Board of Commissioners · Regular Meeting · August 15, 2023

good morning Umstead and here um Howerton thank you for allowing us this opportunity to present my name is Larry Johnson I'm the new Chief Operating office for doing Public Schools here for one month it's been a great transition it's been a great transition I've had opportunity to meet a lot of good people Mr Shepherd herself had an opportunity to each other I'm one of those individuals yeah continue to be safe so thank you for allowing this opportunity I have with me our senior executive director for Building Services Mr Fred Davis and we're going to talk a little bit about what we plan to do in Columbia do it and then we'll take any questions after that thank you Mr Johnson good morning everyone

I'm going to provide a DPS operational Services Life Safety Plan update about a year ago Mr Shepard identified life safety inspections and things that we must continue to do to ensure staff and students are safe and healthy those annual inspections consist of exercise exit signs operating properly uh fire alarms fire hydrants fire sprinklers kitchen hoods and backflow preventers uh about a year ago the Durham County Fire Marshal created a deficiency list with our annual inspections and broke it into these following categories of which we have devised a plan to address and adhere to those are the firewall inspections fire door inspections fire damper repairs and fire evacuation plans as well as firewall repairs we have

put together a draft memo and constant dialogue with Chief Fire Marshal Mr Shepard to devise a three to five year plan that will address these efficiencies we've organized this in a tiered approach using elementary schools as our top priority those Without fire sprinkler systems being first we've identified working with our County Fire County finance budget Department of remaining funds from various funding sources that we will prioritize to get this goal achieved cool and so here is some of the anticipated costs that we have projected and did public bids for to address the deficiencies that we have in Durham Public Schools the firewall inspection these inspections consist of going up into each school and addressing any firewall

3 million dollars we also have some yearly life safety inspections which we addressing of other slides that's around 500 a thousand dollars a year this will be

added to our annual budget as we continue to make sure students and staff are safe and so here's a list of funding sources that we've been graciously awarded by the county we have and again these numbers I know we have Finance here and so these numbers still need to be rectified as we'll continue to pay down some completed projects and so this number could be a little less however this is our plan to address some of the immediate needs and so we have a 2016 go bonds roughly about a million six that we have remaining we will roll that into it Life Safety project that will address the needs that we mentioned earlier the county and Durham Public Schools created a lob to address additional Life Safety projects as well as HVAC and miscellaneous capital projects we will roll those up with those remaining funds into a Life Safety project as well to address those needs we will work with

7 we've identified that funding and we will be bringing the recommendation to enter into contract with the responsible consultant that will handle that for us and

5 right because that's the TBD so cool beans okay so I got that much um the fire evacuation Maps I know you said you're gonna prioritize like the elementary schools first so those are it's gonna sound like a random question but those are just the big maps that say this you are here

like electrified and then like on every floor is that what that is that's correct um however I'll let Mr Shepard speak to the details there are some other detailed information that he's requested on those Maps okay I'm just that was a curious question but go ahead good morning elected officials County Manager and my DPS school Partners the um the fire and evacuation plans actually I'm sorry could you pull the mic up a little closer I'm sorry is it better all right sorry the uh the fire and evacuation plans are actually uh the document that all of the employees utilize in order to effectively get their children out and to manage an incident inside of that school um the our office has actually written that plan and provided it to the school there are pieces that we actually can't do which is the fire evacuation Maps where you have to show your primary egress routes fire lane access fire hydrants emergency assembly points and and

firewalls within that facility so that's the type of information that's missing inside of that document that we created and we're hoping that when we get those Maps we can enter those into those that document and have a living document so that each school has a site-specific plan that they're trained on and how to respond appropriately to an incident within that school as an example what we've done is taken our assembly spaces such as our cafeterias our gymnasiums and our libraries and we want to break those up into quadrants on a map so when teachers sit there with their children they'll know they can exit out of that space so it's basically a plan on how to manage The Incident That's compliant with our codes and we identified that the ones that existing in the school didn't meet the requirements of the code you're welcome I was just answering that question I'm I'm not the presenter it was

no ma'am I'll take any questions I do just want to clarify I only asked the question because Fred said on the side do y'all have any questions commissioner Burns were you finished with your questions yes I'm actually afraid to ask any at this point okay um I just had a general first a general question um just understanding what some of the terms mean I think I can guess what a fire door is but what is what does it mean uh what does fire damper mean and what is what is a firewall I I'm sorry to be ignorant but I just don't that's a great question thank you for asking um educational occupancies as our schools are built with life safety requirements such as firewalls and that creates separation so as an example if your school is non-sprinklers all of the corridors inside of that facility are

