language backgrounds and face unique linguistic challenges to advocate for you the buses aren't running it's an equity.

Issue hi my name is Beth Clifford teacher at githens and I seed my time to Tonia shfo I also am an ESL teacher Tony Shao 7th grade at brogon Middle School thank you for letting us be here as an educator I'm frequently asked to pause and thoughtfully examine the data that my students turn out in their test outcomes and their scores so tonight as a member of our team I'd like to ask you to pause and thoughtfully examine the data that I'm going to share with you last week our ESL team issued a survey with our students where we were able to get responses from 173 out of our 260 Els ironically it was on a day when three buses didn't run so there are some flaws in the data though I think those flaws has to happier light on the data than you know might really be true the survey asked questions like does your family have a car that you can take to school each day do you ride a bus how.

Many times have missed school due to a bus this year how many times have you missed discovery which is the Middle School intervention block this year because of a bus have you had a midday cancellation what do you do when your bus doesn't come we we we had this vague sense something is a miss and our students are impacted but it was hard to really know the the the breadth of it so I'm going to share some of that data with you we're roughly 50 instructional days into the school year that means that for a student to be considered a chronic absentee they need to have missed five days of school 102 out of 132 of our bus riders reported missing school this year because of a bus on one of our buses which 24 of our students ride which serves the Duke Manor neighborhood one of brogen's biggest feeder complexes and one of the lowincome apartment complexes our students reported that on average out of those 24 they've missed.

4.3 days of school because of the bus this year they are chronically absent making them ineligible to play sports for the high school students that means that the way that they are able to engage with their end of course exams is affected because that is tied to attendance because they don't have buses running 87% of our Ells who took that survey reported that their family doesn't have a car they can use at every day to go to school 87% of our.

Students 101 of those students reported that they've had a midday announcement telling them that they do not have a ride home that they need to make alternative Arrangements 101 of our students have at some point this year had to call their parent and say I don't know how I'm getting home today when they're bus doesn't come 20% of them ride the city bus at times 40% of them wait at least 30 minutes or more outside for the bus to come 20% of them wait for an hour to come 31% of them make a last minute plan to ride with someone else 70% of them have a family member drive them which might mean that that family member misses work or isn't able to go and 47% reported that at times they simply do not come to school because of the bus as a teacher I am often given seemingly unsolvable problems and asked to pour my whole being into solving them for the sake of the kids for the.

Kids I empathize with you so much this bus problem is tremendously difficult the the sheer number of vacancies the complexity of getting your CDL is difficult and I empathize with it but I am given unsolvable problems every single day and I do everything I can to do that and so I am asking you to do the same Dr Lewis my first impression of you was that in your welcome video to the district you said that you want to make Durham the premier District in the nation and I laughed at you I'm sorry for that I laughed at you for just a moment and then I realized I share that Vision I would I would oh I dream of the day that someone might recognize that the district that our students are being educated in is one of the best in the country and I truly think that this year this bus crisis is one of our biggest barriers to that I'll close with one little story and then I.

Promise to stop talking I have a student I'll call her Ally she missed nine days in a row over the past two weeks and I was talking to our social worker hey I am not seeing this kid we've talked in the past chronic absenteeism is part of her history she's got anxiety about coming to school and my social worker got a hold of her and on Friday she was not at school and I asked my classmates guys what has happened to Ally where is she and they said she was waiting for the bus this morning and the bus did not come and I know that that Brak your heart too but that story needs to be told I've got a few copies of some letters that my students wrote to you dear members of the Board of Education and then I've also got a copy of the data that we were able to yield from that survey I hope you'll have the time to examine it you can pass those.

Letters right there and we'll make sure they get scanned into thank you all right next we'll have Carly Carly Osorio Christina Livingstone Kristen we have you one more time did you want David Klein is our last person my name is SC sposo I'm the sixth grade ESL Ela teacher at brogon middle school I'm here today to share the concerns and frustration from The Immigrant and Refugee parents that I work with on a daily basis about the buses due to the inconsistencies with transportations parents don't even know when the bus is coming most mornings my and my colleagues phones are being blown up through talking points through WhatsApp through Google Voice with parents being like hey do you do you happen to know if bus 229 is coming today is bus 620 happening hey my kids been waiting outside for 45 minutes and this bus still hasn't come and it's awful because they know that they're going to have to make a calculus of do I tell my kid to keep waiting how long an.

Hour two hours or should they get on the city bus should they start walking do I need to start desperately calling everyone I know to be like hey can you please give my child a ride to school and that leaves our families leaving so uncertain and so guilty for no and feeling that it's their fault that they can't provide transportation for their children the midday cancellations are particularly stressful today at our school around 12:30 my teaching was in interrupted with an announcement that bus 235 would not be running yesterday 620 was canceled in the middle of the school day last Friday 620 621 229 and 135 were canceled in the middle of the school day this information is being broadcasted to students in the middle of the school day parents are receiving a robo call probably around noon to 1 p.m.

Many of our parents are working parents some of them have jobs where they cannot have their phones on them they don't get those calls they don't know we also have students who don't have their own cell phones I know crazy middle schoolers do have cell phones but they don't and it's awful because parents are left with one phone call from the office saying Mom Dad I guess we're going to walk home because I know you're still at work and you can't pick me up or we're going to take the city bus and I know from speaking with my students students have told me that the city bus is scary they have seen people fighting on the buses they've seen people who are high who are drunk people who are being violent towards each other my kids are 11 years old that's how old my students are and this is a thing they're having to see because there is no bus to take them home I had a parent of two students.

Who I had in the past two years neither of them has a working cell phone she got a call from them at 325 when our school lets out letting her know that they were going to walk home it took them over an hour and a half they didn't get home till 5:00 p.m. She told me she was terrified she knows the neighborhood that they live in she knows all of the long long city block and all of the four lanes that they're going to have to cross that don't always have a timer there's no crossing guard and people are not the safest drivers she told me she was really really scared and so I hope that as you consider how you can solve the transportation problem you also think about how you can better communicate with.

Families okay U my name is Chris Livingston and I'm also an ESL teacher at Brogden and I would like to bring in the voices of some of my students who've written about the bus issues these are English Learners so there may be some little blips in the writing but the first letter is from a seventh grader dear members of the Board of Education my name is Diego and I'm a seventh grade student at Brogden I'm writing to you about the bus problem at our school I do ride bus 654 in the morning and afternoon sometimes when the bus don't come I stay home or we take the public bus there be fighting and I've seen people with guns and drugs when the bus don't ride in the morning my family gets stressful and angry sometimes in the afternoon I go walk to Duke Manor it take me more than an hour to get there I'd like to say that I know that we have the time and the energy and the.

Thoughtfulness and the care to think about all kinds of ways we can invest in our students there's trainings there's walkthroughs there's data folders there's workshops there there's new positions and all kinds of new initiatives but if students are not in the building none of those things will help them in any way please place this bus issue at the front of everything we're doing where it belongs I would like to read one more letter from students and then a little piece of a last piece dear Schoolboard members this is from sixth graders this is a group of sixth graders we are writing about the problem of the buses to ask you to please fix them lots of buses are not coming which makes students miss school this is a very big problem first some kids don't have someone to pick them up or get them to school in a car a lot of parents take their car to work and they can't drive their kids second a lot of times buses.

Don't come to take kids home when no one can pick them up kids walk home or take the city bus the city bus is dangerous there are some bad people there are some gang members who might do bad stuff people smoke and are high and there are some guns third a lot of people Miss classwork they have to do it later but sometimes you can't understand the work it's hard to learn things when you don't go to school please fix the bus problems and I'd like to read one selection from a last letter from some seventh graders you might be able to tell we're practicing first second third transition words to get ready for the access test third not everyone has a car some people have a car but their dad took it to work some people don't have a car school is for everyone it is for people with cars and it is for people without cars if you can fix the problems we can be in school.

Every day and I've got here a packet of letters I promised them I'd give them to you and also some text messages from parents thank you. Hello my name is David Klein here with my wife Erica Frankle we are both parents of two DPS students one in first grade at Po and one in kindergarten at Watts I can add to all the data points that you heard tonight and that I'm sure have come to you through very this channels up to tonight but since I only have three minutes I'll take advantage of my position as talking last and offer help that is to say even though our kids haven't been able well rather have been told at the last minute that their bus is not taking them home I and my wife are lucky enough to work from home we're lucky enough to be able to make last minute changes to change a meeting here and change a me a meeting there and get them to where they need to go however.

We also recognize that there are other families who are not in that position and we would like to offer our help to other families who really need it to ensure that kids are able to go to school every day and they're able to get home safely we recognize my wife and I that two people are not going to solve this problem that this needs to be solved structurally I'm not saying anything you all don't already understand and are probably working on for example have you considered privatization I'm sure you have and my hope is that you'll discuss it more this evening if not already researched it to great detail to determine if in fact that is the way that Durham can deliver on its policy if there's one thing to I'll get to that last the final thing the second to final thing I'll say is because there are only two of us and two people won't solve this problem we'd also like to offer our time and our.

Effort to organize other parents who are similarly situated as us those who actually are able to band together early in the morning around 5 or 6 AM which is usually when the when the automated announcements come that the bus isn't coming that day or at 12:00 1:00 or 2:13 p.m. letting folks know that their kids don't have a ride home at 2:15 when school lets out we we are ha for those parents who already willing and able to help out as well we're happy to organize across the entire School District as a shortterm interim measure before this is solved on a more medium or long-term basis I'm happy to share my contact information post the final thing I'd say I would just leave you with this again something that you probably already fully understand and appreciate policy means nothing if you can't deliver policy means nothing if you can't deliver thank you thank you good Mr Co we would love to get your information it's not listed here so.

If a staff member could follow up with him so we can get that information I think we need as much support as we can including if you or some other parents want to help sign up and drive buses we would love to have that support so I love I think someone's going to follow up with you right after this board members before we go into the consent items I do want to pass it over to Dr Lewis we have some new staff members with us today and I think he wants to do a little introductions as and I would be remiss if I didn't just acknowledge our our staff and our parents coming to Advocate on behalf of all of our students we hear you and we are definitely working on that I do want to take a moment to U introduce and welcome two key leaders to our team first we have Dr Larry Webb who has been named our chief operations officer Chief Operating Officer of Durham Public Schools his initial.

Start date was December was December 8th or 9th and working with his previous school and and and seeing the need here his starting date is now November 18th and so we're super excited for him to to join us he most recently served as chief of auxiliary services for Franklin County school since 2016 where you oversaw construction budget planning Child Nutrition Services Maintenance and Facilities Transportation Middle School principal mentors long-term appeals and more much much more in that title he also has served as principal and assistant principal and all was also a teacher and director of bands as well so welcome Dr Larry Webb thank you and then secondly joining the team is our chief Finance Chief finance officer Jeremy terer on on the DI there he started November 4th this past Monday his track record is results oriented and he has been credited with quickly identifying and resolving complex Financial programmatic challenges welcome I'm G put that to test terer earned his Bachelor of Arts and masters of Business Administration from.

Elon University also holds membership in the North Carolina Association of school business officials he is served as Financial Consultant where he is directly supported and advised many school districts around North Carolina and also was interim finance officer in various school districts in North Carolina so we also want to welcome our new Chief finance officer Jeremy Teter and I would also be remissed if I didn't publicly acknowledge and thank Sierra oju oito for horror commitment in every true sense of the word word commitment dedication someone that was determined to to to get it right and fix many of the issues spending countless and I do mean that countless hours during the day at night at home and I also want to publicly thank her family for and her son for U probably coming to Mommy and Mommy's on the computer you know so thank you so much Sierra for your unwavering commitment to during Public Schools and leading us as our inter Chief finance officer so thank.

You well welcome Dr web Mr terer Welcome to our team welcome to dur Public Schools we are excited to have you we have your work cut out for you so I'm excited that y'all are here I think we need a full team to be able to wrap our hands around the challenges that we're navigating and our students deserve for us to have great minds around the table thank you Miss o for all of your service and commitment and glad that you are still working with us all right the next item on our agenda is our consent items we did remove in our amended agenda b c and d so we will be looking for approval of consent items a e f and.

G move approval of consent item a e f and. G. Second is there any discussion or or.

Comments all right all those in favor say I I any opposed use the same sign it passes unanimously the consent items are pass chair may just make a quick comment on one of the consent agenda items particularly the legislative U delegates and agenda thank the board for taking action on that and if you haven't members of the public haven't taken a look at those legislative agenda items please take a look at those are typically want to all of them are important but given where we are right now and some of the items on the agenda I do want to call out the recommendations as it relate to advocating for providing pay raises for every school employee within the with extra focus on stem teachers special education teachers and bus drivers so I just wanted to call that out that's in the legislative.

Agenda thank you Dr Lewis all right the next item on our agenda we have two Board of Education items I'll pass it over to you Rogers for both of those thank you Miss umid colleagues I'm excited to have a conversation with you all tonight we've had several conversations and many discussions about the superintendent evaluation tool some of this started as far back as last October and continues and will continue we are specifically talking about the tool tonight so it is not in reference to our current superintendent it is simply so that we know and he knows what to expect as we move forward with an evaluation in the future as well as the public has the ability to consume what we are evaluating the superintendent on it is part of the work we did when we established a leadership profile in our superintendent search process the community was able to give input we've listed this here for public consumption I'd like to take just a minute to go through the.

Timeline upon which we would be evaluating the superintendent the way the rubric would work and how we see all this putting together then we'll have conversation about where people are landing with each piece of the each tool in the process so the recommendation is that we launch a 360 evaluation and that would launch miday to for about 30 days and we would ask it to distribute unique links for cabinet members principles and APS if we so choose and director level staff and up it would be open for 30 days and then the and Anonymous so people would not be identifiable based on the information from the survey and it is truly a survey on a scale of 1 to five have has this been demonstrated and we can go through some of those lawn items that are listed in the materials for today.

Once we have that data it would be shared with board members and the superintendent by August 1st at that point the superintendent would have an opportunity to produce artifacts for the board and distribute it to board distribute those to board members at or by the August work session and then the board would be able to take action and create complete the mrail tool that is the superintendent fillable evaluation rubric that is listed as part of this agenda item we would convene and close session particularly in a morning in mid September to tally the results in that tool in the mrail tool together as a collective so each individual board member would fill out the process of the tool and bring their document with them and they be discussion so that we can ensure that we all understand and have evidence backing from the artifacts that the superintendent has provided where we have placed the superintendent on the MRA tool for each standard of the seven standards and with that we would develop a.

Single composite board evaluation for the superintendent we would also at that time have access to the test scores and data and would be able to use the benchmarks in the Strategic plan that our community has agreed upon to ensure that the student outcomes are aligned with our expectations of where we're headed and we will fill out that formula that spreadsheet together as well so that we all know how those calculations have been handled together at that time we would also draft the board goals for the superintendent based on all the data the mrail tool the Strategic plan tool the 360 degree evaluation data and the artifacts that the superintendent has provided we would at that time as a board come up with a date to schedule a conference with the superintendent so that we can discuss our developed evaluation and he would have an opportunity to distribute his self- evaluation where he's filling out the mrail tool in the same way that we filled out the mcra tool to understand.

If we are on the same page and what adjustments we need to make to ensure that we're all working together towards the same goals and hold an addition special call session not the same day so that we're having this discussion with him and decide on the goals for him and the district for the following year that's a lot but that's the basic overview of the timeline Are there specific questions about let's first talk about the mcra tool the mrail tool is very similar to the evaluation tool that's us used to evaluate our Educators and our principles it was approved by the North Carolina North Carolina DPI in 2010 for use as a superintendent evaluation tool Mr tab thank you very much I've looked at both tools and I really do like both tools so that can really works for me my question and maybe off topic just a little bit so I just want to make sure that are we talking about using the tool at all for this year of evaluation or we talking.

About using the tool only for next year we are not evaluating the current superintendent on data from last year and are waiting for the full year to do an evaluation of the superintend when test scores are released and he's been here for a year right okay just want to make clear on that thank you Miss Harold go I just wanted to I appreciate that there are several pieces to the evaluation the 360 tool I especially appreciate I think that's very valuable to hear from the people that work closest with our superintendent to get feedback about about the superintendent so and appreciate the fact that that is U Anonymous so that people feel safe to give honest you know responses I do believe that the purpose of evaluation is not always it's it's not primarily to critique it's to inform and so all of these processes feel very the tool tool feels familiar as a teacher some I've view something similar as an educator and I think it's important that they all it all feels.

I'll just use the word safe it feels safe for us being able to assess where we are and where we want to go and that it not feel the process to me does not feel like it will be what's the word I'm looking for. Holistic but that that's where it's it's not something that's meant to reprimand it's something that's meant to to help and you need a lot of pieces is what I'm saying so I'm I'm I'm I'm very excited that we have all of these different things that can feed into Data that we can really sit down and come to some conclusive decisions with so I say all that to say that I like the fact there are several tools thank you Miss Travis I don't have any questions I also just want to say that I I think evaluating the superintendent was one of the most important parts of our job and I like that we will now be using the mcra tool because it is an evidencebased.

Tool and I also like that it's in line with the way that we evaluate our teachers so I'm excited to use it I'm also excited to get that that feedback from various people and look forward to the conversation I think it's hard to it's hard to move move forward and navigate things without feedback so we can all use you know feedback and have really fruitful dialogue from that so so I think this process will be will help us as you said chair Rogers make it sure we're on the same page that we're just we're talking about things along the ways as they as they happen and thank you for the timeline that you laid out Miss Carda-Auten Aden I don't have much more to say because I do agree with the sentiments of my colleagues I and that I do love the idea of just getting as much feedback as possible to inform how we evaluate the superintendent and the importance of this evaluation I also love that there's.

Research to back the mcrel tool and to connect superintendent behaviors with student outcomes that's what we're looking to do here in our district is improv student outcomes and I love the combination of looking at behaviors of the superintendent and the outcomes in our district and and reviewing this alongside one another along with feedback from folks that work closely with him and I would love to move towards you know eventually in the future midpoint evaluation as well as a annual evaluation because I do see this more as like a continuous U mechanism for feedback and Improvement and dialogue between this us and the superintendent as a governance team together so I'm thank you Miss Rogers for sharing or Cher Rogers for sharing some more information at the beginning of this this was helpful for me I think I have like can you share a little bit I know this is just for discussion tonight around what next steps hard to finalize this document absolutely I was going to share that once we had finished our.

Conversation so this is open for discussion deliberation tonight we would like to hear any changes any feedback that the board has we would also like to discuss it at our board retreat on November 21st but the tool does have to be we're asking that the tool be approved by the board on consent on the 21st so if there any strong objections to the tool we would have to take action to remove it from the consent agenda at that time but we would have the opportunity to go ahead and make that approval so everybody is aware of expectations as we move throughout the year that's helpful I have some questions I'm trying to if I want to save some of them for the retreat because at the retreat you said we would talk about it and then put it on consent is that just to review just to finalize at The Retreat and then yes so what we'd like is any feedback so that we can start working on making those changes and bringing those.

Edits and have them available for discussion at The Retreat and ideally have them to Miss Smith in time to put on the agenda to make the modifications have on the agenda for that evening yep okay I have some questions but I think I can hold some of them like I'm curious the 360 tool didn't have like where it was from on there so I'm was just curious to know like where it came from and I'm wondering too if I guess we would get the raw data from the tool so all the comments like none of that I'm assuming would be synthesized and I'm wondering if we would want to use our attorney's office for that to ensure the an anity ass sure that it remains Anonymous not that I I believe that our RT staff has is great I think it might help staff members who are filling it out to feel really confident about that part and we have used our attorney's office in the past for evaluation tools helping to synthesize information.

And I think I so yeah that's where I am for now I think the other thing I would like for us to consider is the mcrell tool has lots of different pieces of evidence in their tool and I would like for us to consider as a board which pieces suggested data or documents evidence that we would want to say we definitely want to have the superintendent complete and then have you know what are the things that might be optional as well I think that to me helps us give really clear communication of our expectations of what we want the superintendent to provide and I just think that helps with Clarity I've been doing this for a little bit and sometimes there's like I wish I had this when I was filling out this evaluation I wish I had that information and so I think if we are clear at the Forefront it might help inform the work that we do so those are my comments for now but I think.

I'll I think I might have some additional questions but we can talk more about that later later time Miss Carda-Auten did you want to address some of those oh just one one cor correction I think of I'm understanding you is that the the survey data it's survey data and it's all closed ended so it's not open ended questions so there's no field responses that would identify anybody and it will be the vision is that it would will be aggregated so we will see summaries of responses not like look at everybody's survey one by one or is that did I misunderstand what you were saying or the the you're talking about the 360 survey it does have comments on the document that we have so that's what made me wonder if things were synthesized in some way and then I think there's a question of like position if we were to aggregate by position like how do you keep it Anonymous if there's you know only three or only two Deputy superintendent right.

