Board of Education · Work Session · October 12, 2023

Remotely I'm going to do a roll call vote so I'm going to start with board member Chávez Lewis this is Javan Lewis I vote I and board member mil Rogers also joining us remotely and I'm going to call it board member mcent Rogers this is Millicent Rogers and I vote I board member Beyer I board member Jessica Cardon I board member Chavis I board member I and I vote I as well and so that is unanimous and we have past our agenda and now we're going to go into our next agenda item which is our board work session minutes if there are any comments about the work session minutes we can hear them now this is for the work session September 14.

2023 not I'll take a.

Motion move approval of the minutes from September 14 2023 second been properly moved and seconded by board member Beyer and board member Chavez and I'm going to do a roll call vote board member Lewis Jovonia Lewis I I board member Rogers this is Millicent Rogers and i v i board member Beyer I board member Jessica Cardon I board member Chavis I and board member Umstead I and IO I as well i v i as well and so we have unanimously approved our minutes our next agenda.

Item is our general public comment and tonight we have one person signed up to speak if anybody missed the sign-in sheet you can come in and let us know and you can I will add you to the to to the to the to the list but I'm going to call forth before I call forth our speaker for the public comment I'm going to read some guidelines that we have established for public comments citizens wishing to speak to the board must complete the name address and phone number information on the signup sheet and also a citizen can only sign up himself herself to speak another person can cannot sign up for you and the other thing is that we also just ask that you use the time allotted and that also let me just let you know that we after you state your name and if speaking for an organization State the organization and also speakers are asked to present their comments in a specified time which I mention and also the yellow light will come.

On and then you have to start winding your remarks when the red light comes on it will beep which indicates 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 safety of students or to the operation of the school system finally the board members will listen carefully and consider the comments but we do not engage in the discussion with speakers our first speaker is Amy cot and and so I'm going to ask Amy to come up thank.

You my daughter my daughter was born with two very rare genetic syndromes this was not in my plan for her as a nurse practitioner it was not my plan at all it's extremely stressful scary she is luckily in high school mainstreamed in high school she went to George Watts she went to Lakewood Middle and she's at Jordan now and doing very well in high school I learned of policy 3410 which is a testing policy where a child if they're not in class for three or more and they have an a days then they have to take the final whereas other students can't I'm going to talk to you a little bit about the average in an average semester my child who is doing very well in school sees a nephologist at least once a semester it can be an all day appointment she has renal ultrasounds blood work waiting for hours for the doctor if anyone has been to the doctor you know this takes a long time she goes.

To the audiologist which is at least a half day appointment and that happens about four to six times a year if everything's going well her retina specialist is about three to four times a year and with those appointments they're about six to nine hours long she often endures very painful procedures when she goes and usually she's back to school the next day so she didn't doesn't miss as much school ideally I try to schedule these days on days she's out of school but holidays and weekends clinics are closed doctors are on vacation and we are at the mercy of the specialist's availability last night she had a vision change at her field hockey game and she came home and told me about it I quickly emailed her retina specialist and the duai clinic on our way to Jordan high school today I got a call from the the retina specialist and said come on in so we turned around the minivan and drove right on in we were there all day.

She missed school again today she learned very upsetting news today too and knowing that she has all these appointments and I have to take her to all these appointments and this just a few she then knows that she is behind her peers and she's already has disabilities she's behind her peers because she is ACC crewing these days where she's going to have to take the final whereas the other little friends don't have to take it because they were not disadvantaged by being born un not asked to be born with syndromes that cause her to be out of school having a policy allowing abled body kids the ability to sit out of an exam while they're disabled or medically fragile and complex peers or penalized is ableist and it's discriminatory and that is not what dur public school stands for in the mission that you just read today so I appreciate the work that you've done already on talking and listening in to the issues at hand and I really hope.

That you take our experience into the way you vote on changing the policy for high school students thank you thank you so much with that being our only public comment even though we're not allowed to engage or have a conversation about the public comment I will urge our Administration if if somebody will just mentioned something about a follow-up and we appreciate that thank you so much our next item after general public comment is is our consent items our board does meet does have a time to review consent items in in advance and they do get to meet with administrators as well and so we have consent item approval of school Treasures for year 2023 2024 can I get a any discussion or motion approval of the list of school Treasures for the 23 24 school year second it's been properly moved and seconded by board member Chavez and also seconded by board member Jessica Carda-Auten and I'm going to take a roll call vote unless there's any discussion just checking if not then.

Board member Lewis Mr Javan Lewis I vote I board member Rogers this is Millis Rogers I vote I board member v i board member Cara Aon I board member Chavis I board member Umstead I and I vote I as well so it's unanimously approved and our next agenda item is chief of staff and I'm going to pass it to our chief of CH of Staff Dr Tanya javani so sorry that's right we move the proclamation before the chief of staff so actually let's hold off on Chief of Staff let's let's go ahead and move into the Durham advocates for exceptional children deac is it called Dak yeah actually D I think there's a typo and I think it's da say yeah yeah you said it right was typ okay disability history and awareness month Proclamation yep so good evening of board member Valladares and members of the board and Dr unclear name this Time Dr Kristen Bell will take through the podium and share with us the background around the.

Proclamation and tonight we are asking for Action that the board would read the proclamation into record U for Durham public schools and may I ask that we please upload the proclamation to the screen thank you good evening everyone good evening the proclamation I think was originally presented in 2019 by at the time was called Durham special needs advisory Council and I'm I know that some folks wanted to be here today and not they might have anticipated it being later on as well from formerly called D snack and now they've recently changed their name to Durham advocates for exceptional children and they originally collaborated with a couple different agencies and entities very supportive of people with disabilities to create this Proclamation and we recently it's been read in the previous years by the board and this year we made some revisions to it just to update with present day representation of people with disabilities and appreciate you taking the time tonight to read it and I'm happy to address any questions or.

That you may have at the end of that so thank you thank you so much Dr Bell I do know that you know this is a very important Proclamation and I think Nicole for putting our Proclamation on the screen for all of our community to see would you like for us to to go ahead and read it yeah okay I think we will start I think we we I just want to make sure that our colleagues online are able to see it and and we can start I think with board member Lewis if you'd like to start and then board member Rogers and then we'll go to board member Beyer and down the line thank you I can see it the darham advocates for exceptional children disability history and awareness month we're asked the general assembly of North Carolina ratified Senate Bill 753 designating the month of October as disability history and awareness MTH and requiring local Boards of Education to provide instruction on disability history and awareness and whereas dur public schools and our.

Community Partners believe in the importance of highlighting the achievements and contributions of individuals with disabilities and acknowledge that unjust societal barriers and attitudes keep some individuals from realizing their full potential at school work home and or in the communities and whereas over 15% of Durham public school students in preschool through High School are identified as having a disability as defined by the individuals with disabilities Education Act Ida and whereas Antiquated attitudes and beliefs of disability as a weakness or as a categorization that systematically defines and confines a person as less capable less deserving or simply less than must be eliminated and whereas progress has been made over the decades to advance disability rights there is a recognized shift to also Embrace disability Justice which provides a framework that articulates an expectation of difference in disability identity and culture embracing the impact of intersectionality and the collectives need for interdependence and whereas disability history education must include the events and stories of Injustice segregation and oppression as well as the advancements made over time.

And disability awareness must also include acceptance and authentic inclusion Not Mere tolerance and whereas prioritizing an open inclusive district and school environment is critical to adopting and implementing Equitable best practices to acknowledge and support the strength and talents of students with disabilities as well as to meet their educational needs and whereas inclusive classroom settings Equitable access to resources and the Recruitment and Retention of high quality staff benefits all students with disabilities and whereas instructing all students in disability history and awareness promotes an inclusive and welcoming School community and can improve the lives of all students by deconstructing barriers created and sustained by ableism discrimination and ignorance while building connection communication and collaboration between students regardless or perhaps because of their differences and whereas Durham Public Schools recognizes and celebrates the value and talents that people with disabilities add to our workplaces and communities now therefore be it resolved that the Durham Public Schools Board of educ ation does hereby Proclaim October 2023 disability history and awareness month for Durham Public Schools and.

Recommends that all schools Implement programs and special activities to instruct all students on disability history and awarness and be it further resolved that the Board of Education encourages administrators to support Educators across grade levels and content areas to acknowledge disability awareness month and use resources that are inclusive of all our diverse Learners and be it further resolved that the Board of Education calls on all students Educators and community members to observe disability history and awareness month and Advance efforts to support and advocate for individuals with disabilities special acknowledgement is extended to emerged Pediatric Therapy exceptional children's Assistance Center ecac Autism Society of North Carolina Durham County Library and Durham County Cooperative Extension for serving as initial co-creators of this proclamation in October of 2021 this ass signed the 12th day of October of 2023 this is such an important Proclamation I thank you so much for representing a department and more more a purpose and a cause that is so near and dear to all of our hearts and I.

Speak as a parent of children with disabilities I speak as a parent and also a Community member from this community as well and so I I'm so honored and and thank you so much for bringing this forth and I'm going to open the floor for any additional comments for my. Peers I really appreciate this Proclamation and I've heard from some families who appreciated the activities that happened at their school so that their student who did not feel isolated or alone but it was an opportunity for them to share about their abilities their disabilities with other students which I think is really important help build connection and empathy with each other I wanted to know if we're providing any resources or schools doing a lot of the work on their own to do the celebrations great question a little bit of both we've definitely provided ideas of activities in a Google folder for schools to use and we've reached out to in preparation for this meeting and also afterwards we'll to get ideas of.

What's happening at the school because it's so widespread from prek to 12 the activities that are happening just hearing about things happening in in dance classes and field trips and bringing speakers in and you know I ideally we want this to be just a part of the culture and the work that we do it's part of the fabric of who we are not just an October event I think that's with any ofth the month kind of Celebration like the the ultimate goal is this this is who we are we do this on a regular basis we celebrate students with disabilities but there's a lot of great stuff happening so schools are coming up with their own they're collaborating and using the resources and the expertise and the knowledge that they have and also have used our resources as well thank you awesome thank you I'm just so excited about this I'm honored to serve on this group that used to be D snack and now is diac and this is the most amazing group of.

Parents families rep representing some of our most incredible students and I'm looking forward to ways that our public affairs can actually get some of these celebrations out more widely this month of October just to remind all of of us of the incredible work that is going on in Duram public schools of the intersectionality of this work and how we need to embrace it as our core Mission so I'm so excited to make this motion whenever you all are ready on this Proclamation one quick thing and I want to to say I appreciate that you added in disability Justice that's a it's nice for us to it's good for us to learn more about what that really means and so I hope that you know we'll take this opportunity to learn more what that really means it's not just you know inclusion but a a Justice just what it says so and and listening to the people most directly affected thank you thank you just checking if our colleagues joining us remotely.

Board member Lewis or board member Rogers if you have any comments I do this is Millis Rogers I'm grateful that we were able to get this proclamation in front of us today I do want to uplift and highlight that it this was one of the features in October observances in the new weekly spark email out of the office of public affairs and so if people are attentive to their email I believe this one to everybody connected to DPS right parents Educators all staff and so it's featured there and I am appreciative of that and obviously it's on our website and I'm just really grateful that we are being inclusive to all students and families thank you thank you board member Rogers I just have one more thing that I will share and in terms of why this resolution is so important you know as somebody again from this community who also has children in the dur public school system one of the things that I always heard from them is you.

Know not wanting to be outed as an EC kid and it was very painful to me as a parent when my own children wouldn't ask for help and didn't want you know any anybody to know that they're an EC child and this resolution speaks to 15% but more of that it speaks to the entire DPS Community it speaks to the entire DPS community that there is no shame in being different and I think that if there's an agenda folks have emailed sometimes saying you have an agenda yes I mean I have an agenda I know the the the agenda that we have on this board is is to uplift as we talked about in in in our mission you know and make sure that no child ever feels excluded or treated differently you know we want our our children to have a welcoming safe place to learn and to be all that they are right and so I really thank you for the many ways through intersectionality and so many other ways that we continue.

To do that with you and so many of our school leaders so thank you for bringing us to us and just a lot of gratitude to our community and to the diac group formerly D snack and also other iterations of this group that we talked about in in our meeting with you know folks who joined during the pandemic and we're meeting remotely and I was just amazed to meet so many people who care about this from the community a community of supporters even working through the pandemic I remember joining those calls and and seeing you there as well Dr Bell so thank you for this work thank you appreciate it have a wonderful day thank you thank you okay so we are going to approve this resolution We Ready well I think yeah we're ready for a motion a motion and we're going to do a roll call vote that sounds great I would move approval of the disability history and awareness month Proclamation second oh we got a lot of seconds okay.

Hold on I think I heard board member Lewis it come is that was that you board member Lewis yes okay board member Lewis seconded okay so we have a we've been properly you know moved by board member Beyer and seconded by board member Lewis and I'm going to do a roll call vote board me board member Lewis jav Lewis I vot I board member Rogers Rogers and I vote I okay member Byer I board member cardo Aton I board member Carda-Auten or similar I and board member ID I and I vote I as well so we have unanimously approved the resolution Durham advocates for exceptional children disability history and awareness month Proclamation and now we're going to without any further Ado go to Dr Tanya Chávez our chief of staff for policy 3410 thank you Dr manga members of the board community members numbers if we could pull the slide the PowerPoint up and while we're waiting for that just a little bit of History if you recall the board requested some conversation.

Around the exam exemption portion of policy 3410 so it's only a small portion of the entire testing and Assessment program policy that the board did discuss at the at the last meeting next slide. Please so the the original language provided for in policy 3410 that was brought before the board is on the screen and it reads any absences lawful or unlawful except those resulting from school sponsored field trips School approved activities religious holidays or school system approved medical hardship waivers count toward the limit for final exam exemption so this is a language that we discussed in the board provided feedback to Administration on and we have now brought forward to you some some proposed draft language next slide please there was conversation from the board at the last meeting regarding the purpose of this policy or this exam exemption being as an incentive and wanting to encourage the board having as a belief and a policy that it wants to encourage students to be in attendance at school and that the purpose of the.

