Board of Education · Work Session · September 14, 2023

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Board of Education

September 14, 2023 · Full Transcript

I'd like to call to order this work session on the September 14th of 2023 the first item on our agenda this.

Public Comment foreign. So before we begin public comment a quick review of the rules please state your name if speaking for an organization please state your name and the name of the organization second speakers are asked to present their comments in three minutes when the yellow light comes on you have one minute left to start winding up your remarks when the red light comes on it will beep which indicates your time is up complaints about names staff students or parents should not be voiced in open session however we're 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 a discussion of the speakers thank you our first speaker is Camila lamond did I pronounce that correctly it's Camila Lamont Camila Lamont good evening everyone I am the mother of a Northern High School student we were very excited and were amongst.

The first people to enter the building on August 31st when open house was finally scheduled we had an opportunity to pick up a Chromebook we visited a classroom and waited in a very long line to learn. Who her guidance counselor was just some general information because we had questions and we were excited the open house ended abruptly that's the nicest way that I can say that school started there have been some challenges every day I am here after sending Dr mubenga and his executive assistant and an email which has been unanswered about when we parents might have another opportunity to visit Northern with our students so that we can learn what wonderful things will be offered in that building so that we can see the classrooms and the facilities right it's a gorgeous building I pass it every day I have no idea what's inside of it on Monday Northern High School went under a lockdown for about three hours I couldn't even envision where my child might be in that building.

I am asking you to find some time to schedule an opportunity for this community to learn about where we are sending our students every day especially in the midst of of a number of crises that I hear about concerning safety of children in this community I'm happy to re-email you and I hope to hear from you.

Thank you our next public comment is from Tamara Lynn okay thank you next is Fenton McDonnell.

Good evening my name is fit McDonald and I'd like to seed my three minutes to Katie mcgonnell next on the list thank you. Thanks pops the key to any sustainable and successful relationship is trust a five-letter word one syllable word that means so much let me take a second and tap that out for you trust District leadership in this room appointed committees and other Personnel that drives your decision making continue to violate my trust in you as a board and as a district I am a mother of two current DPS students a resident of Durham County and your employee I am your ultimate stakeholder as a resident of Durham County I was promised that my tax dollars would be funding the creation of a new school building that would open to our students on Monday August 23rd it was to provide our young people with state-of-the-art opportunities in the areas of the facility itself campus security academic and trade opportunities and Superior athletic facilities instead our young people were provided with not.

One but two delayed starts one which was unprofessionally and inappropriately placed the responsibility of telling your general public on the administration of Northern High School where he had to blame the delay on teachers access to the building due to a single weather event when the reality was the building wasn't ready it was not up to code when the school finally opened there was Zero state of the art security there is caution State caution tape still surrounding the unfinished stairwell and the small group space there is limited access to the academic and trade opportunities because of multiple incompletions to the interior design and zero athletic fields the continued rental of Durham Stadium should not be coming out of my pocket it should be coming out of yours not this District's your 96 million dollar project should have planned and prepared for construction delays contract Contracting snefus and multiple weather events and when leadership knew there was going to be a delay you should have publicly announced it to us as your stakeholders.

Your presence on Roxboro Road has created a traffic nightmare during arrival and dismissal not to mention the traffic brought to a standstill on North Duke Street the morning of August 23rd when you held your 64 685.36 pep rally at Durham Stadium that money spent on the event provided nothing to the children you serve in this District but it certainly did a lot for your image as a resident of Durham I no longer trust you with my money or my community as an employee my outspokenness regarding the deplorative execution of the growing together initiative speaks for itself you can Rebrand it any way you want to but we will not forget I honestly believed that you hurt us you came to our school you looked Us in the eye and you apologized and then you turned around and did the exact same thing to the School of Creative Studies in an instant with no notice you ripped apart their Community a community that has existed long before these were your seats.

I trusted you not to make the same mistake again and you did your employees are people we go to work every day and we build strong vivacious communities and we give it our all and yet when it comes to massive dis or changes you treat us like pawns on your chessboard you required my attendance at your one hour convocation that cost me nearly four precious professional hours your continued Detachment and lack of awareness of what it takes and what I need to successfully teach in this district is appalling I am standing here alone tonight because I am representing myself but the troops they are coming we are done taking on More For Less as an employee I do not trust you as a parent I promised my children I would not get emotional here tonight I will simply say as a mother I do no longer trust you to do what is best for my children as angry and as disappointed as I am with this District I'm more disappointed in myself.

I was offered the opportunity to remove my children and myself from your narrative but I didn't because I trusted you I trusted each one of you John Maxwell stated in his work the 21 laws of leadership trust is the foundation of leadership without trust a Leader's influence becomes Hollow and ineffective if District leadership would no longer like to be Hollow in ineffective then please listen to the two most influential words spoken by the greatest football coach who ever lived coach irk Russell he said do right.

That concludes our public comment we have a list of consent items on our agenda this evening a through f our consent items have been vetted by school board members we've thoroughly reviewed all documents before the meeting and asked our questions board members.

Again with roll call vote board member viadatis yes. You're cutting out a little bit could you repeat that please. Okay can you hear me yes yes this is thank you so much board member Lewis this is Jovonia Lewis and I vote I thank you board member Rogers aye board member Beyer aye Mr Umstead aye aye Vice chair Chavez aye and I vote I passes unanimously okay the next item on the agenda is purchasing and construction thresholds and that a good good evening board members Dr mabanga community members this is brought before the board we're bringing several policies for a second reading and we are requesting approval just for some history if you recall last year the administration brought to the board several purchasing policies and contractual policies requesting an increase from 90 000 to 300 000 as the initial purchasing threshold the board approved that and then on additional consideration and conversation with Mr lasur and some other members of the leadership team we just weren't comfortable with that jump from 90 to.

300 000 and then we Administration brought back to the Border requests to reduce from 300 to 200 000 included in those policies last year was the requirement that Administration bring back for the board's review every year these thresholds for the board to consider and also included in that is if there is a change in the superintendent or the CFO even if it isn't at the end of the year that is this these policies are to be brought back for the board's consideration for what is approved and allowed to be done without this board's review and approval as part of that process Mr lesour and I have worked together and on these policies and we brought back to the board for your consideration it was last month these additional amounts and after much conversation the board requested what administration recommended that those amounts be reduced from 200 000 to 150 000 and from 500 000 for construction and capital to four hundred thousand and I have made those edits in.

The policy drafts that you have before you in policies 64-20 6430 64 50 9030 9110 and 9120 the second part of this presentation board members you have not seen before and I wanted to make sure that we had that conversation that is clear that this is the first time that I'm bringing it to you as you were aware durum has is in the midst of much construction and Rod Malone the board's attorney sitting next to me is the Premier Construction attorney in North Carolina and he's too humble to admit that but it is true and as we were looking through all of these multiple contracts that our Building Services team has done we noted that policy 9120 was had not been updated or amended since 2016.

And as part of that Mr Malone recommended that we add the language in the precies dispute resolution process that's statutorily required and so we are asking the board to somewhat wave second reading on this dispute resolution piece since you hadn't seen it before and if Mr Malone wants to win or if you have any questions either one of us are happy to answer them so all of these policies are before the board again on second reading second reading issue on the dispute resolution piece but we are asking for approval of these so that our staff will know what those thresholds are going forward in the school year thank you thank you so much I'd like to open up the discussion yes board member Beyer thank you so much thank you Miss Giovanni and thank you Mr Malone for those updates I wanted to share some thoughts this evening at our August 24th board meeting we discussed revising purchasing and construction thresholds and changes needed within six existing board policies during that lengthy discussion.

I made a statement which contrasted two consultant service vendors one with nine purchase orders totaling over a hundred thousand dollars and the other with 13 purchase orders totaling over two hundred and eighteen thousand dollars the purpose of my comparison was in no way intended to put forward that m m education group had too much work with the school system or that they should do less work for the school system I only intended to draw a comparison between two school system vendors in a larger conversation regarding the dollar thresholds for the superintendent's Contracting Authority to be clear Eminem education group is a beloved durham-based black women-led small business and an important partner in serving Durham students and the Greater Community it is important to me that our principles are empowered to select Community Partners for the students they serve as you all know our board and I together consistently work to increase mwbe participation and support local businesses I apologize to Eminem education group if my comparison suggested otherwise thank you thank you.

Any other comments or questions from board members yes the Chavez thank you for bringing these policies back to the board and I had a question about the new section the dispute resolution process if if you could just share with us exactly what it means for the board to be a party to the dispute and the board paying at least one third of the costs that gotta ask about that what budget does that come out of well it'll it would theoretically come out of the individual construction project budget typically the statute requires the board to pay one-third of the amount so we didn't just pick that other year and basically these are all contracts in which the board would have entered into an agreement like I won't say Northern but one of your construction contracts and well you would certainly be a party through the contract and the idea of it being a third is that the statute kind of contemplates that it would be the owner of the architect and the contractor potentially in the.

Dispute most of the disputes actually end up being two parties and you end up splitting it half this is what happens anyway it's just that the the statute requires you to have this policy when we were doing the construction management at risk contracts for the recent projects that you entered into when we went to grab this policy to include it in the bit in their materials we realized that it didn't exist so this is to correct that so that this language can then be cut and pasted into the construction contracts that you just entered into for those the current projects that are in design thank you for explaining that that's great that we're getting up to code as we should thank you.

Thank you any other comments questions discussions. I'm we've been wrestling with this for a while so unless others have discussion I would be ready to move approval of policy 6420 64 30 64 50 90 30 91 10 9120 and waive second reading of 9120 as presented second. Okay okay motion from board member Beyer and second by board member Lewis any other discussion okay we can go ahead and vote them board member viadatas yes this is remember Lewis this is javaya Lewis naborai remember Rogers aye board member Beyer aye sure.

And I vote I passes unanimously thank you okay the next item on the agenda is the district one District Title One plan 2023 2024. Good evening board members thank you for this opportunity to present to you Title One District plan for 23-24 I am joined by Dr Danner and he will lead this well he'll drive this presentation and afterwards we will seek approval of the 23-24 title 1 District plan. Thank you Dr Stewart good evening Dr babinga and board members next slide please next slide the district Title 1 plan is aligned to build on our future strategic Priority One Foster academic Excellence gold 1A by 2028 90 of DPS students and schools will meet RSC standards for year-to-year academic growth as measured by the state model next slide please the plan also aligns with priority four cultivate meaningful and authentic Community engagement go for B by Spring 2024 DPS will develop and Implement tools to listen and determine family needs by 2024 DPS will use these findings to support schools in designing.

Effective meaningful family engagement programming by 2026 100 percent of schools will Implement and evaluate such programming next slide please next slide please the elementary and secondary Education Act of 1965 adds reauthorized by the every student CC's Act of 2015 provides funding to public school units local education agencies with high percentages of children from low-income families to support all children in meeting challenging State academic standards the goal of title one is to ensure economically disadvantaged children receive a fair Equitable and high quality education by closing the achievement Gap next slide please the district prioritizes Title One funding in the following categories professional learning supplemental instructional resources instructional coaching such as teaching and learning coaches class size reduction and family engagement next slide please the comprehensive School Improvement planning cycle is used to support schools with school Improvement planning before the end of each Academic Year School Improvement teams and Title 1 schools complete a comprehensive needs assessment to develop their school Improvement plan and align the school and level Title 1 funding the plan is.