So that would be some of the things I would just want to tease out a little bit and maybe we wouldn't include the comments part in the one I don't know but that was in the in the tool oh thank you I didn't I I had forgotten about that I I think it might make sense to remove the open-ended pieces I just really want to make sure that people feel confident that we're protecting their and it here and I think that's one way to do that that would be what I would be in favor of and I also think it's interesting to think about which of the mcrell artifacts that we might require I don't know did you I'm curious to know if any board members have any like things that stand out to them that would be really important to them or batina or Miss said if you were thinking about some that stood out to you that you really wanted to make sure that we required.

I can do some more thinking about that I I didn't pull some of them I think from what it what we talked about like the Strategic plan will be in there already so I think there's questions you know some of that is if I remember correctly I think there's a strategic plan something that's a part of this is that correct okay so I think some of that will be automatically but if there's other things that we want I think we should this document is pretty extensive so maybe at The Retreat we can take time to say what we definitely want and don't want in the or we want to say is the requirement I think that' be it' just be helpful for all of us to have that information at the Forefront sorry I have something else but go ahead was that helpful Miss car on what you were yes yeah the other question I think Miss Rogers you shared a lot if you could write that out for me that'd be really.

Helpful I'mma it's helpful for me to digest information that way so we can get that timeline and all those things squared away this is the other question I have we talked about you talked about like board goals or District goals I think at the end we also have our strategic plan goals and so I'm wondering just like Clarity for us around how many goals we want to have or what that might look like and that might become clear later at the end of this but that's the other thing I'm just pondering with we've also in the past had like the superintendent has his own goals which I think kind of makes sense because that's can be specific to the role but when we have the Strategic plan how did the district goals either Fit already in that plan are we creating things outside of the plan that would that's just a question I have I don't know we need to answer but just consider I've just sent over that timeline everybody.

The goals the mrail tool specifies the request that we do not establish more than five goals for the coming year the ideally they are the kind of goals that are aligned with our strategic plan that have come up in the 360 evaluation as well as within the needs assessment in the mrail tool and so they would be specific to things that come up the most often as we're working through the evaluation and would we would know more about what those would be after we had all the documents all of them would be in addition to the Strategic plan sounds like so it could be something like I'm trying to think about the Strategic plan it could be.

Have a suggestion well I think the Mel tool outlines like that process for using the tool and the standards set forth in the tool that again were based on things that are behaviors that are connect connected to positive student outcomes so it's based on the evaluation of the mcrel tool then you establish the goals on those different aspects of the tool so it's a little it's it's different than measuring the outcomes of the Strategic plan just like the mcrel tools and what we're measuring in that tool is different so those goals are unique and they're about performance of the superintendent again outside of just those Str strategic plan metrics right so when I look at standard three it's culture on the mcra tool that standard three is cultural leadership superintendents understand and act on the important role of A System's culture it goes on and so a is focused on collaborative work environment super superintendent understands and acts on the understanding of the positive role that a collaborative work environment.

Can play in the district's culture and so there's some options for the superintendent to be evaluated as developing proficient accomplished or distinguished and if it's determined that the superintendent is developing on this standard we could pull that as a goal for the superintendent to work on establishing what more of a collaborative work environment would look like so it wouldn't go away from any of that but that also feeds into the goals of our strategic plan when we are talking about recruit support and retain an exemplary staff and the impact that it has on school and building cultures I think we don't and we don't have to like answer this question now I think it is something to consider because to me that still that would feel like a super in that example that's the superintendent goal but then like what's the district's goal right versus what is in our strategic plan and so I'm just I think we can flush it out when we get there but that's what I'm I heard board.

Goals I heard District goals I heard and then know we have our strategic plan I was like how do how do they align is what I'm thinking about because I do think sometimes when you have too many goals you can find yourself all over the place so that's just what I'm yeah so the asking for us to think about and reflect on as we get closer to that time yeah so the goals would be a draft of what the board thinks should be included in the superintendent goals for the coming year that we establish that day but yes like you said we would flush it out then Mr T thank you very much thank you you both I think that when you're looking at at goals there are going to be some some goals that will be District goals that will align with the superintendent goal that we can make that one goal and so that will give us room to stay within the five goals that we're probably looking to do so that.

That would be very helpful just to lay out what the goals are and then decide what goals are really aligned with District goals and superintendent goals thank you yep thank you any other comment oh I did want to ask okay Miss hero I just want to make sure that we leave space in the evaluation tool for the superintendent to have some autonomy of artifacts that they that you % like if you're being evaluated even if we do choose some I want to leave some space in the tools for the person who is being evaluated to be able to decide what artifacts they wish to bring absolutely I think we would not limit the artifacts but there are some that we could like require I did want to bring us back to our conversation around the comments and the 360° evaluation we need to come to a consensus around the comment and around who we would like to distribute the the survey to members of the team we don't have to come to consensus.

About who distributes the survey right now but I would like us to come up with whether or not we want comments on it. One about distrib distribution of the survey I do want to comment on that I would like to ask maybe it's appropriate to make a motion but ask it to just propose how they would distribute the survey I know that they have the tools and knowledge of how to do this in a way that would Ensure anonymity and allow us to get the information collected but perhaps they could they could share with us what their capabilities would be different options and we could discuss those at the board retreat I'm happy to make a motion if that would be appropriate so I make a motion that we request of it that they propose a a way of gathering the 360 feedback from directors and up that will allow it to remain.

Anonymous second it's been moved by mchavez and seconded by Miss Rogers I do think superintendent Lewis has a comment yeah and I and I know you mentioned it and they definitely work hand inand with our research and accountability office they pretty much facilitate a lot of our surveys throughout the district so I definitely will probably want to include them along with it that's why I don't let me generalize my motion to say Administration whoever should be involved in that conversation been moved in second can I asked that we ask Administration to explore options that includes in-house and out of out out out of house so some that are internal and then also if there are options that are using our attorney's office or other options that are external yes would would they if they would be best boys to make those proposals well that's fine I didn't know if Dr Lewis if you want to weigh in on that yeah we definitely can explore that and bring the board some some options and I.

Know Rod is here and the bill will will tick you know when we produce surveys but we do have means of in in in inhouse of administering surveys and we can get a some information from Rod and his team about what that would look like if they did it and then let me just add if we're going to get look at different options and those that would be out of house if what the expense would be because if we have the capacity to do it in-house in a way that makes sense then we don't necessarily need to spend more funds on it okay so I I'll restate my motion to ask Administration to bring proposals for how to collect the 360 survey information from directors on up in a way that is anonymous and safe that can be in-house or out of house.

Options I Can Begin moved amended and moved by Miss Chavez seconded by Miss Rogers is there any other discussion all those in favor say I I any oppose use the same option it passes unanimously I think we still though are having discussion about this tool and we're not ready to go to the next item so I'll pass it back over to you Miss Rogers chair Rogers EXC thank you comment section there's something very special about the voice of the educator and I don't want anybody to think we're trying to minimize their voice we do want to protect their anonymity and I agree that not having that comment section would help Miss travez go right ahead I favor having the comment section because I think that there are some things that can't be captured quantitatively and and I think perhaps someone could also redact information that would be to revealing of of who someone is I don't think I don't think it needs to be disaggregated by position because it is.

Too small of an N to do that I think that will be revealing and if we want to you know keep it Anonymous then I think there lots of comments you cannot tell who they came from but if there if there's someone who can go through and just make sure there's no there are no details that would reveal who that person is I think that'd be the best way miss heroff you could also just as part of the tool have a statement about an you know being anonymous before they make the comment you know to let them know we want this tool to be you know the same thing we do kind of like with public comment there's we we give certain things you know this is how we want to use this tool and they can respect that and then also the comment section is optional so I'm in favor of also keeping the comment section Miss Carda-Auten Aden that all sounds fine to me I'm fine with keep it we do need to.

Decide like I mean to me it feels then it has to be our attorney's office who scrubs the comments though right who reads through them to make sure by scrub you talk about taking out identifying information or any of those like or we need to decide we just want them straight how they are I don't but that's a I like the comments but there's another decision about that part too I think I like what board member arol Goff proposed just having a note in there whatever you share will be shared and so people can share the detail that they feel comfortable sharing and they and that way there no one has to go through and redact and all of that is there a motion I could make a motion that we include comments in the 360 tool.

Second all right it's been moved by Miss Chavez and second it by miss her any other discussion all those in favor say I I oppose passes. Unanimously Rogers I think that's all for that for the super the evaluation tool thanks every everybody any followup questions feel free to email Miss carteron and myself thank you you have the next item so I'm gonna pass it back to you Dr Giovani sorry good evening Dr Lewis board members the next item on the agenda is policy 9300 naming facilities as we have periodically done throughout the year when there are policies that may warrant some additional conversation based on public input Andor administrative or staff or board input we do bring these forward so that the board can have those discussions I am here to take notes and document some of the feedback and consensus of the board with regard to this policy but with that being said I would turn it back over to the board to begin conversations around policy 9300 thank.

You and it is the current version is attached as well but there have no recommendations from staff this is based on the community feedback that we have received requesting naming of facilities colleagues our policy is in front of us how would you all like to engage this discussion Mr first for those people that are watching can you read the policy to them so that they'll be aware of what it is in case they're not looking at it absolutely this is naming facilities policy 9300 is currently active the board considers naming facilities to be a significant Endeavor as the name of a facility can reflect upon the student staff school system and Community the superintendent shall involve the staff and students assigned to the facility and the students parents in the process of identifying possible names for a new school facility or facility being renamed the superintendent shall consider the following criteria as well as other factors the superintendent determines to be relevant in identifying potential names for the facility number.

One the name should not be similar to the names of existing facilities as to cause confusion two schools usually will be named after townships regions Community characteristics geographic location or similar site specific identifiers such as roads streets natural or historical features three the name should include a designation of the type of school such as elementary middle or high or a brief description of a specialized kind of school four schools may be named for individuals upon group nomination name in honor or memory of an individual who has helped students in the school system succeed through educational leadership may be considered though the name of an educational leader of prominence and reputation beyond the school system may also be considered priority will be given to the names of educational leaders who have directly or indirectly helped students in this school system to succeed a nominated persons must recommend and must be recommended and sponsored through a sizable or recognizable group nomin ntion for example faculty students PTA advisory Council individual nominations are not per permitted no.

Entire facility shall be named for any individual until such time as an individual has been deceased for a period of no less than five years five individual buildings rooms or areas within buildings or other structures on school campuses may be named in honor in memory or honor of persons who have rendered extraordinary service to the school system Community or Nation six not withstanding the above Provisions individual buildings rooms or areas within buildings or other structures on school campuses named prior to adoption of this policy may continue to bear names which do not conform to the adopted standard changing facility names when the use of a school or other facility changes the Board of Education upon the recommendation of the superintendent and or School administration may change the name of the building the process to select a new name should be consistent with the procedures followed in naming a new school or facility not withstanding the above provision existing schools with a complete grade level organizational change or schools formed by the merger.

Of two or more previously existing schools may continue to bear names which do not conform to the adopted standards the superintendent shall establish regulations for developing a list of recommended names for the board to consider the process should be sensitive to the historical and cultural context of the building and may include to the extent feasible input from the actual or proposed School Community the superintendent shall submit the recommended name or a limited list of recommended names to the board for approval no problem any further discussion Mr tab thank you so very much and thank you for reading that for the consumption of our people that are watching online really appreciate that this policy is also is very dear to me be because there are so many Educators who have Educators and Community leaders Advocates who have done just remarkable work and and we have this saying that give people their flowers while they can still smell them and we especially say that in my hometown where I'm from you know they.

Like to say things so we do believe in giving people their flowers while they while they can still smell them and in this particular policy there's a fiveyear limitation on when we can honor certain people and I want to highlight this policy change because as we celebrate the 104th birthday of Dr John Hardy Lucas he's 104 years old if we stayed with this policy we would not be able to honor him today and because he's still alive and thank God for that at 104 and so we like to use evidence-based decisions and he is our evidence that we should revive this policy it was wave this policy was waved to be able to honor him which sends volume to our decision making and which was a good thing that the school board did in waving this policy at that particular time allowed us to celebrate this giant educ Ator waving this policy at the time at a certain time the board also waved this policy to celebrate School Board.

Member Minnie Fort Brown in the naming of the staff development center the mini fort Brown Staff Development Center that indicated to me that there were some issue with this policy when you have to go back and wave a policy for or certain individuals you are then saying that these individuals deserve recognition at the time that you are wanting to honor them and so with that in mind I would like for us to really consider amending this policy to take out the fiveyear de I almost want to say the fiveyear death certificate for this this particular policy we are not here to talk to necessarily talk about mayor Willam Bill Bell but you heard it through public comment and I think that should resonate in itself why we should change this policy other universities have also honored people that were still living you had the Dean Smith Center for those UNCC fans he was still alive when they did the Dean Smith Center you had the center for Coach K at Duke while he's still.

Alive you also have at North Carolina Central University the school of education building named after House of Representative Mickey Michelle and most recently you had Congressman GK Butterfield with the naming of the train station after him in Wilson these people are still alive so why do we as Educators still have a policy that we want to recognize people after their death as opposed to giving them their flowers while they are still alive and so I would just say to us here on the school board for us to be able to ask the administration to take a serious look at at changing this policy to be able to take out that death certificate that's there and I would be able to support continue to support the name naming of a building for Willam Bill Bell and other leaders that I think deserve recognition like Eddie Davis as well and so that's my position and that's why I would like for us to take a serious look at at changing the policy thank thank.

You thank you m sh I'm I'm glad we put this on the agenda for this evening I think I'm going to be briefer because you I agree with your sentiments and and I think that I'm when the request came to us about naming the building for Mr William Bill Bell I I didn't want to break policy so my my desire was to look at the policy or to what is the word it's a what a or anyway I didn't want to overstep the policy I'm blanking out the word anyway wave I think we should just examine the policy so I'm glad we're doing that now in looking at just looking at what comes up around naming facilities just you know the sort of research that's out there things opinions people have written a lot of it is concerns about large donations to institutions we are not dealing with that situation wish we were but no but we're not dealing with that we're we're looking at naming buildings for people who have made.

Significant contributions to to education to Durham to North Carolina and so I think that I think the ultimate benefit of considering nominations for naming buildings while people are living is to just as you said we member tab to give people their flowers while they're living I also I think that it's a way of recognizing those who have lived the values that the institution seeks to embody and in looking at some of the concerns that arise you know looking at different articles the biggest concern seems to be if someone tarnishes their reputation in some way and because they their life is still ongoing but I think that concern is is it doesn't need to take up a lot of space so I think the fact that as you said Mr tab that we the board not well I was on it but previously waved this policy in the past does speak to the desire to sometimes name buildings for living people so I'm in favor of removing the sentence about I've lost it but no.

Entire facility shall be named for any individual until such time that sentence and looking at some of our neighboring districts they do not have such a stipulation just looking I think this is accurate what I saw with Chapel Hill carboro and wake they don't have that restriction on there so I think that would open us up to to consider more fully how we want to name facilities thank you Miss Carda-Auten Aden glad I'm glad we're discussing this appreciate the comments from my colleagues and largely agree I also I'm not I can't tell when this policy was last updated but it does feel like it just needs some work generally we got lots of other priorities right now but maybe when when it can get in the queue just fix some of the like it feels like there's some mention of facilities and schools and they're used in different places but I don't can't quite tell if that's intentional because it looks like it might be saying there's separate rules.

For facilities and schools but maybe not and I think maybe we need to think about whether we want the same rules to apply to both like other buildings besides school buildings number two in the policy looks like something we're not typically following unless I'm just not thinking through that clearly but I don't think that we are currently following that and then most I I just I would like this naming a building is a really big decision and fairly permanent and I so I like the part of the policy that said that the superintendent shall establish regulations for developing a list of recommended names for the board to consider should be sensitive to Historic and cultural context and I'm just wondering if that's ever been done and in the future I love that because it feels that it be more it doesn't have to be what we do in response to this request right now but it could I think in the future to have this list and to have it done in a.

More systematic way would feel good to me so that we are thinking through clearly all the different options because when we name a building for one person we're not naming it for other people and when we're renaming a building we're taking a name off although when I Googled Fuller I couldn't quite tell where that came from so I think that's all I have to share for now I'm going to keep my comments brief because I know we have a lot of other things on the agenda just a little historical context for Miss car Aon the I think we looked at all of these policies starting in like 2019 2020 so all of them have been reviewed somewhere in the 28th August 27 2020 is what Dr Giovani just let let me know so I know a lot of these were reviewed at that point but when we've named a couple schools what has happened is our actually our public affairs office can talk about this more than better than I can they use engage.

DPS to gather feedback from the community and we've had options that were Regional like Murray massenberg started as Rock Creek something sure come on up Miss Cooper we we don't name schools very often we don't to get to name schools often but when we do we love to to have some feedback from other folks and then the way I've just seen it facilities I'm going to keep talking while she comes to the mic but facilities have included things like theaters or stadiums or other things right so we know we have the gtis tab theater over at Hillside we have Browning Stadium at Northern High School so I think it kind of combinations of those two things I'll let Miss Cooper talk more about how we have gathered feedback in the past absolutely and thank you for the opportunity to share more about the naming process in dur public schools and when we have a project on the table most recently we had Lions Farm Elementary and Murray massenberg Elementary both of.

Those processes for the per the board's Direct direction we engaged our community in receiving information from our families and others within in within Durham about what they wanted those schools to be named so the board then took that information and considered it along with staff recommendations and the board then decided to move forward with those recommendations per the conversation and discussion considering that Community feedback whenever we have done that we have always opened it up to the community to ensure that we are hearing the voice voices from those within our community and so that is what the board has always done during these times and yes it has cons we have had two schools that have been named also the stadium Northern High School because they have a football stadium now which was very exciting for that school community and it presents itself to the board in very many different ways per whether it comes from a staff recommendation then going back to the community or as the policy.

States a group of individuals who then bring that recommendation forward like I know Lions Farm Elementary was based on that Community was named was a lions Farm Family Family Farm yes and so I think we've done a little from just a little bit of time I've been on the board we've done a little mix of of both of those when I see them I support thank you Miss Cooper I would support taking out the the five years I've I've been part of a board member who's waved it a couple of times and we named different facilities as well as listening to group nominations to our community who's made it very clear what they would desire so I think this policy stem from a time where schools were moving away from naming buildings after people like there was an era of that happening White County only does geographical areas and they've gotten to get really creative about the names of schools based on only doing geographical areas we could go.

Down a rabbit hole on that later but like it's there's some school names that I'm like how did y'all come up with that because of they're just doing geographical areas but I think there was an era of time where school systems were moving away from naming buildings and I think that's where this stems from I see some head nods in the room so I think that's where it came.

From any other comments questions Well Point wait to see if you had a comment before we make a motion okay excellent anybody prepared to speak to why there's a fiveyear rule here anybody does anybody know okay so we worked on the policies in the 9000s with the previous coo and I think when we did the re research or the re when that research was done I think that was the kind of the norm around looking at the various policies so if that's my recollection right I know that them being deceased for a period of time is a part of the city and County's policies as well but if the bo whatever the pleasure of the board is it's fine with me I'd like to make a motion that we revise policy 9300 naming facilities remove the sentence no entire facility shall be named for any individual until such time as that individual has been deceased for a period of no less than 5 years second it's been moved and properly.

Moved by Miss Chavez seconded by Mr tab is there any other discussion so I'm sorry it's okay I was going to ask about the number the name the number but I don't know where oh I was just goingon to say it's technically on as an informational item so that motion might want to include moving it.

To an action item and doing X Y and Z I would like to add that to my motion then that I would also like to move this policy to an action item second been moved by Miss Chavez seconded by Mr tab any other discussion I'm good on my number name question all in favor say I I any oppos use the same sign it passes unanimously thank you all the next item on our agenda I'm going to send it to the deputy superintendent for a master's pay update.

There there has been a request and I apologize because I would have moved this before all of our Board of Education items that Transportation be moved up because we have staff that are here dur for the presentation again I apologize CU I would have moved this we could have saved our Board of Education items at the end for the end so board are you all okay with amending this agenda and swapping these presentation so that Transportation can go first we need a motion again to amend the agenda I'd like to make a motion that we amend the agenda to move operation Services a before Deputy superintendent updates a second all right so it's been moved that we move a it's been moved what Miss travez said and then seconded by was it you miss Rogers any other discussion all those in favor say I I oppose please use the same sign passes unanimously I am so sorry transportation we are ready to go Mr Harris good evening good evening Dr Lewis board.

Chair Rogers Vice chair Carter aen board members DPS colleagues and all who are here with us this evening on site of virtually I'm Joe Harris Jr director of Transportation Police Services here for during public schools and tonight I have with me proud staff members and I'm going ask if they would just stand just so you all can see and acknowledge them here in the room tonight staff members that are here with us. Tonight we have come tonight with respect dignity and possible strategy that will potentially help improve the quality of service that we as the transportation department can provide for our future Business Leaders of America which are our students of DPS of course we all know B we all know that it's a given that there's a nationwide prices in that of the bus driver shortest you've heard it said Time After Time and tonight we're not here to write on that tail but we are here to propose change change is defined as a ver verb make someone or something.