required to be rated as one hour so that whole wall that serves from that ceiling assembly to the floor every door that serves it is where what we listed fire doors the HVAC AC systems above the ceiling that penetrate that wall uh will have a damper in it and so that damper what it does is if there is a fire the fusible link is going to melt and it's going to shut that shutter to separate that fire from wherever it's occurring so it doesn't spread through the facility we did above sealant inspections and we noticed that the firewalls have had penetrations and you have to maintain the Integrity of that wall so it does its job in the event of a fire over the life of the facilities which you know have some age on them we noticed that there are holes that have busted in where pipe has been run and you know there's work as technology changes and they're putting cable through that facility they would run someone ran cables through the

dampers so the dampers actually can't perform the way they're supposed to so it's a lot of complex type issues that were that we found so your firewalls that have fire doors that serves them and they have fire dampers as part of that so that's that whole life safety system it's really helpful thank you and I guess my follow-up to this is I guess for you Frederick is um moving forward and being proactive are we how will this impact I mean first of all like what are our current building standards when we build new schools and then as we move forward with the renovations because you know we're going to be funding a lot of Renovations how do we um how do how are we going to take all of this into account thank you for that question each building is as Mr Shepard said has its own unique code depending on when it was built and so in regards to future plans when we renovate we must bring it up to

the newest code and so we ensure that all of these deficiencies will be met and we will continue with the annual inspections to ensure that we don't have to go through this process again okay great and I just want to say I appreciate all of our staff working together I looked over at Claudia one to mention was made of lobs because you know this is where we we all have to work together and come up with Solutions and I'm sure this is not something that was in your budget um so I appreciate everyone creatively working together because obviously this is very very important and you know every time there's a disaster in the world like we've just seen in Maui it just always makes me think about okay how are we doing here you know do we have the things in place that we need um a lot of times we see what these natural disasters it's not just a natural

disaster it's there are things that government was supposed to do that they didn't do or things that didn't work that were supposed to have worked so I I really appreciate everyone working together on this um thank you yes that's uh we have a tiered approach and so uh majority of the older elementary schools will be the first on the list because those are young children that probably don't follow the Evac plans and so we make sure uh that we hit those priorities first and then again with the renovations of the elementary schools ensuring that everything is up to code and as we're doing with Northern and with Lion's farm and with the other new schools putting in some of the requests that the current

fire marshal is asking for um thank you Mr Davis and the team for this presentation and Fire Marshal it's been really appreciate you coming and answering a lot of questions that we've had um with us working to get everything up to code can you speak Mr Davis just currently to what is happening now to make sure our students are safe I want parents to also really be clear that while we're working to put things up to code there are current plans in place to make sure in the case of a fire that students will be safe so I will uh defer to Mr the fire marshal as we have discussed what safety looks like all our buildings have operable fire alarms that is a line of defense in most of our buildings are built um low Berry masonry which allows for several hours that Mr Shepard was talking about but I would defer the safety to Mr Shepard to speak more on

that thank you Mr Davis so our position in the fire marshal division has been to educate our school Partners since day one and as we do our existing building inspections through our DPS facilities we spend an enormous amount of time with our principals and making sure they understand the responsibilities that they have actually as Fire Marshals within their schools to do fire inspections so we make sure that that educational component is is really there so that those on the boots members of the school system engage appropriately to do their basic fire inspections according to statute which is to your exit doors and the Life Safety Systems once we know that they are comfortable with that and we do the inspection we go through every you know item that we found in there in hopes that they mitigate them and so those are the efforts that's what we're doing and um we hope that our school Partners which

we've seen have taken responsibility in that and working hard to make sure that their facilities are safe with the education that we've given them and also one of the things that will be expected from a mile and first day to conduct s spawn in case there is an emergency as well to make sure students understand what thank you all right my apologies one quick follow-up and I think this one might actually be from Mr Davis and I hadn't said it but one congratulations on Northern so that's number one for getting that knocked out and to everybody in here but I noticed that this is a lot of construction right and we had an mwb event in here the other day and I know that some of this is very Niche the plans I know will be technical will be a

specialized bid but for some of these repairs and this is very early to ask but do you anticipate that we will be doing some form of Outreach for some of our mwbes as we prepare to do like four or five million dollars worth of repairs to our schools and what the Outreach might look like and how can we be supportive in getting the word out and again I also recognize some of this is very Niche so firms might be few thank you for that question we are constantly uh working with the state Hub to identify a list of appropriate individuals that can do this work as you mentioned before this is specific and there are some requirements to be especially certified in this but access to information is always important to increase those minority numbers and so we're doing whatever we can to get people certified in this specific Niche this is a three to five year plan and so hopefully we can show some numbers how we've kept kids and students staff safe

as well as increase our minority participation and if I can add to that we also now have our program manager on board and that was one purpose that we wanted to have our program manager to help us work with our schools in identifying those minority vendors to increase the participation Jen um with having a project manager and a three to five year plan knowing that we have 30 elementary schools and understanding saying that's going to be tier one um we need to do to expedite the three to five years we say three to five years what's happening in year one two will anything be at completion or is it phased because of the particular scope of work or will all elementary schools be done by a certain time and what can we do to speed up the process if anything