Monitored by the district Improvement team and the office of federal programs to ensure schools meet their goals for the year next slide please to determine School allocations the following data were used in accordance with Federal guidance Community eligibility provision cep April 2023 report free reduced lunch report April 30 October 31st 2022 average daily membership month to report 2022 School allocations support the instructional program and the required set aside for parent family engagement as required by the every student succeeds Act next slide please Research indicates early intervention Narrows the learning Gap Title 1 funds are prioritizing 35 Title 1 schools 28 Elementary and seven middle seven middle to provide supplemental instruction and support literacy and math achievement Mangum Elementary is the newest Title One School next slide please next slide please it's going to be very difficult for you to see these numbers they're plenty allotment for the 23 24 school year is 12 million 516 837 a difference of one hundred and six thousand 633 dollars from the 22 23 school year.

Private schools are eligible to receive Title One funding in accordance with the every student's disease Act private schools requesting Title 1 funding receiving Equitable Services proportional share based on the estimated per people allotment of 882 dollars and 87 cents a total of 48 000 557.79 will support approximately 55 low-income students in the private school setting once the private school share is determined the remaining amount of 12 million 486 thousand two hundred and seventy nine dollars and twenty one cent is planned the district set aside includes parent family engagement funds to support schools with offering meaningful family engagement programs 124 682.79.

Homeless students and youth funds are used to support the needs of homeless students two hundred and ten thousand dollars administrator support include salaries of Title One personnel and direct and indirect cost one million three hundred and seventy thousand seven hundred and ninety one dollars and forty eight cents School Improvement intervention District funds are used to support schools identified as targeted support and Improvement schools with supplemental resources to increase subgroup achievement a hundred and sixty thousand dollars Early Childhood funding which supports approximately 23 Title 1 pre-kindergarten classrooms including salaries for teachers instructional assistance and summer learning two million four hundred and thirty thousand dollars coordinated Services District instructional initiative funds include salaries for 33 literacy and math coaches Foster Care Transportation to support services as requested three million five hundred and eight thousand dollars the total District set aside is 7 million eight hundred and three dollars seven million seven million eight hundred and three thousand four hundred and seventy four dollars and twenty seven cents the total remaining Title One allocation including carrier refunds.

2 million three hundred and twenty five thousand one hundred and eleven dollars and six cents is available for schools this total amount is 6 million 989 916 dollars 70.15 full-time teaching positions are supplemented through Title One funding a difference of 21.35 full-time positions from last school year the total the total number of low income excuse me next slide please thank you the total number of low-income students in the district is 20 846. Next slide please. The total available amount to schools is 6 million 989 916 dollars this amount divided by the total number of low-income students 20 846 in the district generates the minimum for people amount of three hundred and thirty five dollars and 31 cents These funds are then distributed to schools by poverty rank order and bans using the following for a pupil allocation band One 575 11 schools 100 low income Ban 2 547 seven schools 99 to 90 low-income students Band 3 519 for schools 89 to 80 percent low-income students band 4 491. 491 dollars one school seventy nine.

Percent to 70 percent band five four hundred and sixty three dollars two schools 69 to 60 percent band six four hundred and thirty five dollars three schools 59 to 60. to fifty percent and ban seven four hundred and seven dollars five schools 49 to 40 percent band eight three hundred and seventy nine dollars the poverty ban threshold funding in DPS is 40 and above Morehead and George Watts where grandfather in the plan to ensure Equitable funding because the previous year's low income percentage was higher than 35 percent for example CC's Spalding for people allocation it's 575 dollars the total number of low-income students multiplied by the per pupil rate generates the total instructional allocation per School the family engagement allocation is a percentage of the one percent District allocation and distributed to schools based on the number of low-income students in each School Essa requires any school above 75 percent to be served the district can determine which schools are served when schools above 75 percent are skipped in the poverty rank order.

Positions such as Hillside High School the district demonstrates to the state its ability to support the school's funding using state and local funds to serve students who are at most risk of failing Hillside High School falls into the Band 3 category her people allotment of 519 Hillside has a total of 1 299 low-income students the total allocation would be six hundred and seventy four thousand one hundred and eighty one dollars over three million dollars is allocated to support Hillside using local and state funds next slide next slide next slide are there any questions thank you so much like to open it up to questions or comments from board members.

All right no questions or comments. Is that board member Lewis okay I was thinking jokingly you just shared all those numbers and different bands and they're going to ask us if we have any questions of course thank you Dr Danner and Dr Stewart for your presentation I just wanted to I don't know that I have a question but wanted to recognize I know you mentioned the family engagement programming funding I've always been interested in that and seeing the schools that have one percent to use for family engagement I just wanted to acknowledge and share appreciation for the family engagement family and community engagement Summit that you all hosted last weekend I believe was last Saturday it was an amazing job spectacular showing to get parents and families connected get the community connected there are so many valuable resources at this Summit that I did have the chance to sit do attendance I saw board member Chavez there as well but just wanted to commend that type of Engagement this Summit that you pulled off.

Want to curse the storm that came through right at the beginning of the time I think that definitely affected the numbers I would just recommend also if we could do it bigger and better even next year and looking at bringing in buses of families from from different communities I think it was just so much good information and I want to shout out Heidi Perez who just did an amazing job in our in our media information session as well and the other comment I had was about the displaced students you mentioned funding that happens for every school to have funding for displaced students you said homelessness I use a terminology displaced so speaking directly to our McKinney Bento department and also Mama Kai who came and spoke today typically I'd I've asked and passed to get an update for where things are with mckinney-vento this just the doorway opening for me to share that I'd love to get another update on where we are with our unhoused Youth and the services that we.

Are providing and how we're going forward to inform the community and just to keep them top of mind as well so thank you again for your presentation like I said it was not any questions with what you just shared with us but more comments thank you. Thank you board member Lewis any other questions or comments this is on the agenda for Action this evening do we have a motion to approve pedal one plan yeah I I would love to make that motion and just also appreciate the summit this weekend I heard good things and also I just want to like I appreciate how you name some of our schools may not fall into this band but we are using local and state funding to to make up the Gap we know this additional funding is good it's still not enough we could use more to support our students but I am appreciative to know that we're thinking strategically about how we still support our schools so I move that we approve the title.

District's Title 1 plan for 2023 2024. Aye Alexandra Valladares moved by moved by chair said and seconded by board member Vaya Davis any other discussion yes board member Rogers I do have one question thank you so much for the presentation very helpful hit all my questions do we have any models you talked about the private schools are eligible for the title one funding do we have any models are we working with any partners that can project the impact that the school vouchers might have on our Title One funding for private schools in thinking ahead and if that's something we could look for in the future I'd like to see where we are in that y'all know what Ventures I'm talking about yes yes okay scholarship the opportunity scholarship absolutely we'll do our research thank you I had a question yes I just wanted to clarify from board member Roger she had me thinking a little bit are you are you asking about if more students were to use those.

Vouchers and with the laws that we would have from our schools I just want to clarity about what you were thinking about yes I'm thinking about the loss that we would have from our schools because then we need to be working with the office of public affairs and the foundation and any other Community Partners to aggressively reduce the impact that would have on our school system if we're losing these students we're losing kids in the potential Title One places okay thank you for the clarity. Yes I saw you were asking something a little different Miss Rogers but with opportunity and I don't know if we know the answer to this I'm happy to do my own research but with increasing the opportunity scholarships does that also mean that we're sending title one dollars and their opportunity scholarship dollars going towards private schools no to her what happens every year there's an annual Title One meeting title private schools have to opt in to Title One funding they have to attend.

The meeting and then they have to indicate to us that they are interested in receiving Title One funds not many Title One school not many private schools have indicated they want Title One funds that's why the amount is low is 48 thousand dollars compared to what it's been in the past the amount is perfect unless we can make it lower thank you so yeah my question was actually similar I I would love follow-up at another time on which of those schools if there's a cluster of them that actually are seeking that out I assume the com the paperwork is cumbersome like the the for them on their side as well which is probably what limits some of that but Dr Danner I wanted to thank you for your oversight of and governance of this incredibly complex area within the district I know that you work really hard to account for every dollar in the way that it is supposed to be accounted and work with our Title One School leaders to maximize.

The impact of of these precious federal dollars you did talk about Hillside which I didn't see on a slide but I can go back and listen and get those numbers but it made me wonder about southern and schools like that as well and the comparable support that we're giving them from the local level so I'd be interested in seeing some of that at another time if you don't mind but I'm so appreciative of your leadership thank you for bringing this report this evening thank you yes Miss Chavez thank you for this detailed report I have one question that maybe will be simple can you remind us how much we expect this to change when growing together is implemented is in the number of Title One schools is that a simple question it's not a simple question okay we really won't know the impact until the 25-26 school year and so we have a year out so the October 31st 2023 data and the April 24 data will be used to write the title one plan.

For the 24-25 school year but we really won't know we can forecast and I'll work with Mr Palmer and his team to ensure that we have some projected numbers but right now we cannot actually tell you what that would look like that's helpful thank you thank you and now oh go ahead we're going to move forward well I think we have a motion and a second so we're gonna take a vote first no plan okay so to take a vote we're going to start with those that are joining us virtually board member viadetis foreign.

And now you may continue thank you I would now provide an update on the cep provision Community eligible provision so you have to return to the PowerPoint. And we'll begin in slide 19.

Next slide please next slide in 2010 the healthy hunger free kids act provided another option for high schools can operate the national school lunch and School breakfast programs known as the community eligibility revision cep cep is independent of Title One under cep free meals are provided to all students regardless of income at participating schools for four years families who attend participating cep schools no longer complete the yearly free reduce lunch application a school groups of schools or a school district May operate under cep if the school district elects to do so win at least 40 percent of the total enrollment is approved for free School meals without an application identify students include those families who receive supplemental nutrition assistance program benefits snap next slide please cep does impact the distribution of Title 1 funding to schools within the district such as Shifting the identification of Title 1 schools from year to year increasing or reducing the school level for pupil allocation with high or low numbers of low-income students and may decrease District level.

Efforts to increase student achievement next slide please for example Title 1 schools with a higher percentage of low-income students receive a higher per pupil allocation than Title One schools with a lower percentage of low-income students which impacts Title 1 schools with low-income enrolled students next slide please in 2022 Lowes Grove a cep school had a percentage of low-income students of 84.43 or 591. With an instructional allocation of 373 512 dollars compared to 2023 the percentage low income students is 98.29 or 688 with an instructional allocation of 376 dollars 336 376 dollars 376 thousand three hundred and thirty six dollars a loss of 1.0 Title 1 teacher positions from 2023 to 2022.