Different alter or modify replace something with something else especially something of the same kind that's newer or better substitute for one thing or another tonight we shall put forth that definition to action for potential change that we want to highlight this has been a very difficult year but we're confident that we can get this right with the help and buying from all stakeholders change when we want something different we must have a different outcome then we must do something different because we need change we come as ladies and gentlemen tonight staff come from 13 to 15 hour days short sleep cycles word and stretch but we also come with great anticipation and hope for the things that are yet to come this current staff which includes routers assistant managers managers assist and directors admin mechanics and supervisors some of whom have worked the past few years to live with the plate that has been dealt to us in that of make it happen make it happen has gone.

From a time of doing things outside of the box to support all dur Public Schools students and families with unique transportation services we come bringing our hearts and minds and our full bodies in support of doing what's right and that's doing the right thing for our students and all of our families and providing equity for everyone across this District thank you for this time if you would our presentation is up our presentation tonight Transportation Supply demand review and recommendations next slide please our agenda for tonight we come with problem state of DPS work force and ridership our review Solutions tactics and impacts in progress near and long service improvements scenario review and discussion a why a comprehensive approach to improving School transportation provide efficient and reliable service Divine and communicate Equitable rules and clear procedures provide consistent levels of service across school and program types I'm sorry next slide and I'll start over again there so we come with a comprehensive approach to improving School transportation we will provide efficient and reliable service.

Define and communicate Equitable rules and clear procedures provide consistent levels of service across schools and program types and support families walking biking and taking transit to school at this time I will turn the presentation over to M Mr Matthew Palmer who's with us virtually tonight thank you director Harris good evening board members superintendent Lewis and me members of the DPS Community we are going to review our options before us if you would please go to the next slide thank you we're going to start with a review of our current School Bus ridership requests as well as observed ridership and the state of our bus driver Staffing you would next slide thank you some updates from the original presentation that we made with the opening of schools on October 8th our writer requests have increased by approximately 1,000 students to 22732 that's 73% of all DPS students have requested at some point this fall that they'd like a ride to school that is an all-time high and we'll review.

That in a little bit we've also added three additional school bus drivers to bring us up from 131 to 134 we're making some progress one of the things that we want to review with the board is that a transportation system is just that a compilation of components policies and decisions and logistic realities of how many students fit on a bus how many bus Bell time tiers or start times we have the distance from home to school the number of drivers and the number of riders that all comes together to the level of service that DPS families experience and it also relates to the number of drivers we need in order to make that possible each and every day currently we have 82 23 routes that are carried in the morning and in the afternoon and of those that includes both standard K12 Service as well as our EC specialized buses we carry those 823 routes across the three tiers again that is to indicate elementary school middle school and high school with a morning and.

Afternoon trip log that leaves us with 165 full-time three- tier drivers needed in order to perform the demands and request of our service that will roll into the overall Staffing profiles we seek ahead next slide please here you can see the number of riders we have by tier of Elementary Midland High School our routes for K12 a.m. and p.m. with our largest route Demand Being for elementary school ridership when we take the 330 routes for elementary school and we carry them am and pm. that is where we get that 165 again middle and high school are a mosaic of coverage boards depending on the school this is not a simple system of just three tiers there are overlaps and there are needs to ensure that we're being as responsible as we can with our limited staff we currently have deployed from the Department of Public instructions in North Carolina 225 buses 10% of which are our spare buses and the remainder two 200 which is our high.

Water mark that is our goal that is our long-term destination of where we're trying to get our staffing to to carry a daily service level for what has already been requested is where we need 165 next slide please now those 165 rats that need to be carried we have 134 active drivers and that number has changed I should add that we had an additional driver go out of medical recently so we're up to eight there some of our substitute drivers are not available to drive on a daily basis nor able to drive consistently across three tiers or in the morning and afternoon our substitute drivers are there to help when they can what it does mean is that we are significantly short on the number of drivers that the system needs to carry based on the demand and the number that we actually have we have 27 active driver candidates in the pipeline they've been screened and they are going through the process with us and that is a testament to many.

In the room with you this evening the hard work that we're doing to build back our Workforce will take time next slide please here we have the ncdpi what we call the td2 data report what it shows is the number of writers ship requests that have been submitted for the 2425 Academic Year that is an all-time high going back to before covid it also shows are actual ridership headcounts how many kids are actually riding with us the Delta there between the submissions and the actuals over 10,000 students is a consistent level of ridership request versus actual that we've seen over the past four years however this is the largest discrepancy that we've had yet I would add that over the past few years we have had an ongoing issue in Durham with stated writer requests that we route for versus the actual riders that ride with us and there are many reasons that students may not be counted we are aware and receive very with full hearts and Minds The considerations for students that would.

Not be included in this headcount or that would prefer to ride if the service were consistent that is not lost on anyone in transportation next slide please one of the other elements updates data that we want to bring to the conversation is about distance and when we look at the last few years particularly with the implementation of growing together this year some of the early returns and growing together are showing us that the average distance from home to school for our students is quite a bit shorter this year than it was last year and you can see particularly for the first second and third grade students we've used panel data to show where they were last year and where they are this year we have both the implications the average distance impact saving 10% and then by student we've added all that up to show well over 1500 miles total saved just in those three grades as we go towards full implementation for growing together we anticipate seeing larger and larger.

Returns on the transportation Network savings next slide please so without review of the data both for our ridership requests and our routing we now turn to some immediate actions as well as near-term Solutions and long-term Solutions we are here tonight to bring forth our very best thinking on what is possible to support dur public schools and its students next slide we have heard resoundingly the need to ensure that we are sharing the resources that we have with all students there are some routs that have consistently lacked a dedicated driver now we recognize that some of our colleages in surrounding school districts will put up a notice to say that that route is uncovered at this time and will be in perpetuity until a driver is hired or comes back from medical leave however for us we are proposing and responding to the need to provide rotational coverage and a rotational coverage plan that is communicated in advance not only with our school bus drivers but importantly with our families and students setting.

Expectations allowing families to plan in advance of which days will be able to offer service but that does need to be worked through carefully and I Willow delicately with our school bus drivers so that we have Universal Buy in to what we're asking for here we are asking to rotate coverage throughout the week so that we do not have consistent days of uncovered routes for anyone student or family and that the ultimate solution here is Str structural and systemic we do need to do the work the long-term and the near-term fixes but we need a Band-Aid to get there so we're looking at this over the next few weeks for implementation through the end of December that would give us time to do the remaining steps that we'll talk about with additional recommendations this is a near-term Band-Aid to get us to more durable Sustainable Solutions it would prioritize our exceptional children and mckin vinto students to ensure that they are receiving consistent route support every day it will again require are close.

Working with our drivers and advanced comprehensive communication with our families so that everyone is understanding which days they have service well in advance of the actual service date we receive and understand it is it is very difficult to receive a notification the evening before or the morning of the day of school we understand that we are real time actively communicating with families and the disruptions there have Ripple effects that is not lost on director Harris or any of our transportation staff members but it is to suggest if we can communicate proactively that will be beneficial as drivers are hired in we'll be able to rapidly deploy them onto routes and again the long-term plan here is to do structural systemic fixes which we'll talk in the remaining recommendations next slide so of those recommendations for near-term improvements we have strategy group one those are the things that we can do to manage the demand of our school bus ridership in the next few weeks in anticipation for the return from school right after the holidays.

We're going to need time to work through the overall ridership updates who's actually riding with us as well as the route pairings and what we call route maintenance managing that piece while braiding in decisions that may be made by the Board of Education this evening that is delicate work that's hard work and we cannot simply push a button and make it fixed it will require us November and December we'll talk about those individual strategies longterm and director Harris mentioned this in his opening remarks we're dealing with a national school bus driver crisis and we will need everyone from the board to our DPS leaders to our certified and classified staff to work through with us on how do we build back our Workforce being a bus driver is a rewarding job but it does require special attention to the incentives compensation and overall quality of life for our drivers we cannot lose sight of that next slide scenario one that we're proposing and again this is under managing ridership is working within existing board policy.

6322 that policy stipulates that the board May establish 1.5 mile walk zones and then add back in bus service where safe walking conditions exist as we've looked at this the reality is when we layer in safe walking conditions and you can see the benefits and implications below well there may be 4,300 elementary students living in 1.5 miles of school factoring existing ridership demand as well as those students that live within a walkable distance as well as walkable infrastructure we're at about a th students which Cates to 22 routes that we would save right out of the gate one of the things our transportation staff was able to do was work in partnership in a peer-to-peer exchange with Charlottesville Virginia learning from Charlottesville how they addressed the school bus driver shortage they've defined those not as walk zones but as family responsibility zones so some considerations there again this is working within existing board policy and those walk zones are established by the Board of Education on the next slide we.

Summarize what that would mean as far as the route savings and the timeline if you would please go to the next slide here you can see again board policy 6322 where safe walking conditions exist the board can create a 1.5 mile area of bus service eligibility as we've looked at it it is closer to one mile again we are looking at those walkable conditions block by block school by school we are anticipating a 22 route savings again this is in conjunction with other actions and choices made by the board this evening we will need the majority of November and into the early part of December to get that ready that would be in effect then ready to deploy and save for our routes as we come back from the holiday break next slide for scenario two recommendation to around managing ridership we have the opportunity to create Express stops for regional magnet and Specialty schools creating an exp press stop allows students to go to their nearest school and receive prioritized shuttle.

Service this is a commonly deployed practice throughout public education particularly Urban public education and it would save us both on the overall number of routes we need to carry but importantly on the distance of rides for our students and on the amount of time that they're on the bus it also frees up those middle tier second tier buses particularly those serving DSA and Rogers her to additionally support elementary school and high school routes on the first and third tier currently the school for Creative Studies receives morning express bus bus stop service and this would standardize that level of service for not only Creative Studies but DSA and Rogers her those are the three schools that we're principally looking at that are the largest carrying burden as we look at that middle school program next slide please to SU the implications of that are standardizing surfice for our Middle School magnets managing ridership scenario 2 here saves overall eight routes as well as shortening the distance that students have to travel on.

The bus and the overall amount of time each way that they're traveling on the bus that in conjunction with recommendation one would braid into our route updates that we'll be working on in November and December next slide. Best tactic or scenario three often times is looking at expanding the bell times and spreading them out further apart so that you can run additional routes in the first second or third tier the challenge with that and why we're not making that clear recommendation this evening is the board and the public will recall that we've already expanded our bell schedule from two to three tiers in the year 2023 that was in effect for the 2324 Academic Year so in many ways we've already done this spreading these out further for elementary school students would require even an earlier pickup time and for high school students may lead into further complications particularly with after school and extracurricular and athletic activities on the high school level so we're not making that recommendation but.

We are reviewing with the board that is an option to consider those can be spread out giving us more time to run between elementary middle and high but doing so may have additional burdens or implications for students and families next slide tactic four for consideration under managing ridership is to increase Staffing supervision before and after school we've heard from our school staff and I think as well this evening about staff arriving either a to help unload the buses earlier because again a bus may arrive early at a school but if staff are not in place to receive students we cannot unload so teachers arriving earlier in the morning or staying later in the afternoon to allow for additional route coverage the challenge there are the implications as relates to labor law as it relates to compensation as it relates to administrators and teachers who have many competing demands for their time this is a consideration we're looking at on a school by school basis and when we can deploy it we do but it.

Does require a comprehensive district-wide operational administrative and academic focus on this tactic next. Slide then think about how do we increase our overall number of bus drivers in the majority of school districts in North Carolina as a classified employees hired they are required to obtain a school bus driver license with endorsements now many of those school districts are in different contexts than Durham whether that be the job and skill that they bring into the district or being in a more rural environment oftentimes these same staff will take buses home with them this is not an easy fix for our local context and Durham our classified employees do many things that are essential to the operation and day-to-day service for our students in Durham Public Schools what it also mean means is that the majority of our classified employees have not been required to obtain a CDL with passenger and school endorsements so there's not a robust classified labor force to draw on when we're short bus drivers or consideration and conversation and deeper work.

Comprehensively between the board the administration and our staff is to consider compensation as classified employees are brought in to have the the option to obtain their CDL with passenger and school endorsements in consideration of other very important compensations and bonus structures that are in place for other staff this might include for example the reality that many of our students speak Spanish as a native language at home yet we do not have many Transportation staff that are bilingual fluent or speak Spanish while driving a bus that is a important Community Connection in safety consideration as our bus drivers are often the front door of the school system in addition many of our drivers carry EC routes and those EC routes are the varied students that are exceptional child skilled certified and classified staff are receiving additional compensation for something to consider how could we get a Workforce that is flexible and adaptive particularly when we have Staffing shortages next slide please this kind of summarizes that if we were to add additional five staff.

Members per month that as they are hired on for a variety of roles in DPS if we can provide a compelling incentive and compensation package to go ahead and get your license with us as you on board in other positions over a six-month Horizon time that would be an additional 30 drivers in our transportation Fleet support serving as bus drivers again that will need to be work through with Finance human resources and our district leadership certainly transportation is at the table to be supportive of that as we explore there is much to be learned from the compelling opportunities we have for all of our employees to work with us next slide please that relates to the last tactic that we bring forth tonight with increasing our bus drivers is that currently we have many certified employees that hold a district endorse commercial driver's license with passenger and school travel endorsements 60 of our classifi EXC me certified staff these are non-operational employees that might be whether they be.

A band director an athletic coach or an administrator they hold those licenses and if we can work with those staff to drive with us it will help in our overall coverage profile it will add to the drivers that we have in our Workforce again no one of these options is singularly a solution but comprehensively can improve our overall level of service next slide please if even 10 of our 60 licensed drivers were to drive with us on a daily consistent basis that would dramatically improve our overall level of service next slide please with that we bring it to a scenario review we' brought all this into a matrix on the next slide and here you can see the aggregate overall sort of big picture of what we're looking at and let me State again our immediate action our most pressing focal point within transportation is to improve service ASAP and to do that we're looking at a rotational coverage plan that will carry us through the remainder of this fall so as we look.

Through this the walk zones and express stops we will be ready to braid that in with rad updates as we come back from the holiday the opportunities to increase our driver Workforce those are longer term deposits that's going to take time to build back our overall profile of qualified skilled bus drivers next slide please in the remaining slides and I won't go through them here but I will point it out for the board as well as for the public we review the technical materials that cover our safe ASA school program the overall look at walk zones the opportunities for public transit ridership those Partnerships with local Transit providers all the things that we're doing there in conjunction with the technical slides on our express bus stops importantly we have made significant progress in our Workforce Development program and have a framework that we are working with administrative academic and District leaders on how do we Implement our overall Workforce Development program I know we've been talking about the opportunity for a bus driver position to.

Be compelling for many in Durham and we're going to need everyone at the table on that conversation so with that I will hand it back over to the administration we are here for any questions that the board may have and look forward to the conversation thank you. All thank you Mr Palmer Mr Harris and transportation team for being here this evening for this very timely presentation board members any I'm sure we have lots of questions discussion I'll start with Mr tab thank you so very much thank you for bringing the transportation portion back I apologize that this wasn't on the last board meeting's agenda thank you for being here I do want to state that the comments that I'm going to make is not directed to anyone personally because I know how hard everybody is working everybody's working so hard to get this right and I appreciate that and I commend every everyone but this is frustrating and I think everybody feels that all the emails that I'm sure all.

Of you all are getting and the emails that we are getting we are all frustrated with this and so at some point we have to do we have to say enough is enough and what is going to be the overall Solution that's going to get us out of this hole that we're in so that our students get the school on time and learning takes place and that's why we're here as a district to take care of our our our children the first statement is about this shared solution for all I am reading this and it says rotational coverage to ensure that no route goes uncovered on consecutive days my concern is that when you when you cover another route is that going to suggest that the route that's being covered the other route does not have coverage I think Mr Palmer is online so Mr Palmer if you want to go ahead and jump in.

Does answer yes that's what that means can you come closer to the podium for us please yes that's what that means if we rotate the drivers then that means another route will be uncovered correct so for me that means we are creating a more of a widespread problem than fixing the problem that's just how I see it because I don't want any I don't want the the situation to get worse although we're trying to fix it so that is concerning for me I have mentioned in this in this boardroom before about private Contracting and I don't want us to take that out of our minds because I I do believe as one of the public commenters suggested that we have to also look at that and as a board member I I definitely will support that in in making sure that it happens one of the things that I see a lot in riding around Durham and going to a lot of events is that church van sits in these.

Gated areas and they're not being used they're just there they only use them on Sunday Sunday morning is there a way for us to start looking at Contracting some of those drivers that drive for those churches on Sunday mornings and maybe they would be willing to cover some of those routes in the mornings and and afternoons but we have to put that out there I don't know what the legality is and so that that's for us to figure that out but it's there there's an opportunity for for us to to reach out to them and I know a lot of people at churches so you know I don't mind helping if that's what we can do I don't mind reaching out and see if we can start getting that that done I am concerned about the walk zones I would not be a proponent of that with the walk zones because of safety for me and I know the word was in there about safety but I want us to we.

Have to really look at Equity across that and as we work talking about changing walk zones no in December January you know weather changes here and that I don't want us to have more schools out more children out of school because of of getting sick and things like that so that's where my concern is expanded bail times I just see that with the expanded baild times it's going to create a whole lot of stuff within schools that already have stuff already planned it's already designed that's a that's a big ask to change a baill system now because I think maybe principles already want to change the baill system to something else and then if we throw this in there with just for buses that's going to add something else so those are my those are my comment I support you if if we can work on getting more privatization to this and get you the help that you need I'm I will definitely support support that thank.

You madam just want to do a test with Mr Palmer's microphone if it's okay board members Dr leis Mr Palmer can you try to respond yes good evening Dr Giovani okay very good thank you so just whenever the questions that are appropriate for you to answer come up if you just want to jump in your team is all here but they're going to defer to you directing them as to who needs to answer that question I think that would be a little less chaotic probably with them kind of jockeying towards the mic thank you thank you Mr tab you had a lot of comments I don't know if staff has any responses or some questions there well I made the comments to for them to generate the question based on their slide so the question was are you all open to the to having private Contracting also I asked the question statement about Vans I don't know the legality part of that and I also asked the question about rotating coverage for for those those.

Buses and I think that was answered and I would M either Mr Harris and or Mr Palmer to kind of go back and when you board member tab talked about prioritizing right routes not necessarily routes but yeah prioritizing routes and pulling a driver from one route to other going back to re reiterate the need for our exceptional children and our mcken vento children that was the rationale behind there you may want to add something to that and then also as you talk about the Vans maybe kind of share the experiences that we're having with the the vans that we purchased as well yes sir so we do have private contractors already we already have them in place we are already currently using those as vendors yes we do in regards to church V and vehicles of that sort there is legalities that we would have to have of course cleared approved to be able to move forward with that process as well and also too you talked about the rotation of employees we actually met.

Again today put together some information in regards to this where our special needs buses I'm Kenny ventos foster care they're actually the ones that will receive the service on a repetitive service schedule every day and thank you for answering all those and thank you Dr Lis and I really want you to talk about the the vents I know we purchased seven so if the Board needs to purchase 21 more There's an opportunity if there so we we currently own seven passenger vans that we are actually putting in service right now with runs that we can have the capacity of six students to assign to it and make seven with the dve we're currently deploying that right now actively as we're speaking so it it is of course an option for us to possibly obtain more vehicles in in regards to Vans to help support the need of getting our students to and from school D in a timely manner any other advantage of that is you you.

Don't have to have a CDL to drive those van correct right right so Dr Lewis said if we needed to purchase more vans so that means that you have drivers yes so we Cur we bam I'm getting somewhere all right so so you do have the drivers we we currently have drivers that are in our driver training program that we will put into those vehicles so we can make sure that they are learning the process of school bus operation while of course helping us to help with the coverage of the shortage while we're in that position so if we can get churches to partner with us and provide some drivers and or Vans then would that put us an better situation so again that would be something that we will have to discuss I don't want to prematurely answer that and you say yes or no that'll be something that we would have to discuss we make sure we have all the legalities and all the right things that.

Are in place and saying and doing the right things because we are of course are governed by rules and regulations local and DPI Mr Malone you look like you have some sorry I just want to clarify that the traditional church vans that are like 15 passenger cannot be used used to transport your K12 students so that's what about the ones that have the buses though no a bus is fine if it's larger than 16 pass 16 passenger or larger it can be used to transport kids the smaller ones that you may see with special needs kids the whole seven or less those are allowed but you just can't use the traditional what I view as a church van the 15 passenger vans right so Mr Palmer said that we that it's a shared solution for all so I'm just trying to find a solution do my part and and if these churches have these buses that legally we can we can use for some of these schools then.