Exam exemption is to incentivize grades and attendance for our students so I went and looked at policy 4400 the attendance policy and cut and pasted the language that has that aspirational attendance language in there so this is actually verbatim already included in policy 4400 the attendance policy and it just really is just encouraging and stating you know how important it is for students to be in school not just for themselves but for their classmates and the teachers and just the school community in general and then it does also provide that Regular tendance develops and the board mentioned this at the last meeting you know good citizenship and just how to be a functioning adult I also added in language from another school systems policy that all students shall be permitted and encouraged to take examinations even if they are eligible for exam exemptions the the current policy has a language similar to that but this is for the board's consideration if you do want to have that as part of your policy that.

Students are encouraged to those examinations as well next slide please this is the track changes language regarding the lawful and unlawful absences so I moved the count toward the limit up into the front that was the last sentence in the pre the original draft and so I'm going to go through the exceptions and the carv outs to what counts as lawful or unlawful absences so absences would count towards that limit to get the exemption except for these Express carv outs number one bement due to death in the immediate family immediate family including but not necessarily limited to grandparents parents brothers and sisters number two documented College interview visits students must provide proof of attendance in order for this provision to apply to such absence number three medical or dental appointment and you would obviously get a note from the doctors when you go to those appointments and that would support the carve out number four there was a lot of conversation around what school related or School approved activities were and I believe I shared.

With the board that some principles really weren't clear on that and had requested some additional Clarity around what that meant and in looking at policy 4400 there is a list of school approved activities in that policy and so what like with all board policies there they have to work together and we want to make sure that we don't have and I think Miss berer mentioned this the last time that we want to make sure our policy are aligned with one another and so I'm happy to list them out but I think that that would just putting them in policy 4400 that way we know that we are tracking what exactly are School related and approved activities and school sponsored field trips are listed in those so I struck that out as a specific carve out in here and that was also suggested by I believe Dr Logan had mentioned like having certain kind of carve outs and that that would be more it would be clearer for the principles if we kind of streamline them.

Number five religious holidays or number six personal injury or personal illness or injury that makes the student physically unable to attend school with a written note from a parent or guardian and the history behind that if you recall and for those who didn't see the last meeting is previously the policy as you saw indicated a medical hardship waiver and that was there were some concerns around equity for students that may not you know if your child has a a cold or stomach ache for a couple of days a lot of families aren't going to take their student to the doctor it's very difficult to get a doctor's appointment first of all but it felt like that just was a little onerous on our families and so the board did seem to but feel that this change here with a written note from a parent or Guardian that the child was Ill or the student was Ill would suffice as supporting a carve out from the exam exemption next slide.

Please with that I'm happy to take any questions thank you so much Dr T javani for yes for the second read and so any other discussion yes we have a board member CA carda Aon thank you so much for doing this work based on all the discussion we had at our last meeting I was wondering a couple of questions do we still need to keep the langu the lawful or unlawful that I find that to be a little bit confusing and it seems unnecessary now that we've clarified that there's exemptions I worry that parents or Guardians are going to be confused by some of that I think the board did have some conversation around that and indicated that the board the last board meeting wanted to keep that language so I'm I think where you might consider keeping it if you're not going to get rid of unexcused and that was what the board had indicated is that there are going to be some excused absences that are going to count towards that.

That three limit or four limit in that aren't in that carve out they're still excused but they're not going to you still have to take the exam if even if you have those excused absences so it is an option for the board I believe I when I share with you Union County for example has only unexcused absences count so if it's an excused absence they don't count it at all but the board this board at the last meeting when discussing it indicated that didn't seem to be the direction you wanted to go in so you're saying that that that would be reasons outside of these numbered here correct but that are excused but don't count for the policy correct but wait they are excused but would count towards the exam limit right the exam exemption limit I hear that okay thank you my other question is do we need the word physically in number six personal illness or injury that makes the student unable to attend school is language directly from 4400 the attendance.

Policy so I think if you take it out just say a note from a parent I do think it kind of maybe goes and I'm just speculating I don't want to speculate too much but based on the original policy 4400 where that language is in there it is to indicate that attendance is important and encouraged for students kind of tracking what the board had indicated at the last meeting that even though that this policy is to incentivize in policy 4400 you know it does track the statute to some extent but the board wants to encourage students to come to school so it could be that a student may not feel that well but could be able to come to school I think that that may be what it is but I'm happy to obviously follow the board's guidance okay thank you I hear that I don't I think I'd be in favor of removing it because it feels a little bit confusing like you can't like physically walk into the school or.

You have to be like a certain level of sick and students and parents can caregivers can't make that judgment on their own but be curious to hear what others have to say thank you I did get a message board member Roger joining us remotely you have some comments you have the floor thank you thanks I'll start with the last paragraph the last portion that Miss carteron was just talking about it says if students can't attend physically are we offering them an option to attend some other way other than physically like are we offering them an opportunity to engage virtually not if they are not enrolled in ignite and Dr Pitman I believe that is okay okay so that was my question I think it kind of confuses things a a little bit but I'm open to leaving it as is the other question concern that I have is who is doing the documentation of if this is excused absence or not excuse absence if it counts to towards the exam exemption or.

Not and is that something students and parents can monitor and power school so that they know in advance or they waiting till that deadline to find out if they meet the exemption requirements so the principles are the ones that track the attendance and the exemption so I believe when we met the last time there was some conversation and we kind of talked about Dr Stewart working with the principal supervisors and the principles to make sure that students and families had access to this information and fully understood the limitation of the exam exemption policy and were aware of where they stood and I don't think we settled on a date I think that's kind of we would I would suggest that Dr Stewart kind of work with the principal supervisors and the principles to figure out like when a good date would be for the to alert families and students of that but students can and families can track and Power School what their absences are and I would trust the.

Principles to make sure that they are documenting that yeah I think Dr Jovan you're right it's the responsibility of the parents as well the students to keep track of the attendance but the school responsibility at some points they will be able probably three times a year to be able to update the parents where the students stand but I think primary role for the parents is to really to keep up with the attendance of the kids so I are we making this more difficult for principles to track as we add to the opportunities for exemption I will respond by saying no data managers they keep track of this this support principle with this particular Duty okay thank you any other discussion as we are doing second reading of this polic policy 3410 that we discussed at the last board meeting and you know we can continue to discuss at this moment if there's any other comments board member Brier so I appreciate folks lifting up the the notion of physically in there I.

Do look at our policy 4400 and it is consistent with that and that references North Carolina compulsory attendance law so I'm looking at our attorney and I'm also kind of juggling screen trying to figure out if that language is listed straight from there is that a state definition that we're trying to be consistent with or if there's some Flex for changing that I believe that is not sure how to not coming on I I do believe that that is the F state board policy however in in your policy on test exam exemptions I think you could deviate from that if you so chose I mean I think Tanya has well articulated the the logic of the the physically policy but but I think the board would have the discretion to remove it if he chose not in the attendance policy yeah I you know I'd be willing to listen to colleagues that have concerns about it I I just think I do appreciate us being consistent between our own policies.

About it so if one needs to be changed and the other one need to be changed in my mind and maybe I'm not being clear but I believe I'm that we are excusing anything medical appointments that a parent writes a note for right parent can write a note I had to take my kid to the doctor I had to take my kid to the therapist excused and that will not hurt them in their quest for examin exemption that is correct so okay and then they still unless I'm reading it wrong have some days on top of that that they could also miss is that accurate can we talk about this last time yeah three days two days I'm trying to verify I just yes if they have an A they can miss more than it's four and then it's three and if they have a b it's no more than two I'm sorry and depending on the length of the course so I think this with these modifications will be one of the most.

Generous policies in the state when we compared with other districts and I'm trying to be reflective of of the comments that we've heard tonight the concerns we've gotten addressed in an email but I feel like especially mid year this is this is consistent enough that that we can make these modifications and also monitor attendance and see if there are needs to to further revise this in the future so I really appreciate the work that you all have done on this and and the folks you've listened to.

So thank you thanks for working on this we appreciate it I I do think making the the two policies more consistent is is good so I appreciate the language around the well that we asked for but around attendance and the importance of that I I think I mentioned this last time but I'm I'm okay with moving forward with this now if that's what we want to do to since we're already in October ultimately I would prefer to remove additional absences from the policy because I think this I I would rather we just allow for excused absences as already determined by policy 4,400 and what the number right and yeah 4400 and and then not allow additional absences and that seems consistent with what students were asking us for in the spring when we heard public comment and what parents have asked us for the concerns that I heard were around like illnesses or medical needs around attending attending school related activities as defined here so I would I don't think it would be problematic to.

Remove the additional absences now but if we want to you know keep it as is and then when we review it in the spring you know look at that again I would be in favor of that the other thing I mentioned last time that I'm in favor of looking at in the future is what grade levels this we might want this to apply to and if it would be more appropriate for it to apply to Juniors and seniors only or something like that maybe not but I'm interested to hear what the principles say about that and and and other you know and teachers and and others so yes Bo member umid that's a clarifying question when you say additional absences what do you what are you referencing there the I'm referencing where it says any absences lawful or unlaw unlawful count toward the limit for final exam exemption the three for having an a with a block course etc those absences because it's those are three absences or six.

Absences in addition to all the other things that are excused as listed here and so you would want it to say that if they have an A in the course and only excused absences how Miss giovan Woodmore eloquent put this but if you have a and I guess we'd have to decide what to do about a b but or an A or a B you know or something like that and you have only excused absences then then you're exempt pretty much no additional absences on top of that because I think the other thing is you know that we've there are students to work really hard and they have a bunch of things come up in one year they lose someone you know they have a death in the family they have Co they have you know it's multiple things so that student might be out for several days but but they have an A in the course so they might be out for seven days and they have an a another.

Student might be out for one day they got sick one day that was it they have an A they get exempt anyway that that's my desire and for right now both of them were able to still be exempt from the policy be exempt from their exam based on our current policy but you would just want to take out and sorry I really I'm asking just for clarification your reference would be to take out all of the kind of all the additional one through six things and just say any any number of absences but you have an A or B any number of excused absences yes okay sorry that just clar clear for me if they're in one through six like if they're in one through six they're excused but anything outside of that not isn't that what you're saying just to clear no I think what this what it's saying is that you could have it there's no number there's no limit on the number so you could have say seven.

Absences and I as long as it's in list one through six yes and you're saying that's it though remove the three or six that are not in the list correct not don't give. Yeah what is the pleasure of this board this is second reading and I understand that there's going to be more conversations with principles without Administration there's a possibility of if we decide to pass this policy with maybe an amendment to you know if it's something about just removing one simple thing we may be able to still pass it tonight but I also just wanted to hear from Dr Tanya gavani about if we bring this back for a.

Consent agenda like this is something that can come back if we need to edit it with feedback from our principles our Administration and yeah so this is even if we decide if we decide to pass it tonight more work can be done on this to make sure that we get it just to reflect what's what's going to serve kids and one of the things I do want to Al highlight is that there is that part that I believe comes from the from the state Department of Public Instruction in terms of attendance that just mentions that you know even though there's an exemption you know children are allowed all our kids are allowed to take those tests I mean we encourage them to do it the exemption just means you know yeah you can take the exemption and not do it but ultimately taking a test is is something that is allowed for anybody who wants to do it even if they're exempt and so so that just kind of.

Puts the nature of this is this is something that the provision that we are putting into place because we understand and we hear and and we're very much sensitive to medical and and other situations that happen and so I just want to kind of get a feel for how this board what is the pleasure of this board in terms of moving forward with this policy and also give room for colleagues if you have any other additional comments or discussion just remotely you can go ahead and unmute yourself and and mention something thank you Miss Chavez to your point about the other absences I'd be open to considering that in the I think that we are so far into this semester especially when we add in the specialty colleges I'm sorry specialy high schools that start on the College schedule to kind of get them to backtrack to any absences that they have already taken and it's clear that people are paying attention to the fact that we are reviewing the policy right now and.

I'm open to it I'm not opposed to it but I think it's something we would need to do prior to the academic year starting and so I'd like to leave those absences for now and go forward with the recommendation. Board member Chavez I'm fine with that I think your points are well taken that it is October and and schools have been in session and and you know had the expectation around this policy so I'm fine you know no problem with leaving the the number of absences that we allow right now and then we'll as we said we'll review it at the end of this school year the other thing I just wanted to bring up was that with the physically portion here I think it might be it sounds like kind of opposed to mentally able to attend you know unable to attend school and I will say we've heard from many students about mental health days that's you know a need that people have at times and so I think that's something I mean.

If we anyway I'm just raising that I think that that's kind of encompassed here and it is you know we can say you know we're not going to allow mental health days or or we are because we you know validate the the need sometimes for a mental health day but that's sort of what you know what this brings up when I look at it if I may just one more comment on that point as I did look up the State Board of Education policy and your and the language that that Tanya inserted here is directly in verbatim from your attendance policy which is verbatim from the state board attendance policy so that is is the standard for an excused absence is the student is physically unable to attend school so if you wanted to consider removing that I would think we would need to do some further study to see if that's okay because you would basically be saying the students getting credit for an unexcused absence at that point and.

I'm not sure if we could do that or not but we could study that if the board were interested thank you so much for that clarification I I think that that's the piece we don't want to walk into something that is going to challenge something that's coming from the State Board of Education in terms of how their policies are written and kind of they play in local districts at least in this particular situation with attendance I think that that I'm just just checking to see if if we feel that we want to move forward Dr muena you have some comments yes board member of fire darus I know it's the pleasure of the board if you like to move forward with this particular policy today but I will suggest if possible to invite couple or three of our principles so that you can hear those voices as well as you trying to finalize this they will come to the podium and U make their case as well that will give you also.