it will not cover the entire community 25 but what we will do to expedite that is mentioned earlier wow Shepherd we'll just keep it down thank you uh yes so the bottom line for the county

and the school district then as far as like annual recurring expenses is about a half a million dollars is that right that is correct okay just so we need to be having that in our mind right as we go forward as far as annual Capital needs yep got it thanks thank you commissioner Howerton and good morning everyone it is a joy to indeed

to be with you to share about the initiative that has been underway for four years it is named growing together I have with me Mr Palmer he has been a co-lead in this initiative under operational services and if I may Sheena Cooper out is our senior executive director of public affairs she has been an integral part of this work as well but indeed this has been intentional work over the last four years and it launched as a result of our strategic plan there was there were goals in our plan that said that we wanted to evaluate our existing systems of our boundaries house children access those boundaries and looking at how we balance programming over the course of four years we have done extensive Community engagement this is not an initiative that has launched just through the administration but indeed in tight partnership with our board we have been working collaboratively with our community our parents our school our school administrators to come to this point and

indeed in with four years of work we're excited about the work that we'll be sharing with you today and where this will take Durham and our Durham Public Schools as well as the Durham community in the coming years so today in your packet is is our presentation and we're going to do it absolutely how's that So today we're going to cover four big things one is the overview secondly we're going to launch into um what what this will look like now for our Elementary programs our elementary schools and then branching into what will this then indeed look like for our secondary schools and the impacts overall that'll have in our community so let's start with the why as we all know if we've lived in Durham a number of years I've lived here over 30 years we've changed and the the joy that downtown is experiencing with growth and expansion is an exciting time

for our community as well as for our school district but in 1992 if we reach back that far that's when the city Durham city schools merged with Durham County schools and caused and created Durham Public Schools why do I share that it's because we really as a district have not approached this work in any kind of systematic Deep dive around School boundaries School assignment in this sort of care since that time there's been some tweaking and adjusting but this is really our an extensive look at what do our neighborhood schools look like and do we reflect the diversity of those neighborhoods now those many of our neighborhoods look quite different than when they did 30 years ago and as we as a district looked at access how are families accessing our specialized programs is it Equitable and we wanted to look deeply at what are the options and what are the offerings and how do we increase that accessibility

we wanted to create Equitable regions or access to schools by looking at comparable programming available to All Families and indeed to relieve some of the overcrowding that many of our schools are now experiencing and the contrary or the contrasting part some of our schools under enrolled so as we look at the why in the center of this very busy and exciting graphic slide shows our children and our families this is the heart of this work the heart of the board and the district and the administration's work and if you just look and do a quick Global Look Around the Clock of those Graphics you can see some of the major initiative or area touch points that we really needed to address looking at how do we place children equitably in special programs there was no systemic way of doing that there was scatter across some specialized self-contained programs in some schools and children that needed to access those programs needed to go to a different school over the years so we've been trying to align that we've been

looking at the resource access Equitable access to resources across all of our schools and looking at growth and overcrowded we've touched on that and interesting in the lower left we have had a high interest in our application programs in the district or our magnet programs but you can see the numbers of seats that we've had available based on the numbers of schools offering those programs has very very much not kept up with the interest or the demand so we wanted to address that through this opportunity and of course accessing the schools had a lot over 30 years a lot of rules that created complexity for families and such that many of our bus rides were quite long so this is a nice overview of the why that led us into this work and so we're going to go into what does it mean for our boundaries how did we manage geographic regions what will it mean for our academic programs the rules of student assignment how families will get into our special programs and of

course through Mr Palmer's leadership and our operational team the capital Improvement plan and its impact so I started by sharing we began asking our community and reaching out looking at our data looking at our magnet applications looking at where the high interest areas were asking our families what is it that you want it to be offered through choice or options in our schools and if you start at the top we heard a lot from our families interestingly enough about languages World languages Global languages we are becoming an increasingly culturally diverse community and we heard that reflected in our community outreach we have international Baccalaureate programs but we also began to wonder as a team how could we also expand language options for families we'll come back to that in a little while our year-round calendar High interest in applications we knew we needed to explore how to expand year-round

calendar options for our families the Montessori elementary programs have extremely high volume of application interest and very few seats to honor that so we lifted up Montessori and I mentioned earlier how did we keep the alignment of our special programs for our most in some ways most vulnerable families and children for our exceptional children such that Pre-K into K5 could be stabilized and minimized transitions or changes that our children had to experience in order to reach those specialized programs we are an Arts Community we heard a lot from our families they love our Arts programming they wanted us to continue that and strengthen it and stem is up there isn't that interesting science technology engineering and Mathematics we heard a lot from our community we heard we're hearing a lot from our business partners are that we need workers and children that know how to problem solve so stem and the Arts showed up here and you're going to see