In 2022 Sandy Ridge cep percentage of low-income students with 64.78 or 412 with an instructional allocation of two hundred and twelve thousand one hundred and two dollars compared to 2023 percentage of low-income students 72.02 percent or 30 or 333 with an instructional allocation of one hundred and sixty three thousand twelve dollars a loss of a half title one teacher position which is 50 from the 2023 to 2022 school year in 2022 Club Boulevard's percentage of low income was 53.65 or 235 with an instructional allocation of 141 470 compared to 2023 percent is a low income is 43 is 40.93 or 158 with an instructional allocation of sixty four thousand dollars a loss of 1.3 Title 1 teacher positions from 2023 to 2022.

Next slide please cep also impacts the extra duty pay for staff who take on additional responsibilities such as tutoring and curriculum planning qualifying families who do not complete the Snap application may not be considered direct certified therefore the data will not be captured in cep. Next slide please.

There were a there are there are a total of 14 Title One schools between 2013 and 2021 a total of five non-title one schools high schools from 2013 to 2021 and we recently added eight new cep schools in March of 2023. Next slide please. The total District number of schools with 40 percent are higher and 2022 was 26 and 2023-36 the total number of students identified in 2022 11 942 in 2023 14 691 the district-wide eligibility percentage in 2022 was 37.9 percent and in 2023 46.58 percent there are a total of 27 cep schools in the district.

That's my place are there any questions thank you so much open it up to questions and comments.

This item here just for information yes yes in a discussion yeah thank you.

Okay Ms Rogers thank you so much for this presentation I have been advocating for us to increase our cep schools and so it's exciting to see the district moving in that direction I appreciate knowing that this is a decision made last March I wonder if you could speak to a little more to how you selected the schools that you would include in the application I'm going to yield to my colleagues from Child Nutrition services.

And to give you this simple answer the eight schools that were added were already Title One schools and we had an idea of what those numbers would be in the projection. Good evening thank you for allowing us to be here the schools were chosen based upon the needs of the students and the percentage of students at those schools with SNAP benefits and we looked at we wanted to go district-wide cep and at the time it was just not the right time there was not enough time to do everything we needed to so that is continuing to be child nutrition's goal and we selected all the schools that were would provide us with a minimum of 70 percent Federal reimbursement for the school nutrition program currently 19 of the schools are bundled together and provide us with 100 reimburse I'm sorry 99.7 reimbursed so we received full inverse reimbursements for those 19 schools and the others are bundled some provide 94 some provide 86 but we chose the schools that would give.

Us the greatest impact to our department but also to feed the most number of children in that program who had the most need at our schools that's so helpful I'm glad to hear that you are selecting schools that get the full reimbursement and serve the students with the most needs thank you so much. Yes Muslim said thank you all for this presentation and the follow-up from our last meeting I think it's I love that we are you know doing Universal breakfast and lunch and feeding more of our students but I am just looking at the numbers and mindful of the implications when it comes to title one so I think I want us to as we think about continuing to expand how do we layer this known so we get all all of the different supports for our students and we don't add some support and then lose some support on the back end because I think it's you know a lot it's important for us to get the title one dollars.

So how do we layer on community feeding in a way that doesn't negatively impact the allocations so I'd appreciate this follow-up because I don't think I was aware part of how that shifting works and I think as we add schools we want to evaluate that moving forward I don't want to leave any dollars on the table. Anyone else have comments or questions Jessica I have a comment yes board member viadadas thank you so much I want to thank our board I want to thank our Administration for answering questions oftentimes you know we hear the advocacy of community members and you know in this case Durham can has been advocating for you know for many months this has been been one of their agenda items leading up to March when you know there were some impacts to some of our students in other ways that were also trying to figure out how to continue this conversation about supporting our students with with that are food insecure and that are that are suffering from social drivers that.

Lead to so many other risks food security is one of the drivers of social drivers of of health and so it's it's so important and I just wanted to shout out their work I want to shout out through advocacy how they have engaged our admins they've emailed our own Nutrition department and leaders like Jim key and I thank you so much for answering them and giving them the cep schools and as we continue to move forward you know there's going to be more conversations because I think that the county is also looking at some programs in terms of food security and I want to shout out the work of Mary oxendine in the county who has been doing a lot of work you know meeting with folks and and working on sustainability and nutrition and I think that we do have to have this conversation as a broader conversation about how we're taking care of our kids in our community you know with the county funds with Title One funds.

Federal Title One funds you know that delineation between local funds and federal funds and so I just wanted to just ask this question about how are we continue this conversation can we add this to our County agenda because some of these conversations about what we can do with our monies don't stop here we also have the county and how does that impact us when we get money like local monies can can somebody just speak about ways because we already understand that there's there's a little bit of I would say there's a little bit of nuance to cep and I understand that the advocacy around 100 cep Schools may not be feasible right now but can somebody tell me a little bit about County funds that can come in and support us in that reimbursement process I think this question would be more for Mr key if if you would tell us a little bit more about you know these folks who are ready to Advocate and ready to support us what are some of the.

Implications of I guess advocating mostly at the county level being that we don't want to upset I guess some of the work that has happened with Title One.

We use our local funds. Anything else you'd like to add Mr lasur no anytime we look at this we're going to be making sure we use the appropriate funds that are available but in other instances we'll revert to local funds to cover the cost and that's what we'll be doing in this case. Thank you I mean I mean I and I think that there's that flexibility for The Advocates because this has been work that again Durham can has been doing not only by themselves this has been these have been conversations for a while with many other organizations including churches that have asked why are we not beating all of our kids and so because this is a community conversation it's it's just important for us to also know like you know that we use our local funds and we can use them in in other ways than these specific funds but cep so I think that this is just an ongoing conversation I just want to kind of flag that that these conversations will.

Continue and I appreciate also Mr lesour for you know the emails that he's responded to and and provided information as well when community members have emailed about this so thank you all so much and and I think the local advocacy it says like you know all politics is local and I'm really grateful for Advocates who are looking into this and trying to you know put their their support behind our students thank you thank you so much board member via Dallas Yes program the Beyer thank you it's it's interesting to see you standing there Dr Danner I never think of you with the food part because they're all they could come up and join you and talk about food too you know I think sometimes we forget that Durham is a state leader in healthy feeding for our community and our children and and how far we have come there's one of the good things about the pandemic is that children were eating free fed by the federal government like breakfast and lunch all across our.

Community people didn't have to do that paperwork they didn't have to worry children didn't have to worry about the stigma of free school lunch everyone was eating together and so I applaud our nutrition efforts to to actually expand and look for ways that we can Envision expanding district-wide I would love us to be one of the district-wide cep schools where children are all eating together where nobody's worrying about that paperwork where we know that we start to actually move towards some of that those meals that we were doing in the afternoon that we were piloting to send children home with a third meal you know we don't want any child in Durham to be hungry I believe it's a shared Vision that our county has as well and I love the idea of bringing that into discussion with them what would it take for us together to make up for this Gap in the title one funding that would be impacted and I think in the scope of of County funding the impact on our.

Community would be great I also think it's it's you know the research is solid that it it is impacts student achievement I mean children should never be hungry in this community and so anything that we can do to continue to lead in that area I look forward to I also I think those slides were important but also kind of confusing because they showed cuts at schools that we actually have not made right is that that fair Dr Stewart could you clarify that in case anyone's confused all right so the money as displayed that is actually the funding that schools have received for the 23-24 school year say for example if you look at club club lost nearly sixty thousand dollars if I remember correctly they lost one was it 1.7 ftes 1.3 1.3 so they did lose enough money for one teacher Plus so what we have there is only for I asked him just to do a little sampling for you but we can outline it to show all of the schools as a.

Follow-up one of the things I would really like to say as it relates to title one dollars the purpose and the intent of the dollars is to ensure that we improve the academic achievement levels of the disadvantaged student and so when we want to make sure that every Title One school has enough money to supplement the core program and we just really want to make sure that students are able to receive those additional funds principals have an opportunity and the flexibility to be able to manage their budget based on on the goals and the strategies that they identified with their school Improvement team so that's that is truly the school Improvement team's autonomy to say we have these these supplies that are given to us by the district but based on our subgroup data there's some there are additional asks we need tutors we need after school tutoring things of that nature we need additional professional development for our beginning teachers so we really want to make sure that they have an.

Opportunity to be able to thrive and be successful with those title one dollars and I know that Dr Danner is our federal programs person but I served in that capacity for nearly 12 years so I'm really passionate about title one part a. Yes I appreciate you eliminating that in this chart Dr Stewart because that kind of goes back to my original point like I want us to feed children but I don't want us to leave dollars on the table so if you're able to total up the sum of money that's in the chart you have here you just have instructional allocation but if you could just subtract the dollar so we can see what dollar amount was lost from that title one funding I think that would be helpful because I think if we're going to move forward trying to increase Community eligibility provision schools cep schools we gotta I would like to make sure we find that money somewhere so that our Title One schools also still.

Have that support and let me correct me if I'm reading that wrong I would like to say in reference to board member buyers comment there were a loss of 21 teaching positions overall for the 23-24 year is that accurate Dr Danner yes there's 22 20 and the amount we based it on a year to beginning teacher salary roughly 70 000 and so that would be a roughly 1.5 million dollars and so we are grateful that we were able to supplement that with our Esser dollars and we know that this is the last year that we have Esser funding so we did not want any school that was accustomed to receiving a certain money amount to support their ftes to be without as a result of our change.

Yes board member said sorry I'm this is my last last question can we also get the dollar amount for what it would cost to increase cep schools so let's say and and if we're not let me rephrase that question we don't go through the cep program but we were to provide free breakfast and lunch for X number of schools how much would that cost because I think there's a question for us as a board to figure out maybe we it's not cep but we are figuring out a different way to provide breakfast and lunch so that we also keep our title one dollars at the same time so I think trying to understand that cost what it would be for the next group of schools you would like to include and the costs around what might be lost if we were to go cep route would allow us to understand where we need to move for is that yeah yeah I understand the question let me go ahead respond to that I.

Just want to be on this year I had a cabinet meeting where I had my operation folks and the federal programs it was really heated debates not only here even other districts they're having those conversations but this is what I would suggest to our board we hear you you desire your charge to us as well if we can live turtle one on this side because we're getting there to details with but if we can just say the school that's a cep and the one that's a nice cep how much is gonna cost for all those students to be fed for free and let us bring that to mount here then we'll have that conversation again to the points that a board member via there is made that's where superintendent budget which we start that process in December if it's the desire of the board once we know how much that is going to cost then that will be a new ask to our County Commissioners and I'll be willing to do.

That if that will be the desire of the board but for the local fund that we have everything has been earmarked so any extra doesn't need to go to the process going to the county I believe board member Lewis has questions or comments yes thank you for this presentation and for explaining to us where things are the consequences of the decisions that are being made and the benefits and consequences I want to say that I feel like we all have the same North Star as a board as a commute as a leadership team for Universal free lunches is the means of how do we get there and it has to be balanced and that's what I'm hearing from chair Umstead from those who have had these discussions around what does this balance look like when you have 70 percent food nutrition costs Med through CDP while at the same time we're also losing positions I like the approach that chair Umstead has mentioned to say what is that total cost and loss and could that.