That perspective as well before you finalize this particular policy yes chair Umstead all right I would I do think we should make a decision about this because the year is so far gone and so the more we wait the more time is going and absences that could people aren't sure where to put them so I would like for us to make a decision but I do like the idea and I think we talked about this in our last meeting of circling back at the end of the year to understand what was the impact of the change if there are different changes it also allows us more opportunities Dr M to talk with principles as well as Educators that Miss Carter Aon brought up the last time so we can get a more kind of holistic view give us a little time to study how was the new policy being felt and what we might need to still shift and change to make sure it has the impact.

That we have so I would like to move forward of voting on this in the second reading tonight just to give Clarity to folks we're not sitting in this kind of gray area and we can continue to look at this and bring it back in June okay it sounds like I'm hearing a little bit more of moving forward and I think let's just put it for a vote and see where we where we land oh we have two comments okay wonderful more comments yes you what board member Chavez yes one quick comment in the paragraph on page two that is above the list of excused absences it's a we just need to change that it should read a high school student and and I just wanted to say lastly that I I'm really just interested in what will help our kids come to school and stay in school most so the this robust conversation is good I want to hear also from the principles what's we want.

Our kids to be in school we want them we want them to come we want them to feel engaged all of that so that's ultimately the purpose of you know this conversation in my eyes just two things addressing Miss viar as's point that if students that do take the exam that like to take it it only can help them and that's in your policy already so if a student does take the final exam and they were exempt they they get a d or an F it won't impact their grade so it's only there's only a positive that comes from taking that exam the second feedback is to Mrs buyer Point there's the board wants to potentially consider adding in the language from 4,400 regarding chronic illnesses there's Express language in 4,400 attendances students with documented chronic illnesses are exempt from that attendance policy so that could be something if you would like that I could add basically transfer that language over as well which would address some of the feedback.

That this board has received from our community with students that have chronic illnesses javanni do you have that open to talk about I'm looking for that and 44 yeah you read that for folks to consider that yes you're thec Guru I'm sorry you're the policy Guru I said I was giving you time to find it and all of that yeah okay so policy 4,400 attendance the Durham Public Schools Board of Education policy manual reads and this is for the attendance it says students with excused absences due to documented chronic health problems are exempt from this policy in addition for students experiencing homelessness school officials must consider issues related to the students homelessness such as change of caregivers or nighttime residents before taking disciplinary action or imposing other barriers to attendance so that's that full paragraph regarding that so it would be could potentially give give some of our families and students some more peace of mind regarding that exam exemption when they are experiencing those chronic health conditions so you're suggesting.

Adding that language that you just read into what we are considering tonight with 3410 I think considering the resolution that we just read and the month that it is I think that's you know that would be with Dr manga and your feedback and I think I would be that would solve some of those concerns and The Angst that our students are feeling remember said I think in some ways it just makes it clear and I think what I'm also hearing from family when I'm as we're doing this study I'm realizing oh there actually are exemptions but it's not clear and so we need to be really clear to students and families that your doctor's appointments whatever because of your chronic illness is still like those are not counted towards your days and that it's clearly not been clearly communicated so if we can lift up that language and add it here to me it also it's covered here but again it makes it very clear that chronic illness also is included and.

So that way I think we would I think we could wrap this up for tonight and do that second reading with those Chang excuse me those changes I do think there's probably a second question of do we want to do the study of physically ail but we might want to handle the policy first before we get to that question okay any other discussion just checking to see if our colleagues remotely or anybody else has we're making our final discussion statements okay so I would move approval of policy 3410 testing and Assessment program with the addition of the language on chronic illnesses and students experience homelessness from 44 from policy 44 into 100 yeah I do think that would have to be slightly modified to fit is the board comfortable just delegating that to the to admin Administration to to tweak the wording it would just be we would have to change a couple of words to make that fit yes do I have a second a second okay it's been properly.

Moved by board member Beyer and seconded by board board chair umed and so I'm going to do a roll call vote I'm going to start with board member. Lewis let's go to board member Rogers and come back to board member Lewis ment Rogers and I have I okay board member Byer I board member Carter auton I board member Carda-Auten or similar I board member Umstead I board member Lewis okay and and I vote I as well board member vais and let's let me see if there's any technical ISS that Miss Board member Lewis is opposed if you don't mind I'm just sending a message to board.

Member.

I think we're just going to move forward and so we have six votes thank you okay well passes our next agenda item is operation Services thank you so much we're going to have invite Dr Johnson and I'm going to pass it to yeah to our administrator Dr Johnson for operation Services Mr lur okay thank you Mr.

Theur so for the next two items I bring good news to employees of Duram Public Schools if you remember back to our convocation Dr mainga said there might be a little something coming at a later date in September there was a $1,500 retention bonus that was paid out and the little something is something we were able to carve out of the SR funding that we had left to address a little retention bonus for the month of December that that amount is $500 and as he said a little something because it's not the $1,500 that we've been used to in a meeting today with Risa Regional Chief Financial officers many of these school districts only gave out one bonus they were no other bonuses to go back in the day so you as a board have been very generous to the Durham Public School community in providing bonuses to the tune of 6,000 plus dollars over the years with Esser winding down we have this little bit left that we can put.

Towards that and with that said I will always state that whenever we get money a bonus or any other type of dollar there are taxes that are paid on those so you do not get a $500 bonus as they do in Corporate America you have pica that comes out of that state federal taxes that may come out of that and from that standpoint I bring to you this for the purpose of requesting that you approve the $500 bonus with a minimum of $150 so that somebody will everybody will get something because as you prate it people might not be working as many hours as others and so we prate it down to the 150 Mark so with that I bring that for approval this evening any discussion board member cardo odson thanks so much I'm excited about any opportunity to give our amazing Educators a a little something more even if it's not close to what they deserve and what we'd like to give them I was wondering given our I was wondering.

What the plan was for ensuring that communication about the bonus aside from I know you just stated that there will be taxes taken out but what communication is planned to make sure that we adequately set expectations for the amount that will be received after taxes just in case folks are not tuning in now so they're not expecting the 500 to go into there because sometimes that could result in significant amounts being taken out well again we are a school district that is a basically a monthly payroll system it's hard to say exactly how much is going to be taken out of an individual's $500 because of the fact that they have their own taxing schedules or they might be having a little bit more taken out on a monthly basis so it could vary from that standpoint but from we will make every effort possible to ensure that they get as much of that $500 as possible to your points pa Mr lur I think this time the bonus is going.

To be bundled with their regular pay in December it's going to be just one time it'll come right after that yes it won't be it won't be like the other one that was paid in the middle of the month where this one will be paid at the end of the month so it won't be as taxing when it comes out any other discussion I do have just one comment just on that piece and so I understand tax implications of bonuses and and I think our staff generally understand that the question about the timing of doing it in the middle of the month this one I know that we're doing so close to the schedule of of payment so do we have a say in in in in how these things are done with the prior one that was done in the middle of the month do we I guess where I'm going with this is that these are not just arbitrary decisions that we're making because we want to cause pain.

In any way and and that's very clear from from our standpoint we're trying to follow the law we're trying to follow tax code you know there's different levels of how folks set up their withholdings and everything else right so that varies but I guess what our community wants to hear and what I'm hearing from community members who have reached out to all of us and talked to us is more communication going forward about bonuses and and and maybe more information and I appreciate also the time that that the administration spent meeting with with our with our staff and then in terms of also the timing of when it happens along the month if there's any comments on that Mr lart coming at the end of the month after the payroll makes it a lot cleaner for the purpose of us being able to ensure that it's not being taxed at a higher tax rate it could I mean bonuses are supposed to be either your tax rate or 22% from that standpoint we didn't we.

Don't do the 22% because that's a bigger loss to people in regards to their their money so it it it will should be much much better than it being paid in the middle of the month and then coming out with the the big payroll at the end of the month so it'll be afterwards it'll be better I can assure them of that thank you so much for that any other comments and I appreciate again the receptivity to our Educators who have reached out and all their voices are are very important and and their concerns as well and I and I appreciate also Dr mua sending that email explaining a little bit about what was going on I think that we we continue to learn you know in terms of preempting sometimes or or giving the information to folks that from now on bonuses you know are taxed and that there implications of that as well that yeah that will individually have to get resolved when during tax season right like that that's that's I know.

It's it's it's hard to talk about this because I know everybody's is stretched and pinched and having to wait until that resolution at the during tax season is is is not a it's not Comfort but but that is technically what what happens anybody has any other comments yes board member Chavis or board member Umstead I was trying to decide if I wanted to say my comments or not but I think one thank you all for the the timing of this it matter we know it matters to folks Educators we heard you loud and clear and no one likes when their money is messed with whether it be Uncle Sam or whoever right so I think that's really important that we're trying to do what we can to mitigate some of the impact of that Paul you started this conversation miss floro talking about money winding down but just also made me think about the future this has been a consistent for many of our Educators in the last couple years so I'm just wondering not.

Making any commitments or things what we also might need to be considering moving forward as this is something has that Educators have have been getting for the last couple years and I know it's been really greatly appreciated so just thinking about Forward Thinking on our budget and what that might look like when do our dollars close next August I mean next September will be the end of the S funding as we know it a lot of our money is tied up in learning loss we're taking this out of the other categories to make that happen so I mean that's your we have retention bonuses for in recruitment bonuses that come out we have mental health services that we're providing additional support there we have there's it's it's it's out of the same pot but we have a targeted amount that we have to use for learning loss and that kind of ties our hands to be able to confront and possibly put forward any additional bonuses as we wind down 181 but we'll.

We'll certainly be taking a look at that as well as we get through the beginning of this year to see if that's that's a viable thing but we don't have money locally and the state's not giving us money to do that either so you know we're bonuses will be going away if not after December and then by the end of the fiscal year probably that's also helpful to be really clear clear with folks right this this might be the last one so thank you I you know I I wish the state had more to do we know the budget passed and it didn't give us quite enough our Educators definitely not what they deserve so thinking about what what can we do to make sure Educators we can take care of them as best we can and fiscally responsible so that's all anybody else board member Chavez yes just a very quick comment I think of all the things that we can use our Sr funds for this is one of the most.

Important investing in our staff so I'm happy to approve this bonus and I I only wish it could be more you want to make the mo oh yeah I was like what are they saying I would like to make a motion to approve the $500 retention bonus from the essr funds for December of 2023 board member Beyer second and also a point of discussion if you all still have time the Mr lur thank you so much for your work thank your payroll staff for all the questions that they have received and handled so graciously I understand people's frustrations and I also understand that these are all incredibly complex tax laws that none of us love to see hit our checks I want if you don't have if you have a minute I want people to understand too that their checks are going to go up and down a little bit not down not down sorry up in weird ways right we're not going to have consistent checks here for.

A while as we work to implement raises in November October October we're in October so Retro Retro in November okay raises in October retro in November this bonus in December as well as hospitalization increases that might impact December or January checks right so those are those are selected benefits that is going on this month they can change their they can change whether they're going from single to family to employee and child and those will have effects on their paychecks as well that happens in December for the change in January because we pay a month ahead and then we don't pay in June so from that standpoint that will affect them and then also part of the bone part of the benefits plan they can do their select benefits this month as well which also can impact their their paychecks come in January so from that standpoint it could be based on their selections that they taking out more money they getting a cancer policy they're getting a life insurance policy they're going up.

In those it's going to have an effect on their paycheck some of those are before tax some of those are after tax so it's it's just a like you said it's it's basically a a wave going from here forward for the next four months Mr lour can I just add one clarification just to make sure for our employees the benefit selection that will impact in January open enrollment is now but it closes October 27 so when you mentioned December I just don't want folks to think they have until December to make those changes the window is open now and it closes October 27th but you will not see those changes until the January December January yes thank you I appreciate that clarification I feel like we can't overc communicate that that is so so so important for our our staff to understand we are mostly moving Folks up but I mean there's also been news reports that people are getting 4% or they're you know a percentage and and because of the way.

The state did the scale it might it's not really a flat percentage it it varies a little bit as well so I appreciate folks being patient with us and your staff as we work forward together getting folks raises in yeah thank you so much board member Beyer and so so I believe we've already second we've already properly moved this approval for the the $500 retention bonus and it's been properly seconded I'm going to do a roll call vote and I'm going to call are there any more roll call vote and also if there any more discussion points especially from our colleagues where we're calling in remotely okay we'll move with the vote board member Lewis this s ja Lewis i v i board member Rogers this is milicent Rogers and I vote I board member Beyer I board member carda auton I board member Chavez I board member Umstead I and I vote I as well thank you to our Administration thank you to our Educators and with that we are moving on to another.

Very important piece which is a classified compensation study correct another good news item for many of our staff members across the district remember this is a classified salary study in the past we looked at salary supplements for teachers this year we looked at classified salary study trying to to bring those individuals in our classified ranks back to closer to a market rate with the assistance of the county we're going to make be able to make that happen and that's the exciting thing about it as we said there going to be ranges from 4% for some individuals to many many many more percents 24 30% because of where the market is compared to where Durham Public Schools were was in the past so from that standpoint there will be some significant changes for individuals and that's a good thing right bringing them up to closer to what the market is is is dictating it won't be probably everything that everybody wants but it's there from that standpoint is probably going to cost.

Close to $10 million in total right state federal local Child Nutrition Community ad so on and so forth and Grant funds federal funds of which 5.6 of it was given by the county with the 4% raise increase plus plus the amount that we needed for the study so we're looking in to be in good shape as of today we still don't have our State dollars so that's you know one thing that's looming over the the whole picture whenever we do get those allocations we will maximize the state funds as much as possible to make sure that we have that we utilize those State dollars to for the classified salary study increases in people's paychecks and then it will be the federal programs Child Nutrition Community Ed and also the local funds that will make up the difference so I'm comfortable as always when the state passes a budget we're always wondering what's happening and in that respect until we get our allotments we really don't know what the overall impact could be.