that from this information we began to glean and shape the growing together results so here's the overview we have established Elementary regions so you will see in a minute there will be five regions geographically in which our schools are positioned that will have a more balanced socioeconomic and racial diversity that reflect the neighborhoods and the regions in which they serve and of course Equitable access to pre-k programs the boundaries have been adjusted you can see to manage the over and under enrolled schools to allow families to increase access this was interesting for magnet schools many of our elementary schools can only be accessed through the lottery a family and we heard a lot from some of our magnet schools I lived down the street from this school and my children could walk but we can't get in because the only way in is through the lottery in a magnet application we heard that and now

all of our application schools will have a boundary we'll have a neighborhood access so the family's closest we'll access and then we'll also have open up those access to additional families through application and then we have simplified some of the rules and then growing into increasing access and accessibility of the Arts Global languages at stem so that's the overview and the why now let's get into what does it look like at elementary first of all we took to heart what we heard from our families that the Arts stem and Global languages are important and so on this next slide you'll see the three columns of Arts Global languages and stem and the top row lifts up what will happen at elementary and importantly as you go down each column you'll see how does it vertically align to what we're planning Across The District K-12 so true to form our elementary schools

all will have Visual and Performing Arts but more most importantly we won't have art on a cart anymore those classes will occur in rooms that are designed for those programs the global language Global languages this is really provocative and we're extremely proud of this Global languages beginning in kindergarten every Elementary child in every grade will experience World languages once a week weekly through exposure and instruction what we know as we go down to middle and high school that will position our middle school students to take Advanced language classes because by the time that a child leaves fifth grade having this Global language exposure they will be positioned to continue with languages and theoretically could take their High School language credits in middle school and then position them for extreme Advanced languages if they wish there is a North Carolina Global language endorsement that we can place on high school diplomas this will really position our children well not only for

that path but as Global Citizens and then finally our science technology engineering and Mathematics this should be in the fabric of everything we do in and as we live our lives technology is now integrated firmly what we will be doing there we're working with our curriculum team to integrate stem more intentionally into the Core Curriculum areas what does it mean to do design thinking or problem solving in social studies or language arts so that this way of thinking and way of processing information is done intentionally through Elementary and positioning our children for advanced stem opportunities in middle and high school so we're calling this growing Great Schools together for all of our elementaries but now let's look at where these programs are positioned in our regions so on our left under 2223 this is also our 23-24 boundaries you'll see the elementary boundaries are outlined in red

if you glance over then to the right you notice the elementary boundaries in all of this work around growing together will not begin until 24 25. so the Board of Education worked with us passed all of this endorsed this in June but all of this work by June of 2023 and this is the year now we are in planning and implementation training making sure our schools are ready to launch in 2425 but on the right you can see the new boundaries and if you look carefully at the black lines you can see the new regions The New School boundaries and how they adjust themselves through this map but on the next slide you can see more intentionally in the north let me go back if I may at this point you know the north the northern region is mostly okay there's a solid horizontal line so we have a northern region and then to the right an Eastern region East following clockwise you come to

Southeast with dark black Lines continuing over you see southwest region and then if you look right in the middle central region is outlined in Black so those are the five major regions and on the next slide so shows within those regions which schools are assigned so I'll just pause and let you look at that what's important about these regions and under Mr Palmer's leadership working with this project team we looked at school capacities and as we assign schools within the region the socioeconomic diversity that would be that would be brought to the region and the racial diversity and what we will do now in each of those regions is position application programs so that families geographically close to each of the regions will be able to access those specialized schools closer to their homes they don't have to travel across the county so where do the specialized programs go

so the international Baccalaureate program we will you can see the IB program at the top for the northern region we're opening a new school and that's going to be EK Poe in 2425 it will offer International Baccalaureate and we're continuing Burton as an international Baccalaureate program serving the southwest and Southeast whyib well I mention the language but Burton has also been named a blue ribbon Lighthouse School of Excellence it's been named a national school for capturing kids hearts and with magnet schools of America it's a national Magnet School of Distinction we have high interest in IB programming in Durham we have waiting lists for Burton and this is an outstanding program we want to expand and now we'll be offering it at Poe Montessori High application needs we're continuing the Montessori programs at watts and Morehead but we're opening a new Montessori program to serve families in the North and the East and Little