Be made up in local allocations I would just also caution us that as I read in the CDP it's a four-year commitment so we need to make sure we have funding for four years as I don't want to lose that balance of 24 educator positions when there's other questions that need to be explored such as families who will choose to continue to pay and not opt in for free lunch because of the benefits that they know it gives the school Community so opting out a cep Innovative processes to get these applications completed so that we can be reimbursed for funding I think that we have a lot of needs as was being shared here I had the number here two-thirds of our district 66 percent low income I think that between the needs of between the knees and make sure that everyone is fed without the district and curing debt while also having these positions that create equity and be in the needs of our students definitely has.

To be balanced so I am definitely for what Solutions we can find around Universal free lunch and meals for our families with the commitments of doing collaborations across our city and Community as well to help meet this need and not being on the backs of education and Title 1 schools that need additional resources of the education and tutoring instructional assistance and things of that nature thank you thank you were there additional comments yes board member Rogers some comments and questions and I think I'll start with my comments I think that it sounds like we all are on the same trajectory of caring for our students and our families and that's very much appreciated I hear Dr mabanga when he says that we need to in Bettina I'm Sorry Miss Umstead and Miss Lewis when they say we need to protect these positions and Miss Dr Stewart everything else we need to do to support families I think I'd like to start having some conversations perhaps in our subcommittees around what.

How we can protect the title one funding and what percentages of students would push us into applying for cep for that school and how we can find the right balance between that funding so we don't have cabinet meetings where y'all are debating it out right we have a formula upon which we decide which schools we're going to apply to next and so that brings me back to my question which is there was a mention of watts and Morehead were legacied in to the cep that means they're moving out no that was Title One okay not cep okay so they're Title One okay that's helpful so if I am a parent and I am at a cep school and we get placed in Watts or Morehead how do I know that that school is no longer cep how are we communicating that with them in the transfer processes when we're when families move at any point in their educational cycle and how can we help support that work because I wonder how much of that is.

Contributing to the deficits that we see for students families that aren't paying for their Foods because they assume that their school's also going to have free and free free lunch so I think that there might be some way the board can help help sell set some conditions so that y'all aren't arguing about it and we aren't continuing to argue about it every year because we all want that and particularly around how much could be lost or how many positions could be lost if we applied for cep around those schools thank you for that question and I noted it because that means we have to continue to have collaborative conversations that are productive because we are all on the same team and we all want the same thing for all of our children with that Dr Danner I'm going to ask if you could add add to that statement.

I was going to so as it relates to George Watts and more ahead first of all they must be identified as cep and right now more ahead and George Watts and I'm looking at Mr Keaton they're not cep schools sorry that was a a misunder I misrepresented what I said so I meant that you said they were Legacy into the title one program Title One yes okay not C right that's what I mean I'm in title one that means that they're not going to remain Title One Schools are they moving out of Title One status are they staying in title one seven depending on their income level for October 30 based on October 31st data this year we will know whether or not there will be they will continue to be titled because we use that threshold data so we were able to grandfather them in for one additional year as a result of being 35 or higher so to doubt the danner's point once we have the low income numbers for October.

31st if it falls below 35 percent then they'll be removed from Title 1 status thank you. Yes board member Beyer remember Chavez so I appreciate this discussion I I believe firmly that the federal government should provide School meals for all children and if and barring that the state should there's a group called School meals for all that meets regularly if people want to Advocate and get on board and many states have changed their policies like there are people advocating at the state level and at the DPI and the State Board level for making the Statewide because we can imagine if it's an issue here in Durham that it's an issue in rural communities and and across the state I feel like we have framed this as a title one discussion and we have the nutrition folks Dr mabinga that you said advocated and pushed hard in another Direction and would it be possible to hear a little bit more from them in this space since they've stayed here with us till 7 30 about.

About the about the benefits of universal the district-wide cep since they're here would that be fair or is the should we have that in discussion at another time I think that would be appropriate for another time I don't want my team to be divided at these points that's our role as we're working with our team we can come and we can come with different views that's the reason why we're able to add eight that was the middle ground that we came up with this conversation is going to continue with my team then eventually we'll get to a good place where we'll bring you another recommendation I appreciate it that's totally fair I just I don't think it's fair to frame it just as we're going to lose title one dollars we're going to do this and nor do I think Mr Lasorda that we have a money tree because I know we do not and I know we're concerned coming out of the pandemic about reimbursement I just want.

Us to actually Envision where we could go and and I do think about Equity issues as children move from school to school and how are we communicating that at some schools you do get free breakfast and lunch and it's you have to do the application and and it's still cumbersome in that way so yeah. Any other comments from other board members I have a question although there's already been so many good questions and comments from my colleagues and our staff when am I when is our next when is the next decision Point around this I heard something in about four years is it four years down the road that we reassess these schools or is it every year there's going to be another decision about the application process.

Thank you and I do want to thank Dr Stewart and Dr Danner for the the collaboration and be able to bring the new eight schools that you heard about but there's also nine because we've also brought Whitted on board which doesn't affect title one so we are very excited by the collaboration we've had with them and we want to thank them as far as the reauthorization of the schools it happens every year we have to renew our state application for Child Nutrition at that point we can decide which tools to rebundle we can decide which schools to remove or to add so that is an annual decision but the validation allows you to use those schools for the current year plus four years so it could be a five-year ask or it could be changed annual and I also wanted to just quickly respond to board member Rogers question about communication we send a letter from Child Nutrition any family member who changes from a cep to a non-cep school.

That gives them a 30-day grace period and allows them to stay free for that first 30 days so thank you for asking that question thank you so much thank you so much for being here this evening and for responding to many of our questions beforehand as well that's really helpful and I think that you all have heard loud and clear tonight that the board would like to be included in discussions and decision making around this the next time around and for there to be a process whereby we're included okay all right any other questions or comments before we move on.

Thank you so much Dr Danner also okay the next let's see we're moving on to academic Services next item on our agenda is the day one Proclamation update yes good evening board members chair Umstead Vice chair card Chavez and superintendent mobanka it's good to be with you this evening to bring updates to you and sharing information on our day one Proclamation in which all of our schools Pro participate Dr Kelvin Bullock is responsible for this initiative our senior director of executive of equity Affairs and professional development he was unable to be with us this evening because he is presenting at our National Council of urban Boards of Education conference with other members of our leadership team Dr Maddox Perry Dr Al roister and Dr Judd Manning on building healthy school environments that strengthens students well-being which is apropos for this evening however we are quite fortunate to have with us Dr winosa Idaho who is our student engagement and opportunity coordinator who's representing Dr Bullock and who's going to share more about our day one.

Proclamation right on thank you Dr Pittman good evening Dr mobanga board members and our viewing Community I am glad for this opportunity to share about our day one initiative next slide or actually if you can go back please this year the Tyler Clementi Foundation brings awareness to the impact that bullying has on the life of others day one is an initiative that teaches kids to celebrate differences identify acceptable behaviors within the classroom and Beyond the importance of kindness respect and compassion as well as how to intervene safely and appropriately in a bullying situation next slide please in alignment with Durham Public Schools strategic plan specifically priority two it is our mission to provide a safe environment that supports the whole child as acknowledged by the board the day one Proclamation supports in the work to continue to create a safe orderly and inviting School environment to facilitate student learning and achievement next slide please in the beginning of the school year School communities engage in taking the day one pledge and the pledge reads as.

Follows I am an upstander I will stand up for kindness I will stand up to make everyone welcome I will speak up to stop someone who is sane or doing hurtful things to me or to others I will do my best to protect my feelings by throwing hurting words away instead of taking them into my heart I will get help from a grown-up I trust anytime Bullying happens to me I will reach out to someone who was bullied by talking to them asking if they are okay and letting them know I care I will do my best to stop myself from hurting others with my words or my body if I make a mistake I will say I'm sorry I am an upstander and so that's the end of the pledge and so our office also appreciates the acknowledgment within the pledge that encourages and empowers students to identify a safe and trusted person in their school and verbalize their need for help and support this Proclamation aims to address.

Bullying early on day one and the pledge is led by a school leader this pledge States expectations for behavior and responsibilities for students and staff once it is read a confirmation of understanding is given we are very proud to share that a hundred percent of DPS schools participated in the day one pledge truly a point of Celebration our school leaders have done this through the use of school intercom systems through their student services department and some at the end of the individual classroom level some leaders have also engaged in conversations about the pledge during staff meetings to ensure a safe environment for Scholars students are able to give verbal confirmation of understanding or sign the pledge online so with this in mind we want our community to also know that in the event they have concerns regarding bullying in their child's school they may seek support from any school official in addition students and families may find additional resources that focus on bullying prevention prevention specifically cyber bullying at dpsnc.net.

So that concludes this presentation and this is just being shared for information and so I'm happy to answer any questions you may have thank you thank you so much do we have any comments or questions from the board.

Yes chair I'm said thank you Dr ah for being here and for sharing this day one Proclamation I think it was maybe 2017 2016 we started doing this as a Board of Education and and District so I'm just appreciative that we're still doing it in a hundred percent of our schools are participating on the website Tyler Clementi also has additional toolkits and resources for schools if they want to use those to even go further than day one talk about microaggressions to talk about harmful words all different types of materials that can be supportive so thank you I'm appreciative and I hope too if there's any ways that we can be bringing other things to help support our schools I know that a lot of parents are concerned about bullying and so are there any other things that we can do as a board to help support that please let us know thank you now make a comment yes board member Lewis I feel the same sentiments as chair Armstead and the resources that are available.

Are incredible for usage I want to make sure that we consider building into this pledge throughout the school year as we think about the different children I've dealt with with safety and wellness and what that looks like to them building that into the plan throughout the school year through our student Support Services I think specifically of SEL social emotional learning that's implemented and all of our school curriculum that we continue to uplift this pledge we continue to upload these the values and the statements that's made in a pledge and and sure I'm saying you just recently you just asked what other resources are available we've gotten as a board our board has gotten multiple emails recently from black SEL which is doing a summit in a conference September 28th and 29th Nationwide speakers that that will be talking about bullying that we'll be talking about self-regulate those matters that will help increase safety decrease bullying within our schools I know DPS was a sponsor of the event last year I believe they've.

Requested sponsorship this year I can't confirm whether we're sponsoring this year or not but I just know that there will be some valuable information out of that programming and again just thank you Dr Idaho for the presentation for the for the update and that we continue to do this work and move forward in it throughout the school year thank you thank you thank you so much board member Lewis any other I have a comment too yes board member yes this is very important very important work in terms of preventing bullying our families are very appreciative when we talk about a resolution and how we start off the year with the intention and setting a culture that addresses bullying however the on the ground situation is that bullying is happening more and more and the questions that they have are you know how can we continue to I think sharing what my colleague mentioned throughout the year continue to remind and instill anti-bullying not just at the beginning of the year and it's not to.

Say that we're going to bring the resolution the Tyler Clementi the resolution every quarter or anything like that but it has to be visible I'm wondering what kind of ways we can just make it even more visible and then there's questions that you know don't pertain to this particular presentation but it's more about what are the implications for educators in terms of the bullying that they see how it's addressed how it's reported there's so many questions parents have had and and this is an ongoing conversation you know Time After Time month after month about safety in our schools ways that we can really continue to to set a culture that reduces bullying and that hold safety for our students and so I'm just wondering you know what other visuals I know that this this handed out to in some schools it's printed out it's shown to students I don't know if there's anything the district can do about visuals that just talk about you know bullying and more implementation of.