Let's do that I mean I'm for that if you know of course with the legality of all of that but I'm just looking at Solutions okay thank you that's all for me sounds like we need the people that are driving the buses at and they're at right and that's what I said at the beginning because they only drive most of them only drive on Sundays that's that's that's a that's a good yeah okay all right that's all for me y'all you won't hear from me any more on this okay missov gosh there's so much so what what Mr tab's conversation has led me to ask about is is we're hearing that community and even one of these tactics was talking about you know some staff that already have CDL what capacity do we have as as a district to do some Community organizing for volunteers is that something that we have within our capacity to do whether it be organizing for you know members of churches or for V that would.

We could legally use or what capacity do we have for that organizing and how quickly could we get that moving or who do we need to partner with for that kind of organizing for drivers that would volunteer and support on a short-term basis while we work on these future tactics that's one question we don't have to I just want to put it on record but we don't have to answer it right now that is a a question I also have a lot of concern about the walk zones not just for safety con reasons but also it's it feels like an equity concern because although and also it looks like the the majority of our ridership if I'm correct are Elementary School students and although when I was a kid you know you know it's I used to walk but it's it's a different it's a different culture and so a lot of families do not feel safe or or don't even or or don't have the capacity to walk with their young kids.

To school every morning of course there's the weather as Mr Tabit brought up things like this it doesn't feel like it would be it feels like we would be in the same situation where kids and families would choose not to go to school even if it was just a mile walk All Families don't have the privilege to take the time in their schedule to walk with their kids we heard several public comments about you know youth not having families with transport with cars that could drive that mild distance and so I'm not so sure that that tactic would really although it would free up more buses in other areas I don't I'm not sure I think it would just kind of shift the lack of attendance to other areas so I do have a little concern about that tactic tactic number two though the express stops that mostly impacts middle and high school students I had a child that attended Creative Studies and we had to they had.

A drop off location where we had to meet and drop them off at the bus it was safe enough because of where the Loc a was it was on a school campus and then the buses came so I really like that tactic because it's with older kids and it also I heard you say I saw in the report that it frees up more buses for the elementary school who seems like the the larger ridership so tactic too seems like something that you know every little bit helps that seems like a a good idea to me that doesn't compromise our younger babies getting to school.

Tactic four about increasing staff supervision I would just say that we are definitely because it is a crisis situation we don't want to ask anybody to have to do any more than they're already doing however I believe in our community and I believe in our staff and I believe in all the even the parents who have stepped forward and said what can we do what can we do I think we just make that ask we make that ask and and we have to when we make the ask it would be helpful to be able to share with them just how much of a sacrifice we're asking for time wise like we really got to be on our game if we're going to ask them to sacrifice in this way to show up for our kids to you know to help us through this bus crisis while we get to you know the tactics later on that will will cover it but I I would like to believe that our community would make the sacrifice.

For our students to step up and to you know to help our staff that extra staff supervision for being able to get the kids early get there early let see what was my other comment regarding the what was it what was it the RO ational coverage I I don't think I think that that is a a that's the loow hanging fruit I I see that as it's not ideal but it is defin it's better than having it's more I guess you know looking at equity in a different way it's more Equitable to to spread out so that everybody is not taking the not one group is taking the whole brunt of of of the crisis the communication as I heard the the gentleman say is key if if families could know like I would appreciate knowing as a parent one to two weeks in advance or you know way far you know at least that far in advance what that schedule was going to be and being able to rely on that schedule.

If I was you know that would be my sacrifice to you know trying to get through the crisis so I would you know if you could add some communication to go with that you know like lay it all out so that families know it that far in advance so that they can really plan and then that could also combine with the organizing that we might have the capacity for so for those routes that aren't covered if we have the capacity to partner for some kind of community or you know organizing for volunteers to cover the others with the extra buses or the extra vans that we find or we have or we're going to purchase or whatever that is then those that organizing could cover those routes that those routes that the buses are spreading out does that make sense I hope that made sense so I see that as a a two-tier project agreeing you know doing that and then also combining that with the community organizing and I will step back I could.

Say more but I'm going leave it sitting right. There G to pause to see if there's any response or. Comment so of course we going to work on the information as far as local churches local local stakeholders to be able to see with their current routing situation of course we will have to research it like we said before and bring that back bring it back forth to you also when we talk about walk zones walk zones are part of many Lea's daily operations yes it is but the in the case where there is hazards team has already been out looked upon have specific areas and specific locations that we've pinpointed where it will not be feasible or possibly not so I'm going to kind of yield to Miss Brookshire who's our lead planner to speak with that board members chair superintendent Lewis sorry I really appreciated the point that you were making Miss goof about Community Partnerships and what role that might help in finding drivers and I I would.

Like to maybe bring that into the conversation about how Community Partnerships could also help support in the implementation of walk zones as well there are communities that seek volunteers to lead walking groups organized carpool I think there's we can think creatively there as well not just in finding finding drivers I'm happy to answer if you have any questions about our first highle analysis to come up with the walk zone so that we could estimate impact on school bus routing if I can miss go I just would like Miss Brookshire to share what the criteria were in a little more detail with the board members so they understand like what those walk zones were and that there is space for the board to provide input into what the criteria is on what is a safe walking zone for our students thank you so we started with infrastructure and infrastructure only and that's an incomplete conversation I realized because there's perceptions of safety there's lots more that goes with safety so just for this High LEL.

Analysis and looking at infrastructure we looked we realized that the highest impact was going to be with Elementary and so we focused on Elementary there is opportunity to do walk zones for middle and high school as well but if you think about right out the front door for many of our middle and high school they're major infrastructure barriers and so there would be limited to no walk zone for many of our secondary schools but elementary schools inherently are more likely to be neighborhood sided have smaller boundaries more students living closer to the schools so with 32 elementary schools we recognized that there was 11 where really right again like I said before out the front door there's a major infrastructure barrier so we focused our analysis on the remaining 21 elementary schools and we modeled walk zones for the purpose of estimating bus route savings and we our assumptions were that students would walk along and across residential streets they would not walk along high volume streets without a.

Sidewalk and that they would not cross 35 mile or higher roads that are have a posted speed limit of 35 miles per hour or higher without an enhanced Crossing like a signal or flashing Beacon my my concern is not just about the safety of of where they would walk but the capacity for famili to be available but I like the idea of doing some of that Community organizing to have walk groups car pools things like that in those instead of calling it walk zones what was it the no bus zones school districts there's a variety of terms so Mr Palmer mentioned Charlottesville using family responsibility Zone no transport zone bus eligibility Zone and many places also use walk Zone as as well so there's the naming matters sometimes in that for a lot of families like okay to walk a mile to school with a Kinder Garder with school starting at 7:30 in the morning with 7:40 in the morning that's I don't know how long does it take like takes like an adult regular.

Walking like half an hour casually walking to walk an hour I mean walk a mile so with a kindergartener you know with young kids so I just I I think think with some Community organizing car pooling you know and I don't know how quickly that's why I'm asking what the capacity is for us to you know to to do that kind of organizing then that could be a a solution but for a lot of families they you know who have to go to work or you know have different are in different situations they may not be available to walk their elementary school kid to school safely you know they they would need support for that and so that's my that's my concern not so much the S whether there's a sidewalk or you know is is it's the support of getting the child from home up the street to the school safely you know with if the family is not available to do that so with some Community organizing that could be a a.

Really that could be a better option Miss har goth this is Matthew Palmer I'm just layering in a little bit to add a little bit more context on the state level if I may one of the things that is important is to talk about school bus eligibility particularly here in North Carolina and it is actually the state of North Carolina that sets School Bus eligibility at 1.5 miles or further from school everything within 1.5 miles is what we would call Courtesy busing which again the the current Administration or the transportation department had set the existing board policy with walk zones of that 1.5 miles that with standing board policy what we are very intentional about and what I want to make sure that the Deep dedicated work of Miss Brookshire and her staff is reflected in is that we are not looking at a sort of draw 1.5 mile circle around schools we're looking at the INF infrastructure the accessibility any barriers the speed of the streets the location of our children and being.

Very thorough and I will name it comprehensive about when we look to make a recommendation to the board it is oftentimes a much much closer distance than you know when you hear a 1.5 mile walk Zone that's actually board policy much of what Miss Brookshire is looking at is is quite a bit closer if not across the street from many of our schools thank you for that thank you for lifting it up Mr Palmer that was my comment I was going to make and and I think you shared you may all may know this as well how many other districts transport less than that 1.5 miles do you know that I think Mr Palmer had mentioned in a previous conversation North Carolina districts we did a a lit review last year we looked at our peer districts everybody uses State Statute as the starting point and has varying levels of definitions of how they might start adding back in service as as Mr mentioned but I haven't seen procedure or policy for the school.

Districts we looked at it's about 10 others I think in North Carolina where it said 1.0 or 0.5 but many of them in effect would be you know want to layer in infrastructure and other safety concerns much smaller one mile half a mile so yeah and the reason I brought that up I know there are some tactics that we need to put in place immediately to address our issu ues now but also board thinking also about long-term in next year if the driver shortage doesn't get any better you know that let us began thinking now about next year and so if it's not the will of the board to entertain the walk zones this year is this something that we can bring back and get maybe some Community engagement to follow our policy around the 1.5 that'll set the system up for Success beginning 25 26 school.

Year I'm just come around this way so miss Chavez thank you for this very thoughtful presentation and all your work on Solutions and and trying to you know work through our day-to-day as well I have a bunch of thoughts and some questions one I'm interested in a in our district having a systematic way to to clear clean up the ridership where people are not using the bus service and don't intend to I know that sometimes people may use it they may use it some days and I know that some people are frustrated because the bus has been inconsistent and so they're maybe not using it for that reason but is there has there been a any Outreach I guess to see if there are people who are not riding the bus at all and don't need to ride the bus but have signed up and have a route to take them off the the root.

List yes ma'am currently what we do the drivers will turn in a route update where they mark off students that aren't riding or stops that aren't being utilized and so then what we do the routers will man ually remove students and stops from Those runs and then eventually parents through the app will notice that their children have lost their stops and if they need those stops back they call the school and they ask them to change their codes so that they can be added back to the bus routes and so it's like a give and take we'll remove kids that aren't riding but then they'll be added back if they need to be and we just continually it's a a daily and monthly route maintenance that has to happen daily through information from bus drivers and then once the students are removed are the parents notified via email or notified through the app that they've been removed or they're not notified but if a parent has a account with the edulog parent portal they will.

Notice that their child's bus stop has been removed and usually that'll trigger a phone call if they for whatever reason we not able to utilize a stop or because of our service how it's been inconsistent so they've been using other means to get to school so then if they want to try it again then they'll have them added back to the bus. Routes okay has I guess has there many any major shift since the beginning of the year it seems like no with regard to well let me back up my I'm asking this partly because I'm wondering if there are people who are able to take their children to school and I mean a lot of what we're talking about is equity and who's affected by this and there are kids who who as we as noted earlier in the comment comments ments whose parents don't have a car or don't have multiple cars so I'm just wondering if there can be a community ask or maybe people have already sort of.

Done this naturally but like for those who don't need to ride the bus if they can go ahead and take themselves off but it sounds like you're also automatically taking people off if they if they're not doing that so if they're not using the service yeah we can ask the public to if you know you're not going to use the bus service to call the school and ask them to change your codes to know so that we are not constantly trying to keep those students on the bus we receive a report out of power school for students that have a bus assignment but they're codes are no and then we remove those stops as well and there hasn't been a major shift but we try and Tackle bus ridership one school at a time this week we've looked at club watts and we were able to save one driver so that a first tier driver can be utilized for another route that's been short in the Northern Area so we look at our.

Schools one at a time and see where we can save and maybe shift a driver to another school or route that is not being co covered a clarifying question a couple clarifying questions around that the first one is a couple couple of weeks ago a notice went out to parents asking parents to drive their students to school to help alleviate the stress on the system if parents did that during that time I think Miss Cooper said that email were those Riders taken off the bus not to my knowledge they I I didn't remove anyone I'm not even I wasn't aware of that that message that went out I'm sorry so to answer that question Mr Rogers it is we don't actually remove them in the transportation department if the actual process comes through power schools for the school to change their code to know and then what that does is sends over the report that Miss food just spoke about when they get a we get a report in for no that's when students.

Are updated for bus ride or not okay so okay so then my follow-up question I remember in the summer we all had to go into power school and say yes we want to ride the bus we want a bus route for our student right now if a parent goes into power school and changes that does that show up in the report as well or is this a requirement that we call the administrators at the school and put that pressure on them so if a parent calls in and has them request to change their student ridership it will actually send a report a daily report that we get of information where some students are changing to yes some students are changing to no some students have an alternate address update and some students have a new residential address so that report comes in every single day okay would it be beneficial for there to be a comprehensive requests of parents that don't need ridership or aren't relying on or no longer relying on.

Bus transportation to go in and make that request yes ma'am it would it would allow us to be able to to then do more work with our routing that we have in place for the students we're making stops for now that don't plan on using the bus but just kind of have it as a safety valve cushion of one may say and I'm no disrespect in anyway when I say that and also too it would help us to be able to restructure some routes when we when we look back to the fall when we had that influx of students routes were already in place so what had to happen was students had to be placed on routes for us trying to accommodate and do what needs to be done right so in some cases yes we know we put a suit on the route and it may make it just a couple minutes you know where there might be some wiggle room and it might be tight but we were not in.

A position where we could change restructure routes because routes were already in place and in some cases routes need to be restructured because you have people that have moved you have addresses that have updated on the Eastern Corridor of Durham there's so much building that we've have to add add in new stops new subdivisions all those things so every single day it's a moving moving and revolving door into piece like today worked on we worked on some routes today guess what updates will come in tomorrow morning if we have a student that lives in that attendance Zone but that's the new subdivision that's off Olive Branch I'm going to use that for an example off wake for US Highway down what considers the Neil District the Oak Grove that area guess what we've got to try to figure to put that St in place if we put that student on that route then if that a first stop what happens to ride time that increases ride time if we put.

The student in the middle of the route which it might fit guess what that does interrupts the whole entire route that's already in place so we counter in a position of six in one hand half a dozen in the other we we're at a point where we've got to make some real hardcore and as you as you spoke about it we've got to make some updates we got to do some changes we got to make some things but we also have to do things decent in order to answer with direction as well right very much appreciated I'm not taking over I promise do you need an authorization from the board to make that request yes that would help us tremendously yes it would because it would give us a hope for a better sense of who would be riding so we can do some of the work that needs to be done there is work I will admit it I I am the director of Transportation I I am the.

Head and I'm the lead and I'm not going to back down from it there are changes that need to be made but we're going to have to have time to make those changes but also too we're going to have to have buying as we put here with all stakeholders because they're going to be changes in times for some people but if we're able to do the work that needs to be done and we talked about in these things from November you know we look at those time frames of the different weeks we can come back with more comprehensive routes because students that will not be using the service at all they have fallen off and in some of those cases if we make a stop three or four minutes down the road and we have to go around make another stop at the community plan stop and no one's there we still have to make that stop because we don't know if someone is going to come so if we know.

That no one is going to use it guess what three or four minutes to us means the world three or four minutes to a transportation organization to a team when you're driving a bus that that means the world that can mean the time if you got two or three of those and it takes you three or four minutes you're already talking 8 10 minutes we're talking about a time where schools are having late and tardy bells and we can make those late and tardy bells in some cases thank you that's all my questions for now I I'll let it go back that way and then did you want to finish your thought no goe good so and I want to say that again again there is work that needs to be done but we've got to have Direction and we want to make sure we do things decent in order and what this board wants for us and what what needs to happen and What needs to take place you know we.

Just don't want to go out and make changes and then you've got students that an hour ride time difference what we've had to flip a rod around to make a change and make it more efficient so I definitely would would like to give Administration that direction I want to say that the way I'm approaching this also is that this has to be a community problem that we solve together and so we I want to say thank you to all the people who have shared their experiences thoughts you know proposals of solutions all of that and I I realize that there are a lot of tense relationships between DPS our district and various parts of our community but we do need to do this together and I appreciate Dr Lewis what you have said it the learning and listening sessions about how you don't have or however you said it a hard job you know your work cut out for you we have our work cut out for us we do so.

I also want to just frame this as an Ask of those with the privilege you know people often ask what can I do with my privilege an Ask today is what you can do with your privilege if you have the resources the time and the energy to take your kids to school and you don't need the bus to please not use utilize the bus at this time we are in a crisis so with that I would make a motion that we direct Administration to make a formal request of of our families to evaluate whether they need bus service and and if they do not and I do truly mean those who do do not need it that they would give up their their spot so that we could serve hopefully serve with more efficiency our students especially those of greatest need on the floor just there's a motion on the floor second it's been second by Miss Rogers any additional discussion yes and I think Dr.

Le also has a comment as well yeah I I was just going to say that we don't necessarily need a motion I don't feel I I need a motion from for that just Direction seeing that Administration can look into the logistics of what it would look like I was just in power school trying to see how I would do it there for families to elect whether that's through the families going into power school and US providing directions to families or some kind of communication between School and families and our support from our data managers to indicate that a family no longer needs a bus because what I don't want to happen is for a family to come in there tonight and say I don't need a bus and on Monday go back in and say I need a bus and it's back and forth and now you're adding routes and so it it has to be I don't need a bus for the remain of this semester or remain of this year but Administration can.

Work on the logistics of that and and communication as well I have my questions anyway sorry about that I am thank you I I am appreciative of this way to reduce ridership in a way that allows the community to lend their support to our transportation problem I have some questions around how that will impact carpool and those walk zones should we decide to implement the walk zones does that make the the routes less safe and how low do we need ridership to get in order to be able to Route students to school consistently and effectively and I don't expect y'all to have all those answers right now but when you start doing this work to kind of give an update on the how this is coming about I know that Southwest has previously move their bus lot their carpool lwn to the bus lot because it's in the back of the school moving the transportation off of the carpool Transportation off of faille road so to help not impact.

Traffic in those areas are there other schools that could be doing some of that as we are asking parts of the community members of our community to help us that's a great point I think if we're looking at you know all potential impacts from implementing walk zones I think a part of our process would be to review car rider arrival and dismissal with this those schools that would be affected we know that it's unlikely that 100% of students would be walking to school some of them would be car riders so some of our schools have very limited car queue capacity right now and knowing that there could be more drivers coming to school each day morning and afternoon we'd want to be reviewing that for procedures safety potential safety impacts I expect that would be one-on-one conversations with each each of those.

Schools and I guess my last question around that would be how how would we measure success if we were able to get writers ship down and really like kind of announce to the community that we're in a place where where we can sustain writers ship at the moment like if we implemented it tomorrow not that we are if we implemented it tomorrow could we yeah I'm G to I want to make sure that I understand your question you I'm sorry no you're fine if we were to implement a request this request to reduce ridership.

How would we measure that we are at a place where the drivers that we currently have and the routes that we have can provide consistent writer consistent WR writers with consistency about school arrival and school pickup and school arrival and dismissal so that we can sort of say to the community we've done this together thank you so much we're looking at the long-term outcomes now so our ridership database our Tim's database will be able to actually capture that information so as information comes in from the school through Power School on that daily feed that means our up our database will be updated and we'll be able to track the number of CH student changes that have come in from a particular day until whatever time we say it's going to be the cut off we'll be able to say that during this time we have had X number of students come in which will help us reorganize in the capacity of reducing reduction and changing of routes is are you kind of asking Miss.

Rogers like what's the optimal writers ship number is that what given the number of drivers that we currently have so that that's kind of a what that's that's a difficult question and I say that because you've got to factor in where you talk about just normal attenda base boundary schools versus districtwide transportation so that's kind of you know it just depends we could have two students on a Magna route that drop off and guess what we may be able to to do away with that route where we have two students drop off on a community based school that just has a regular attendance boundary and it will not make much difference and Mr Palmer is indicating that he does have an answer for the board as well Mr Palmer thank you Dr Giovani and chair Rogers I think I want to acknowledge it's an excellent question around what is that expectation what's that threshold that we're trying to get to before going there and I want to draw.

The board's memory back to the spring of 2022 we had just reopened schools after covid and were experiencing a surge and ridership and really for the first time saw the impact of the global pandemic on our bus driver Workforce remembering many of these folks were unemployed throughout the pandemic what it has led to in 2022 as a districtwide initiative to address the driver shortage we reset all ridership for all 32,000 students and rebuilt our ridership request law we went from 19,000 ride requests to 18,000 ride requests and director Harris has shared that you know there is an array a true spectrum of level of need so as you're considerate of what would it take board action or administrative effort I would just want for all of us to lean on the experience within transportation and recognize that of the $1,000 and students that were're not currently carrying without an individual identification piece there's no way to know who's actually riding currently one of the long-term Investments that the.

District has made is in our smart school bus technology platform that is in con Junction with edog specifically to know which students are riding the bus which days that is in the beta development phase that's not ready for deployment right now but what it does point to is the long-term need to manage our resources and I want to come back to that as far as when we have a 55% actual ridership we are aware that many folks would ride daily if the service were there and so there's a framing of the question that certainly as staff we would encourage the board to really think about how would it how does this question land best with families so that we truly understand the fixed resources that we have it is a family level decision to request ridership but we do want to make sure that we have done these efforts and they are significant efforts at a districtwide level from public affairs through Transportation Administration and school leadership participation in a.