So there could be some that we have to push down into local but we can we we'll make that make that work from that standpoint so some of the things in the study they were looking to go to a letter grade rather than a numerical grades that we had for us to have done that would have complicated some things on our retro pays so on and so forth so we have we are realigning our pay grades does not mean if you were pay grade 56 before and you've gone down to a 55 that you're getting less money or that you're getting into demotion it's just that we're realigning our pay scale to ensure that we're in a better place to be able to do our retro pays in November also realigning it for the purpose of ensuring that we're sequentially going up so but from the standpoint of the things that we're in the study we've we've gone through those we've accepted the majority of the things that they've shown there from.

That standpoint and will be moving forward with the pay increases in the month of October also if you remember the hill group did not put forth a director onup schedule initially they were looking at that they gave us their proposal and in this shows you their proposal we did not feel that we had the money to do that so we had to back down on that it's probably going to cost us another $330,000 out of local but that is doable in our budget and the the cost was significantly more based on their Market rates but it it will be able to with that increase in the 4% we're getting from the state and County we're going to be able to make that work as well thank you so much Mr I know that there's there have been so many conversations about this and it it's important that you mention what are some of the important factors that you're considering especially like with the state Appropriations or you know budget implications from the state.

Because there have been questions about communication and folks who have been waiting on this you know they just want to have all the information up front but it's important to kind of also have you know what's coming from the state and what's not going to look like locally for us the other the other I have another question but before I ask that question I do want to open the floor to my colleagues because I I think some of us have some of the same questions so I'm going to yield discussion to my colleagues and then come back to my question I'm going to check with our colleagues joining us remotely first board member Lewis board member Rogers you can unmute yourselves if any of you have any comments about the salary.

Study I don't have anything right now but that doesn't mean that I won't after everybody else says thank you thank you okay and I think we can if there's no further comment from our colleagues wrote yes I would like to bring Dr L to the podium to make a few comments yes no definitely Dr Lin you have the floor oh my goodness we love hearing from Dr Lin yes good evening Dr mainga members of the board I do want to share just a couple of other pieces that are going on in the background in comparison to the exciting information that Mr lour has shared as far as next steps I want you to be aware of some of the communication the salary schedule for our atwi our classified positions were approved earlier this year and then Mr lour just mentioned the administrative arm of the study upon approval of everything finance and the finance and payroll department is uploading the scales okay HR and finance are working together to address outliers keep in.

Mind we do have some historical pieces particularly when you look at things like Gears of experience and how those are calculated and what's in there that we do have some outliers I want to make that clear we do have some outliers to address but we will have hold harmless okay there's a home harmless provision that are that's part of the recommendation from Hill Consultants so it is imperative to highlight one piece not only should you be careful in comparing salary grades but you also have to be aware that some individuals may have had something such as what we call a home hold harmless line from their prior salary and with the assessment and the assignment of a new salary grade in Step that hold harmless line may disappear but that person does not experience a decrease okay and should still see an increase so I do think that that's important for for our folks to understand too Mr lour and I have con correspondence that is ready to be customized for each employee once we.

Addressed everyone that correspondence will go directly to those individuals via email we do have categories of employment that we know email is not as accessible and so we will have hard copies that we will work through those supervisors to make sure that they have hard copies and we're not relying on them to get the information via email we will utilize a text message or internal text message feature to let people know when those letters are ready to be sent additionally we think that this is an awesome time to create a video to help communicate to our employees not only the impact of the classified study but to just help them understand things about this is what salary grade means this is what year's experience means and just understand basic things that they should review to denote that their actual first payroll is correct and what to do if they feel it is not and so we have those processes that are outlined also that will help our employees know this is.

What that you need to go in and look access the pay portal look at your stub for your check look for these things this is how you know you want to make sure that it matches the correspondence that you receive and what to do if there is a discrepancy or if you have questions or don't understand a piece of this so we want to use this as an opportunity to help educate our employees thank you thank you so much Dr L you actually you know when you talked about years of experience so many of the conversations I have had around this particular topic our concerns about you know years of experience and folks who want to bring documentation to say Hey you know this is a good opportunity to get this right or to get that and so I I really know I know that there's a lot that your department is is doing and working on and I just want to acknowledge that because you know we have 5,000 Dr mben got 5,200.

And yeah 5,200 employees in PPS and so and our classified staff are definitely very near and dear to our heart and have been advocating for a while I just want to lift up the efforts of Sunny Heraldo and you know the instructional assistance and everyone else and so I do have a question but I'm going to hold my question and I'm going to yield the floor to my colleagues to see if they have any questions and then I'll come to my question can I add on one piece of years of experience that is extremely important for us to communicate to employees es typically when you're looking among the classified ranks most places of across the state will award years of experience at at least like one year for every two years for non District or state experience so what we are trying to do we would love to maintain a onetoone which is what we have had in Durham public schools for a long time but another change that you can expect to see is.

Historically in Duram we're we're looking at doing a higher level of verification of employment to award years of experience at a ratio of one to one you have to make sure that you have certified verification from every prior employee so a lot of times in the in the interest of trying to help the employee people may use what they have on their application or a resume if that business is closed you know we have people with lots of years of experience and a business has closed down or something like that we will no longer be able to do that beginning November 1st we do have a process that we are going to execute to make sure that we are verifying that experience a lot of times employees can only remember the month or the year or different things like that we have to have specific dates to calculate and verify that employee that employes years of experience in order for it to be fair and Equitable across the organization so I do want to share.

That in fine-tuning those processes that is super duper important for us to make sure that we are addressing the recommendations for this compensation study that we are being fair and Equitable to everyone so that May incorporate some growth PL pains from some of the historical things that have happened within the district so I do want to take this as an opportunity to share that also thank you so much we do have a comment and just checking I know that our colleagues where jonos rly are experiencing technical difficulties just wanted to check board member Rogers are you on the line okay board member Rogers is seems like there was a technical thing and so we'll come back to board member Rogers who does have a comment and in the meantime board member Rogers when you're ready just let me know but I'm going to come to the floor here and go to board member Beyer in the meantime thank you so first want to say thank you to our finance staff and our HR staff for.

Taking on this enormous work we also need to thank our County Commissioners who did allocate $5.6 million and that cannot be lost in this conversation it is so expensive to live in Durham to live in the triangle area and we're going to continue to struggle to make sure that that with gentrification with issues of of lack of affordable housing with the price of gas with inflation that our folks can be near and their workplace and that's going to continue to be an issue but I want to make sure that I understand what you've brought forward and that folks that are looking for it online can find it is this document online for folks to see I didn't see it online yet did you all the document will be posted after the meeting the actual and let me clarify what the document is yes the document is the final compensation study document from heel Consultants that will be posted okay so I I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't just wrong but I.

Couldn't find it so it will be forthcoming when we had last seen it and and one of the things we were trying to do is make sure that we got everyone to at least 17 and I believe the instructional assistant salaries that are in this document are monthly Amounts is that right they they look let me reference the page number 36 so y'all can clarify for me I believe I see one column that is regular Ed and another that is EC classrooms I just want to make sure we're speaking from the same thing you said 36 36 yeah with a code BB is regular and CC is okay so those are monthly those are monthly monoss amounts gotcha good good some of the other stuff was hourly go ahead was that you miss sorry I was just gonna ask can this be po I know you it sounded like you wanted to wait till after the meeting but is it possible for it to be posted with a packet tonight so.

Those who are watching can follow along with us understand what where 36 is and what we're looking at sure it can be posted the caution I would offer is that because of the historical pieces keep in mind that we're this is the recommendations of heel Consultants every recommendation will not be taken so with posting it people will go and say this is my title this is my salary grade and they will set an expectation based on that but it is fine for it to be posted but individuals have to remember that the final piece of what we do as a district will be beholden to the customized letter that they receive so every recommendation that is adopted for instance let's just take the administrators that Mr lour was just talking about he said that their recommendations we're not going to be able to fully execute that piece so if someone looks at this document and sees that recommendation I don't want them to incorrectly assume this is where my salary will.

Be so that's why we have not posted we'll post it after the meeting or during the meeting but we just offer that caution but what are we changing I mean like already I guess for a point of clarification based on board member buyer's question because we approved we we formally had an action related to the salary study and now it's being so tell us a little bit more about if you will go to page 38 could we have U Miss Smith maybe broadcast it if we don't post it online Absolut broadcast 38 I just it'll be easier for folks to follow absolutely when you received the report in January beginning on page 38 these items were not included as part of that report so this will be confusing for some individuals because you have a current pay grade and a proposed pay grade and if you go down again part of what Mr lour referenced was the fact that heill was recommending that we go to letter paygrades and then.

If you go from page 38 I want to give time for that to be projected but then if you go up from page 38 to p Pages 32 beginning at page 32 then what I will do is if I see my job title I'm going to look at that and then I may go to salary grade V and assume that that is exactly where I am going to be wherein we have other titles that may not be as specific as or may be more specific than what's on here so you have outliers and that's where I'm talking.

About if it's it's fine I I'm looking for y'all's questions to help me get clarity on what we're doing that is in reflected in this study and what is different going forward and and really making sure that folks do have Clarity that we're not making it further confusing so yeah so let me add a little little Clarity Clarity to that Miss buer so say for instance where we don't want you see the prior grade level 50 may not be 50 even though we're sticking with numbers and right now if 50 is a and individuals go there I just know that there could be some confusion there but we are glad to post a document just as long as people know that the official piece is going to be their customized letter I don't know if you want to add anything to the salary grade piece with they upload and I'll just acknowledge that board member Rogers has a comment she's joining us remotely so board member Rogers once Mr lur is done you can go.

Ahead and unmute yourself and speak so one of one of the things that we're going to be doing is when we put this out on the the web we're going to have the letter grades that he'll had and we're going to also have the we're going to also have our pay grades okay for each of the groups we're also going to put the titles of those that are in that group so people will be able to see that their title is in that group what what Dr Lay's talking about is there some that aren't quite Hill group didn't really know what to do with because there's unique titles as well so those are the things were going to have to flush out and determine where they're going to actually hit on this on the actual salary schedule and the letter will will announce where they will be.

Placed board member Rogers thank you so much for this presentation I think that for the first time in a long time I'm really excited about HR being Innovative and doing some videos to help provide some clarification around what the pay is supposed to look like and what your compensation supposed to look like I had a couple of questions about that typically or just around like how many men hours are going to be spent doing that and is that are those videos going to be accessible language accessible and are they going to be used in onboarding as well or is this just something for troubleshooting no this is something that we have been talking about for a while and on the backside of lots of things going on that have intersected with HR this is a part of a larger effort that we have that is related to induction for example in addition to things like this video we are actually returning to in-person induction because we think that that makes a difference in.

How employees understand all that Durham public schools has to offer whether it's benefits or anything you know anything of those sorts their paycheck their benefits their supplemental benefits and so what we're doing seeking to do with these videoos is just to help all employees no matter whether you're classified certified or whatever understand the full scope so this is not a troubleshooting piece it is not a oneoff effort it is part of larger just communication when we see gaps in employees understanding they get lots of things that are written but the comprehension of the written is there's a vast difference across all of our employees okay that being said about the comprehension the prey says that this is for action and that you all are presenting the final compensation study results and recommendations for D Public Schools so it sounds like based on what youve just described about not having this study online and how some job descriptions are outliers and aren't going to fit in in the same ways and the heel group didn't.

Know what to do with some of those job descriptions that those aren't included here so this really isn't the final version of this this is the final version of heels work anytime you have a compensation study there is always work that HR and finance have to do on the back side and so so one of the things that we are seeking is based on what Mr lour has said this is what we can do to address the administrative piece that is the action that we are looking for okay so these outliers how what percentage of employees do we think fit in that in those outliers we have estimated we have approximately one 100 people that we have to look at different things for say for instance my the example I provided earlier of a hold harmless line those individuals will still see an increase it's just that there are going to be shifts in how we have to enter them in the system to make sure that they are processed.

Correctly okay I think that I have some concern in approving something that is about about GNA are almost customized and and we can't see it explicitly here that causes me some pause and I don't want to stop people from getting their pay increases by not approving that at this time I just want to name that there so that we can wrestle with that as a board because I'm concerned what let me jump in here I think when Mr lur started we're trying to get all these things in place so FKS can get pay at the end of the month if you delay this they're not going to see any increase probably till November what I'm asking our team to do just go ahead post it and have a disclaimer there that this is the recommendation HR and finest they're going to work in the next probably week to have a letter final for every individuals that will be impacted full transparency have it there with a disclaimer but I'm asking our board if.

You really want our employees to get paid I think the sooner the better I'm going to just allow discussion here from board members here on the floor and then I also have just some questions but let's go with some of the feedback that we have from our board colleagues here Dr sorry board member auton Carter Aon I'm I'm very excited about I'm very excited about this this is great thank you so much I also excited about the videos and anything that can more clearly communicate to folks and have and for us to have a more clear plan set for compensation my questions are similar to ones we've had which we've heard already which is this is the recommendation of Hill so I guess I'm but it's not the it's not the complete recommendation from y'all and I heard I think I heard I wanted to clarify from Mr lur so another aspect of of what we're seeing in front of us right now that is not actually going to be implemented is the.

Last few pages related to director salaries is that true again just trying to piece apart like what is what are we saying yes to and what are we not doing in here only can happen to me so understand that you've already seen the hill study previously in that regard a lot of it is was is all the same there and we have a hundred outliers that we have to look at closely we want to make sure that everybody's getting at least 4% all that is being worked on right now the last pages where it has the directors on up was something that was devel developed in the last few months and was finalized when the state provided their salary proposals for everybody that is the piece that you have not seen before and we have not talked about because they were implementing that as part part of the study we are not going by that we cannot go by that those ranges are are very large and we don't have the funding for.