Reporting the bullying you know steps to reduce it so that it's very I don't know like written in the in like write it on the wall kind of thing right I'm wondering if there's any any other initiatives that accompany this wonderful resolution. So I'll comment and then I'm going to yield to Dr Pittman as well but I do know that across the district our student support services department has definitely led the way and been very instrumental in implementing SEO curriculum across the district so in terms of that providing schools with school-based School level support and making sure that students and staff know that they are supported and so at the I guess broader picture of that that type of support is happening but I'm going to yield to Dr Pittman and she'll add a little bit more thank you Dr I indeed I was going to build on the same our social emotional learning curriculum does Empower our students and our faculties of course to support the whole child we.

Have a very strong anti-bullying policy the board has adopted our schools take that quite seriously annually we do a review and refresher of that as a requirement for all employees to it's part of our handbook so we're trying to really rap and come around all facets of our our school communities and of course the important role that families and parents play in supporting this work but the student Support Services Under Dr Maddox Perry's leadership are really pushing into schools and our schools as evidenced by the day one Proclamation take this quite seriously and do investigate and address any reporting bullying that for which they become aware thank you so much Dr Pittman and yes I commend our student support services and our 100 implementation of social emotional learning I think that there's you know just again more conversations along the lines of reporting you know and our policies do have that it just seems like there are a lot of families who just want to see just more more reminders of you.

Know the fact that they're they're The Bullying is is is not only not tolerated in the schools and that we already have a resolution in place and that we have SEL curriculum that is implemented at 100 of our schools but that there's also accountability and what that accountability is in terms of our processes and I know we have disciplinary policies you have a student Matrix and many other things I think the general sentiment for a lot of families is you know just giving giving giving more of this throughout the year you know maybe a you know another Workshop about the impacts of bullying to hear some of the stories from families of what that looks like even though we have everything set up in the infrastructure is set in place to reduce bullying there's a lot of stories that families have shared sometimes they share it with us and then they're wondering like where does can we have safety forms that actually address bullying specifically and what are ways that we can curb.

That in our schools and so it's it's more of an Ask not just at the beginning of the year the way we do it which is great because we start the year right but it's also throughout the year how can we continue you know to provide space to hear about the actual stories from students from families who have experienced bullying who have seen bullying and the impacts of bullying psychologically physically on on students and and ways to address and kind of figure out you know is it happening in the bathroom where is it happening in the building you know what are some ways that schools are are complete using their school Improvement plans and you know School Improvement teams to address schooling specifically and I can go endlessly including sexual harassment and so many other things and so I I think this is a great start I want to commend that this is a great start that it happens at the beginning of the year and I guess this.

Is more of an Ask based on conversations from community members what can be done throughout the year to make sure that we provide space for families to you know feel like their stories are being heard and that we're taking into account specific ways and the implementation of our our policies to prevent bullying thank you so much board members any additional comments or discussions yes board member Beyer Dr I thank you so much for bringing this to us and thank you for working with our school communities and and to Dr Bullock as well you know when we started this it was something that we read aloud and so I'm so glad that you read it into this space with us here tonight I was also looking at the resources as we've been talking and wanted to make clear to our coaches that there's information specifically for sports teams on here and to actually community members and Faith leaders there's a whole section of resources on the website and it's called true Faith.

Doesn't bully and we know especially our trans students are feeling bullied right now by policies and politicians and so that's there as a resource for our community for for Faith leaders that are working in the community alongside children I wanted to make sure that folks know that there are good resources there as we support all students in Durham thank you thank you. Any additional comments. Thank you so much this is very exciting as others have said it's a great way to start the year off our students deserve to feel safe in their schools and not all of them do right now so I love any work that we're doing to start the year off right and then keep giving our schools what they need to build a culture of Wellness anti-bullying and safety for our students thank you thank you our next agenda item this evening is an update on growing together Elementary Student Assignment implementation and this is on the agenda for discussion thank you Miss cardall and good evening.

Again to the board and Dr mavenga we're pleased to bring a brief update to the board on the communication and upcoming Community efforts that will be underway in this upcoming months on the implementation of growing together and the elementary student assignment plan members of our leadership team are here this evening some of whom will share information all of whom are at the ready to respond to any questions that may arise but Sheena Cooper our senior executive director of public affairs Dr Julie pack our senior executive director of Career and Technical education magnet programs Pablo Friedman our director of multilingual resource center and of course Mr calmer our senior executive of school planning so next slide please this evening will be very concise we want to share some of the community communication that's going to be provided the internal supports that we are weaving in as a project team to support our schools as they in turn take the Baton and reach out to their school communities and support families throughout our community and of course.

Will allow time for some discussion in the next slide please as we look at our new strategic plan it was very difficult to land this initiative in one priority area and so we listed and lifted up all five of course there's a strong academic component to this with our new programming and growing all of our elementary schools great together through the stem programming and arts and Global languages making sure that our children are supported through priority two which is what you'll hear a little bit more about tonight the importance of high quality staff in all of those Arenas are going to be critical to the the success of this work Community engagement is indeed what you'll hear about tonight and of course the final around operational efficiency and functions as we look at implementation with transportation and Pre-K and UC so if we'll go to the next slide I will pass the Baton to Sheena Cooper who will talk us through our community community thank you Dr Pittman and good evening next slide please.

As we transition into the implementation phase of growing together we are excited for our families to bring home the possibilities that this new student assignment plan presents ensuring that our families are informed about the changes and how they may impact their family is of critical importance that's why we have restructured our communication and developed a comprehensive communication strategy and timeline that prioritizes clear and simplistic communication and messaging for All Families our school leaders are integral to our communication as we know our families seek information from their schools first our strategy places information and resources directly in the hands of our school leaders so that they may best facilitate communication within their school's community School level communication will be supplemented by Direct Mail digital communication and other materials all providing appropriate language access to help families understand new assignments and the application programs accessible to them in their region this work is underway now and families will receive messaging beginning next week from their principles next slide please our rollout of this communication is.

Designed not only to support our families but also our internal teams as we prepare for the 24-25 school year next slide please before you you will see a timeline overview highlighting important dates and key communication and engagement Milestones with our families over the next several months we jump into that work next week within a training for all of our enrollment teams across the district we are happy to share that all of our schools have enrollment teams that will be doing the day-to-day work as we transition our students followed by a database that will be released to our principals they wanted to know firsthand the students that were coming to them and those that may be transitioning to other schools so that they may play that very important role of getting our students from one school to the next seamlessly in October we start with our first direct mail to our families that will be addressed to them and sent directly to their homes detailing some of this transition information followed by Regional.

Transition meet and greets all of our schools within our five regions will have these meetings where they will invite families to come and learn firsthand about their new schools they'll be able to meet their new principals not not just the principal at the elementary school level but the principles within their feeder pattern so we can start to create those connections now for each and every student at every level then we have our big Showcase of schools in November at the Durham Convention Center on the 18th where we want to see all of our families present all of our schools will certainly be there as well showcasing all of the great things that are happening within our district at their various schools followed by tours that we are hosting for every school across the district you'll see two touch points for our non-application programs as well as our schools that offer application programs so there's additional time for our families to engage should they choose to which leads up to our application window which opens on.

January 8th and we've extended that be an additional week so that will close on February 9th and then we have those lotteries results that are available to our families on March 1st additionally our engagement continues in the spring where each of our schools will host welcome events to bring new families to their campus is so they can explore learn and connect with new families at this time I will turn the presentation over to Dr by Julie pack. You can go to the next slide in order to support our schools in connecting with our families and sharing this very important information we've developed some internal structures the first of those is an implementation toolkit that we'll discuss a little bit more in detail in the next slide but this toolkit provides guidance and resources and access to those important resources to leave the changes by the schools in their community each school has as you heard has developed an enrollment team enrollment teams are comprised of school administration student Support Services front office staff parent Liaisons.

Kindergarten leads in elementary and graduation coaches in the high schools the enrollment teams will play a critical role in ensuring that all families in their school are aware of the changes associated with the growing together Student Assignment plan how those changes will impact their families and to help those families transition smoothly on September 20th as you heard the elementary enrollment teams will participate in training where they will have the opportunity to learn more about their specific roles and expectations in supporting those student transitions much like the Outreach reach that was provided with the return from covid the enrollment teams will be responsible for personally connecting with families to ensure that they're aware of upcoming changes and new opportunities for families the student assignment transition coordinator a new role in the office of student assignment will monitor the progress and support the school enrollment teams throughout the year and finally also as you heard the office of student affairs has developed a detailed communication plan that includes templates for multi-modal communications from the school and the.

District that communicate the upcoming changes associated with the growing together Student Assignment plan in multiple languages next slide please so the toolkit schools are essential to the leadership of this change and they are ready to lead it in order to make the process go smoothly and ensure that schools have the resources they need the growing together team has created the implementation toolkit so this slide shows just a little screenshot of this resource that outlines school expectations.

List the items action items that need to be completed and by the dates that they need to be completed by and links live resources and contacts for schools to utilize if you go ahead and click I think the next four times you'll see those those things highlighted the resources available to schools in this toolkit include but are not limited to the office of public affairs communication materials the DPS marketing toolkit support documents for the Showcase of schools support documents for School tours and a Resource Bank that includes mail merge and simple things like mail merge instructions FAQ documents for elementary application one application program one pagers that have been developed to help folks understand those programs and links to the school locator so everything is right at the fingertips of the school enrollment teams to help leave this change and the toolkit is a live document so we are continually updating that as we find out something else that schools May request or need we have it all in one place One Stop Shop.

So that's how we're supporting our schools to lead this transition and at this time I'm going to turn it back over to Dr Pittman thank you Dr pack and the team this is to share with the board and our community just some information about what to expect in the coming weeks and months and the excitement that we are in the midst of launching. Thank you so much this is very exciting appreciate you all coming this evening to share this with us any comments yes board member Chavez thank you so much this is exciting it's great to see this the communication plan I love the toolkit I want to note that the first time you do mail merge it is not very easy so I think that's great that you have that in there and I have a question about other partners who are helping to disseminate this information as well and welcome families into their new schools I was thinking about ptas and other community organizations churches and non-profits.

What partners are we working with and how will they play a role in this transition process absolutely you heard earlier this evening the Fantastic partnership we have with the DPS Foundation to help us reach very important communities within Durham to ensure that they have this information as part of our engagement team as a subgroup of the overall implementation team we are working very closely with other organizations to plan additional sessions and other engagement opportunities what we mentioned regarding our communication this evening is really just a snapshot for how we are guiding our families through this process and we know that it takes all of us in Durham to make sure that this information is disseminated appropriately so as we work through that communication plan we have earmark touch points for folks outside of our our network of families that are transitioning to make sure that we have those touch points including Faith communities other partner organizations working very closely with Mr Friedman to ensure that we are engaging our Spanish-speaking families as well.