Districtwide census like that is a heavy lift we want to acknowledge that with whatever decision the board or Administration may make but we have done this work historically and typically we see about a roughly a 5% adjustment but we are we are here to support in any way and we we will need to come back to what is that magic number on the ridership level given our current Staffing part of what we are aware of is as we've assigned students this fall Miss fullwood needs the time to do what we call Rad updates and round maintenance as well as the managing of the ridership I know that's a lot unsolicited but I'm I'm trying to lean on institutional memory for the.

District thank you Mr Palmer M Chavis all right so I wanted to share some other thoughts so one I think I'm glad that we're at some schools rotating the buses that are cancelled we're hearing from some some Educators that that is not the case at all schools so I think it's important that somehow that is made systematic and a thought that I'm really stealing from chair Rogers what is about creating a calendar or some way where we cannot Pro provide consistent Transportation at least can we provide reliable information ahead of time to create stability in that way and coupled with what what board member Harold Goff said about supporting Community organizing we heard interest in that in public comment and somehow we need to support people coming together but I know that they don't have the resources to do that when they find out at the last minute that roots are being cancelled so I want to say that I'm fully in support of if we don't have enough bus drivers to cover Roots right.

Now I'm in support of rotating the the the roots that are cancelled so they do not disproportionately affect in some cases more kids from who are poor or work in class or kids who are part of immigrant families and that we also have a way of communicating ahead of time when that's going to happen like and I know has been you all talked about that I just want to say I'm fully in support of of doing that we have to be realistic about what we're dealing with and then I also want to ask I'm I'm you know glad that we are prioritizing some of our most vulnerable students is there a way to prioritize our elll students buses that have a certain threshold of elll students or something like that I am very concerned based on what we have heard particularly from githens and Brogden but I'm sure it's you know other schools as well about the effects of this bus crisis on immigrant families we have not received you know the majority of the.

Emails that we receive period are in English and and so we're not hearing from Spanish speaking families or families of you know who primarily speak another language other than English or Spanish but I know that it's this is affecting our kids who are vulnerable in a number of ways and also as was noted really need to are still learning English and so need to be in school for that reason is there a way to prioritize them prioritize those roots especially those who have been whose Roots have been cancelled in you know frequently I I will just keep going and then let you comment on whatever you like to if that's okay or would you like me to pause and I think if we could maybe jump in here yeah pleas okay I think that would be helpful so I did just want to share that the principles our principles and have been Advocates very active advocates for those students and so to your point you know it's difficult to.

Prove a negative it's disingenous to say well no one has complained that is a el elll ESL but that's not you know that's because of the language barrier a lot of times and so our principles have lifted that up and I have shared that when we've had meetings with principles to discuss making sure that those neighborhoods or homes and families are getting that service even though the parents may not have had the ability to complain because of a language barrier so I just want to Mr Harris feel free to add or Mr Palmer so yes we are working we have when we talk about the rotation it does make sure that it reaches those families that you spoke about ESL Learners nin vento farity care special needs students of that of that caliber yes those are what we consider our priority runs but also we on any given day capacity wise we don't know what going to happen so we're at a point where some days we've done.

All we can do we do all we can do and we still don't have enough that's that's when we have to make the decision to make that call and we do that as early as possible we start working at 10:30 in the morning for the afternoon and at 5:00 in the evening for the next day my phone starts ringing at quarter to 5 in the morning but we're working to try to get coverage for every single family but given our supply our demand does not help us meet that threshold director Harris if I may join you in the response to miss Chavez's comment I think and I'm hopeful that we're all aware in the room and we certainly we hear it every day all day and we talk about it all day is the importance of job one is getting the kids to school on time and it is with that Pride you hear it in Joe's voice and in his dedication to this school system that pride has also meant that.

We're hesitant to cancel the route until we know for sure we can't but that isn't the best service that we can provide when families need to structure their lives and arrange transportation in advance so our rotational schedule is intended to be as such and I want to review this just for a moment because these ideas matter and they will impact some of the various student groups that we're discussing we know currently that there are rats that we've not been able to carry consistently this fall and we have tried everything we can every single day scrambling substitute drivers but the reality is that consistent service hasn't been there for a group of bus routes that have an uncovered or unstaffed driver what we're proposing is is that we shift and ensure that for the duration of this fall those students receive bus service and a consistent basis to ensure we're leveling the water and balancing resources for those families that haven't received that level of service to do that we're asking other families.

And cidly other bus drivers and we'll need to work this through very quickly but together this is a shared solution is that everyone is going to have to let go of a little bit in order to provide services to those other families that haven't currently received consistent service so that would entail on a rotational basis effectively one day a week asking a set number of drivers and a set number of families that on Mondays for the next few weeks we need you to find an alternative means but that's posted and communicated well in advance and it's not rotating days it's the same day trying to make sure that this is predictable and expectations are known in advance communicated in advanced and understood of the why we understand many in the room understand the why but for some families transportation service has not been disrupted and we will be asking them to join us in this shared solution for all of Durham's students that is also again ensuring that every day our EC buses receive consistent.

Dedicated service so there is a core mission in the values of Durham Public Schools prioritizing our EC students and ensuring that all students receive comparable levels of service I hope that's helpful director Harris and I have worked extensively on this implementation we understand that none of these recommendations are without implications for other families but it is a shared problem and as I said much tonight a community problem that we must work through together I think Mr Palmer just can you expound a little bit on what you were saying that like everyone is kind of going to contribute to this in particular I don't know that you shared it earlier but talking about the walk zones but also what impact or potential impact you were considering you and your team were considering with regard to even bus stops and the distance between those bus stops I know Mr har spoke a little bit about that just kind of going maybe a few feet and and having another stop but if you could kind of maybe.

Expound on that a little bit as well so that the board is aware of all of the things that Administration is considering to attempt to achieve success in Transportation thank you sure so the state level average from home to a bus stop here in North Carolina is about 0.564 miles about a half mile walk for the majority of students in North Carolina from home to the school bus stop the transportation team that is before you this evening worked really starting last fall in preparation for this Academic Year to review our current bus stops as they were sort of historically what we have been able to do is prioritize safe pedestrian loading areas and those are our what we would call Planned stops now uncertain circumstances whether it's about the type of road that a student lives on or the infrastructure on that road we may or may not be able to ask that student to arrive at a planned school bus stop they may need door door service here on.

Hamlin Road that is a road that is 45 mph and has no sidewalks those students re receive doorstop service but we do have the opportunity to continue to look at where are our planned school bus stops is there sufficient infrastructure for students to arrive from home to those bus stops and ensure that we're we're and I'll use the word eing out but really maximizing every drop of time gasoline and seats on our bus I hope that our efforts to be responsible stewards of our limited resources here you're seeing it and hearing it tonight we're trying to lead with transparency and saying we're looking under every Rock and that will include you know continuing to optimize our service by state sort of Statute and law bus stops can't be within a quarter mile within one another unless it is sort of those unique circumstances on a high-speed road so miss fulwood miss Brookshire director Harris we have been looking at those planned stops ensuring that there's accessible infrastructure there and asking again that is asking.

Sometimes our students to walk longer distances but it is with the intent that we have reviewed it and evaluated it and made sure that there is a way to get to that bus stop from a child's home with much of the guideline and criteria that Miss Brookshire shared earlier this evening thank you thank you for all of that okay I I'm wondering if there's anything we can do as far as offering bonuses I know we have an attendance bonus and that was mentioned last time we talked about Transportation I believe and also with the with tactics six asking central office staff or others with CDLs who are interested in driving a bus if they would be willing to do that and is there some kind of bonus that would come along with that so what would you all say about offering a bonus for for bus drivers in general or for people with CDL license who have a we not driving a bus but could take a route here and.

There are you speaking like a sign on bonus to higher bus drivers or sorry I wasn't very specific are there other bonuses besides attendance bonuses monthly bonus says a lot of what we have received is a is a suggestion as one might you know imagine to pay people more and we can't change the pay scales right now but I'm wondering if there is some kind of financial incentive that we can offer for a consistency of roots for for attend continued for attendance but maybe in a better way or or simply to bus drivers in in in general that would would effectively give them a boost but not change their pay scale if I may we have looked at several different options for different kinds of incentives Financial or otherwise that we can offer at the end of the day what we need are like quality of life we need it to be a job that pay a living wage and needs to be an attractive job but there are certainly creative.

Strategies that we can take our bonuses have not necessarily been as effective historically but we are really eager to have that conversation it is one that absolutely requires collaboration with transportation Finance with HR and again with our Workforce itself we've done some important work so far doing focus groups and partnering with UNCC on design Sprints for receiving that feedback and those ideas from our drivers themselves we would like to continue that we would like to have further conversations with organized labor with our certified staff to really see what would be most effective but it's it's definitely across functional effort and we do have an attendance guess incentive that we will be re reviewing because right now I think it's the perfect attendance and so if they miss one day so so it is a perfect attendance but if they miss one day or half a day it wipes them out right that's what I was getting at so we're want to look at maybe rephrasing from perfect to good.

Attendance because on November 1st if I I'm able to make the am route but I get sick and can't make the PM route or something happens I can't make the PM route then you know have to think about what's that incentive to you know keep coming back right and I think there's another opportunity where everyone can be involved and it doesn't cost a dime and that's just showing respect for our bus drivers and lifting up and valuing our bus drivers and I shared that with our principles yesterday just as a reminder to honor respect our bus drivers because sometime I talk to bus drivers and they'll say well I'm just I I stop them right there so know you're not just a bus driver you are a bus driver a vital part of the success of this this school system and so that's why I would urge the community and our staff to just not only our bus drivers our bus AIDS as well to just lift up and value our our bus drivers I.

Even asked our bus drivers when I met with them last Friday I said what other incentives what would help you know with with with retention because you may have heard me say retention is the new recruitment so you have to also think about what are we doing to keep our current bus drivers and they what they alluded to is just respect you know just speak to us you know then cost a DME thank you I'm only I'm only gonna say one more thing which is just that I hope that with some of these Solutions I just want to know what our community thinks about them with the walk Zone and all of that I think with the conversation you know we've had and thinking about it I I do think it might be a better solution to think about for next year as you mentioned Dr Lewis but I am hesit I'm just hesitant to move forward on the ones that impact families the most without getting input so that's that's the.

Only else I would say just you know I I want us to have dialogue with Community as we solution I tossed out last month maybe a community conversation I'm still you know potentially interested in that if other people are but this is a this is a all handson deck situation and these are great you know thoughtful Solutions and I want our community to be involved too thank you Miss Chavez Miss carteron oh my colleagues have covered so much and have had some great ideas I'm also excited about many of these including getting more Community feedback on the bigger like the the bigger changes that would impact people like like the walk zones but I am really excited about a few things in like I I'm thinking about things you know shortterm versus long term right so want to make sure that we are going to get more information on what it what is required for someone who someone else to drive kids so like whether it be a parent volunteer community volunteer or.

What are the requirements for the like size of the van and then the legal implications just want to make sure we are going to get that information in case folks want to fill the gaps in the immediate term really interested in the bus driver retention and attendance because I know that we have a we have many that need to call out or that end up calling out and also and just wanted to Think Through through again like as it sounds like y'all are doing creative ways to incentivize attendance but also show some love whether it be our families again if our families are looking at ways to support bus drivers or the board gets on buses and you know show some love to bus drivers and if and if we can make sure that principes and staff that are working with them but thinking about and then continuing to talk to them about what it why they stay in a position why they come to work each day.

And making sure we provide them with all those things that they need because we need them really feel like we need this I'm I'm excited no excited the wrong word I think we need to do the rotational schedule because families need to know in advance I know that Mr Palmer you said well in advance and I just am curious to know what that looks like to you like is that by Sunday evening or is that two weeks in advance what are you all thinking when you're thinking about how far in advance folk families will know which day of the week they might not day or days of the week they might not have bus coverage I'll stop there for now because that's some of my short term thank you Miss Carda-Auten Alton I just want to directly address the question with regards to the rotational coverage plan that is an opportunity to have a consistent day over the remainder of November and into December where on that day for those weeks whether it be Monday.

For one family a or for family B on Tuesday that's the day we're going to ask you to please find an alternative means to school on just that day and we can roll that through the Durham community and with our bus drivers now will again coming back to the beginning of our conversation it is going to ask and it is asking our leadership and our Administration to work with our drivers we can talk more about that but the the importance of sharing in that coverage plan so that families can plan and predict in advance as we are building back our Workforce we need this time what I would say is that that expectation can be communicated yes a week in advance but also that the coming weeks after it we're looking to maintain that coverage pattern on the same days so that families can anticipate that on Monday I'm going to need to figure it out with my family but on the remaining days I will have the service as.

Scheduled so that is the intent that is to bring some predictability at a time when we would all benefit from predictable expectations that is a goal of this group before you this evening thank you that is really helpful to hear and then I I did one of the one of short-term solution that is appealing is exploring more this idea of the 60 DPS employees with the CDL and I don't it might be the case that all of these employees it doesn't really doesn't make sense to ask them to drive a bus because of their position I mean we clearly don't want to pull a classroom teacher out but I just would love to know more maybe for our next meeting about or sooner what what conversations y'all have had with these folks and how many might be willing if any and what it might take if we need to incentivize or how we might incentivize getting them again to get these I think that was the only.

One that was listed on there as a ASAP or immediate fix that wouldn't take any additional time on the table so and then for long-term when I was looking through Mr Palmer thank you so much for providing such comprehensive responses to some of the questions that we sent in advance and as I was digging through that I I saw that you said that and this similar to what was just said drivers want a standard 8 hour work well they want a living wage and they want standard eight hour workday and 12 month employment and so I'm curious to know if if part of what is unappealing about being a bus driver is that you have such odd hours and that you are you have a gap between two different shifts during a day like what do you all know about that and what can we learn from what you know to try to make this a more sustainable career for someone so if if I can speak on that I.

Started as a bus driver in 2002 then work my way on up the ranks so me as a bus driver yes support and respect do goes a long ways with the students parents and also Administration if I had an accident or incident on the bus with a student my expectation is to have administrative to take care of that student so could have a safe ride to and from school if not then it would cause an accident but as grow as coming up working six hours I knew I needed more so I explored more options I started painting school buses I started working on school buses and just work my way up through the ranks but most drivers do want 8 hours but we know state law 6 hours or 10 employee for school.

Drivers that's helpful but maybe could you clarify that last like two statements I don't quit so so school bus drivers operates on their time that they work okay and they are 10-month employees anything outside of that the district will have to take up far as salary wise I can just add to that little bit to your point of what we've heard from drivers that being a main thing part of this comprehensive comprehensive Workforce Development plan does include some position review both with different classifications of driver and safety assistant monitor within we have an opportunity to really explore what these positions could look like but it is going to require as Mr leak said supplemental funding at the end of the day like our state funding covers what we can legally cover and beyond that we're going to have to decide what our people are worth that's really helpful and I don't mean to sound like I'm throwing money at a problem but I think of but we this is an investment right so.

What we care about we direct our funds towards and I think we need to keep thinking about that as we think about where to put our money to solve this problem if I may just appreciate can we ask you to get closer to the mic people can't hear you sorry I'm very short I just appreciate that comment about not throwing money at the problem we know that money doesn't solve this problem but what we need to get to is that Foundation where our staff isn't worried about feeding their own kids before they take care of everyone else's and what we have is a group of drivers right now those who are here and those that we see coming in through the doors asking to earn their CDL and asking to join this Force are people who just want to take care of these kids they care so much they want to do this job they just have to be able to also pay their bills that's really helpful and I think this board can agree.

That we want them to be able to pay their bills too and I just so if you're a bus driver you work six hour days so if you're a bus driver it's it's brok up in ships and mostly depend on your route time help me out if so it it it depends on your route time based on your shift some them start at 5:15 in the morning get back in to the bus lot at 9:00 in 9:30 in the morning and then come back again in the evening time and work from 1:30 to maybe 7:15 depending on the routes okay that's helpful but but there there are time the time is based off of two and from school okay I won't belabor that I was just thinking through like maybe some ways to if folks want to work more in between their shift like maybe there are other things that they could be doing to be employed by DPS so so we do have some some drivers who work in the cafeteria Child Nutrition okay.

Correct you you also have bus drivers who also do field trips on those particular buses if they're local right yes so that's how they can get more also thinking about like again looking at some potential barriers wondering if the fees that are involved in training and Licensing if we could cost out what it would take for the district to pay for those fees to remove those barriers for potential drivers think about maybe providing all newly hired employees with an offer to obtain their CDL not a requirement but for free provide you know pay for that and provide some kind of a salary differential to incentivize that I think what you was referred to as the Dual employment yeah I think those were some of my oh and I I was a little bit curious about the comment earlier about the drug screening again just thinking about all the different barriers that might be in place for our drivers and why they might not choose to become a driver or not might might not successfully become.

A driver could you clarify that in regards to the drug screen so the drug screen is actually a part of the DOT physical pre-employment that must be in place for a of commercial license operator license so that's and that's actually mandated by the Federal Motor Carrier that the person is medically screened and cleared to be able to operate a commercial vehicle and that does come with a Fe it does the the ones that employees that are currently employed they have to have those every two years as well we take care of the employees that are already employed new employees have to have that as a part of the licensure registration employment.

Process thank you I was somebody earlier implied that the way we did the drug testing was different than neighboring counties but it doesn't sound like it I'm not implying that we want some I'm not implying that we don't want to give people a physical but just kind of responding to that comment no ma' we we all have a it's it's a actual DT approved doctor vendor that we have to use so there is no cutting corners or any different way of going about that process you cannot get around that process at all so there may be some misunderstanding or maybe a portion of what happened or who you can go to to receive that but getting around that it's not possible thank you so much and I'm sorry I should have started all my questions with thank you so much for everything you do thank you Rogers chair Rogers thanks everybody for these for the opportunities the tactics to discuss how we as a community can address these Transportation issues my.

Colleagues have asked so many of my questions I did have a question about the express stops and the reduced routes and drive time or bus time does that I assume that that means that there's an increased time on the family side to get to the bus stop. Can you share a little bit about how far and it doesn't have to be tonight but when we go to try to implement an Express Stop can you share a little bit about what those distances look like on average from people's homes if they are also safe routes for people to walk there or ride a bike if there will be bike rack racks at those locations for folks to store their bikes should they choose to bike there I have previously had a family member on an Express stop for school for Creative Studies how do we notify the administrators that this is an Express stop and who is authorized to be on those campuses because there's been some concerns about trespassing particularly.

For more marginalized members of our community being on campus and they're not supposed to be there and is there if it's at a school or whatever the location is if if there's a weather protection for the students at those sites weather weather like rain snow sleep yeah covering thank you that's all my questions about Express steps and I don't expect you to have any of those answers right now just just to be clear tactic. Four about the first bus loads and second bus loads can you talk to us a little bit about how siblings are connected are they on the same route are they on separate routes is that so what we try to do is put siblings yes on the same routes that's what we try to do in some cases there has been location where it's set up for younger then older just depending upon the area in the particular School itself but when we are when we are able and when we're notified and of course when with routing you try.

To put siblings together because in most cases there may be a older fifth grade sibling there's a second grade sibling so we don't want to split those students because we know the fifth grade student the older sibling is actually caring for the younger sibling for bus time and Bus drop off and loading so yes that is something that we pay attention to when we making those decisions okay that's helpful because we've heard some different things about what's happening in different places yes ma'am so in in some cases what may have happened is it may have been routed by addressing and the system is so fine that you know it draws the line and it may get grabb one student by addressing they live in the same house but because of addressing it's you know it's the fine line and it cuts it and in those cases where we've been notified we make those changes immedi be closed we again that second grader needs to be with their o assembling so we can make sure.

That they're getting on and off safely awesome and this is from personal experience that I asked this question can you tell us about how one would know if which route is being run I live in a lovely apartment complex that is on the more affordable end in Durham there are a lot of people who live in that complex the bus comes twice how do students know if it's their turn to get on that bus so or not I'm sorry or not so we we route them as first load second load so in the routing when it's when it's sent over the information is sent over it it specifies first load am second load pm second load PM first load am it designates that actually in the description itself so in some cases we see what descriptions are are off sometimes where they may not be transported over and when we get those situations we try to make sure that they are coded so the parent can see it that.

It says first load am second load PM my my child's at the bus stop right now how does he know if it's for the first load or if the buses arrive for the second load I think is my question like is there like a marker in the window or like how does it's the same St same St the same they can ride yes the same if it's the same location yes we we try to separate separate because of numbers but in sometimes if if there's an enough students out we we all just pick them up at one time you know we We're Not Gonna Leave anybody standing out and if there's room on the bus of course not okay so family shouldn't be really concerned so much about right okay that's helpful yeah and we do have some communities like you said yes the bus has to come and make two trips yes it does that's helpful.