Them when we did the calculation it was going to cost us $2.6 million to implement those ranges based on the years of experience that we had with all the individual we don't have that money to do right so we're asking you right now to look at just $330,000 that will come out of local for that purpose to for us to move this forward and make sure that we give raises to the director directors on up from that standpoint and that's looking at 68 individuals that are currently in place thank you I appreciate that clarification again just trying to be clear on like what aspects of this we are planning to adopt and which ones were not and then in addition to that I guess my one of my other thoughts is I really appreciate that we've got everybody up to $17 an hour but that still leaves unfortunately some people that are below the living wage and I would like for us eventually to get folks up to that because that's.

Our Child Nutrition assistants it's our custodians our groundskeepers math interventionists even if I'm reading this correctly so I'd like for us to keep moving people up as we can especially and and yes we will I mean but to do that we're going to have to have significant influx from the county because once you make the living wage 1760 it affects every other pay scale that you have and that's going to be another significant influx in in a short order or we just go at it as on an annual basis to try to continue to move that up one of the things that you know the county did is they we were trying to get comparable with them right well then they gave an 11% raise to their employees basically so it's just exacerbated the situation between dur public schools in the County Employees from that standpoint we appreciate everything that the county is doing for us we have to go in chunks with this from that standpoint and we didn't know the living.

Wage was 176 until July which was after we got our 1860 huh it's 1860 and that's for for somebody who doesn't have any children which is I didn't I haven't seen that I think it's it's the MIT living wage calculator I think that they cited in this study that they cite in that but that's not what I'm that's not I don't go I can't go by that that's just a calculator that's out there for the purpose of determining what's right what's wrong between the different counties and cities but you know just the other a few years ago we were at what 14 we went to 15 16 and we're now at 17 and we're way ahead of the state at $15 an hour is all they're providing us for resources for that so I yeah I appreciate that but I think it's important to note also that while we Express gratitude to the county for the F for funding this we are still paying significantly less than the count County for every.

Position mechanics custodians plumbers like how are we supposed to get people to work for Durham public schools and to elevate our children when we don't have the same amount of money that the county has to pay their folks and I think that might be a good topic for a joint meeting coming up because I you know I think raising awareness and saying we have this many people that y'all have helped us get to this level and let's let's see together how we can talk about continuing that I think it's is a shared value that is so important to because these are our families these are our Durham folks U our chair has some comments Chad yeah I think it's a shared value I'm gonna piggy back off you I'm G switch shared value between the city the county and the schools and I think all three of us should have conversations because we don't we're in competition for folks but how can we also be moving together so that all folks that work for.

City County schools are on a are moving together when it comes to the living wage and those in the rle I think that would be helpful for all of us to kind of be on the same page and it take it will take some advocacy for our Board of County Commissioners to get there I think I'm gonna switch gears a little bit I don't want to overstate this but I think it's really important to be really clear about this compensation and I think I'm a little I don't know what will be posted afterwards but just looking at the hill study it's a little confusing and I want people to be really clear about where their schedule is what roles fall on what schedule where am I and I know the letter will provide some of that but as much as that can also be available online I think that really creates an opportunity for people to be clear around where they are on the schedule allows for inequity hopefully.

Not to show up because I can say bam bam bam here's where I am at and I just think currently the way the hill one is done is it's not clear because I'm keep scrolling back and forth trying to figure out where people fall so I hope whatever we post can be really clear for people and be really so they can understand and again I'm thinking especially in the light of like the conversation we just had about bonuses how are we super clear about what people can think about expecting for their salary so in that regard I mentioned that we're going to put out a schedule that's going to show all of this information it's going to show what the hills study Alpha is what we're doing with the pay grade and who is included in that pay grade so that it will be clear and we have a 100 outliers that we need to work on for the purpose of getting them into the the appropriate.

Cate and they might they might be in the. Category for cl for certified well classified the yeah and we're going to also put on there what state is classifying them as yeah which we will be far above where the state is in regards to their classification they have a alpha numeric type setup and Hill was trying to get to that Alpha setup and that's just not a good thing for us so we will make sure that we have all the different clarifications on that document so that people can see where their position lines so I think that will be really important so people can see and if we need to set up some office hours or other different opportunities for people to come and ask questions I think that'll be important again as clear and as multi ways that we can communicate I kind of wish that we almost had the PowerPoint presentation tonight so I could see it and I could hear it and I could rewatch.

It if I need to as clear as possible and I almost might feel like we're overc communicating but I think that's the way to make sure that's super clear to everyone I know the directors weren't included in the study or they were included but we won't be impl in that part what about coordinators will they be they're part of the overall they're part of the overall study so coordinators will see a schedule Sal okay yeah perfect and so the vote tonight just for clarity again the vote tonight will allow you all to move forward with posting those schedules getting people and I don't not want to hesitate getting people paid and everything that vote tonight will help you move forward with that that's correct okay I think that's all for me so that's I'm sorry is this part of this discussion is my question as well I have a piece of paper here that and I don't see at any other time on the agenda so maybe I will address that I was.

Trying to be proactive regarding some of the concerns from groups of employees and at the last meeting in in correspondence you had received information about a particular group of employees and so I wanted you to be able to see that difference so for you to be able to see the competitiveness that that you'll find across most branks with the result of the compensation study and so what that does is that takes our occupational therapist and it shows where they were prior to the salary study and Compares them to Chapel Hill as well as wake and shows the projection for where they would be across the entire salary schedule so you can see the result of the work and the support from the Board of Education and the Board of County Commissioners as an example for that group of employees thank you so much Dr Lin you know for printing this and and bringing this to us I do just want to acknowledge that our colleagues remotely Ms and Rogers does have a.

Followup followup questions board member Rogers thanks y'all Miss valadares Mr lur Dr Lin I appreciate your work and putting this together I know it took a lot from Hill group with the salary study and all the things the MIT living wage that my colleagues discussed earlier is referenced heavily in this salary study it is what the numbers they came up with are based on and we have invested a lot of money and a lot of time and a lot of effort into this salary study and I don't want us to like dismiss it holistically but if that's not what we're using for context when we're talking about what a living wage is we should stop paying for it we should stop using it as reference and using it as the guide to delay getting the the pay to employees that we know is so necessary but also how difficult would it be to get the information that you're using Mr lur online to use with the living wage information that you are comparing our.

Numbers to I also have to remind us and our million viewers online that North Carolina is not the best at paying their Educators so being the compared to parts of the state and saying that we are on off the chart to this and we can and should want to do better and I think that that is what the vision is in our in our Durham Community and I think that's why we paid for this living wage study that's based on the information from MIT so the information that you're using to determine living wage is that going to be easily accessible to our Educators and anybody else say referencing the salary study our commitment was to move to $17 an hour from where we were as a starting base that's what we worked with I'm sorry I can't I'm sorry if if you remember our commitment was to move to to move from the $16 where we were to at least $17 that is what we worked on this salary study to.

Start the this is referenced in probably salary studies across the state across the country from that standpoint but our commitment was to start at $17 an hour minimum to move it forward at this point in time again the state is not there they probably will never get there but the point is is we committed to $17 an hour starting and that's we that's how we costed this out is to start at $17 an hour the W living wage bless you the reason why I said the 1860 that's a that's a high number in my opinion for a living wage but I'm not discounting what they're how they're looking at things when you look at proposals of different sorts there are different and how the numbers come out but from that standpoint our commitment was to our our individuals in the classified ranks it started at at $17 an hour it the first time the study came in it was below $16 it was below the $17 hour mark we made them we pushed.

It up to the 17 to make sure that everyone had at least a $17 an hour starting wage can I just also add for contact I think when we started this conversation which was probably at least two years ago 17 was our aspiration and we also know that the world is Shifting housing is Shifting inflation is changing so I think that because I don't we didn't make 17 up like I think that that was the goal at that point but we also have seen how the world is Shifting so quickly so that also I think where we see that jump and we need to think about how we even get ahead of some of them so and again I think we start discussions with the county on what we want to start with and where we want to get to in the upcoming year but remember you're also asking for supplement increase is what we've committed to the certified staff for next year is that we would start looking.

At that to bring that up as well so that is that was our commitment was $17 an hour and the classified salary study and next year we would be looking back at the supplements to see what we could do there hopefully the state will do something on teachers behalf moving forward because this County and many other Counties have taken on a burden that the state should be taking on so especially with 6 point some billion dollar surpluses thank you that Clarity helps thank you Mr lour and I see Dr Lin do you do you have any additional comments I would just add one other piece that were not in the introductory comments keep in mind I want to remind us also that this is the largest compensation study that has been done in this District we're looking at impacting 22 about 2200 employees this is also the largest compensation study for heel group so when we talk about a historical context and what this means to a large number of employees in Durham public.

Schools I don't want us to lose sight of the fact when we're talking about complexities of getting this ex executed we just have to make sure that we dot every ey and cross every T so there are lots of nuances in the back end that we want to make sure that we are communicating clearly we want to make sure that because we've done all of this work over two years we began in 2022 towards beginning and we want to make sure now that we don't go back to the history of the past 20 years that we've been dealing with and trying to fix with this compensation study and so I know that we may not be able to cure all of the ills of the world but wow impacting 2200 employees at one time another piece that I think is very important that I don't want us to lose in the conversation is also the voice of our more experienced employees so even with scales what you.

See going on with the state is a lot of focus on new new new and what we have in the design of these salary schedules is showing value for remaining with Durham public schools staying with Durham public schools and so you see versus maybe a few cents difference in one step to the next there's a one and a half percent difference I think between every step on the scales which at least allows for for more recognition for years experience and so I did want to point those out because that's something that we we didn't cover in the introductory comments that I think is a huge celebration and directly from the voice of employees thank you Dr line I do have some comments but I'm just going to take a glance here yes board member Beyer so I just want to celebrate that yes we're the second largest employer in Durham and yes our folks this is 2200 employees and they have been incredibly patient they've been waiting two years.

For this and these are some of the folks that are working the second and the third and the fourth job jobs and so let's extend all of our gratitude to them for their patience and their advocacy because their bills didn't wait while we were working on this and also acknowledge that the city is in the midst of a salary study themselves I'm sure the county just finished one or is about to start one and as soon as we post these all the districts around us will trickle around trying to take our folks so just need our employees to know we are going to continue pushing for you both our classified and our certified and our certified and our classified we're trying everything we can to to lift you all up because you are doing amazing work with students and Durham and we want you to stay because and get to those 30 years of experience and Beyond so let's keep it up yep thank you thank you any other.

Comments I have a lot of gratitude and you know definitely this is something that our folks have been waiting on and that is the realest thing you know because you know we we often hear from our community that they want more communication and more frequently and every step of the way and you know we're presenting pretty much and I understand that you're seeking approval tonight so that you can go ahead and implement this with the Nuance that includes looking at outliers including you know the system that we have in place the letter the the letter codes for the yes what really work for us and so I'm understanding that there's Nuance in how this will get implemented but I think what this board appreciates is that the general intention of the salary study was to lift up our classified staff and they are getting that the general intention of this was to acknowledge you know that times have change and you know the the living wages and how we compare to others I.

Mean that comparison that context was provided in the salary study I did hear from one of a very important voice in this advocacy that posting something that you know still has information that we may not use will be very confusing and that's that's just I'm just putting that in I I respect my colleagues opinions about whether to post the salary as it is the salary study as it is with you know the things that are not actually going to get implemented but I I did hear back that that will be very confusing for some folks and so I guess at this point I just want to hear what the pleasure of the board is because we have an item here for Action which will give our Administration what they need so they can go ahead and implement it but then also I I heard a request on the floor to to post the salary study as it is with some items that are actually not going to be implemented and so I.

Guess the secondary question for me is you know I want to hear a little bit more about where this board stand is what is what is the pleasure of this board I don't I don't want to confuse folks I do want to be clear so as long as there's some really clear schedules going up very soon I think that's important no one on this board wants to hold up anyone's raises so I'll move that we approve what what do you need me to the final report of the classified if I may I just I was I was going to suggest for when it's when you're ready to make a motion I I've heard that some some of these recommendations are not from the hill report are not being carried over by the administration one example I I know it was for directives right so I do think it's important the motion to be clear as to what aspects of these recommendations are or and are not supporing I don't know whether it's.

Easier to identify those that are not included or to list those that are but I think the motion needs to be clear the other issue that came up was these outliers that need to be designated into some category and I think either those back to the board or if you want to to see the folks also get paid more promptly you might need to delegate some authority to the admin de what you know categories to put those folks in that aren't I just want to do a mic check Dr mua I'm not sure since we're having I think some technical issues with the mic I want to be sure that our colleagues and folks hearing remotely board member Rogers board member Lewis were you able to hear what the attorney just said that we need some clarity around the motion about what parts of the study we're implementing yeah just because there there wasn't a working mic I just wanted to be sure that it could be heard and it was streamed perfect what we.

Have discussed because it is a public document brought to this meeting I mean we do need to post it in its entirety I don't it's a public record that any if anyone could could obtain it on Pawn request whether you post it on your website proactively is a judgment call and there have been some Fair points about whether that might be confusing but my point is just the motion to approve some but not all of these recommendations should just be clear as to which recommendations are being approved and then also I think you want you you need to have a an approach to the the so-called outliers if they're not clearly if there are some employees who AR do not clearly fall into some of these categories but are going to be assigned to one of them then that either has to come back to the board or you authorize the administration to make those determinations all right thank you to our attorney I just want to clarify what we bring you to the board.