That's great to hear and I just recommend this the toolkit is amazing and you know that you put all all of that together and I'm excited about a smooth transition for for our young people and their families thank you yes but board board member Rogers. This is amazing work I'm very impressed I'm excited to see it moving forward I am grateful for all that you've done thus far I would like I really love the toolkit and I really love that it's dated that we know where we are and all that I wonder if there's a way perhaps on the growing together page or engage DPS or somewhere if we could have like a road map of we are right here so somebody that checks out for a month and a half or I don't know whatever is happening they can look and see this is where we are in that process and perhaps you didn't get anything in the mail but that's because you're not in that zone where their change is happening and.

We've done that and so they would be able to see that absolutely we are in the process of updating our online presence as it relates to that that will go live on October 2nd it will be that digital and online platform for families to go and check the status of the transition process whether they would like to find out more about the regional events that we are hosting in October whether it's the school tours all of that information will be housed there as well as information about each of our schools and contact information so that they may reach out to those schools on an individual level as well perfect thank you chair similar question so that PTA can help their people know and church can know and the community groups we know that our students and families are interacting with so many different folks so whether it be your after school program your boys and girls club or your you know you're going to the doctor's office they're like call.

This number right to get connected with your new school so that everyone has that similar information absolutely I think that is something that we can certainly continue to build upon just as we mentioned having a toolkit available for our board members we can ensure that there are resources available to Our Community Partners as well and my last is the comment the Social Media stuff in here I think is critical and we know is key and I hope that we can also maybe help our students in some of these enrollment teams that like this is the skill set that they can be using for future job opportunities and so how can they help craft some of these materials for their school and be ambassadors for their school I just think this is a great opportunity for them and it's laid out kind of what they need to do you know what's supervision from adults but I just think it'd be a great opportunity thank you.

Yes board member Beyer thank you all so much for bringing this I know this is on a lot of folks minds and and wondering about the timeline as it's forthcoming so having those dates there is so so important and I'm so glad that you all working collaboratively to forward think what schools will need it does strike me still as a lot of additional work for our school principals and so I'm wondering if we found a way to give them dare I say compensation or at least budget for what they might need at the school level that is different from all the yeah as they do Outreach if they need yard signs if they need stuff for you know is there is there help with that on on their behalf absolutely all the supplemental materials that we are referencing will be delivered to the schools that is something that we are taking on and providing to them as a district nothing will be produced at the school level as far as mass information that should be.

Shared with families one of the things that we are very encouraged by is that the excitement of our principals to get in and get the work done many of them are ready to start contacting their families now we're excited to provide that information to them in just a couple of weeks so they may begin that work that's fantastic you all thought of everything the the questions that will come that perhaps the principals can't answer are we going to have staffed bilingual multilingual hotlines for questions so that we take that load off of our principles and I'm thinking of the Legacy questions the the siblings trailing and and all of that as we go forward as people really worry about how big changes Transportation yeah transportation that those pieces that really affect people in the day-to-day so the primary driver of that information will come through.

Them through the growing together team will use them as a conduit to make sure that we're we're having people at least at the school level who can answer as many questions as possible we know that everybody on the staff can't answer all the nuanced questions but as you know that team would be able to do that and then in addition to that we will continue to beef up and upgrade our FAQs online so that those kinds of things are happening and we're we're doing little things like in every week in leadership weekly our principals are getting a little tidbit of a of a piece of those nuances so that it's it's not everything all at once it's here's one thing and so we're just trying to give as many of those options as possible we still have our growing together email for public Communications to come directly to our team that we can respond to any question that they don't feel they're getting an answer to at any.

Other level so just trying to keep all levels of communication open for those things thank you all. We just brought this for information oh yes Mr Friedman.

Good evening Dr Mabanga board members staff to answer the question about bilingual support So for this Elementary phase right every elementary school has an assigned interpreter liaison from our office I think one of the most critical things for this part to your point is that process has followed so when those questions come in at the front desk some schools have bilingual front office steps some don't it is critically important that they know the process for them directly interfacing with someone on our team and that way we can make sure we land that that plane in the right place and so I think the the answer the really honest answer to your question is that the process has got to be really really tight from the school level through the enrollment team through their interpreter liaison I think we'll we'll have a great outcome there so hope that answers your question that does thank you Mr Freeman I I just also think that it it is important for us to make that clear to folks because.

That is a tremendous Equity issue and one that we haven't always done as well as we wanted to and so we have to be clear about that in our Communications to our leaders yes Ms Rogers I guess my follow-up to that and I think Miss Cooper can speak to it or Mr Friedman would be if that process going to be included in the implementation toolkit absolutely with that information will be reiterated during our training with our school enrollment teams but we can do a separate call out to make sure that is highlighted so that all that are involved are well aware of that process thank you.

Any additional events especially from those board members joining us virtually. Well I'll just say this is very exciting I appreciate this you sharing this I'm also excited about the implementation toolkit especially with the district contact assigned for each one making it easy to have a point of contact for folks to reach out to I'm really grateful that you're going through directly to the schools for communication I do think that that's I have share concerns as board member Beyer about overloading them but I also think that that is the best way to get information to our families through those that know them best and know how to reach them best I wonder through this process are y'all as you're giving information to them and training them are you also going to be checking in to see like how are y'all doing with all this are you feeling okay what more do you need are you overwhelmed how can we support you like how's that what that's what's that going.

To look like for you all absolutely in our initial conversation with our principals just last week I believe it was that is one thing that we wanted to make sure that they were well aware of that we are here as a support to them and that we are available to assist them with any questions or concerns that they may have our full team and this is just a representation of who we are but we are across the district representing all various departments to make sure that we can plug in as needed for any of those specific questions or needs we understand that the task ahead of them is a heavy one but all of DPS is supporting them in this effort great thank you so much that and I forgot to add this to my notes earlier but like the growing together team didn't create the toolkit in isolation we worked very carefully with principals to find out what is it that they needed up front before we.

Created the toolkit and so that chain of communication is already established and so those folks and that included schools that are transitioning one way or another's adding a program changing program are even just our traditional schools so that everyone had a voice at the table so we'll continue the that communication Loop to to give that feedback that's wonderful thanks so much for sharing that dude sorry do we talked previously about this about telling the story about year round specifically and how our expansion of four additional year-round schools is so important for folks to embrace and understand the academic benefits of that are you all doing specific storytelling on that for those schools as well so all of our application program schools do have additional information that fully explains the benefits of those programs and why families may be interested in pursuing those options so that is a part of our communication with families and that will be lifted up especially when we begin our District's Regional meetings and welcome events for.

Our families and it will be carried through our touch points with families moving forward. I I'm also excited about these Regional transition meet and greet events I assume that information about those is going through the schools also to make sure everybody hears about it and they don't I guess my concern is that we don't rely too I appreciate we're using digital communication I think that's the way of the future but many of our families don't use that so just making sure we're reaching everybody through various mechanisms absolutely we are crafting communication for our principals because we want to make it easy for them and giving them very specific details on what messages are to be shared on what dates whether that's through their weekly phone call home to families if they do a Weekly Newsletter and how to embed that there so we want to make sure that they have that information it will be facilitated through the school and of course supported and supplemented by additional District communication.

All right thank you so much again if there aren't any other comments or questions from board members one final thank you to the team for being here this evening and Sharon so openly we appreciate it okay with that we will move on to our next agenda item which is the 2022 2023 Essa accountability results last but not least right so good evening to everyone again and indeed we just want to share some of the outcomes from our 2020 to 2023 accountability tonight I'm going to highlight three major things the first is a quick refresher of what our our state accountability model includes some of the results of our district achievement not only on proficiency but also on growth and how our schools are looking with school performance grades so next slide please so we're going to launch into first with the dust off Refresher of what is exactly a school performance grade and what does it include and how does achievement and growth factor into that and before we'll go to the next.

Slide and as we transition I do want to recognize Dr Royster is our senior executive director of research and accountability who prepared this presentation in with his team and he is also at the national Cube conference presenting and so I am interested delivering this information but I do want to recognize we have two members from his team Nelson Searles the director of data integration and accountability and Nathan Hester the director of Assessments and accountability should we get into the data weeds they are here to lend support in any way that we desire so let's get on to school performance so this pie graph is a quick Refresher our school performance grades are comprised of two major data metrics one is achievement of which eighty percent it factors into that and 20 around school growth and on the next slide this is a very detailed at a glance love this if you ever want to know the specifics of how all of these data metrics come together that top blue bar.

That goes all the way across the top of the chart indicates that this that North Carolina designates a school performance grade or SPG with the indicators below and so if you look to the far left where it says 80 in that bracket that includes the metrics in red orange and yellow and the red is around our achievement at elementary English language arts EOG scores in reading math and science and for middle school if students take that math one EOC course that factors in on that component there and on the right those companion forces but that are offered in in high school so English to math 1 or math 3 EOC biology and then high schools also pull in metrics around Math course rigor or how many students take math three the companion metric around act and workkeys and the cohort graduation rate the yellow extends across all and that is our weda assessment or our English language perform progress as measured on the weeda assessment for students in grades three through eight and ten.

So that's our 80 metric and then 20 is our evos growth how do children grow in one year's time so on the next slide it summarizes those in a very concise manner keeping in mind achievement is one point in time that measures on the day the child takes that assessment how they perform on that assessment is the metric that goes into the achievement statistic whereas on growth this looks at measures of academic progress over time so we look at does a student meet growth make one year's progress in one year's time or do they exceed growth do they do better and make more growth in that one year period of time or not and so on the next slide let's take a peek district-wide and how we look on our school performance grades on the next slide you'll see a series of circular graphs of sorts but this slide shows our school performance grades so this is our district comparing them over five years and really highlighting our schools that.

Were rated with their performance grade of an a a b or a c so you begin in 2016-17 on the far left and we go across to current our current year that we're most focusing on this evening 22-23 results if you have a Keen Eye you may notice there are two years missing the 2019-20 and 2021 school years that they are not shown due to covid and that there were no growth metrics reported those years but let's look at what is there for us to to see Trend wise as a district we have increased the number yay and percentage of schools that are a b and c and particularly if we focus on the 2122 Circle and the 2223 you'll notice two really powerful metrics in 2122 we had 24 schools or 41.1 percent of our schools that were rated a b or c and look at what we have now 33 of our schools with 63.5 percent of our schools being rated as an a b or c School they've worked hard.

Next slide shows our overall grade level proficiency if we look at where we were as a district comparing those same excuse me those same span of years from 2016 to current we have increased our proficiency every year except for that 2021 school year that's our remote learning school year and then our overall grade level proficiency for 22.23 you can see is 47.9 percent which is 3.9 percent increase over the previous year if we look at the 2018-19 year that was 49 we have almost returned and and caught up with our pre-pandemic performance so on the next several slides let's look at reading math and science the first is reading you will notice green and you will notice everything to the right this is a wonderful reflection overall our reading composite has at the very bottom you'll see for the district is at 45.3 but we have increased Proficiency in every grade level compared to 2122 with a total composite score of increasing at 3.1 percentage points of specific celebration if we look at.