Yes time so like when I talk about the first load second load there's a time that's given on the first low then there's a time that's given on the second low but again we know what happens they're out there we're not going to leave them stand on the side of the road and we got room for them of course I think that that is helpful for everybody to hear and we can like Replay that over and over and over for families that need to hear that it was more of a factor in the beginning when everybody's saying show up 20 minutes before the stop time and stay 20 minutes after and so in that amount of time the bus can go and come yes right to complexes like that that's all my questions thank you yes ma'am thank you all I appreciate your persistence as we ask a lot of questions I do have some additional questions but I just thank again all of y'all for being here this afternoon.

See where to begin in the presentation you said we have 27 I think drivers who are in the development getting or in the training process do we know how many of those are full-time part-time is it some combination of them all and I guess my question is like do we expect all of them to be able to like Drive full routes no so to clarify the 27 which is now actually 37 as of this morning 37 37 candidates are on our eligibility list meaning that they have cleared they are eligible by DMV standards and by District standards to continue the process they are pre-screened pool and so they still need to go through the process and then do we do we I guess we'll know at some point throughout the process whether they can be full-time or part-time our goal is to prioritize candidates who intend to do full-time that 37 encompasses a lot that's internal and external those internal folks will be a handful of routes substitute supplemental like I said we're going.

To try and really prioritize our external candidates who are coming in and wanting to earn that CDL and be a full-time driver that process takes longer but let me see what I got it's yeah so right as of today we have 11 who have been hired in some classification and 38 sorry who are on that list at some phase thank you and to add to that we use a combination of course of on site classroom for candidates through the DMV but we also have the mechanism for online classroom and I had deliberty the last two weeks ago I took the online portion because I want to be able to say to potential employees what to expect how it is what happens through the process so we're just not talking about go take the online and they have questions we need to be able to tell them what to expect what happens the processing you've got to sit still you've got to pay attention if not you're not going to pass we we you know.

We need to be able to tell people that because some people we don't want to waste their time going to online when we know that they would not be a good candidate for online they're actually a better candidate for classroom teaching I so so yes that process you know we have do have both of those process those mechanisms that those potential candidates will be able to go through I think that is great I'm glad you took the class because it also gives you Clarity on what people heard in that online class right absolutely I I don't want to be able to I can't speak to anything that I don't know about or I have not touched or had my hands or Eyes Upon right I appreciate that that leadership from you Mr Harris my next question is just around pay and I know there's this kind of base pay schedule is there like overtime options for bus drivers do we have that built into our structure currently I don't know who the right U.

Person to answer that question is. Oh so we do not have overtime time built in to our to our budget process but it does happen and it of course it must come from local funding so in a sense that is a big hurdle for us and of course we try to keep that down but we also have got a responsibility of getting our students too so if it's that I've got to try to find funding somewhere to get somebody behind the wheel then I've got to go and be that advocate and stand and say that I need help with this so we can employ and I people I just have to add a public service announcement that overtime is determined by the federal guidelines related to flsa and so there are things that we have to do based on what is in the system and the classification of that employee that feels like something that could there's a lot of things on this list that have fiscal implications.

That one was not on there and I'm curious if we need to cost some of that out and I say that because we know that we have drivers who are driving multiple routes who are driving outside of what the the standard hours might be and it's an opportunity to earn more without trying to pick up an additional job within the system so it's a I think it's a I'm gonna go through my list there's a couple of budgetary things that I think we need to consider and budget season is close and so how do we think about and money is not the answer to everything but is there some ways that we can make this more appealing for for our bus drivers Miss Umstead did you want us to be prepared to answer each one or I just want to make sure I'm able to track it and answer your questions I appreciate that I will make sure I pause when I'm ready but I think the overtime one that sounded like that feels like.

There's some work to do on that and I would say I think about that is it's a longer term because we need to find funding so what's that the budget for 20 425 are we including that in a budget ask for this year that will be one of the things that we will add to our list to make sure that we look at and we also will include staff staff when we say staff if we have to deploy mechanical staff to be able to help us off a staff that is working 13 15 hours a day as well to try to help meet that need as well right right right I would say as said also to miss Chavez's point that there we are being very creative about incentives and additional compensation for bus drivers so I don't want to say it because we haven't fully vetted it out and costed it out but that is with Dr Lewis's oversight we are anticipating being able to bring some hard numbers to the board after we've.

Kind of vetted it with the bus drivers to kind of see what the what we can do and you know we don't want to just presume something but those there's nothing that's off the table as far as trying to make sure that they know that you know we're saying verbally thank you and we appreciate you but also to the extent that we can making sure that we are compensating them to the degree that we can as well so thank you I appreciate that and in the mention of bus drivers I think one of the other I have comments too on these particular tactics but I'm starting generally the other things that I think is like how do we get a working group of bus drivers that are just helping us think through these things all the time I know y'all are in constant communication with folks but I mean I had a small conversation with some of our drivers at the accelerate event they talked about pay they talked about the student behaviors.

That just got brought up and how can they feel supported from Administration around those behaviors and I think that's a that doesn't cost anything right we can do that tomorrow and I think that's something we need to jump on yeah so I I I have a group called the tab Group which is the transportation Advisory Board where it consists of bus drivers safety assistant mechanical staff people of that nature that we meet periodically to discuss the Hot Topic items that they do have and the concerns they do have so we can kind of just in an open floor and environment not that I'm the director and I need to the things that we need to know we need to hear we need to talk about things that are happening in a private setting we do that and I also you know take care of them try to cuz it's of course in between runs we I make sure I feed them and take care of them man not let them.

Know that they appreciate and their time is valuable that the transportation advisory bus board TB that's good maybe I need to maybe I need to rename it but to seriously to to that point and this is what I share with the bus drivers as well is that in our education courses one of the first thing they tell us as teachers or prospective teachers don't turn your back to the class and what do our bus drivers do during their entire time they're driving the bus they have their back so and they have to pay attention to the the the Dows and the in the street and so again the more that we can honor that and honor our our bus drivers I think that will that will help because you do have behavior issues that happen on buses and again those bus monitors that are that are on there don't want to forget them as well they are critically important to the success of the the route as well and.

They they are surely included in that group as well I know you were already doing that that's great and I think it'd be interesting to hear their feedback on some of these solutions that I don't know if y'all have already talked about the solutions that we're providing tonight okay so we have not had that conversation when we bring forth information here we bring forth information here then we go back and share that news we don't you know prematurely have those conversations understood I think it'd be it'd be interesting to hear their thoughts around some of the ones especially that impact bus drivers the most some of them are more impacting other groups I also think I feel like we need to go on a little campaign tour to recruit bus drivers and like put the put the board to work like I've just been sitting here thinking about where do we need to be even going and making pitches and doing I think recruitment is relational right it is when you hear and.

Talk to folks I talked to somebody today about driving a bus and they were like help send me that information and so how do we get some kind of materials just so everyone can be out and and doing that you know getting in front of churches or other communities and sharing that so I I offer I guess we I would like to be a partner I think the board can be partners with you all and helping to figure out how do we deliver the message and the and the venues that we're in maybe maybe we sit down and have a conversation of things we might could do we have Flyers we have pocket cards we we have word of mouth we have I have signs in my in my vehicle that I that I stop at a corner and we get out and we stake that sign you know we we We R Done radio and I'm not gonna steal that Miss Bamberg oh I simply want to make a.

Pitch for one really helpful and effective tactic which is senior leadership earning their CDLs and joining our Workforce we are always looking for supplemental drivers I'm not sure if you've heard but we have lots of routes you can cover and we have recently brought on to RTC recruitment trans excuse me recruitment training and compliance Specialists who will personally hold your hand and walk you through every single step of this process shout out to Wallace cherry and Ma Forbes but we would absolutely welcome not only your partnership but your personal experience behind the wheel just say and that's something we have we have talked about in cabinet about cabinet getting trained to to drive buses to if nothing just to be in the sub pool that that we have certain days of the week or whatever that we're available to to drive buses okay this is my the other thing I've heard we've heard a lot from families about that's really helpful y'all I'll take some flyers I'm sorry.

I'll do that is get so yeah I will communication and like families and we heard this in public comment tonight like we heard at the last minute can you all just kind of walk through the decision making process to decide that we're not able you talked a little bit about this earlier to cover route and then what happens as far as the communication process is is concerned on that end yes ma'am so we like I said we start working early to get that get our board worked out for that particular shift right so when we at a point where we've used all our available Personnel we've doubled what we can we've kind of put together what we can we've used office staff we've used everybody available but still not taken away to make sure we're able to try to still handle calls that are actually coming through from parents then at that point we're we're at a at a time where we have to make a decision and we do that as.

Early as possible example it's 1:30 somebody calls in they've got an emergency board is already fixed we've got everything set we have no other available hands that may be a situation where at the last minute I guess it's it's not in best interest but we have to make that call but we also as I say prioritize our families in in the order that I've stated before previously and then so when you all make that call who is yes you communicate to school go ahead we communicate through email to the school we communicate through phone call to the school and we also have push alert that goes out through our edel parent portal gotta and then the school is then turning around and communicating with those families that is correct I wonder too if we can get because I've seen some of this messaging like some standard templates that are English and Spanish and maybe even a couple other those High The High Frequency languages that we have in our district because I am thinking about.

Families who don't speak English or Spanish and really having no clue what's going on with Transportation so how do we make sure that and I don't that's a feel like a cross Department kind of situation so schools have a template that they can just fill in this bus this bus or this number in just so we can help improve that communication cuz I think that's one again that's a area that I think we could work on probably sooner that would be helpful so we do in the transportation department on our internal portal we have a sop folder it has numerous things in it it includes that that letter and that verbiage of how it goes out to parents and how it goes out to school officials that's the same template we use when you receive accident information as well as all those things we have those things already outlined so all they have staff has to do is plug numbers in you might need a reminder to our schools just put.

Push it out one more time because I've seen some some notifications that aren't the standard so I think we it's just a it might be a reminder to schools hey please use this template so that families can get the same information the notification looks the same in every place now now that notification is what we use internally we don't have a school template but I guess that is something we could work in conjunction with our public ofast to be able to put something together to make sure it is standard across the board I see a h I didn't mean to put you on I see a head not there I think that would be that would be helpful because it's it's a little all over the place right now how those messages come through which is in an already stressful situation to families to see a message is not you know yeah we can I think that's an area that we can grow in and thinking about the tactics that you all shared.

There's some that feel I feel like we also need to as a board kind of go around and talk about which ones feel like a yes that we want to move forward and keep exploring and which ones we may say no to like for number tactic number one around the the 1.5 miles I would just be concerned about implementing that in the middle of the year like that would be my concern on that so I don't know that I would be like yes start that like work on that tonight and so that's why I think we need to kind of go back around and see where different folks are and it's you all have laid out all the different thought process around what is safe and not safe so I don't need to repeat some of those pieces I think even for the regional stops for magnet programs I'm like oh if we started that for the next school year families need to know that when they apply to schools.

Which we know we have showcas of schools in like a week or two so if we board wanted to move in that direction for the upcoming school year we kind of would need to say that now so all that marketing and Communications could be available for families and they would know that I was in an Express stop when I was in high school so I'm familiar with that and so again I think we need to make sure we provide y'all with some direction on that piece I would love if in the November meeting if if this is possible if we can bring back the financial implications for some of the tactics that it's is pending right now and that was on I think the tactic five Tactic six around increasing school bus drivers I think it would just be helpful for us to go ahead and know you know what are the financial implication what can we do now or what we might need to build into a future budget.

I'm gonna go back and do that that's what I want but I don't anyway so that was all my kind of questions and comments I do it does break my heart when I hear about how many kids aren't getting to school on a regular basis and I want to acknowledge and and say that to all the families that have come out to the families who haven't said anything and I think about some of the larger challenges we're trying to address in during public schools around chronic absenteeism before this Transportation crisis and how this is a easy way to be like well I might not go today the bus isn't coming so I'm staying home and now I've been home for 5 10 days and that's a lot of instructional time it's a lot of culture building time and I know we're all working really hard on this issue but it it just like it concerns me about the students who are impacted by this so I'm glad that we got a lot of tactics.

That we're going to address Bo if I go through tactic by tactic I would love to get some consensus from you all around which tactic we want to say yes to think about these options yes continue to explore for immediate or yes to the upcoming school year yeah I have a clarifying question when we say yes let's consider exploring this tactic are we saying yes go ahead and implement this or are we saying yes we want more information I think we would need to decide that with the last option being no don't do that like if there's no consensus then I would not want staff to keep doing research on something that we would say no to it's a good question we might this is gonna be a little messy but I think we can do it so tactic one is managing ridership around walk zones and the recommendation would be implementing a 1.5 mile trans family transport Zone I do think the language matters on that is there.

1.5 1.5 excuse me 1.5 mile the the one mile walk Zone one mile safety the walk Zone yes one mile safety walk Zone is there support for working on that for this school year Mr tab I'll start with you question is your mic on on I'll project I'm not clear on what we are actually doing here I was trying to follow it but I want to be clear as board member millison State I want to make sure that we are not are we saying that we are implementing stuff or saying we this is what we want to implement or are we just saying this is what you we want you to research and bring us back more information I'm not clear on exactly what we're doing here maybe let's start with the whole the goal is I want to just try to give staff some direction on where this out of the six tactics which ones we want to prioritize or say no to so maybe if we start and I'm looking at.

Y so please feel free to chime in at any point if you want to start with a yes or no on a tactic like yes I want to keep exploring or no I just don't support this tactic at all maybe we start there and then we could go to the next round of like yes for this year or no I just want to know what we want to support and what we don't want to support we're in a crisis so my position is we want to support anything that's going to get us out of this crisis but if we're looking for something specific then that's different but I mean I can say I don't support I me I want I don't want to support walk zones but if that's what's going to help us get it out then you know I would change my position on that if they came back with more information that help me understand the safety and H how to better understand what's going to happen.

In that then I would support it but as it stands right now I wouldn't support it but I don't want to say I'm not going to support something if I don't have all the information that could help me change my position I think it would be helpful if if we are we can be thumbs up kind of thumbs down and thumbs in the middle and then if you're thumbs in the middle you know thumbs in the middle then what would help you move like for you what information would you need you said you need to know about more about safety and and all of that so what would make us you know move toward that I think I think that'd be helpful and we can just go around and speak briefly on our responses to these so with tactic one you thumbs up if you want a yes yes to anything it continue to explore or IM or adoption sooner rather than later middle would be I'm not sure yet I.

Need more information and the no would just be I'm I'm not interested at this time is that what you're proposing M and that if you're thumb is in the middle what would bring you to like or what do you want to know more about start with tactic one do we need to be looking at them I can I can go back to that yeah and I can also read it out y'all feel free to have a seat while we do this tactic one manage writers ship Demand by establishing what we have in the presentation is walk zones but it could also be call with they family transport zones so we have all middle so it sounds like we do want staff to do some more exploration on or all except for me I was down but that's okay so there's a consensus on wanting to move do have more information about tactic one do we want to go around and share what we need now or do we want to maybe.

Compile an email compile questions and send them to staff so they can bring it back for future for presentation that would be great okay so let's take your questions from number one and we'll compile it we'll send that to staff all right scenario two is Express Regional magnet specialty school stops in this in the recommendation though we this recommendation is to start soon or no yes okay the recommendation would be to start this this year Express yes ma'am it's two it's tactic. Two so on tactic two we have two thumbs up two thumbs down one three thumbs down two up and one middle so it sounds like I mean by rules this would lose but I think there's a question on we can also send additional questions for tactic to but it sounds like staff shouldn't be working on that for the 20 this school year is that this year we're getting there we getting there there's a question that can we look at it next year did you have a question M.

Sorry Miss card I it would be be so helpful to have I know we just had a bunch of listening sessions and then we had the growing together sessions but I do want to hear from community on these because I think that's the concern that's why we're kind of I don't know maybe like we want to fix this problem but we don't want to cause a lot of harm in the meantime and it'd be really helpful to hear from community on these two options in particular the walk zones and the express stop so I don't know if there's interest from the and maybe even expanded Bell time I don't know where we all land on that but it's like I want to hear from folks from community members about that and families that will be impacted and staff that be.

Impacted Mr tab so based on what you you were saying if we're giving out input now about what we want what is the process still to get that other information from the community that are mostly impacted by this because I can see this getting kind of I'm G use your word was messy and I want to kind of stay away from us putting more stuff on on us in this crisis situation than we need to I think they have given us a lot of information and I would prefer that based on what they have presented and heard us already that they would go back and then provide more information based on what we have already discussed as opposed to doing this go around again it kind of seems a little redundant to me and that's with no disrespect I just want us to be able to kind of move this without bringing up more confusion because with us doing it now I think we are kind of setting ourselves up for.

More conversation and then if we're not including other stakeholders we're going to get emails about well this is what they've been sending us all the time about how they can see some of this so that's just where I am yeah I appreciate that I think I'm because we have six options if we know that there's an option that we don't support I would like for us to just let staff know so they don't spend time working on this more and we like we knew tonight that that wasn't going to be an option that we were supporting so that's the only where I'm trying to help maybe and I don't if that's not helpful for staffs and y'all tell me and we can just let it go with all six but I think if there's some things that we kind of know we want to stay on this Lane then let's stay there and let's make sure we can because we also know that they have a lot of different well they have a lot of.

Different definitely you know I would love for for transportation to say you know if this is helpful or not because all we can just say which ones we don't support because that may just be an easier thing if someone sees something right now that says hey we just don't I just don't support that then there it is that's also F yeah what would be helpful for for me is is if we knew this year what the board currently does not support so we won't continue to go down that and that's not to say we can't look at this for next year but given where we are right now with the crisis that we are in right now what is something that we should stay away from and when you and we're talking about this year you're talking about the 20 4 25 school year November to to June this of 2025 if I may interject what Transportation would like for you to consider and to let us move forward with is the one mile.

Walk Zone and the express stops beginning in January that's what we truly need to be able to try and make a difference in serving everyone of our stakeholders Miss her go I want to support what transportation is saying that they need and my halfway mark is is just you know okay what what else do what how can we you know do it the best way that we can and I was also interested in whether or not there was consensus on any of these that were just like off the table so I was I was are we looking for consensus on this is definitely off the table because like the last one there were ups and downs so to me that says you know we still need to consider that for this year but if there's something where we have consensus where everybody is like no then we don't have consensus for this year like like like that's a that's a solid that's true so that's what I was looking for not for.

Like a final but I'm just looking to see where we're gauging but I do the two that they lift up that's coming from them I I do support those two even though I'm in the middle it's just because I support it with some questions with some with some delicacy Mr rers rers thank you for highlighting which options you want us to be attentive to I am not personally opposed to either of those I do have those questions that I listed before about and I wonder if the board is interested in hearing more about that but those are the things that would move me in terms of shelter bike racks at the locations for the express stops and I wondered if we could take a field trip probably to a region or two to walk to the school to experience what to walk to a school in a re in every each region or whatever however to experience what that would be like to ask parents to activate that I don't.

Know I also with the one piece of information and we can send these but around the walk zones that is can we develop an opt out mechanism or like a flag mechanism where whereby we're protecting some families that have major hardship like if we create the zones to help solve this problem and then we've got a couple families or a number of families who come to y'all or come to us and say I cannot do this I need the bus like and when I presented this question I think in my set that I sent to Mr Palmer he said that we would this is tricky and we need to set some procedures and so I think if we could think about what that could look like if yall could put that together for us cuz I think we there's clearly concern here about how to protect some how to protect families that for whom that could harm but we also want to help solve the problem and hear you thank you for also clearly stating.

That so I was gonna keep us moving but yeah I want to keep us moving too so all right thank you so let's do this then because one and two didn't have any was no there was no completely no tactic number three was expanding bell times so x that out we will not be working on that anymore expanding bell times the next one was staff supervision and at this point I'm looking for just ones that we can ex out expanding staff supervision was tactic number where am I at four can you explain what that means again I'm sorry I'm looking at the chart which was under it was under manage writers ship demand but it was about increased staff supervision before and after the.

Bell so there's not a consensus on throwing that out so it sounds like we need to keep that in well I want can I ask ask something because maybe I'll change my mind but if you I thought the supervision was because of the expanding bail times that means you would need more supervision I think it's currently there are buses that are there early or or arriving late and so we are having staff that are that's happening I think currently currently we have elementary school buses arriving to school at 7 A.M and they're having to sit and wait for staff 15 minutes for staff to get in place and receive the students so that's 15 minutes where a bus could be dropped off and headed on their next route or headed on their second run for that same school so that would that's a that's a school-based thing with the is that Dr Lewis is that a school-based thing with the principals assigning teachers to super before and after school supervision yeah that's before their.

Duty date starts so that would be a cost implication or could be okay I just want I just wanted to be clear to everybody I i' I've done I understand this stuff when it comes to about teachers and getting staff or whoever to come before their contracted time may I Dr Lou Dr King has been working and talking with principal supervisors and principles and so I think what we would ask is that you give us staff some time to bring some additional information and Clarity on that so because I know there have been Dr King has been working on that and having those conversations and and that's why we there's fiscal implications to that one that we need to bring back because if we are going to ask people to report before their time we need to be ready to compensate them for that the next one I don't think though anybody will be disagreeing to the next two about increasing available school bus drivers so dual employ.