River will be transitioning to become a magnet program serving those families dual language immersion we will offer one in every region so dual language immersion in the North Central and you can see we'll have five we currently already have three dual language programs that are more Grassroots and those Grassroots programs are at Bethesda and Lakewood and Southwest now you'll see Southwest listed in the southwest region will continue as a DLI program and what's going to be important to note about that the region will be able to apply to get into Southwest but the board felt it important and the superintendent directed that the programs that began as Grassroots continue to be able to do that as Grassroots so the families that are zoned for those schools will be able to access the Dual language immersion program but the regional access will come through the Southwest option

g Pearson so that's the most in-depth work of of the growing together initiative then we started to look at secondary what would we need to do there again the map is similar in form on the left is the current boundaries and the middle excuse me the Middle School adjustments and high school will not begin until 25 26. why is that we

don't need to change anything right now because we will be expanding year-round next year at elementary there won't be an expansion need for any changes at middle or high school next year so we will do that the following year in order to accommodate the greater demand you can see in like form the changes you can see the dark lines and interestingly on the right if you look particularly in the Pink Zone those black lines show the elementary schools that are within that Middle School assignment and that's true for each of the regions all right in order to accommodate our Middle School programming in 2526 we will continue year-round Schools Rogers Herr will serve Southeast Southwest and Central and most interesting for the school for Creative Studies it will serve our North and our Eastern regions as year round and the proposal that has been approved is for Creative Studies to transition to

a 6-8 program just middle school and not 612. we have not had tremendously High enrollment or demand for high school programming year-round and so the recommendation was in order to accommodate the large number of Iran elementaries that will be coming online that Creative Studies could absorb that need and serve those families well in that placement going across the right you see dual language immersion are recommend well our approved school now is Brogden Middle School will serve the county our community for families that choose to continue dual language immersion in a middle school experience Brogden will be their assignment Shepard will continue as our International Baccalaureate Middle School our Montessori currently is just at Lakewood but because we're bringing on more Montessori Middle School seats we need another middle school Montessori program and that will be positioned at Lucas nearby Little River to serve the North and the Eastern regions Durham School of the Arts will continue

its Middle School 6-8 program and its 9 12 program and of course ignite we still have our ignite online programming all of those you can see under the green bar show district-wide access now high school again in like order you can see on the left are current boundaries if you look at the northern look how deep into the central part of Durham the northern region currently Northern boundary dips those make for extremely long bus rides for children and families and does not really create opportunities for families to be integrally engaged and connected and participate as easily as those that are more closely positioned so you can see on the right the changes to the boundaries and in the light shading you can see some light gray shading on the right you can see the areas of the communities that have been adjusted for the new boundaries and again secondary programs coming online in 25 26.

this is a great slide summarizing what the programming is for our high school no tremendous changes there however we will be continuing the international Baccalaureate program at Hillside there are four options for Early College programming through JD Clement Middle College city of medicine and Durham School of Technology all of those schools offer credits for college credit families and Children Well students can earn the equivalency of an associate's degree or two years of college credit in addition to their high school diploma this is becoming an increasingly enticing option for our families and we are expanding and growing that Durham School of the Arts will continue to be the 612. and we'll be leaning in and strengthening the energy and sustainability program at Southern High School ignite online will continue and then you can see the CTE pathway programs those are all open to any family in Durham you apply for the

specialized program through the lottery and the placement into those programs is assigned accordingly so let's look at feeder patterns what does this mean for families we heard a lot about from Elementary in particular families wanting to be able to stay with their Elementary cohorts as children matriculate to middle and high school and for the most part we've really positioned the district to honor that request it could play it this plan will position ourselves with feeder pan feeder patterns that allow students to transition with their peer cohorts you can see that Lucas Lakewood and Shepherd will transition they'll both have an attendance Zone and also application seats and then there are a couple of schools up there that have asterisks those are ones that schools that we had to split across and you'll see that for instance Carrington is both positioned in the Northern and the Riverside Zone

attendance Zone but what we've tried to do is protect the elementary cohorts such that the families that went to Eno Valley and Carrington then would stay at the northern assignment so we've tried to honor feeder patterns on her family requests and streamline all of the pieces around Equitable access so do you have all that memorized if you don't on our website and there's the the There's the link but if you look at the top right now this graphic shows in the middle it's brighter the proposed Middle School boundaries link but if you go to the left or to the right you can highlight Elementary School boundaries and you click that on you type in your address and every school option will come up for you it will show you what your Elementary is what your base your neighborhood so to speak your neighborhood assignment your Regional

option for IB for DLI for Montessori for year round so families will be hopefully this will be very helpful and user-friendly at a glance and again you can see the link for elementary for middle and for high what are our impacts well we are excited that we have really managed to lift up the diversity and makes the cultural richness of our community we've offered this will offer us Democrat demographic balance neighborhood access to schools increased numbers of application seats shorter bus ride times we have done tremendous work and will continue to be looking at aligning our resources at schools and and our boundary programs and planning for all of this growth that our community and as Commissioners know all too well so we started because of our strategic plan or aligned to our strategic plan and now we grow into the new strategic plan that's launched July 1st this work