Grade four that's our highest proficiency at 49.9 which was also our highest increase in the percent points at 4.7 go on the next slide we'll see a similar statistic for math but boy do those increases really jump out our math proficiency results are shown here with our total composite at the bottom you can see it's 47.7 we have increased Proficiency in every grade level compared to the previous year with and a total composite increase of 6.6 points so we celebrate our math Proficiency in grade 3 with 56.4 being our highest but our highest increase was in grade 5 with 10.7 percentage points science on the next slide shows similar gains our science proficiency overall is a district is at 64.9 we see increase in our proficiency at grade 5 science by 4.3 percentage points we did see a slight decrease in eighth grade proficiency percentages by two points but even with that a little bit of a dip we still have an overall composite increase of 1.1 percent.

So let's slide over to high school those proficiency gains you can see again positive or enter and of course proficiency results in our biology English to math 1 and math three we have increased in all areas except a slight diff in English 2 of 0.6 our highest EOC proficiency was math three and those gains of increase of 7.1 percentage points in math 1 for our high schools so we've seen a lot of increase in Proficiency in gain and those are our EFC courses now we're going to shift quickly to the next slide which will show our English learner progress Essa or the every student succeeds act requires every state to provide an annual assessment of language proficiency in North Carolina we use the Wida access for LS 2.0 and L progress is measured and reported for all L's K-12 but for the school performance grade they lift up specific grade levels Elementary three through five middle six eight and tenth grade for high school the important there's there's some.

Really oh I'm sorry this is at the bottom I'll have if you have the PowerPoint some really powerful metrics here so for the district we have increased 8.1 percentage points from last year to this year but what is really interesting to note if you compare our trend from 2021 through 2023 and compare us to the state of North Carolina the Gap in the 2021 year was about nine points for what Durham Public Schools at 9.9 percent of our students were meeting our targets versus 19 across the state the next year that Gap closes a smidge well quite a bit actually where it's a 4.3 difference between North Carolina and Durham Public Schools and this year we exceeded the state proficiency of NFLs that are proficient on that on the access for 5.5 so not only are we increasing and gaining with our students who are showing proficient on the Wida assessment but we have now exceeded the state so the rate of increase has been we are growing at a faster rate than North Carolina.

And we're proud of that going to the next slide this is our career in college readiness indicators for high schools going to the next slide this shows the metrics around what's that factor into the school performance grades you can see that the four-year graduation cohort rate is is captured here Math course rigor the act act workkeys and the act or act work piece combined we show here an increase of all of the indicators for the 2223 school year compared to the year prior you look in that far right column.

And going to the next slide let's look at how now we're doing with subgroup performance so if you go to the next slide please there's that green color that we love on the right those bars indicating the percent of children of student change this slide shows our subgroup performance with our composite now located at the top of the table and all of the subgroups you can see listed below the overall proficiency of all of our subgroups in all of our grade content grades is 47.9 percent we have increased Proficiency in every subgroup compared to the year before and our total composite increased by 3.9 you'll notice our American Indian increased by 20 20 percentage points keeping in mind that that cohort has 49 children so that's a a sensitive metric to to that okay and on to the next group Next slide this now let's look at our cohort graduation rig this is a very busy slide but let's make it simple for everyone if you look on the left those are the years.

And then within each year going across to the right you can see each subgroup as it as it falls longitudinally over time so the 2223 school year if you find that on the bottom row our cohort graduation rate is the highest since the 2016-17 school year with the exclusion of the 2021 school year which is considered to be a bit of an outlier because that was our remote learning year as noted Durham Public Schools has the highest graduation rate with for our Hispanic students and our white students across seven years and on the next slide we continue with cohort graduation rate subgroups around different categories of students including our AI academically gifted economically disadvantaged limited English proficient in student with disabilities you can take a look at that and as you glance down to the the comparison every subgroup increased with a slight exception to our LEP subgroup which dropped up 5.8 but you'll see our academically gifted children remained at 95 you may wonder why it's just 95.

As we for the data point in this statistic anything over 95 DPI protects student confidentiality because it's a small cohort and so we we landed in as a consist of 95 percent we have increased economically disadvantaged 6.8 percent of our students which is the highest in seven years as well as our students with disabilities increased by 8.2 percentage points how are you doing let's go to growth let's go and advance to the next slide please okay we're back with our circles our Circle pie charts this slide shows our growth status in comparison over five years celebrating met or exceeded going back to 2016 you can see up through 2022 and again pulling out the 1920 and the 2021 school years in which no growth was reported so Durham Public Schools has increased the number of students that met or exceeded growth since 2015-16 and with the past school and look at this 88.2 percent of our schools have met or exceeded those last two tremendous statistics this shows.

We do want to do a little bit of a caveat explanation here the four Circle graphs to the left of the final one this year we have been internally including some of our schools that are on our alternative accountability model we've been putting them into our metric and the state doesn't so for this new reporting year we've pulled out and and been more consistent with our metrics so our data going forward will align with the state but we are indeed extremely proud that 88.2 percent of our schools met or exceeded growth now let's compare how we look to the leas around us let's go to the next slide so we listed some are some of our peer districts with the percent of schools that meet or exceed growth so you look at Durham Public Schools and the State ranking with our peer districts by the percent of schools meeting or exceeding okay well you'll notice we're at the top and we have the highest number so we are leading our.

Fellow districts in the percentage of schools that have met exceeded growth excluding our alternative schools we also have the second highest percentage of schools if you look in the next column when you look at exceeded growth we have the second highest second only to Johnston County and then if you look in that far far right column with the not net at the lowest percentage of schools who are not met those category at 11.8 percent so our schools have worked really hard and we're proud of this effort this work these outcomes on the next slide we have the percentage of low performing schools you remember that we want to look go to the next slide thank you we wanted to compare our lower performing schools how do we compare with our other districts specifically wake Charlotte Guilford Cumberland and Chapel Hill so there's two different metrics ways to represent the data if you look at the table and the bar graph again from 2016-17 when Dr novenga first arrived as.

Superintendent and then we jumped to the 21 22 and the 2223 so those are the three bar graphs that you're able to see reflected so on the left hand side the bar graphs will show that the low percentage of schools perform low performing schools for Durham wake Cumberland and Chapel of Carrboro we have the third lowest percentage of low performing schools meaning 29.4 so we're right behind Wake County at 21.6 and Chapel Hill Carver Road at zero but on the right in the table it shows the number of low performing schools and the number of low performing schools for the years again 2016 and then 122 and 22 23. Durham Public Schools has the second Lumber lowest number of low performing schools at 15.

So let's go to the next slide let's see how we've done over seven years with our low performing schools beginning with 2016 you can see that up until the last school year beginning with 20 20 16 17 and up to 2022-23 the number of low-performing schools was staying the same and pretty much due to covet but we have increased to 15 and let's go to the next slide and we'll take a peek at those schools there are nine Elementary we have three middle to high school and then our online program keeping in mind what a low performing school is it's a school that either their performance their proficiencies met their performances were a d or an f and they either met roads or didn't meet Pros but if they exceeded growth they would not have been in this category so let's transition and go to some celebrations so let's look at the number of schools who left low performing status and so on the next slide we see that we celebrate.

Three schools and want to give them a shout out to this evening Hillandale w.g Pearson and the school for Creative Studies are no longer in low performing status we also want to celebrate the number of our A and B schools and we have two a schools Josephine Dobbs Clement and middle college and 13B schools Easley Watts Lions Farm Mangum Warhead Montessori Harrison Town RN Harris Rogers Herr Middle School Lakewood Montessori city of medicine Durham School of the Arts and Durham School of Technology they are now our A and B schools and of which we now have 14.

Let's go to the next slide and talk about celebrations around growth we've hinted at it a little bit and we do know we are at that 88.2 percent of our schools that meta exceeded but how do we look across North Carolina with this growth index you will notice that Sherwood Givens Middle School ranks in the top 20. Schools across North Carolina with their growth index they increase by 12.01 percentage points the other schools that we have listed on that blue box on the slide we have four schools ranked in the top 20 on their growth early early college Carrington Lakewood Middle and Rogers Herr Montessori and then in The Orange Box there are 20 schools that we celebrate that they are in the top 20 percent of the state's 2531 schools for academic growth we're extremely proud of that work on the next slide we just wanted to lift up in a celebratory way the eight schools that move from D to C you can see them listed there Creekside.

Glen Holt Americorps Oak Grove Sandy Ridge Carrington and school for Creative Studies and as we launch into operation C or better our C's schools are better with under Dr mavingus leadership these schools are well on their way they're there now as C schools and on the next slide we have further celebration we have some schools that move from C to b or better and we celebrate Mangum Moorhead Montessori and RN Harris as having Advanced into the the school category and on the last slide up until now so that's how we look at our data we're extremely proud of the work some of the factors that we started to capture really contributing to this work indeed are our school leaders our teachers our faculty staff our parents and really embracing that all of our students have unlimited potential you can see on here the focused work around school Improvement teams pushing in additional Sports to schools our school administrators doing a lot of school level monitoring the district monitoring with walkthroughs and feedback and.

Providing targeted supports and then of course on the right hand column some of the specifics that brought to reality this these components with school level non-negotiables really establishing realistic goals ramping up and giving just just great strength to our professional learning communities our teachers and school leaders have done tremendous work in that Arena creating intervention plans for students working with professional development plans designing and rewarding Innovative incentive plans and engaging our things so that is a summary of our work from last year and I'm happy to pause and see if you have any questions.

Thank you very much Dr Pittman this is exciting to see I will before I share my comments open it up so that my colleagues can share theirs comments or questions.

Okay board member Chavez I was gathering my thoughts thank you for this presentation it's really exciting I congratulate everyone on these results and I want to say that I think this is a result of many things but strong leadership Dr mobangai thank you for your leadership and this this is just really exciting I also not to put your you know call you out but Dr Stewart the other day when we spoke about these results I said you know I don't remember my exact words but these are great and you said you're not satisfied and I just love that energy they are great and we will continue to improve so this is you know leadership all through you know our district there's a lot to celebrate I am looking a little bit at some of the schools that either Rose and Stannis or the B schools and kind of cross you know crosswalking that with our Title One schools because I think that's always important to to note you know it's to.

As a school work to counteract some of the effects of poverty as is Big work and and so I hope you know I'm not to leave anybody out but see where's my slide but Aaron Harris coming up to be status all over the place here let's see where is it yeah and hold let's see Oak Grove Merrick Moore Glenn that's it's we note that we see that you know that they're doing that work and they're you know supporting their students and families and in really creative ways and and so I I really want to shout out our leadership and also just our willingness to be Innovative and do and then evaluate and I've seen that over this past year see what we're doing how it works what do we need to improve I really really saw that with the El Academy and the the ell data is is awesome as well and I think that's great that we're coming up you know just above the state average.