Employment all right well earlier the word option was mentioned but this say required and I think that's the distinction that keeps me like at the in the middle I don't think we're in a place where I would feel comfortable requiring classified employees to do anything more than they're already doing all right I agree agree agree agree so it looks like from the board there is consensus around we are interested in tactic 5 which is increasing available school bus drivers using dual enrollment without the requirement piece being optional which is I guess kind of like what we're doing somewhat right now and then the next one around board members I just that was a typo the required was supposed to be removed based on feedback so well we were Dr web just reminded me so we there we go okay all right sounds good and then the last one is also increasing available bus drivers certified and non-operational licensed DPS staff board members seems like we want to move forward with exploring that all.

Right I think I hope that was a little helpful that we crossed off one tactic off the list board members can send we asked questions tonight but can send additional questions to you all around the other tactics and then I think it be when should we expect something back I guess with answers to questions or a proposal for like action if you can get us the question this week can begin working on that yeah as in tomorrow we can journ right now you can get started now some homework right it's an incentive to get it done right no yeah but first part of next week we can have that we can start working on those and hopefully we we can have an update at our next board meeting you I mean this is just batina talking but I think if we can keep this on the agenda going forward because it is a crisis and I think any update every meeting of whatever is happening what meetings happen What policies happen.

What bus routes have been shifted who we hired I just think we need to keep this at the Forefront because it's urgent and our families are navigating it every day I see consensus from my board memb so we can keep this as a standing item thank you all for being here please go home and get some I'm sorry oh sorry thank y'all for being here tonight I'm not sure the ask is that every one of y'all be here every single time okay but that's up to your supervisor support just just just to make sure Claren what we are deciding to do tonight in addition to that the stuff on slide 12 the that's all being that is going to be done right the shared solution for all the rotational coverage with the advanced notification so families won't be to the extent possible families will not be getting the last minute notifications that is correct yes then prioritize number two the prioritizing and then the placement and is there anything else that we.

Any like summary of what else we want to move forward with so we want to make sure thank you m Le we want to make sure that we have the discussion about the parent call that we want to send out for actual Rider as and ridership that need of the rides you know and and to be it's truthful and all and it's transparent with us so we can so we can make routes that are going to work for everybody and we can make sure that we're trying to do our best to get everybody to school to and from school daily that's my goal I won't rest until that's done thank you yeah I think that's going to be really critical and and I assume that's going to be framed as like temporarily it's not that you can never ride a bus again but can you please if you can opt out for now we need to know so that we can reroute to serve those that really need it.

Correct y thank you for all of this this is a obviously had been a Rob robust discussion the one thing that's left as a question for me is is the community input piece and so how are we going to get that should we have a community conversation and the organizing like supporting parent organizing we're going to need that we're going to if we employ walk zones as you all said like you know especially you know I I like having a a window of time where people can prepare but so we can support that that organizing so I'm I'm wondering how people would feel about having a community conversation about this soon so we can get more have more dialogue with community.

Members I feel good about that I I think that that needs to happen I think that's both us being able to react in a crisis situation and also being proactive if at the very if if at the very least you know scheduling some Community conversations to you know just help get the word out about what is happening Gathering and also being able to share I'm also wondering I'm still questioning how do we do this you know organizing as a whole thing how do we organize around volunteers to help fill the gaps with the resources that we can utilize with their own Public Schools for the short term and for the long term how we organize our campaign for new ride you know for new bus drivers and for getting you know building that that Force to drive the buses so I don't I don't think that we have to have that conversation right now but I do think that we need to act on that quickly like come up with.

A plan for organizing we I think I feel like as as board members our sacrifice in this crisis situation is that we may have to help be the organizers the community organizers for this and what does that look like is what's rolling through my head right now MZ are you wanting Community conversation before like our next meeting are you thinking longer what's your timeline I'm thinking before our next meeting I'm thinking before we would vote on it is that a is that a possibility or I know we have listen we might need to also talk about like I don't wait for stff to answer that but also if we just hosted one like the board did it we don't have all the expertise but I'm just curious I don't know what capacity is around the doing that before the next two weeks maybe we can have staff report back after the meeting on that if it's not an actual meeting I have some ideas that we can gather input still any other questions or comments.

From board members I just did want to Mr Harris just revisit in terms of the communication and you talked about standardizing the communication from the schools and I know for example if a route is not covered say at 1 or 2:00 you mention that there's a parent push notification in EDG log he said then the school is responsible for communicating or the school sends out their communication system as well is that through their school messenger out that has to be to their school messenger okay so they'll send a a me so what happens like in the mornings like before principes get there and a route is cancelled how does that communication so we send we use the same process and then we we we send emails we send we actually try to do phone call we not try we do phone calls as well when the offices do open up to get that information until the admin in the office to pass that information on to school administration but as also like I.

Said the email is already in the inbox early morning okay so do Transportation communicate with parents like if it's at 6 o'clock before the principals get there to check their email is commun is transportation sending the notification we do send a notification through their es law Parent Portal as well yes sir okay okay but it's no right outside of edog no there's no message okay thank you might be a an opportunity there to figure out how do we get that messaging to families we know many of our principles are answering calls all the time but is there an opportunity to get some of that communication a little.

Earlier I'll be brief I promise this just has me thinking about the burden that all this is placed on our schools and I just want to keep thinking about cuz I get these messages from our AP every morning and every afternoon and then she's also the one as other principles and APS are who are driving the kids in the afternoons and spending hours doing that and so how can we if it's mobilizing other community members once we clarify what the options are for insurance and who can volunteer to help with the driving how can we take some of this weight off of our schools both for communication but also use the organizing to again just for the Stop Gap to take the pressure off of our schools that exist.

So anybody else all right I do think as y'all are bringing up the questions around organizing and volunteers just a liability question which I think we would need to explore and answer with our attorney and okay and our Insurance attorney year just the liability around organizing rides it's one thing when parents organizing themselves around something if DPS is organizing something it feels like and I we don't have to answer that question now Dr gvani but it feels like we might the board might need some information around what the liability and the rules are there yes I know that Miss brickshire if you want to step up and I know that she has worked on like on the national walk to school day and just kind of providing I believe that was you maybe not but there's kind of information that the school kind of puts out for families to kind of do their own phone tree but we can't kind of own it because if there's an accident or something you.

Know some allegation or whatever it would then be you know an issue but we can kind of provide some just information to parents to contact each other and work together like they do on kind of play dates but just like a giant ride date is there any can add I would add yes there's a big difference there if the district is saying this is how we you we will guarantee this is how your kid is getting to school today versus a group of parent volunteers coming together you know that's the difference between one school you know working with Mr Harris and his team to reroute the buses have carpool drop off at another location all those kids have done permission slips that's we're receiving your kid at another location to start the school day as part of walk to school day versus hey everyone let's walk to school this is where we're meeting that that's parent Le volunteer versus officially DPS saying this is how we're getting to school today.

So thank you I appreciate that and I think that liability question it just gets murky as we have these continue to have these conversations so thanks y'all I think that's the end I'm looking at everybody to make sure I covered every all hearts and minds are clear on this topic all right thank you all thank you so much thank y'all for being here tonight.

All right the next item is Masters pay unless we want to take a a quick recess five minutes five let's take a five minute recess I'm sorry Dr was I'm sorry.

Y'all.

E.

E e.

One more item for this portion of our agenda we have our master's pay update I'll pass it over to you Dr L okay good evening Dr Lewis members of the board and the Greater Community our purpose tonight is to help impact some of the complexities related to the Master's pay the local Master's pay implementation I would also like to take just a quick opportunity to acknowledge my colleague who is here with me today Miss Michelle Hayes who is our executive director of talent acquisition and employee recognition for her efforts and helping get this off the ground we know that we still have items that we are addressing with this just awesome task to support our employees but I do thank you Miss Hayes she has been in close contact with DPI and she has reviewed every single Master's pay inquiry and so that has been a tremendous amount of work on the next slide you can see on the agenda that we will talk about the historical context of Master's pay we.

Will review some ncdpi policy related to Master's pay and State Master's pay and graduate pay approval and then finally we want to provide you some statistic some statistics to assist with the construction of projections as well as review next steps I will I also want to thank the board for the submission of questions board member tab sent some that were shared with you from the community we just received those today and although we have not had a lot of time we have tried to go back and weave anything that was not previously answered into the presentation where appropriate so if you most of those are woven into this presentation and so on the next slide we'll start with just a historical context our initial there was lots of talk about local Master's pay but our initial analysis occurred in March of 2023 at this time all areas were reviewed for M local Master's level compensation and based on the employees on the roster at that time there were 372 individuals we could.

Identify with a clear Masters reflected on their license absent compensation for that Masters it is important to note that a relevancy review was not conducted at this time to assess if that Master's on the license met DPI guidelines for the positions in which those individuals served but there were 372 and I want to say that that involved the expanded definition of teachers which included people on the 10 11 12 pay grade so there are a number of different classroom based positions as well as other positions in that count and as you can see reflected on the slide based on those 372 the projection with the scales at that time was a cost of $1.87 million and it was just rounded initially to $2 million and some of you were on the board and will remember that conversation about Master's pay being $2 million at that time fast forward it is indeed correct and I want to make this clear that the term teacher could include the expanded ncdpi definition and this term.

Has been used widely in cases in this District where more definition would have been beneficial okay and so as we fast forward how from 2022 23 to where we are currently it is important to note that things change and as we began talking about preparing for the 2425 budget and we were in January February March and moving forward that was a very different budgetary context than when we were talking about Master's pay in 2223 and so at that point in time DPS remain committed to the goal of seeing local Masters pay for which to this day we are the second of two districts there are still districts discussing Master's pay but we are the second of two districts in the state to execute while these other districts are still discussing okay having the benefit of interim superintendent cat Moore when she was here who was she was able to bring Knowledge from the implementation firsthand Knowledge from the implementation in Wake County Public Schools as the budget was shaped HR was.

Asked okay here's the larger number what are the who what is the number of classroom teachers that would be included in this bucket and that is where the adjustment to the 1.2 million based on looking at 200 teachers came from it was not about excluding anyone it was about looking at the budget and the complexities of all the asks that we had for the County Commissioners and being able to shape that with the state of North Carolina's 2013 change in Master's pay there is not great incentive for teachers to actually submit the paperwork and pay the fee to have the a master's degree added to their license that they're not going to be compensated for we even conversed with Wake County as well as having interim superintendent Moore share Lessons Learned From wake wake learned in their implementation that they grossly underestimated the impact on the budget and they have significantly impacted increased their budget for Master's pay by millions from their first year implementation therefore full assessment.

Had to be done to better estimate in the New Year the individuals with a qualifying Master's level degree and so that is what we are seeing now and we'll talk some more about those statistics moving forward as part of the planning we discussed the use of a survey to capture the status of our teachers that survey was not instituted in the prior year because you want to get through a new hire cycle because you would have a number of teachers coming in on that new hire cycle that would have Master's pay and you could further be off from your numbers if we would have instituted a survey and say March or April and use that data for what we were trying to project with all of the complexities that we just discussed around Master's pay and it not being on many people's license finally for projections staff not only used the information provided by employees on the service but we also tapped into lenser resources and experts at.

Ncdpi as well as through our system what what feeds into our hrms system is directly from the NC lenser system as well as we have access to that system through other measures additionally projections include more than just 10% of base salary one of the questions we received is what teacher makes this amount but whatever 10% we add on for base salary for Master's pay we also have to add benefit cost we have to add FICA we have to add retirement and that increases the actual cost significantly when you're building the budget we could go on to the next slide I want to take this time this violates all my rules about PowerPoints but I want it to be there for a resource so I want to talk about ncdpi State paid Master's policy review in the execution most districts when they're even discussing Master's pay they want to stick as close to this as possible so if ever there is a time that our advocacy becomes fruitful and the state reinstates Master's pay then.

That could free up items within our budget there are lots of reasons why Master's pay went away in 2013 and so that informs this policy significantly so I do want to take some time to go through because the guidelines outside of the 2013 provision are what we are using to determine qualifications along with that classroom based piece currently her ncdpi policy only teachers and instructional support meeting these Provisions below can be paid on the state master schedule if you look at number one instructional support for which a masters is required we have some positions that you have to have that Masters even from the state and notice it says required not preferred for the job the employee may be compensated at the Master's level I also want to make a side note this is directly out a policy and you will notice it says certified nurses there so I just want to go ahead and capture the fact that in DPS our nurses are compensated on two different salary.

Grades on the MH scales okay so this particular piece does not apply to our nurses and DPS teachers and instructional support who are leci on the Master's pay back to 20145 school year they are still eligible to be paid on the master scale teachers and instructional support who completed their degree or at least one course towards their degree prior to August 1st 2013 are eligible to be paid on the Master's receive state Master's pay so I want to give you an example there if you took your first class prior to August 1st 2013 and you complete your master's degree next year this provision means you could be State paid for Master's pay so I just want to give you a concrete and sometimes that happens okay you will note the specifics around teachers with a master's in school administration okay and so there are some special pieces there if you have your Masters in school administration but you're teaching in the classroom for which you can be paid I also want to.

Highlight some categories of employees that their masters is largely required for work or there are some other nuances that have to happen otherwise those are audiologist School psychologists speak speech language P Pathologists are all eligible for State Master's pay it is an odd situation that you would have someone that would not have their masters in these categories and if they don't then they have to be paid on the bachelor's teacher scale other specific eligible categories are media coordinators and professional school counselors and if you go out and you look at our compensation schedules you will note that those are that professional school counselors you'll see them on their own unique scale a specific question was submitted regarding who are instructional specialist and to put it simply instructional Specialists for us are content Specialists who are are in curriculum instruction and assessment they're your math Specialists okay your K5 specialist those are the positions associated with that now I want to go to this next slide which is regarding the ncdpi.

State paid Masters criteria overview so as you read the slide it is going to be confusing this slide is directly from DPI and one of the things that we constantly have to deal with not just with Master's pay but with other categories or the work of of the work that we do is I want to highlight this piece of when you are reviewing candidates for ler related issues on one side there is ler on the other side there is financial and business services it is one thing to determine what can be on your license it is another thing to determine what you can get paid for and sometimes the connection between those two independent areas of DPI can be very very complex and so when we're doing when we were doing the research that's why you have situations where someone can say on their license it'll say the highest degree it's a master's they're not paid for that Masters highest degree it's a doctorate they're not compensated for that doctorate and that comes into the.

Interplay of those two pieces and so what I want to show you is on the right side that's what it takes to get a master's on your license but what we are going to focus on is what is on the left side which is what it takes for you to get graduate pay and you can see the criteria there there and there are some unique pieces there college or university is regionally accredited and you can see there that the degree does not lead to a professional educator license so I want to give you an example of that so say for instance many of our folks with a master's degree they may have the master's degree in English okay versus having the master's degree in English language arts okay the English degree does not lead to ler an English language arts degree can lead to ler the next bullet is you can it says there that the the degree is in education but there's another piece there but it does not need lead to lure.

There are number of programs in schools that they have education programs but the programs do not lead to ler and the simplest one that I can think about even though you may not have as many of these on a master's level are a lot of schools now use interdisciplinary studies and those are programs that students complete but you're not going to get a license in interdisciplinary studies okay okay you can see that the degree has to be in an area directly related to the area that they are teaching and the area of that that assignment and so that is extremely important and we will talk about that because we do have some that were not cleared due to that provision and then you can see there the teachers assignment is 50% or more of the day if graduate pay is denied there is an appeal process at the state level currently in trying to get this implemented I want to be very transparent and say all of these additional candidates that did not.

Already have Masters on their license we did not say you have to pay the fee in order to submit the form G for graduate pay approval approval because we know that they would be denied and so we have not done that at that point in time but it may be a point of consideration because you're still going to get that assessment from the state through that process so it if there is ever a transition to Master's pay that would be a lot more seamless on the next slide let's get to the nitty-gritty of some of the current statistics and give you an idea of some of the some of the results from the survey and the work that we have been doing on the next.

Slide okay you can see the number of submissions overall we had 625 original submissions when people started submitting they got excited so we had some duplicates in these submissions and so once we cleared out the duplic we had 583 unique submissions and all of those submissions to dat have been reviewed from the 583 submissions you can see that 367 were initially approved from those 367 initial approvals nine individuals have subsequently separated from the district district and so that leaves us with right now and it it changes every day because we are still getting additional submissions through other methods as we have new hires and as we're continuing to do the work to look at other categories and be able to build concrete projections 358 assigned classroom teachers with the students assigned to them have have been approved for local Master's pay there was a question regarding why were there some discrepancies in those numbers there's a number of reasons some individuals submitted their information but it didn't meet their criteria and so they were denied.

Local Master's pay some were denied local Masters pay because of the well the teacher of record criteria it could be the relevancy criteria in some cases it's because of the role that they served in and so upon reconciling all of that that is why you see the differences in those numbers I will also add that for some of the submissions particularly for central office individuals we were able to find other caveats to be able to get them State Masters pay and so I do think that that is a benefit and so I wanted to say that publicly because even if you have been here a minute and if we can find a way to review and get you state Masters pay we want to be able to do that and then the survey is being updated for new hires we're actually looking to put the link into the offer letter that goes to new employees so upon them coming on board when they're submitting all of their other ler paperwork we are flagged right then.

Whether or not they need to be reviewed for Master's pay I would say this while we're still on this slide while Administration is grateful for the efforts to support our employees who have extended their learning and are not being compensated by the state if you'll recall a prior slide back in 2022 23 when we did this work 372 is awfully close to this 358 and by the time we figure in salary increases from 2022 23 till now we are likely to be in excess as we sit here right now of the $ 1.87 million that was projected then and so from that standpoint we will continue to do the work to make sure that we can honor the hard work of our employees as much as we can but anything that is added on from here moving forward is already over budget okay therefore if we go to the next slide are you'll see some current statistics now I want to say this is a Reconciliation of different sources and.

So you're going to see a few numbers off and I'll give you a concrete example in a minute but this is a Col a connection between hrms payroll State lure and looking at the survey results and what our employees told us so if you look in that last column that is where we have identified approximately 35 additional employees that really need to have a close review for Master's pay while 35 doesn't seem like a lot if you didn't complete the survey and you have a master's degree I have no idea if you're out there so as we continue to engage with employees in these other categories to just nail down a concrete number we're going to find more I'll give you a special example with school social workers who really have a compelling case we happen to know from Miss Hayes's engagement with that team that there are actually 14 of those but because they they're not all in all of those categories that I was pulling.

Together to look at the data that is why it says 11 but we already know there are actually 14 so 35 when you consider that those additional individuals just from social workers we're already up to 38 what does that look like for the other categories and so if we go to the next slide where we are at this point in time with local Master's pay is we're going to continue to review those classroom based teachers and apply the NCD Pi policy to those individuals at the same time we are going to continue to review candidates from these other categories of employment and come up with even more concrete projections that includes all of the numbers engagement with that with those staff members to get their information and to be able to add on the benefit cost and all of that okay and so with that I am available to try to answer any questions you have regarding Master's pay thank you Dr lisang for this presentation board members questions start with cheer.

Rogers thank you Dr Lin for this presentation it does help answer a lot of our questions and for weaving in those questions from the community throughout the presentation very helpful. My first question is can you speak a little bit more on the histo historical context of the 2022 2023 recommendation around. 372 when you say number oh y sorry you may not be finished yep that 372 number I think I remember when we were having this conversation that we projected and decided to project the cost for 200 folks is there some reason why why we projected lower than what was predicted in 2022 from my seat and I was not in all conversations and that was not an HR decision we were told to go back and just bring back teacher numbers and the teacher numbers are what's aligned to the 200 at that time okay so this I'm hearing this as good news that in 23 when we were doing the budget in March of I guess it was 24 when we were doing the.

Budget they in the budget process for 2425 correct it was March of yes yeah sorry the date at the top is different that's why I'm confused we were joined the budget process in 23 24 for 24 25 okay so w we were doing that budget process we decided to do teachers only but now what you're describing currently is that we have 358 instead of 200 so we have 158 more master's level classroom teachers now than we did then well because remember you have there's a couple of different factors that informed that number one we would just we would only know what we would know based on the assessment of who had it on their license so that gives you an idea of how many did not have it on their license as many of the emails phone calls and everything else this is a recruitment this was about Recruitment and Retention too and so that's why I'm saying it would not have even if we would have run.

The survey in a March or April unless you were going to run it twice I guess you could think of of that strategy but if you would have run it March and April it probably would have been significantly off just based on the new hires that would have been hired since that period And So It is a target that you are chasing that you don't have a good Pathway to be able to project how big it's going to get and that is exactly what what Wake County shared when it has exponentially increased by millions for them and so they they're trying to work it in the budget they have a little leeway of having some data to at least help feed that but it has been greater than what they anticipated also that is very helpful and helps me with the question that I was trying to formulate which is in a previous meeting we've asked for a cost analysis of how much it would cost for the instructional coaches and the.