Tonight the salary study was already approved by the board except 68 individuals that's why we bring it to you tonight when it comes to the outlier when we're talking about 2200 we're talking about about 100 those are very technical pieces I don't think that we really need to bring that back to the board I will say for the board to trust our HR and finance to do that kind of work tonight we only coming to ask for the 68 persons that were not included which is going to cost us about 330,000 that's the only motion that we're asking so we can finalize this work Dr unclear name those are the directors as the director's piece coordinators and up coordinators and up.

Okay direct isn't up coordinators are included already in the salary study that we approved back in January 12th okay so so so just for context January 12th I believe we we approved the pay scales that were included in the recommendations of the Hill group with the salary study and that left out 68 individuals that that are being addressed today which are directors not coordinators were already included and so directors are you're seeking our approval to use local funds well you're you're going to carry that out you're going to implement that with the funding that we have but you're seeking our approval to make sure those 68 folks out of the 2200 you know get their their pay scales.

Upgraded so it is going to upgrade directors it is going to upgrade directors on up it is not going to be what the hill study is presenting because the fact that it's we didn't have the money to sustain that so just I just like I think the clarity is so important right I think even in this conversation that we had I was like oh wait some things are illuminated to me right now that weren't before so I think as in future conversations as long as we can get as much of this kind of written out and being really clear I think that' just be helpful for us and so I I'm think I'm not sure still on what motion I need to move I can have some help with that because I think again this it's important to be really clear about what we're doing today and I want to do it so just let me know what I need to move our attorney seems to have a.

Comment and I just well I just I sorry yeah we're gonna make sure you have a mic I just I I do think it is I agree if if there's going to be a compensation increase for directors but it's not what's here I think the Board needs to know what that specific recommendation is or delegate authority to the administration within some parameters to to to make that call if we don't have the specific numbers available is is it possible to come back to this item and move to our next so we can give you all a little time to maybe write out how we need to do this motion and then to be clear around who we need to and I did check like the salary study for is posted from January it goes to page 38 and so this one you're saying is identical except it goes further I'm juggling documents but they may have made some minor adjustments to it but nothing of significance correct yeah so and more than likely.

It only benefited people because we had comments on on their study to make sure that we had Clarity and we had distinctions between different job classifications for let's say Child Nutrition managers one two and three we want wanted to make sure that those were appropriately addressed from that standpoint in regards to the motion it would be for the $330,000 to be utilized to give directors on up increases in their salary and to delegate to Administration the outliers that were still finalizing placement on the scales because Hill was not comfortable in making those decisions and it's also that no one is going down in pay that is a fundamental right I mean Assumption of this study so even the people withold harmlessness they're going to have at least a 4% increase no matter what and those whole harmes would have been because we had in previous studies or when they came on board their pay levels were above where the market rate was at this point in time so it's a matter of everybody will.

Get at least. 4% any discussions cheram said I I do hear because what came on our agenda it's the classified compensation study and we did have the salary study attached there were some comments from Community I'm just letting you know just noting for example that EC instructional assistants are going to get paid more and that was something that the this board wanted to talk about I wanted also ESL but you know we will work with what we have because those are the two caps that we are getting from the state there's two vulnerable communities that get capped and that we know that we have more students than what the cap serves and so but in this in this study it just shows that EC instructional assistants are getting their due in terms of getting paid more than than regular I don't like the word regular than our other instructional assistance and so there's a lot to to see in this CL in this study and as board member Beyer pointed out you know.

That is included in our January meeting when when we voted on to approve that salary study you're bringing to us I think what needs to be clear for our minutes and also for this meeting is is explicitly naming the 68 and I I know that we verbalized that and so I think in terms of fur the record it just and because it is for Action like we just want to be able to just highlight that to the community that this is everything that they wanted to learn about the salary study and what we approved happen in January but that today we're looking at 68 the 68 action for the 68 directors you're looking at directors you're looking at executive directors senior executive directors your school School superintendents your Chief groups which are your direct my myself the Dr Lin and and those additional individuals on cabinet those are those are what talking about here can I go ahead and try to make the motion yes did you say a motion yeah.

I want to I want to just I didn't make any comments earlier we were moving towards a motion but I just want to thank everyone for the questions the feedback that's been given answers to the questions those covered questions that I had gave Clarity and even the recommendation I want to Echo the sentiments of having office hours I appreciate the videos that are coming out the learning opportunities that are being made with what these differences are I appreciate the care and sensitivity taken in getting this information out and getting information out correctly when you're dealing with a large body of people and Communications is so important and I hear that intentionality happening so and then Dr mbanga thank you for clarifying it as well it's always helpful to have an in appr pra is exactly what the recommendation is but from what I've heard and have taken down notes I believe that I like to move that we approve the 330,000 increase for director senior directors execu senior executive directors Chiefs superintendents salary study with.

Administration ability to finalize the compensations accordingly also delegating Administration to work on the outliers according as well do I need to name the outliers that we're talking about naming of the. Classifications mic working yes so just to clarify the the motion as I understand it addresses the the points raised about for for clarity for the minutes that the motion would be to approve the the hill group salary study recommendations as presented with the exception of directors and up and for those employees there would be $330,000 that the administration could allocate to those categories of employees and also there would be authorization to assign the the outliers those employees who don't neatly fit into one of these categories into a category for purposes of determining their future salaries is that a fair restatement of the motion yes that is what I said for the most part thank you want to make sure clear thank you I would second that that the attorney said more yeah I think that reflected and just an just a point.

Because in January 12th we approved the salary stud the compensation study so we're not reapproved something that we already approved but this is what he just expressed like approving the the 68 and so I guess our motion I just want to make sure that our motion is clear that we're not redoing something we already did in January correct I mean part of your salary study was to get the funding from the the county if we had to if the state didn't come in with a 4% increase then we would have had to come back and say we're going to need a little bit more to make that happen but they came in with the 4% increase so with that said we were able to move forward with the the full study based on what our projections were all right so it's been moved and seconded Dr Rea you have some comments just clarifying most of these directors they are classified employees as well thank you Dr mubenga all right so.

We have a we've been we have a a motion on the floor that has been properly moved by board member Chávez Lewis and seconded by board member Beyer and I'm going to do a roll call vote and and there's a point of discussion so let's go to board member Chavez I have a question question so is the raises that we are voting on are is are we is there a change in what is it called in like the salary schedule or is it just a raise for this year and what is it based on exactly because I know it doesn't match the the recommendations of the Hill study so no the director's not sorry so so it's looking at directors on up as at s percentage 7% okay and it's where many many of our categories are going to have at least 10 15 20% so understand that the 7% is a is a minimal number that we deemed was appropriate for this time frame and that we could continue to look at directors.

On up in a in a future light in down the road with the county because this is the study brings us closer to the county but we can't afford that based on what what the outcomes were I that's helpful to to know and does it change the S are we we're not voting on a we're just voting on a one time rise not a salary schedule change so we're taking this year's scale for directors and we're increasing those 7% okay from that standpoint I guess to move it up I I'm glad to understand that better the this conversation has been a bit confusing and and so I do I just want to underscore that desire for for clarity on the front end and I do I just wish I had something in front of me that showed what we were voting on and you know if yeah what that like I would have like to see the 7% and all of that just the if we're voting all of the.

Study is about giving an explanation for why why we should pay our staff more and it just feels like we're it was hard to kind of get to the point or to the to the meat of this I think so that's all I want to say I'm in favor of people get getting paid more in general so but but yeah it was kind of hard to arrive here yeah I appreciate it I also had am still struggling because now what I thought was a base for everyone of four then we're at the end of this very comp ated discussion and you're telling us that for our top employees yall used a number of seven and I don't know where you got that number and whether you considered other numbers but these are our folks that have the most to begin with and so that's where where did we get seven and when did folks last get raises and adjustments in those categories knowing that there's not enough for everybody I just and I just.

Want clarify adding to that that seven is even less than with the Hill Center was talking my understanding the Hill Center had a number that was higher than what we could support so the admin so the team has gone and come up with the number that they saw be fitting to get us to where we are now being able to carry the salary where it is I understood that yeah and I I still have the question yeah I want to give the floor to board member Rogers who has a comment and she's joining us remotely yeah but let's board member Rogers we're gonna let Paul lur answer and then we'll we'll come okay thank you so if you look at the hill study from that stpoint she she's absolutely correct that the hill study was as I mentioned was $2.6 Million for us to to implement that that rationale we didn't think that that was doable and we didn't want to come to the board with a $2.6 million request from that.

Standpoint we were able to determine that a 7% increase for these directors on up that aren't even close to what the county or any private Industries paying was a reasonable amount of money for that purpose I I can't you know that they would have gotten 30 40% raises based on the hill study but that's the market rate and we didn't go there we weren't we weren't looking to go there that was that was be nice but that's not what we can do in public education no I appreciate that I just that's that's helpful but also we didn't have people Frozen I mean none none of these categories have been frozen lately right so folks have consistently moved well if you look at the hill study for many years that we were frozen from that standpoint we did a little bit back in 2019 but we for for the overall study but from that standpoint you know 7% is is is a number that that works for us and we we felt comfortable that we.

Could make sure that that was appropriate thank you board member. Rogers thank you I I really have some hesitancy when we approve this for a vast majority of the classified and excluded the 68 we had a very clear or more clear documentation of what we were approving for the larger group of employees at this point we're talking about approving 68 pay pay raises for 68 people on a 7 7% scale we think maybe but we're not quite sure I know that we have a Clos session planned can we is this something we can table so we can get a concrete document posted to the public with full transparency about what we are doing or is this something it can't and that's on Monday so is that something that can't hold till Monday so that we all have a sense of clarity and understanding and transparency to our public about what it is that we're.

Approving that's a motion on the floor so if if we were to vote on Monday does that affect payroll Paul Mr wasur for the end of the month yes because we've held up payroll for a week and a couple of days now which is critical to us getting everything done so I'll just propose something I transparency this Clarity is important we we keep reiterating that today we could move there's a motion on the floor to go ahead and approve these but ask for the schedules to be brought back to our next meeting because I actually do think it's really important for us to talk about that and be honest and transparent about those things so that people know where we are and so that's the pleasure of the board but that might be my proposal that we move forward I don't want to impact people's paychecks at the end of the month and I think we need to be clear about what we're looking at yeah I'm definitely like we have.

Ready to move forward and I we have a motion and we have it's been seconded so I'm going to do a roll call vote and going to start with board member Lewis yeah friendly based on what we've had sh sorry can we board member Lewis since you made this this Amendment a motion would you welcome a friendly Amendment from chair Umstead to include that documentation in our full meeting is that what you said chair Umstead to have the documentation to follow that that shows that outlines the the schule schedule at our next meeting we'd have an outlines to show the schedule that be another motion so I don't know if we could do a second am a motion four would it be another motion is what I'm asking you can have a motion motion to amend which would supersede the motion vote on the motion to amend and then vote on the primary motion or since it hasn't been called for a vote if the movement the board member who made.

The motion wishes to restate the motion that's also fine okay yeah I will restate the motion as stated earlier with the addition that we get the transparency of the compensation study not the study I'm sorry chair so what did you say the scales I I think that's the scale shared by Monday yeah the schedule shared by Monday I said at our next board at our next board meeting next Open session meeting Open Session board meeting what 26 yes agenda item as October 26 as agenda item so we have a motion that has been amended and second second thank you for that yes U board member Beyer property seconded and so I'm going to do aoll call vote board member Lewis Jovonia Lewis I vote I board member Rogers Millicent Rogers I vote no board member Beyer hi board member carterson I board member Chavez I board member Umstead chair Umstead I and I vote I and so the motion carries okay so we are at our next agenda item which is academic services.

And I think our administrators who are bringing this to us I welcome Dr Pitman thank you you have the floor thank you board member valadar and we are excited tonight members of the board Dr mbenga to bring to you our social emotional learning and mental health Improvement plan and that's the plan that has been earmarked for this year this is in alignment with our state board policy that requires every school district to develop such a plan to promote social students mental health and well-being and for addressing and improving the effectiveness of the supports in place around mental social emotional health and substance abuse what's of importance tonight this is being brought forth for information however making note that in the 2526 school year the board will need to approve this by August 1 in accordance with new requirements at this time I'd like to welcome to the podium Dr L Maddox Perry our senior executive director of student Support Services who's going to lead us through the components of the.

Plan Dr. with unclear name thank you Dr Pitman good evening everyone board Dr unclear name and cabinet everyone DPS has been designing a comprehensive seal excuse me social emotional learning and school mental Health Improvement plan through a comprehensive approach for many years we can go on to the next slide please this plan is the result of many years of Vision by our superintendent and board and is in alignment with our strategic plan the comprehensive approach I spoke of earlier has assisted our team in meeting the required components of the social emotional learning and mental health Improvement plan bolstered by the Investments our district has made over the last few years all directly aligned to Priority two of our current strategic plan next slide please during this update we will review the policies requirements and the compliance timeline as mentioned slightly by Dr Pitman earlier we will also learn more about our current infrastructure and the available data Data Systems that will be used to monitor the plan we'll also conclude.

With sharing insights on what we view as successes our current Focus areas and anticipated next steps next. Slide our social emotional learning and mental health Improvement plan is a part of a legislative requirement and state board policy but it also requires us to promote student mental health well-being and to address and improve the effectiveness of our supports for mental and social emotional health as well as substance use the social emotional learning and mental health Improvement plan ex segment segmented into three areas or requirements first there's a social emotional learning and mental health components that are what we consider core or available to and require for all students and staff there's also secondly a system of early interventions that is a part of our established mtss framework and it includes referral treatment and re-entry planning and finally the third component is data collection and evaluation methods to help us track the effectiveness of these supports next slide please as part of our core beliefs as an educational unit dur public schools has.