now becomes implementation of the growing together initiative building our future as a community honoring what's happening across our community and trying very hard as a district to embrace that growth and and offer really high quality and outstanding programming I do want if I may explain this graphic our public affairs office Tony Cunningham want to give him credit but this graphic in the center is quite intentional and I'm going to try to do it justice but the sun if you look at the sun the sun ignites the Limitless potential within each student sparking transformation that radiates throughout Durham we are a growing Community you can see the skyline of Durham and the reflection that we are under construction as a city and as a school district we have many new schools opening and Northern High School being the most the one coming online DSA is under development and Murray massenburg there's exciting things happening here and then

finally the spark the Durham Public Schools spark under the city lays the foundation as a seed to Foster the growth and flourish a Vibrant Community in a vibrant School District so that is growing together overview and I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have thank you madam chair uh County Commissioners as well as our board members thank you to our manager as well and staff I think uh this is really a robust plan that's uh is going to address equity which means access we're trying to level the playing field for every student that come to DPS the good thing for County Commissioners

as well as manager uh discipline is not going to cost you a penny so we are we are really excited that's how we're able to pull our existing resources we are appropriating them so that I will be able to meet the demand of this new change and uh again I want to acknowledge the 18 million dollars that we're able to get from our McKinney Scott that's what will help us to be able to fund some of these initiatives uh it's going to cost us a lot of money uh when it comes to transportation because we have to Legacy some students on 24 25 and which is going to require us to bring probably about 50 more bus drivers that's costly we're absorbing that with our 18 million dollars not only that we have to train our teachers with all these programs we're adding about close to 25 additional positions to make sure that

we have access across this District so I really wanted to lift this up it's costly but we're able to be strategic to readjust our budget as well as the 18 million dollars that's been able to really to help us to have this in Emotion so 24 25 that's where we're gonna fill the change of this and all I can say for our citizen our intent are really pure we really want to make sure that's access for all those will feel like the change is not going to help their families I'm begging them to stay with us it's going to be good for everybody so thank you to kind of Commissioners who could not be possible to make this happen without the support of uh funding to be able to build additional set on our campuses so thank you so much that's pretty much my comment I'm really excited as we're gonna roll this out on 24 25. this new Academic Year just the transition year to make sure that

everybody's trained we bring all the resources possible so that 24 25 will be ready so that's my comments thank you so much anything for you Mr farmer no okay um Dr Pittman did you want to go back to one I think it's in the beginning of your presentation and you've talked about this schools would be available for the people living closest to that particular School so my so my my question was in concerned as how is that going to stay diverse because you know schools in the past when we had schools that were in a particular community they were either all white or black mm-hmm

because what lives around in the community or usually people that and that kind of popped up for me yes this is a school that primarily African-Americans or people of color live near will the school end up being primarily people of color and or for vice versa would be primarily White that's an excellent question and it is one Mr Palmer and our project team grappled with in detail one of the beauties of an application School honoring the the request of families to access their neighborhood it also though is is accessible the about half the seats we think we have what we've protected for the neighborhood and and that's how we've shaped the boundary the rest of those seats would be accessed through lottery in from that region and we could Monitor and control

for ensuring the racial and SES balance socioeconomic balance within each School through that means through a lottery control I don't know if you want to weigh in or be more detailed I might add a few words just to broaden the scope and share how it's into your inquiry excuse me earlier if I wanted to share anything um at a national level right now Urban education is going through a moment the intentionality of this plan goes all the way to at which schools do we place application programs and at a high level what is the purpose of what we used to call magnet programs or application programs yes school choice we know is in Vogue in the year 2023 but even more than that this all came out of voluntary desegregation back in the 90s so we've leaned back into that if you look at the new application program placements that we've proposed and that have been

approved and I think Dr Pittman would be helpful to reset for example as we look at the international Baccalaureate program actually the feeder patterns that we find just giving consideration for example to Shepard the neighborhood access to Shepard that you see there commensurate with Fayetteville Street Burton and Lauren Harris those students live oftentimes within a half mile of one of our best middle schools at Shepherd Middle School however prior to Growing together they were on a 10 Mile bus ride to Lowe's Grove which was our most concentrated poverty School in southern Durham but the kids were coming from McDougall Terrace that's an example Now by having the application program at Shepard that is fed through Burton and those neighborhood schools but also and the quick pulse check from our County Commissioners what's the other IB Elementary School right so now we're being intentional about aligning feeder patterns at the elementary level and using the

opportunity to have the programs come together but also that when we place those application programs students that live nearest them can access them by right and we use the lottery for our purposes of not just voluntary desegregation but intentional School integration there are hard legal confines of what we can do with race and ethnicity for admission we've brought it down to the neighborhood planning level about 980 neighborhood blocks across Durham County recognizing the socioeconomic and racial compositions and the how close they are to those schools the new schools we brought online we've been very intentional about trying to use neighborhood access in conjunction with the lotteries overall profile the school is more diverse well also recognizing the Legacy in history particularly from a central Durham perspective our historic City schools and so we're able to do both with this proposal it's with a lot of forethought

um so if if a family lives in the shepherd boundary they would not have to apply they could walk in the door that's right we have a balance of seeds for walk-in and application incur how does it currently function and then some students one of the challenge points that we observed was that sometimes the application can be onerous you have to be very proactive in that application sometimes up to nine months in advance so for example with Lakewood or Shepherd by balancing that out we're trying to make sure that folks that live nearest those schools have the easiest access to attend and then using the lottery to bring additional diversity to the school