The state average we want to be a leader in that so I just want us to continue to see those big jumps and keep doing you know awesome things to support our our El ell students and their families one thing I just want to note is looking at the graduation rates here I particularly noted The Graduate graduation rates for our Hispanic students and as you pointed out Dr Pittman the our LEP students and when I think about it as I was looking at this I was thinking Okay so when we look at the data for Hispanic students if we have four students one of them is not graduating and that pains me to think about that and who you know who might that student they might have additional challenges that the maybe the other three don't have but I would just like to say I'd really like us to continue to be creative and thoughtful and driven about supporting our our Hispanic students particularly at the secondary level where they are more vulnerable to sometimes.

If there are other challenges to becoming disconnected and obviously not all but you know those who are who are not English proficient who may be more recently immigrated there are other challenges with trying to acculturate and you know do well in in this educational system so I just love us to to think about those students as we move forward but just awesome data glad to see it and we'll keep going so thanks.

Jerem said I am happy to jump in next I think thank you all for bringing this data I started looking at last year and this year to see like we are making growth and if you kind of look in the years past that we're seeing we're making growth and kind of I don't know pre-covered pre-pandemic stay at home times like we're back at that level and I and I hope both we have lots of celebrations to do and I think about like the work that we also need to do moving forward so I appreciated the last slide that really showed kind of where some of the key levers were for change and I hope that we're leaning into that this year I wanted to just be celebratory but I feel like I can't oh because I also just went and looked into our you know the disaggregated data is available on our website for everyone who's watching from home so you can look at individual schools where black students are in.

Different groups and I think as I'm looking at this I'm like oh yeah we still got work to do as Dr Stewart said so I want to celebrate and I don't want to miss this moment celebrate where we are the growth that we've made we know we are coming back from a once in a lifetime pandemic a transitional year that in so many ways that we couldn't have anticipated and our students are managing our adults are managing in this time and we also know that how can we continue to make really engaging educational spaces so that our students want to be at school I think that's what I'm thinking about is my focus how is learning fun and engaging and it's relevant it's culturally relevant to our students so that we see more growth with our black students more growth the economically disadvantaged students more growth in our Hispanic students moving forward so thank y'all.

Relax so I want to thank the data team that's here and that has brought so many incredible slides in so many different ways of cutting this data and looking at it as a picture I want to acknowledge every single adult that had something to do with this growth and this progress and especially our students who have sat for standardized testing which is not the way to analyze or reflect school and learning in a qualitative way at all and I want us as we work as a district to love our students to bring joy into their day to remember why our Educators came into the classroom to begin with it is not this flawed State metric system but it is actually the daily relationship building and changing lives that that is going on within School communities and I especially want to speak to our schools that have been stigmatized by a flawed grading system that doesn't frankly just acknowledge that these schools that come up on these lists of Shame actually just have students that need.

More support from us the adults from the Educators from our community and so I look forward to ways that as you all work on non-negotiables bring up disparate issues with equity and compassion that we wrap around our whole child commitment that we have in Durham that we don't cut out arts and and we don't cut things that make schools so fun so that's that's the tension that I want to hold and these schools that are on this list the state put them on the list we see you we love you let us know how we can help you help the children that are in front of you so that's how I feel about State letter grades and stigmatizing nonsense for this evening but thank you for letting me speak.

Any additional comments questions I have a comment yes board member via Dallas I I just want to thank our Administration and definitely you know our teachers our principals but the leadership definitely at the cabinet level I definitely want to shout out you know Dr mubenga's vision for a strategic plan that definitely you know placed this strategic plan priority number one front and center and the ways that we have had you know the level of accountability where our office of data and research accountability has been producing these numbers and letting us see where our gaps are and how Dr Stewart you came in and it's been less than a year but you hit the ground running and you have been looking at that data and figuring out what you know what do we need to do and where the conversations around creating the El Prep Academy the conversations around virtual classrooms the conversation around you know what what are the other ways that we need to you know figure out.

Initiatives and and I know that there's more ideas that will come and I just want to tell you that and you know we are definitely watching this leadership Dr mubenga your cabinet the ways that we have looked at the numbers the ways that we continue to just keep tracking it's not a perfect system but it does track and it does give us something to look at and so I just want to commend you know our Administration for being very receptive I believe that there's more that that you know through this data through watching it and seeing where the the growth is happening and where you know we could add more growth that maybe more initiatives will come and I trust that you know that is something that you will do but I'm just encouraged by your leadership in looking at other districts and hearing stories from other districts I'm very aware that there are challenges for marginalized community members I'm very aware that it is not easy you know.

For many districts who also grapple with how to serve the most disenfranchised the most marginalized community members especially the children that you know come to the schools sometimes not having had Pre-K not having had early childhood education not having had resources and continue to Grapple with a lack of resources and lack of resources and other things and so I'm really grateful that even even though Durham Public Schools doesn't yet have Universal Pre-K that we have initiatives right now that we're working on to meet kids where they're at today and as we continue to build toward the future I know our county is committed you know to ensuring that we grow our our programs especially early childhood programs but right now we're meeting kids where they're at I'm really really grateful and also thank you so much for just a disposition to have us talk to admins sometimes it it means a world of difference just sit down and talk to a director you know I've talked to director Sashi rayasam of the ESL department and.

We have talked about you know the graduation what is the profile for the newcomers you know who are they I mean what is the profile in terms of like that we're seeing in terms of the needs in terms of you know what are some of the challenges that are being that that are our students are experiencing and I know that there's more work to do I do dream of a newcomer Center I do dream of a place you know that can actually provide you know one stop for for families to come in and be able to get you know the registration done in one place you know their placements as many things I do dream of a location but I know that there's other dreams as well in terms of the district in terms of how we're meeting demand for space the demand for how to triage and how to navigate you know especially for language needs cultural needs of of being able to be culturally competent and understand like.

The diversity of languages that we have in our district that are not just Spanish that are Arabic Pashto Swahili French we have so many and so I'm just very grateful that we as a district have looked at this data and decided to implement strategies and that we continue to grow our numbers I know that we still have work to do I know that we really really need our Community Partners in every step of the way and so I just thank you also so much for doing that for reaching out to Community Partners for looking at the data most of all I thank you for receptivity and for keeping track of these numbers and and seeing where we need to implement Innovation wherever it's needed thank you so much.

Thank you partner member any additional comments or questions from board members I won't I won't take much more of our time because my brilliant colleagues have already shared many thoughtful comments and I won't Echo all of them except that I am very excited about this I'm very grateful for your leadership Dr Mabanga Dr Stewart the rest of the cabinet and staff and all of our amazing teachers in our schools and our students the one thing that I'll add is I agree that with board member Beyer that we should not there should not be a stigma on our low performing schools and those that are not meeting growth but I do see this as an opportunity for us to shine a beacon on those as a place where we should be dedicating additional support and resources in my mind that's why that's how this data is useful these are beautiful schools of beautiful Educators and beautiful students but they might need some different types of support and additional support and.

That's where I'd like for our Focus to be I love we have only six schools that are not meeting growth that's the lowest since 2016 which is one other reason to celebrate but those six schools I'd love for us next year to be at zero schools not meeting growth at least right and I think that we can get there on the path that we're currently on so I think that that's all I'll share for this evening and if there are no other that's for my other colleagues they want to say something can you hear me yes thank you I Echo the same sentiments as remember our colleagues you all have done credible this past year thinking about our mission our vision truly igniting Limitless potential you did not allow virtual learning and covid to keep these students from growing yeah I come in again every single person who dug in and kept digging this work is purposeful and to see that light shine I know the joy of teaching children and.

Seeing when they're growing and when they get it after time and time again I just I I know that feeling that satisfaction from every educator and I just I applaud you I applaud the layered approach that the district has set forth with the initiatives I do appreciate that last slide with you know how do we get here it's not always the direct quotation from A to B but his a plus b through K that gets us these type of results of growth and there's still more work to do I want to just highlight really quickly recent decisions from the Supreme Court of the U.S scotus striking down affirmative action we have to keep this growth mentality for our children especially those who have been historically marginalized those who are dealing with systemic issues that contribute to the achievement Gap we have to keep a light in these areas and use our our resources not just ourselves but our Community Partners I know we have a partnership with a Plus testing.

And prepping we need to make sure we're continuing that college readiness prep with these standardized testing because you're not going anywhere our kids have to be ready and know how to take the test and get the results because we know they're brilliant there's nothing there should be nothing taking away their barriers or access so I just want to say keep doing what you're doing prune some more because we know there are things to be tightened as well as as we try to as we continue to achieve proficiency for all children and using these metrics to know which direction we need to go the way y'all been doing it so thank you again for this presentation and however the board can help in messaging this this presentation is everything I'll just turn over the presentation say here here watch this video here this is where we are this is what we're doing so thank you for this presentation Dr Pittman and team.

Thank you board member Lewis up another comment from board member Rogers so I'm going to join in everybody's celebration I am so grateful for the work that our administrators Dr Mabanga Educators and our students have put in it is great to see all the hard work that we put in turning out great results I still look forward to seeing subgroup data for K-8 disaggregate it let's not present it here tonight but I'm very impressed by what I've seen so far and that must mean that the work we're doing in those Ka grades is intentional and promoting success so I'm very impressed.

Hello all right I just want to acknowledge that the subgroup data is available on the website and it's disaggregated broken down by school so if community members we are not hiding that information it will be a lot to include in the slides tonight but that is available on our website. All right any other comments thank you so much Dr Pittman for a beautiful presentation thank you team we appreciate you being here okay the next item on our agenda is summary of follow-up items.

All right thank you there's an art to this as we are all aware and so I have requested assistance from my esteemed colleagues Dr Pittman and Mr Johnson in case I neglect any of the follow-up items the first item I have is a request for an update on mckinney-vento and families in transition number two follow up on how Charter Schools will affect Title 1 funding item three follow up on private schools. This I think absolutely a request for a follow-up on schools or clusters of schools private schools is what I have here seeking Title One funds so maybe I just kind of separated them out okay and a request for the numbers for other Comprehensive High Schools tracking the numbers that were provided for Hillside number four there was a lot of conversation around the cep title one piece but I think the final takeaway that I got was that Dr mobanga was going to bring back to the board from after meeting with his administration a recommendation so all of the other.

Commentary around what did the board wanted to see my understanding was that that was all going to be handled by Dr Mabanga through that process look all right I think bringing the numbers the how the full chart so the point yes the full chart for the impact of cep for title one with the dollar amount of saying this is the money that has been impacted and then thinking about the list of new schools that will be cep what's the cost to do Universal lunch and whatever that group of new schools would be okay all right thank you the next thing that I had on the cep piece was a question regarding developing a formula or conditions that made based on potentially lost positions and potential lost dollars and that would have been under the cep also and number seven a suggestion that the growing together team provide online a road map of we are here so that people would not be expecting or thinking they were missing emails and we kind of know when their.

Group or their region would be impacted and just to know where the entire plan was implementation wise and those are all the items that I have got Dr Pittman Mr Johnson.

So with that I would move that we go.

Board of Education · Work Session · September 14, 2023

▸Moment of Silence4:22

▸Approval of Agenda5:13

▸Approval of Minutes6:17

▸Public Comment9:04

▸Consent Agenda19:48

▸Roll Call1:02:56

▸Action Items2:34:58

▸Closed Session3:37:25

▸Adjournment4:44:34