Social workers and other the instructional Specialists and coordinators to get this Master's pay but that would vary based on and so I can tell you if you take that if you take the number on the slide if we could go back to the slide with the projections and I am hesitant and I'm going look at Dr Lewis when I say this I'mma share the number but I'm hesitant because I don't know what I don't know but if you look at the where we calculate at the 35 that would probably be a cost one second Dr Lin just want to again be very cautious because it all depends on it's an is kind of how you figure it out and I would like Mr terer and M to kind of correct me if I'm wrong but what my understand go ahead take it over please just I was just going to weigh in right that in general the the practice in in Durham Public Schools for these calculations right is that we're looking.

At the average cost of a teacher and applying 10% to that plus benefits so as a rule of thumb we're using $7,000 per individual picking up that local Master's pay and we use the average because to I think to the point that Dr Giovani was about to make that can vary depending upon how much experience that individual teacher might have coming into the district but I think for now for our purposes we're we're assuming $7,000 per individual and 7,000 with the 35 would already be 245,000.

That's helpful that is helpful and then the other question that I've been exploring with my colleagues is if we go back to the intention of the Master's pay and the reason Administration decided to move forward with Master's pay for classrooms teach classroom level classroom teachers is to keep Master's level Educators in the classroom on average how does the scale of what a master's level educator in a classroom teacher compared to that of the instructional Specialists instructional coaches and coordinators particularly the roles that require the Master's Degree how does that $7,000 put them depending on where they are in years of service with that scale does that so for the yes it definitely makes sense and thank you for that question because that's one piece I wanted to cover and I want to clarify towards the beginning of the presentation I mentioned teachers being those on the C 10 11 and 12 Pace scales and so essentially they're on the same pay scale what may differ in some cases not.

All is the term of their employment some may have an additional one to two months of employment and so when you talk about Recruitment and Retention for the classroom that seven that 10% okay that we're costing at $7,000 it gives that buffer that it's like well hey versus doing this Coach position that takes me out of the classroom that's right now is the same pay this gives me an incentive to stay in the classroom with that additional 10% clarifying question can you explain why it's an in the math behind why it's an incentive because you're going to get 10% above the pay that you would be getting as a coach for some for the positions that are 11 or 12 months they have one or two additional months of employment which is also additional compensation so you have to figure that in also because that's more compensation annually can you give you give an example okay I can give you an example third grade teacher instructional coach in the same building they both.

Make they both make $50,000 a year let's just use that as a a simple number okay now with the 10% classroom based Master's pay that teacher would make $5,000 more if they qualify for. It because they get the 10% local Master's pay wherein the instructional coach would not if they do not have classes assigned to them right I think that's clear but like if they were to both get it then is there compensation equal there's no incentive for the classroom teacher to leave the classroom because the well I I think it depends on that teacher but a lot of people when they hit a certain point in time in their career they don't want the day-to-day management of the students and so just aspects naturally of the coaching job become more appealing to.

Them thanks so much Dr l saying this has been really helpful tonight to see some of this and to get more of the clarification I I think I'm understanding now a little bit better about when the decision was made to go with the classroom teachers but just to further clarify it sounds like that direction was maybe coming from interim superintendent Moore but was not communicated but then was not communicated to the board I am not going to say that because superintendent always has conversations with the board that I'm never privy to and so I I just don't have knowledge about that and even with regards to the conversation about classroom bat teachers we had cabinet discussions about recruitment retention the challenges of the budget and all of that and so I I'm not going to stand here and say well this is the person that did this and it these were strategic conversations related to where we were at that time all of the challenges that we had not only from the.

Results of the compensation study but also from vacancies trying to fill classrooms and so in having all of this and preparing what are we going to go and ask the Board of County Commissioners for in the wake of asking for multiple things that is where the conversation came in and those were vast convers ation among cabinet that's helpful to hear I think what I was referring to was a public conversation with the board that's on record with the board saying this is what the board wants and so in looking just yeah just trying to clar like I'm trying to walk back and like look at old meetings to say did I say that because I I don't remember it so where did it come from and it's just helped and that's where I was saying what does teacher mean right and I think what happened unintentionally is teacher meaning as we went through this and trying to match what we were doing with the budget that's the best thing that I.

Can say from my seat right and so what comes up for me is like just communication like I we can't go back and fix this now but like it would be helpful for the board to get commun like clear communication about especially when there's like conversation after conversation after conversation where we're like Masters paid like the state did it Masters PID like the state did it which really means more expansive definition and so we go from saying that then in our heads we're thinking Masters pay like the state did it and you know who else is thinking that all of our employees and so I'm putting myself in the shoes of a social worker right now that works for DPS with their most vulnerable kids and I'm thinking like I'm gonna get that super excited wait now I'm not and then recently y you're gonna get it congratulations you're getting Master's pay very next day no later that day sorry we made a mistake like salt in the.

Wound you're not and I just like I hear everything you're saying and the logic behind it and I still feel really awful that we're treating our employees like this and what I would say to that is we too feel awful when we talk about treatment though this is this is such a good thing that we don't want to see turn into something when I hear folks talk about I'm being punished you know when this was designed to be an incentive and one thing about incentives is that unfortunately choices have to be made of who gets them and who doesn't and that's not easily made with any decision that we sit with especially when we're sitting here with the budget that we have and so I extend again I know we've had lots of things but everything is rush rush rush let's get this done let's get this done let's get this done and even in the case of the social workers I will say this I have seen the.

Emails I sent Miss Hayes back I don't know how many times in talking with DPI and even the the staff that excellent resources that have supported us us tremendously with reducing that ler list and all of that if you look at the correspondence again it goes back to exactly what you're talking about board member CA auton communication and that was a slip so the very person that's going to go and evaluate that when it's presented one way and we go ahead and send that communication out and then they come back and they say oh no this one Nuance is part of it and I think that that is a rarity in those sorts of things but you can't take back once you receive that email you get excited and then you receive something that comes back and says it's not so and so we never wanted that to happen and it was all about trying to do a good thing to say let's reev let's see what we can.

Ask what questions can we ask how can we push to get the state to do what we all think they should do particularly in the field of education and so we will continue that charge and I don't want the unintended consequence that happened there to keep us from trying I think that we learned some lessons about what we can do with our check and and that communication piece but we don't want anything to stop us from. Trying Miss travez thank you for this presentation I have a couple of questions one how many people you mentioned central office staff but I don't know if there were others were able to get State Masters pay recently like more recently oh I'd have to go back in full do you know off the top of your head do seeing I less than five less than five okay and then also but we celebrate everyone just say certainly yeah we like when the state pays for it is my understanding that AIG EC and ESL teachers are receiving Master's.

Pay is that correct and do they have students assigned to them in power school is that how they we do have and I mentioned that in the presentation I think I may have used an example of an instructional coach but in the cases where you have those individuals they have students assigned to them and we are still doing some assessment based on feedback for others that may be in a category that we ordinarily would not pay but then they have students assigned to them and so we are still flushing out some of those individuals just make sure that we are applying the principles equitably across the board all so are there any people who don't have students assigned to them who are receiving Master's P there should not based on the information we had and if if somehow there is it is a mistake and it will probably be caught okay well I I think that we made a mistake here because in the spring I Bas I we did not talk about classroom.

Teachers this board did not have a conversation about classroom teachers it's it's inaccurate to say that we did we did not and we said teachers and it was also part of our whole budget so we were looking at multiple things and asking questions about all of those things and what I think has happened after also meeting with social workers and hearing more about their perspectives and I appreciate all the data they' put together I think we over promised again I think we said teachers and we weren't specific and so everybody who was on the teacher scale understood themselves to be included and then we we narrowed it down at the 11th Hour and I don't think it's fair what's happened and I'm I'm quite concerned from a retention perspective and just and respect and so I would like to have the the the financials you know I would like to know what it costs well I guess we have an idea actually from the 38 yeah around 250 K or so 245 245.

Yeah I know that now there's like 38 and so probably a little bit more than that so but with our our social workers in particular I know that they do not have students assigned to them in power school but they work with hundreds of students when the ratio is is recommended ratio is 250 to one we're not following dpi's you know standards and or what wake did either I realized they you know what what you said about their Reflections about it I can I can see that and there is as you said there's not motivation for people to put their masters on their license you know so there was no way of fully knowing unless we did survey people how many that really was but I'm concerned about leaving out social workers and others who are on the on the teacher scale and in my mind as a board member we did not approve that I mean we did in we did sort of at the last minute in September.

But it wasn't a decision as part of the budget so I would like you know I'd like to know what it is what it looks like cost it out and see if it's possible for this year to implement to implement that and I am concerned about losing people as a result of this lack of.

Clarity miss her did you have something sorry Mr tab I think I saw her first oh I'm I'm just reflecting on what has been said I personally I feel like when my question was for the board actually about what was the true intention of Master's pay at that budget meeting back in March what was the true intention and it sounds like the true intention was to support all teachers you know Ma M's level it wasn't the true intention wasn't ever for classroom just classroom teachers and so the misstep of communication you know nobody in community wants to hear oh we made a mistake nobody wants to hear that anyway although it's true and we have to be so careful not to promise Community something that we don't intend to deliver and so in my opinion that means that we have to figure out how to honor the original intention and what does that look like is my question what kind of hit does that mean you know.

Where does that come from you know if we have to shift it how does that happen but if we said that's what if that's if that's what happened I know it's it's a lot but I feel like you know that's something that we have to swallow and take ownership of so I'll just leave that there I am looking forward to learning more about our budget process as we're getting ready to go into a new budget season and and and and are feeling challenged to you know really Define where our priorities lie and what does it look like to really shift our budget to tell the story of what we say we prioritize in the district so I will leave that there knowing that I have not been through this process yet with budget but I'm listening and I'm learning and I'm I'm seeing where where the challenges will.

Lie thank you madam chair some quick direct questions based on the list here with the current statistics for the projections you have one two three four four areas are those the only four areas that are in questions or are there any other areas there are no other areas the ones that we would be reviewing for qualifications based on DPI policy would fall into one of those areas okay thank you and I tried to simplify those but it would be one of those four areas okay so my my question in terms of cost and I know you've heard this with cost analysis is that cost that you were giving was just for social workers or was it just was it for every everything that's on this particular list it is for the projected 35 that is real shaky on the list it again go ahead but is it just a supplement portion of their salary 7,000 the 7,000 that we're using includes the average teacher Plus benefits okay so the calculation of what.

Is it 20 45,000 and that's for the full year right 7,000 is for the full year yes okay and that's a projection with the numbers we have today not considering yes and I want to be very clear after the last year we have all experienced I can't tell you what that number is going to be at the end of the year I want to be very very clear with that and we are very careful from our Administration seat to to not put ourselves in a position where Clarity is so important and we don't give it and so I am saying clearly I cannot tell you what that number will be by the end of the year and if you think about it the budget portion was 1.2 and this is with me being a huge advocate for every single one of these teachers getting Master's pay there is no intent of disrespect lack of acknowledgment of work or anything like that but right now we are sitting at that difference between 1.2 million and.

Probably about 1.8 million plus what you may be considering with this 245 now help me out I'm looking at I taught social studies but it just seems like simple math to me plus a huge unknown that a district next door has told us it it added Millions to their budget when they were probably in a healthier State than we are right now and so being able to be clear about projected timelines for execution and all of that is extremely important in this moment for all of us so that we don't have any more you know just on top of hit after hit after hit that our employees feel like they have taken around compensation and so that is why I am trying to make it very clear we will follow the direction to execute whatever we need to execute but I just want to make that landscape clear so the next part that I I did want to mention and thanks for the board for bringing up about what happened in the.

Spring because it helped me out a little bit in what happened with teachers versus and I hate to say that but teachers versus other employees that work in the building with children that has always been very concerning when we do things even when you do teacher appreciation and you don't involve the rest of the school who also work with students experienced that and it's not a good thing so I don't definitely do not want to leave out these other employees who work with students on a on a daily basis although they may not be subject Area Teachers but but their their involvement and what they give their impact for students is very important and so I'm a proponent of making sure that people get their masters pay what I I do want a more of a spe breakdown of what it would truly truly cost looking at the highend so knowing that we probably wouldn't go over something because I think we got to be real clear on H what how much money.

We're talking about if we move forward with you know giving everybody the Master's pay and so we would have loved to have had that for you today but given the timeline with which the ask was we wanted to walk towards that but it will take us longer to be able to get to that level of detail and that's why those next steps outlined that is the level of detail we want to get to okay so my last question is going to be for those social workers that sent all the emails is there anything that you could provide to them that possibly was not in included in their questions or or a particular question that you were not able to answer for them that we could get back to them later so Mr tab we actually wrote down the answers to their questions and so it is my intent to be able to get that in a format to be able to send back to send back to them okay that would be very helpful thank.

You very much that concludes my question thank you Drang for some of the clarity on this it's really it is helpful. I will say board members like when we talked about teachers this year I personally did think about classroom teachers and so I do think this is important around this point of clarity how do we keep making sure that we're all really clear on what we're saying and I think we just we were moving really fast because we started a budget cycle late and I feel like in the many conversations it might have been in someone's head but it maybe not have been explicitly saying what was thought and I appreciate the kind of projections here are those based off of current positions versus like vacan and I know vacancies is harder because you don't know who if who will come in that role might have Master's pay or not but is that based off vacancies are not included in those projections and I'm not sure how many vacancies we even have.

In those areas but vacancies are not included in that projection okay I would have to go back in and line that up again because like the teacher vacancy one would be hard to do but in theory anyone who took these positions could have a master's degree and would qualify for this I I am concerned the fact that we're over budget already for this year so that's concerning and I'd like to know kind of what we project even just I don't even know if you can project it but maybe where we are so far because it's what November so we're not halfway through the year yet and and the funding source for how we are making up for that Gap and I do think it's a moving Target I understand the the why it's challenging but I think that's something that we need to be tending to and be mindful of I think that's all I think that's all I have I do I mean I don't ever want our Educators to feel disrespected and I.

Think we again with intent of doing a really good thing and have done a good thing but also you know the details we need to get clear on so I want us to keep working on this and sounds like we're going to have some of this maybe in our budget conversations for the upcoming school year which I think will be helpful and and pleased to all of our Educators we're reading your emails we're hearing you we're listening and we're grappling with how do we how do we navigate moving forward and stay within our our our budget or try to stay within our budget I did hear a request from Miss Chavez about bringing numbers for for this school year to include the additional positions is that that's correct is there any other consensus from board members on that I see two thumbs and a question mark can I ask what the qu is are you asking when we would like the information if we would like the information and then the question next.

Would be when but you said for this school year so what did you mean by that because Miss Chavez asked about how much it would cost to implement it for this 20 this current school year that we're in right now is that that's right yes that's right we already talked about this a little bit September I would just say that when we talked about it we had set a goal and for full clarity this may just have been a departmental conversation I don't know that this was a full board conversation for bringing that for December and that's is because you there's the in the presentation you talk about for the new budget cycle but you're also talking about for the current budget cycle that we're in right now yes and I'm or I mean and we have we've talked about this and I think that would be helpful in December I feel more strongly that this should happen for this year after the conversations I've had and reviewing the the meetings from the spring.

I feel more strongly that we were not clear and so it's on us to to repair it so so yeah I mean whatever time that takes and but that's yeah that's what I we definitely can bring those numbers back and maybe look at if we do move forward with this where else are we cutting thank you that's great and I would also just say just from an HR lens in adding to that Dr Lewis like we just had a transportation presentation so what happens sometimes is you're talking about Masters pay here and then you talk about this here I think being able to look at those budgetary items collectively instead of in isolation is important too thank you again I want to say I would love to see what Miss Chavez is asking for I'm concerned that it gives false hope to our employees that we're going to be able to execute that this year and I don't I'm just nervous about that and I just want that to be known in this space.

I understand the requests and we're already over budget I would I agree with Miss Umstead I'd like us to see some numbers in terms of how far over budget we are so far and where we're going to find the money to make up for that but one of the things that was most concerning for me as an individual in the spring is how are we going to sustain this year over year we're going to have to continue to ask I think I want to be on record and clearly asking this to be in our legislative agenda with our delegation for this spring before they go back in you know when they go back in the session to ensure that we are really truly advocating to get this moved off of the local budget to the state budget but what it look like a recommendation from Administration on what we can do to make such a supplement sustainable or flexible or whatever it is that we can do for next year is that I'm nervous that's.

All I just wanted to add one more comment which is I'm also concerned about the budget my my desire is that we be clear on the front end so that we're not looking for money again on the back end I don't it's not that I just want to spend recklessly I am concerned about committing or implying that we're committing to our employees in a way that they are counting on compensation is so major it's so important especially for employees who don't get get paid enough and as as is the case you know in public education and so I just want to name that's you know that's my concern I don't want to keep having conversations about finding money on the back end I just want to know what we're paying people if we can't pay them what we you know or we can't expand this thing to all employees or this and that that's okay but we I want to say it up front so people know and they can make.

Choices instead if they think they're getting something then they're making in their head they're already starting to make different choices and so then when we pull it back then they you know are you know un understandably frustrated about that so that's what I want to add I'm also concerned about everything you just named Miss I just wanted to say that my my concern is that if that was the intention and if you know and we're hearing from community that this is what they were expecting and there the flaw was in the communication we can do the the proactive work for the future budgets but this decision was already promised and so we have to take some accountability for how that rolled out and so that means that what does i what does that hit look like for this year what does that look like because I think I feel like I feel like we have to take the hit that's going to set off you know a whole other set of consequences but then.

We can begin to learn from that and begin to correct it. Proactively a multi-year in perpetuity we take that on this year are there any other categories that F like we did a couple of supp but if I remember correctly our EC and ESL supplements were based on the vacancy number when it came to the budget so in my mind we should be okay there and may it could be a follow-up question I just want to know we did a lot of different compensation things in this spring if there are any other categories we should be mindful of or worried about and again if you need to follow up on that I'm happy to have that in followup we can make that part of the whole review for and it's a good time because you're about mid any right any other questions about Master's pay I do think we all got to be clear so keeping the work on more clarity and not you know we got to be clear about what we're.

Saying what we're doing what we're promising so I appreciate y'all's push on how do we get clear upfront too with all of our employees so thank you Dr L board members we did remove item 6A and six B so the next item on our agenda.

Is a closed session move that we go into Clos session for the reasons St on the agenda second it's been moved by Miss heral go second by Mr tab that we go in the Clos session for the reason stated on the I'm sorry it was moved by I apologize it was moved by Miss Chavez I saw miss her golf reaching for the.

Microphone it's been moved by Miss Chavez it's been seconded by Mr tab that we move in close session for the reason stated on the agenda any discussion do you I'd like to hear follow up yeah Dr Giovani asked about a summary of followup items so can I know this is out of order but if we can do that really quickly maybe during this Dr Pikman please so I captured a number of followup for the transportation one was that Administration would make a formal request to families that if they did not absolutely need transportation that they would ease the pressure to reduce Bri ership and send out a message to that effect we would explore or Community organizing and car pooling as a solution for walk zones that would be an exploration particularly for next year we got endorsement to rotate Transportation coverage and with the directive to make to give ample planning and lead time to families and transportation's going to work on that explored different ways to encourage and incentivize those that.

With CDLs who could step up and help during this situation look at how can we organize volunteers for short term to secure additional bus drivers reach out to perhaps our churches and Faith Community with those that do have CDLs or that drive on Sunday mornings as poss possible support to US during the weekdays develop standard notification protocols out coming out of schools similar to that that comes out of the transportation team explore exess Express stops what would are the average distances from home to those Express stops clar clar I got a a note that there was some requests to clarify who is authorized to be on campus when we were doing Express stops I believe that came from Rogers budget implications for tactics five and six and I believe those were most of the big rocks from the transportation and then for Master's pay update to include it on the upcoming legislative agenda to explore whether there were categories that needed to be included in the compensation supplements.

And to explore the cost of MERS pay to expand Beyond just classroom teachers that sounded pretty good Dr Pitman thank you anything board members missing or a couple of other ones one is just to continue to add a transportation update on subsequent board meetings and then un unrelated to Transportation but related to the superintendent's evaluation bringing back a plan to administer the survey to ensure it's Anonymous I did not get those thank you but team effort just in her defense I didn't ask her to start tracking it until after the superintendent evaluation piece it's a team effort so board members there is a motion on the floor that we go into close session for the reasons stated on the agenda any other discussion all those in favor say I I any opposed use the same sign passes unanimously we're now in closed.

Session.

E.

E e.

And we're back in Open Session Dr Lewis thank you so much ask the board to take action on the Personnel report please move approval of the Personnel report dated November 7 2024 second it's been moved by chair Rogers seconded by miss cof all those in favor say I I I any opposed please use the same sign it passes unanimously and with that we are journ.

Board of Education · Work Session · November 7, 2024

▸Moment of Silence10:09

▸Consent Agenda12:08

▸Approval of Minutes15:10

▸Public Comment16:55

▸Action Items1:52:03

▸Closed Session5:58:16