Had some of these required components in place or in progress long before this policy we have a commitment to Staffing for instance at least one professional school counselor at each school and we're actively working to find ways to add School social workers we have also been creative in finding ways to keep many of our additional mental health counselors in our buildings and and Student Success coaches even after the conclusion of some of the Esser funding for these positions we follow the design qualities for adult learning as we develop our staffing plan we have infrastructure in place currently through a partnership with the office of equity and professional learning to develop staff de development excuse me and training that is informative engaging and includes a mechanism for review revision vision and revisiting key Concepts additionally A Renewed interdisciplinary dur Public Schools mental health planning team will continually Monitor and support our D dur public schools and mental health Improvement plan next slide please in developing this plan we ensure alignment of existing infrastructure and.

Establish new structures according to our needs that help support social emotional learning and mental health through our existing mtss framework our teams on schools and District teams employ a tiered approach to support social emotional learning and mental health and wellness with our new implementation for the Panorama Student Success platform we now have an early warning system and you'll hear a bit more about that later that helps us activate those tiered approaches both the district mtss leadership team and the district mental health planning team will review policies and procedures regularly and make recommendations as needed including what is needed for established re-entry and case management protocols next slide please due to the considerable advancements made as a result of the previous strategic plan we have multiple data sources to evaluate the effectiveness and fiscal Integrity of our social emotional learning and mental health Improvement plan here are a few data sources that Duren Public Schools can utilize and our Duren Public Schools mental health planning team will use to determine the strengths and future needs.

Of our social emotional learning and mental health Improvement plan these sources already exist in our datadriven decision-making model across the district and reassure us that our current infrastructure will support the implementation of a transformative plan for mental health Improvement this includes mental health referral data it tells us how often these services are requested accepted or even declined by families we have our Panorama seal survey data and DPS is own student climate survey data we have discipline Trend data we also have our mtss multi-tier system of support fams which is the self assessment that is conducted at the school level and one is conducted at the district level to look at our framework implementation and of course we have a means for learning about staff perspectives about all these supports through our teacher working condition survey the only tool that may be unfamiliar to some of you is the shape assessment that you see there in the Blue Block the school health assessment and performance evaluation this online workspace allows us to document our efforts assess.

Comprehensiveness and track improvements over time in our school Mental Health Systems next I would like to ask Miss Tamika Ward saterfield director of student wellness and advocacy to elaborate a bit further on the current status of the Duram Public Schools social emotional learning mental health plan as well as the next steps toward full implementation thank you thank you Dr. with unclear name and good evening next slide please it is my pleasure to share this our implementation status and future plans I will highlight a few of the items that are vital to our work this school year using a timeline to honor our current priorities and the ongoing work building on our K5 social emotional learning curriculum adoption and implementation and Following last year's secondary early adopters this year all schools K through 12 will have an SE or have an seal curriculum that they will use to provide classroom instruction on the seal competencies thanks to our strong partnership with the Center for Child and Family Health we have eight schools.

And our district Behavior Support assistance as well as our school social work ERS that are participating in trauma informed leadership training in addition our early warning system called the Student Success dashboard is up and running and training for instructional staff is underway this year we have also prioritized providing refreshed social emotional learning and mental health professional learning to building administrators student support services staff and classified instructional support staff these sessions have focused on suicide awareness and prevention and understanding social emotional learning as well as trauma next slide please during the first three years of plan implementation we maximized the use of our existing structures that could be repurposed restructured and redesigned next now we are creating engaging and innovating as we seek a more comprehensive understanding of the complex and changing needs of our students and staff as we move forward with the plan many of our supports like our seal curriculum will advance from implementation to implementation with Fidelity to support that growth we must ensure effective staff training to.

Maximize the use of mental health awareness information the early warning system restorative practices and mental health transition plan each year we will review document and Report progress success and opportunities for growth and receive feedback from our DPS Community the office of public affairs will assist with communication and Outreach to inform our larger group of stakeholders next slide please our interdisciplinary seal mental health Improvement planning team will be instrumental in creating opportunities for various stakeholders to provide feedback as their contribution to the work for professional development which is a vital component in determining the success of this plan while we will continue to still utilize virtual and asynchronous training options student support services will also seek ways to increase in-person professional development for school-based instructional staff as a driving force underg ging the work we will ensure that our priorities are reflected in the district and school level decisions we make around time and Financial Resources ensuring that allocations support seal and mental health initiatives we deem vital to the holistic Wellness of our students and.

Our staff a comprehensive list of current and anticipated expenditures will help to steer the conversation about how to provide sustainable funding for all aspects required to fulfill implementation of this state board of education policy now I will turn it back over to Dr Pitman thank you Mr W safield and Dr Max Perry We Appreciate You leading this effort it should be noted that this plan while being presented by student Support Services has been a multiple Department inter collaborative area and I'd like if I may just to give a thanks and a shout out to research and accountability the office of equity Affairs Safety and Security and public affairs and there may be others but indeed this is an in brated inter collaborative plan and we're most appreciative to everyone that's brought it forth tonight at this time I'd like to welcome any questions the board members may have board members any questions or discussion I'm going to check on our colleagues who are calling in remotely if you have any discussion or feedback for.

Administration thank you for this presentation it's helpful I know Durham has been on mental health support for quite some time and seeing the state get behind it is exciting because we know that this information is or this way to support our students and our families is very helpful to improving their learning outcomes and their learning environments the things that I would like to see as we move forward in terms of what's Happening Now with theal curriculum in all schools and the reporting tools for bullying I great I think it's great that we're doing this stuff i' like to see some information around how much time our students are spending in the in the programs or with the mental health support people or however it is presented in their schools and their buildings i' also when we contract out with companies I'd like us to be mindful and being attentive to if they have correlation studies to let us know that this work is indicative in increasing attendance at school or reducing suspensions or helping students.

In a particular kind of way whatever it's related to and I'd like us to be attentive to whose responsibility it is to report back to the board outcomes or if the work is deemed successful because I don't think that always has to fall on our staff that some of these vendors that are providing this support to our students Educators and our families can do that work for us if we just include that in the contract so those are things that I'd like us to be Forward Thinking about as we move into implementing this with the intent of the state with the intent that the state has in mind but thank you so much for leading this work and getting us where we need to go thank you board member Rogers board member Lewis do you have any yes thank you so much for this presentation it is always nice to know when we are ahead of the state and many ways that we often are this is a comprehensive plan and I think it was.

Very detailed and I appreciate the summarization through this PowerPoint that you shared tonight but there's just so many more details and layered that I just hope that everyone will open up the full document and board docs from board docs are in the agenda to read a lot of the details that you all left out I do want to just clarify a question how many how many col located Mental Health Providers do we have right now that work with our schools we currently have eight providers that it was six last year right yes there was six now we're at eight and with these collocated Mental Health Providers with the expansion of Medicaid will that be supportive and getting more students to be seen as I know that sometimes Insurance have been a factor in the past go ahead I'm sorry I'm sorry pardon me I just wasn't sure if you understood the question are they factoring in is this helpful that the expanded medicaid would that help our coated Mental Health.

Providers is my question so our collocated providers meet monthly as a PLC and that excuse me our collocated providers meet monthly as a PLC with our district mental health specialist and that is one of the things that they have been talking about are these changes and how they'll leverage those changes to support our students wonderful and then my last question I remember getting a report during our compens compensation I'm still on compensation during our presentation regarding the Panorama data now panorama's been new to our district and one of the results was there's a low sense of belonging for our middle school students and that was a great concern I wanted I wanted some targeted interventions to happen in Middle School and I know that's been the desire for you all as well can you share any updates on strategies DPS has been using to support a sense of belonging for particularly our middle school students when the Panorama data showed us that's where they did not feel that sense of.

Belonging what kinds of things is DPS doing that's a great question so when we mentioned the mental health counselors middle schools are one of the targeted communities that did retain a mental health counselor not every middle school but some targeted ones around students taking advantage of some of the supports that are already in the school and accessible and we wanted to increase that additionally as we said the secondary schools including our middle schools have had an opportunity to select their own social emotional learning curriculum to increase the students ability to learn about their own competencies we are working on training schools assisting them participating in their school Improvement presentations to provide support where they need that to increase a sense of belonging in their buildings we also are introducing something that we really excited about and we we are breaking news tonight some peer group connections to increase that in some of our middle schools we currently have a program like that that is also accessible in our high schools.

But we'd like to do more direct vertical efficacy and and capacity building with our middle school so those are just some initial things that we are doing with the middle school but we're really keen on focusing on increasing that peer-to-peer connection excellent thank you I look forward to hearing more about that that's all my questions thank you board member Lewis and I'm going to pass ask my colleagues here on the floor if any of you have any discussion or comments board member I'd lean towards the social worker okay board member.

Chavez okay board member CA Aon thank you so much I'm very proud to be part of a district that provides this much support to our students and I recognize the hard work that you all and your teams and everybody on the ground does to support our kids I'd asked some questions when we discussed this earlier and one followup is the so collocated Mental Health Providers we have eight now it's my understanding that we currently they serve there's somebody assigned to all schools so like all schools have access to this now right which is wonderful and but there's still some students that are not that are being referred but are not receiving Services right and so I guess if we could talk a little bit more about why that might be if it is that there's not the capacity still do we have to what extent do we have Partnerships with other mental health agencies and a referral system in place so we can support all of those students so from our experience it has.

Not been a capacity issue we are working to help raise the awareness and education about what collocated services are so that when parents students and families are referred for those Services except the referral for those services that they really understand what they're asking for and they're eager to engage in that relationship we find that many of those declinations are because they really just didn't understand what it was going to be about not capacity so education and awareness is how we're bridging that Gap we are also providing extra contracts and compensation to our agencies that are working really hard to increase their ability to provide services in multiple languages during that connection phase when they're making first contact with families to on board them into their agencies to make sure that there's no lag and no Gap and understanding what the service is going to be great that's wonderful thanks for Prov providing that clarification and additional information especially about language services and reasons folks might not be accessing and what you're doing to address.

That board member Chavez thank you for this presentation I think this is one of the critical like pillars of our work it's intimately tied into academic outcomes and what we are here for so with the plan here this seems to be the PSU Improvement plan seems to be the one from 2020 one is that true or is there an updated one because it references some of the stuff in the pandemic and yeah yes so the plan began in 2021 and we make gentle improvements or big improvements depending on what's the need each year so this year's plan is different it is reviewed each year by the state they send us feedback and we attempt to incorporate that feedback as well as our community feedback that we receive okay so is this then is this the updated plan or okay yeah okay so these numbers are current that are in here about how many counselors and social workers okay all right that's helpful to know and some other questions with with.

The collocated services I was just wondering if you could tell us more about what they what they do to overcome some of the stigma around around Mental Health Access there are obviously particular stigmas in different communities among black or latinx communities there are sometimes fears from undocumented or mix status families about engaging with institutions you know like the the different places that we contract with so I was wondering what they and also you know there's there's a huge lack of therapists of color and then therapists who hold you know multiple marginalized identities Al latinx lgbtq person for example or something like that and not that there always has to be identity matching but anyway I'm just wondering what there you know what is sort of what are we doing or what are those Services doing to to really get access to to students and families that might have some feelings of sense of stigma around Mental Health Services well what we're doing initially is we are trying to make sure.

That everyone is just aware of what collocated mental health services are and what we've seen in recent years is that we've had fewer declinations as we have been more vocal about what is available to students and as a response to what we know were some of the mental health and social emotional crisis that came out of the post-pandemic era if we can say that additionally we have plans to work with our office of of public affairs to go about a a truly a marketing campaign around our social emotional learning and mental health Improvement plan that includes our collocated mental health agencies as a normal way of gaining more and more resources the same way you know a student would have anything else if they had a need if they needed assistance with tutoring they would definitely accept that so we are trying to work with with with the office of public affairs to make sure we're doing that in a way we're also removing some of the stress about exactly who is the.

Contact at each School each school does have a designated contact who does outreach and we're working on a comprehensive student services team in buildings so that it is not if you don't get to the one person who holds the information you don't get the services we are actually making sure that our student services teams are comprehensive and collaborative and able to share with students and we're consistently talking about a it is Our obligation and our desire to make sure that all of our students are socially emotionally and mentally well so we continue to keep it in the Forefront and so when you thank you for that and then when you refer to the designated contact and the team that's the the school teams that are listed in here yes and at this point in time do every single one of our schools have those teams established yes every one of our teams has a contact excuse me every one of our schools has a contact as well as a team.

Okay all right that is great to hear I have a number of questions I was wondering about theal curriculum which I'm so happy that we have in all of our schools I when we visited Jordan last year I was asking students what they thought about it and and so I was I wanted to know just what well let me back up we have plans to make sure that it's implemented to Fidelity and so and I think that's very important are we evaluating the curriculum and outcomes of it now or and if so how how are we evaluating it how are changes being made even in this year the second year for the secondary schools well one thing that we're doing is almost and you welcome to join wfi is we're taking a PLC approach so all the schools who are utilizing the same social emotional learning curriculum are able to get together and discuss what our initial successes U additional supports that they need what has worked in one school and and being able.

To share that so that within itself is some way of gaining some access to how effective it is initially in this first year additionally we are working with our vendors to create Fidelity indicators we have some based on our own work but now that we've had we've added two new providers we're working with them as well to have some very clear indicators that we can utilize and share with our teams each year that's great to hear too because I think the PLC I mean approach sounds like that's the the quickest way to get teachers you know supported in in delivering this curriculum that is new to our district and new I'm sure to many of them so that's that is good to hear I was also wondering about the Sparks groups and it I think you said we have two are are there plans to expand those and what are those what are those efforts looking like thank you for asking about that every year we recruit School te teams pairs to.