I would going forward I'd really appreciate us being very sensitive touch with what happens here he's normally because I I just kind of have a little anxiety about the schools becoming for poverty written in certain communities and folks that can have the access to more resources going someplace else so so that's that's my angst right now around that and I know that you've got a lot more work going forward see that yeah oh it's and I think the intent for this work is pretty much to balance that I think it took 30 years to get to this point our board knows that this work is going to be continuous every two or three years will come back as Durham's growing

we're going to continue making adjustment important you know we we can put a lot of boundaries and applications and rules in place but we also need folks to be champion of our Public Schools and part of you know why we want to have this presentation with you all so that when you're talking to your community members you can say hey here's what the public schools is offering this is what we're working towards because when humans have to interact with our plan and humans make you know different decisions around plans but how can we really Champion what we're doing share the story of what's going on so that families are aware and a question then I can say what's in my heart to say and support yes if I don't ask the questions and get the answers then I got this noise going into my head that I'm I don't have the

right answer so I asked the questions because I want to know and we are happy to answer so as many yes commission alone thank you so much for this presentation um I have what maybe a silly question but I would just as also a new parent looking at as you are describing the different programs you were like dual language immersion I was like oh I like that and then you were talking about Ivy I was like oh I like that too is there is there a plan or is there even like a model across the country that encompasses all of these programs or is this like a goal of DPS to reach the point of like having schools that have dual immersion Montessori Arts IB all in want entity let me see if I can answer this uh in this way so

um the international Baccalaureate is very distinct from what a Montessori program would offer which is very distinct from what a dual language immersion so dual language immersion is where a student in kindergarten will walk into their kindergarten class and 90 percent of what that teacher speaks will be in the global language the world language the child will get 10 and then that that that ratio adjusts through the years whereas a Montessori is a way of learning and a way of of um growing so these are very distinct and different so if I understand your question would there be an aggregate conglomerate of richness of all of it in one not on the radar right now um but and and really families that we historically are really seeking a Montessori experience are very familiar with it and and and want it in its Purity our commitment there is to make sure that every offering that we're

providing that is specialized our teachers are extremely well trained prepare go through the National Training or professional learning experiences and when on day one of 2024 our families are walking into highly qualified programmings true to the um the mission that is there to your point though around the arts and science technology and even some of the global language experiences that will be a more integrated opportunity for families that will be in every elementary school so this is what all of our elementary schools will be about the stem Arts curriculum integration integration but then on the other side of the wheel those are more specialized unique and very distinct in in the school in which they reside I hope that helped yeah that's very helpful okay and my second question was kind of along the lines of uh chair howerton's with the applications to the specialized school so if say somebody applies and is accepted into a

Montessori elementary school okay let me show you maybe this will help or that let's let's do that yeah um will they have to then their family apply again for them next for the middle school or will they be automatically grandfathered in to keep moving in that pipeline sure so at this point our current process is once a student is placed into their Elementary program that is secure throughout their Elementary experience what we've learned is that as children start to grow their interests start to change and what we don't want to do is we want to keep options open to families and typically we would want a family to reapply with intentionality if they wanted to continue to continue at the middle school with DLI or Montessori what we can control for is prioritizing those placements for families that have had those experiences and wish to continue we can manage that through the lottery prioritization and the region we

don't automatically commit is because demand and numbers of seats have to align but our commitment to our families is to prioritize their seat s thank you well this is so exciting uh to get this presentation I've I've heard bits and pieces but really appreciate this and Deb you know we go way back um just thinking about the fact that our schools integrated in 1992 I became first became a Durham Public School parent in 1997 at Forest View and that's where Deb and I actually work together on different site-based committees and principal search committees um so yeah when I was a parent so um and and really was hitting me that that was only five

years as I sat here thinking about it five years when our schools had integrated and so I think this is just a huge milestone by the time this gets implemented it will be about 30 years since the schools were first integrated and so um I you know I really applaud you all this was a huge undertaking to try to balance all of these things all of the different goals and address all the just address everything that needed to be addressed I mean it's just wow I can't even imagine so um I I just want to say I'm really excited to see how it plays out um I was just listening to an NPR story yesterday about I don't know anyone else heard this maybe around 2 30 about the Indianapolis school system hiring a marketing firm