Run Sparks groups and so it is voluntary we are trying to and and the number has fluctuated year to year last year I believe we had four so it fluctuates year to year so as we get new staff in student Support Services we try to make sure that they understand what the sports groups are what the time commitment for training would be what the benefits for students and themselves are and recruit them to conduct sports groups and we ask those people who have been through the spars training to share in our monthly meetings with because they're primarily school counselors and school social workers to share with their colleagues their experience going through those training with recruitment all right that's that's good to hear as well I think that's so important again the community aspect and making sure that students have access to that kind of support group or supportive learning environment and then I wanted to ask about DC we have a number of students who get in trouble for using.

Substances I believe mainly marijuana I wanted to see what is if you could tell us more about DC and what kind of an overview like how do they approach the the treatment and where do we see the greatest impact and and any limitations I'm concerned because I don't it doesn't seem like a lot of students access those Services and so I want to you know get it how can we address address that so we've been working with school administrators and trying to increase the use of of that alternative and like most of our alternatives to suspension it is something that does require some at home outside of school commitments as well as a parent commitment and oftentimes we don't get it you know because there still is a you know some stigma around being tied to you know possession of drugs or use of drugs at school so that is one issue now we hear a lot from our school teams that some of the limitations are that you.

Know they'd like to see us be able to perhaps utilize something like our Co located mental health system where we could have some in school use and and counseling for students around that we have our principles will re recommend an alternative to suspension for the first possession possession use and so there is a recommendation with every first possession however you know there is that limit ation about making sure that we have families and and students to follow through so we're consistently working on that with a lot of our Alternatives but particularly Dak is one that we are working.

On let me stop there and let other other colleagues ask questions thank you so much thank you I did get a text message about our colleagues who are joining us remotely I believe board member Rogers you have some comments you got my comments already okay I'm good okay you we're we're trying to navigate this and I saw the text message and I know you went first but wanted to Circle back and now GNA go back to board member Beyer thank you all so much this is as Miss javz said some of them our most important work and it's great to see l out how we're investing extra in Durham counselors right and some of that with Federal money that might continue to need to be sought locally as that changes I was wondering how do we have kind of like we had the ABC science collaborative do you all have a panel of local experts that gather on the regular the Roundtable kind of group that if provide ERS like.

I've had you know questions from ALU Toro's director like do you all welcome th those folks as we continue to evolve best best practices in this and is there some situation they could join. You yes our as I mentioned our collocated providers meet monthly in that PLC and we are able to leverage that opportunity to talk through some of the activity situations that are rising up in our school Community they also are very quick to lend their expertise not only to that group and to us as District leaders but also to schools as crisis occurs we also through our partnership with the Center for Child and Family Health they consult with us on almost on many of our crisis situations and our on ongoing effort to respond to community violence and Trauma that's great and I know that they would you're always able to have more folks join that conversation that'd be great one thing that a lot of us I think heard last year when we went to Durham School.

Of Technology is that we had a lot of providers and services but our students weren't necessarily aware at of those at all and so I'm wondering what we're doing to better communicate what what is available to our students and our families so that in a moment of Crisis that is not when they're scrambling but that they proactively know all of this besides this millions of people watching us tonight how are we getting that word out there to families about what is available with coated good Services well we do believe that the greatest champions of that work are the people that the the families trust which is of course the school teams so we try to support that work but we also recognize that there has been a need for us to increase District involvement and making sure that message is received by our families and so that is one reason that we have reached out for partnership with u office of public affairs to make sure we're doing everything from adding more to our.

Own website for families to access we have actually revitalized some of our resources we're going to re restructure our Embrace website which is our seal Hub that houses a lot of resources for families is still active but we are putting more things in there that are more relevant to some things that are going on now so we're we're continually working on that from a district level but we do believe that you know parents trust their schools and so we want to support that within the school level if we can oh for sure I just I want us to make sure that families know about it being free as well or you know that kind of thing that is that is and that it's available within the school day right because it's such a struggle to get folks to Providers we also had a provider reach out about their their expertise was in trafficking I think we connected you all did did they that person it was a counselor that works with children that.

Are at risk for trafficking and I hope that y'all connected and and got those folks in our schools data do you have data that you could share with us just on what you learned from Panorama how often we're doing you know U mental health screens for for students how many of our students have received Mental Health First Aid training like more data that wasn't in this presentation that you could share at another time or I mean I know y'all have tons of data but stuff like that was what I was hoping to see in the future absolutely we can work with u Dr Pitman Dr mainga and bring back whatever you desire to to have some information but we do have that data we are in the midst of our Universal screener with Panorama right now and and working through that with some of our schools and really excited about some of the participation rates too much we're going to go to board chair Umstead yes thank you all so much.

Exciting that we're doing this work exciting that we're supporting our students in their mental health I going to keep my try to keep my questions the comments brief got two though one how is the whole schools movement with the D Public Schools Foundation also interacting with the plans that we already have so we're we're walking hand in hand we have been fortunate to have H additional grant funding that supports a position in in student Support Services to work with the model schools so that is one thing that happens we actually are collaborating with the director at the public schools Foundation who is in charge of the whole school's model as a department once a month to make sure that all of our efforts are aligned and that for instance training that may be offered specifically at the whole schools model schools are consistent with the things that we're offering across a grade span or in a feeder pattern so we are working with them very closely they're very close Partners yes.

Right my second question is harder or maybe not though we know that we use a lot of federal funding to fund a lot of our programs and I feel like I'm always the one to ask this question about a lot of things but we know that students mental health challenges won't be resolved when the federal dollars in and so I'm curious if you all are already thinking about what does it mean when some of those dollars leave and maybe a follow-up item for us as a board to know what how much money is currently being used how much you might need to continue to do the same level of service I know we added counselors mental health support a lot of different things that are being funded with the federal dollars which I think is really great and I keep thinking about how do we make sure we support our students when those dollars are gone.

Thank you so much I do have some comments and but also wanted to know if do you have any more no I was I was I GNA attempt to answer you warned me that it was gonna be harder but we absolutely what you have now and then what might be in follow up yeah right right we definitely can bring back the request or you know just an idea like she said of a comprehensive list of allocations that would be useful to continue some of the funding one of our big focuses as a department and really through academic Services is around training and being able to have a capacity building so that we can have some of the things that we need to continue be sustainable through our own efforts so that is also a big part of why we're making a lot of initial Investments so that we can do a lot of trainer trainer a lot of building capacity among our staff so that we can sustain some of this stuff without being.

So costly but yes we'll have a list of what ARS will be that'll be helpful and it also makes me think about like a cycle right even if you have this in Fusion of investment now three four years and now you kind of need to refresh and re you know as different people come in and out of different rols so how do we get the right cycle and what is the funding to for that so thank you all thank you so much and I do have a couple of comments because this is such an important work as you've heard and just first gratitude because you know throughout this entire time I know that I've learned so much about the work that is happening at your department and ways that we continue to address barriers and my colleagues have already mentioned you know we need more therapists of color because a lot of our kids will not go to therapy if it's just somebody who is just going to listen to them and not.

Maybe connect in the same way and so for our our students we've you know over the years I've just I've just seen the intentionality of like working with diverse providers including language access especially for Spanish speaking families sometimes the therapy needs to carry out into the home and it includes the parents and so it's important to have and continue to provide you know for for our families that are diverse that speak more you know a different language other than English our immigrant families and but something else that also in talking with Community you know this is work that the community is also watching especially in light of recent events and you know lifting up gun violence and violence in general that is happening and has happened in our communities and how important it is after the pandemic we saw quite an uptick but it's been a recurrent problem we've had over years and so now that we have 100% of our schools 100% in our schools that is something to.

Celebrate and I just want to sit with that right now because every single one of our schools based on our strategic plan I remember from 2018 Dr mubenga when we you know crafted the first strategic plan in 2018 and we said you know one of our goals was 100% you know of our schools and we worked towards that and we got really close and 2023 now we're at the dawn of the new strategic plan starting out and our schools already have met 100% And that is something that that is very important within that there's more conversations about you know Castle accreditation which we I know in our in our different meetings we've kind of talked about that and how you continue to hold that rubric right to all of our providers I want to uplift the efforts of black also you know working with some of our schools and providing opportunities for students I want to lift up the dart team as well you know Jess bcet and the county folks who.

Have been meeting and talking about ways to support Duram Public Schools including along with trauma resilience neurode Divergence mental illness being ways to really make this School District grapple with some of these these issues and to be trauma informed which means there's no shame in any of this right and so you know we can all continue to to to talk about this and and talk about it openly that there is support but that it doesn't take away from anybody because they have to you know get support I mean that's what we're all about we all need help we all need somebody to lean on don't let me get started in singing now but you know so so there's been a lot of work that has happened and the community conversations right now they're also looking at the bigger things so even though tonight what you brought to our agenda is you know social emotional learning seal and school mental health Improvement plan this is so connected to discipline data and.

You you've seen some questions around along Dak and discipline there's been the question about restorative practices and folks want to hear more about that and I'm just kind of uplifting that I know that that is not what this particular point is about but it touches on how we continue to be trauma informed in every single thing that we have and as Dr Pitman mentioned you know this really ties in with so many other departments the office of accountability and research it ties in with our Equity office it ties in with our multi Resource Center you know it ties in with with ESL it ties in with everyone I mean all our academic Services I mean this is important work I guess my question is in terms of Partnerships and I've mentioned you know trauma and I know that there's so many folks who have met with you and wanted to talk to you about you know whether it's it's try Durham try whether it's gosh some of my colleagues and I met with.

Kristen I believe from I'm going to get in trouble but support for for for students who are pregnant and needs the additional support and this is the heart team heart heart program I want to uplift the heart program and so I really appreciate you know the ways that you know we continue to have these conversations with Partners the ptas have also in the past I have attended safety mental health kind of talks that they they'll bring somebody from Community to have conversations and so there our pts are also doing that I'm wondering if because we have all this information here if we can continue continue to build and Shout out that work because I want you to also get those shout outs as to like how we're contining to keep an eye on all the different partners and what things they're doing and I know that we can't possibly know everything that is happening because our our schools are taking initiative and they're they have relationships with certain folks but.

As we continue to the same way we did for the community engagement and some partners that come in and offer services when it comes to mental health supports the collocated is one piece and then some of these other Partnerships Durham tilt the Tilt program coming out of Duke is is a partner and so I just I know that we've had in previous presentations logos right the different logos of folks and and where they are and this is going to be work that is going to be ongoing so I just want to continue to just shout out the Partnerships and just also figure out like ways that we can continue to like showcase you know how we're growing those those supports even beyond what is being offered inside the building so that there's connection with community community so just a thought and really appreciate the work that you do thank you okay with that we are at the summary of follow-up items unless there's any more discussion did you have any more discussion Jessica no okay.

Sorry just looking around and our colleagues also online seem to be okay I'm just double- checking are we ready to move to summary of follow-up items yes okay thank you. Members good evening boy members I have followup items this is my first time taking over so please forgive me if I forgot something the first one I have is followup with the parent that spoke at the board meeting tonight and Dr Giovani actually went out and spoke to her before she left so that has been taken care of next Dr Mingo will identify principles who will provide feedback to the board regarding policy 3410 just for additional feedback number three salary schedules need to be brought back to the board at the next meeting November 26 as an agenda item number four how much time our students are spending in the program who report out comes back to the board when it comes to seal and mental health also data from Panorama screening and rates of participation brought back to the board as well and.

Finally a comprehend comprehensive list of Staffing and a plan on when funding expires for Essa and that okay thank you so we are those were our summary followup items if anybody has any feedback on that I would like to just take one point of personal privilege because I have the floor I mentioned you know initially that you know this was Hispanic Heritage Month and our city has done a proclamation for Hispanic Heritage Month and our governor governor Cooper also issued a proclamation and the White House also has a proclamation and I'm not going to read them because we're not going to be here all night but you know I I found something about what President Biden said in reference to Hispanic herriage each month he said I've Al often said that America can be the fin in one word possibilities the Hispanic Community has embodied that ideal lives the dreams not only for those who arrived here but the legacy of families that have been here for centuries and I really like that.

Acknowledgement because you know in our school district we have families that may be recent arrivals but we are so we're not a monolith and we have legacies that have been here for a long time and even as an immigrant and probably the only immigrant here on the board not not the only Hispanic board member but immigrant in in in a way my roots go back you know to this land for a long time when I think about ancestry and even some of the the wonderful data that is coming out about indigenous communities trading so I really appreciated the work of having these proclamations and I know that we continue to exemplify this in our resolutions and I just want to shout out the the resolutions that we have passed that acknowledge these populations that you know want to be reflected and want to be seen and there's more in it so I do encourage folks to just go to the White House website read the proclamation to the governor governor Cooper's website read his.

Proclamation to our city of of Durham city council passed a resolution as well and our resolutions here are functional but if any community members have any resolutions that they think need to be added we are here and we will we have met we worked together to make sure that we pass more resolution solutions that acknowledge you know what our families want to that reflect our families and reflect the intentions of our community and so with that I will entertain a motion to go into Clos session thank you for that reflection I really appreciate you sharing that and with that I would move that we go into Clos session for the reason reasons stated on the agenda second all right it's been properly moved by board member Byron seconded by board member Chavez and now I'm going to do a roll call vote and I'm going to start with our colleagues who are joining us remotely board member Lewis this is Jovonia Lewis I vote I board member Rogers this is Millis and Rogers and I.

Vote I thank you board member Beyer hi board member Jessica card hi board member Emily Chavis I board member Umstead I and I vote I as well and we are now going into close session thank you than.

You.

We're back in Open Session Dr mubenga Madame chair I'm here to seek your approval for the Personnel report as discussed at the close session move approval of the Personnel report dated October 12th 2023 second been properly moved and seconded by board member Beyer and seconded by board member Rogers I'm going to do a roll call vote board member Lewis Stan Le I vote I member Rogers ment Rogers I vote I board member by I board member Jessica cardo Aon I board member Emily Chavis I board member patina umer I and I vote I as well and so it passes unanimously and now we are adjourned.