it was I felt like they were talking about Durham they were talking about how in Indianapolis they've lost about 2 000 kids since the pandemic to vouchers to private schools Charter Schools home schoolers and they hired a marketing firm and they were like you know it's this is the marketplace now we have to sell our school system and evidently I I don't remember how successful it's been but it just came to mind thinking about launching this um and I I hope that you all will think about that because that's the day that's what we're in now I mean and especially what we're up against with the general assembly that's coming down the line um that I'm 100 convinced that no matter what our schools are going to be better than what is offered through vouchers but we have to make sure that the public

knows the difference and understands the difference and understands what they're going to get from sending their kids to Durham public schools and being being a part of all of these offerings so um so I just want to throw that out there I do have a few well first of all the language issue I mean that that's not just about parent choice that's actually great based in brain development um we know that children who need to be learning languages in elementary school and how it will help with everything else so I think some of these things to me are not just because this is what parents want it's actually because they're evidence-based and same thing with the Arts these are all academically we know that it carries over to all types of learning and also engagement and social skills and and keeping kids wanting to come to school you know you hear all the time

why do you come to school because I because of my theater class because the chorus goes a band because of the sports um so I I think it's important that we also talk about those things that it's not just because this is what parents want but also because this is educationally sound um um and related to the um the stem I just want to really put a pin on that because just approved three million dollars last night for funding for Workforce Development that is these are this is our Bulls initiative this is you know what we're funding to link together Durham Public Schools Durham Tech and the the BIOS Irma life science and also starting a new sector we're going to be starting a new pathway we also funded 250 000 last night or I think maybe 25 for made in

Durham again they're they're totally integrated but this is just to say that I hope that we can also be very intentional about looking at the jobs that we have when I looked at the CTE pathways um I I think it's important I don't know how this would fit in but that we have you know a life science you know pathway specifically and then whatever the new industry pipeline is that we're going to be starting with the bulls initiative um because the biowork certification that were people you know that's that young people are now getting with the bulls initiative which you all are partnering with us on that um that is setting students up for you know getting jobs at good paying jobs that start 50 000 a year and have the room to move up

we just had one of the model he's going to be one of the ambassadors he actually did not graduate High School you dropped out from Durham Public Schools but he was able to get the bioworks certification and now he's working at Biogen and can support his his family he has a young child so I I do hope that I noticed with the stem you know there was a reference when there were those different you showed us those different areas of focus in the beginning mentioning that stem is middle and and high school but I hope that we can also not just say stem but like stem CTE and that we're we're really exposing our families and our children to the opportunities of the types of jobs that we have because this is what we're trying to fund on our end so I I will stop there and would love to

any any thoughts or responses to that let me quickly react to uh commissioner Jacobs first of all I think what you said about Indianapolis Public Schools we are pretty much on the same boat we just hired a marketing director and that we train really to beef up that department to make sure that they'll be telling us story to our community so that's number one so we are really proactive when it comes to that when it comes to partnership with uh Durham Tech and making sure that our graduate are really going through that power plant to be the workforce for Durham so we have initiative with a Durham Tech to make sure that uh 25 of our graduates uh they'll be graduating with either associate degree or some kind of certifications that's a work that is really an emotion and we are really excited about it we are very methodical intentional when it comes to what kind

of certification that they're going to have and they are more also to come in the future that uh Durham Tech as well as uh DPS who are coming present in front of a clinical mission to tell you how we're moving with that particular initiative we are really excited that there are a lot of jobs that are coming to uh to the triangle area we really want to make sure that it's 1800 graduates that we're graduating every year they're having that opportunity as well so we are on that and uh there are other initiative that uh grants that we are also working with Duke as well as uh Durham Tech that's something that we'll be able to share in the future how to really increase that pipeline for Workforce signs that graduated from Jordan High School and one of them is playing basketball in Danville Virginia he's playing basketball in Danville Virginia and he got more excited about the girls than he than he was

about uh the studies so you know what happened he flunked out and he moved to Durham and went to Jordan and the teachers and the counselors got with him and he graduated and went on to a T and got his graduated from ENT so I have good feelings about how he was embraced in that because students that fail at another school and then try to get themselves back up like sometimes it's difficult and I wish that all of this stuff that's happening right now had been there for him at that time but he did he did well he did well he's doing well this morning I was just talking to him and uh so DPS does a good job um and I have something else I'll mention in a few minutes I want to give commissioner Burns an opportunity to speak and then something else

um I'm so happy y'all getting this on tape um this probably didn't happen often and and I don't know who this is going to offend but this is the most encouraged I've ever been in any meeting with y'all in my life and that's not sitting here that is actually being endured for 20 years and watching mayor Elaine O'Neal come down there and fight and Bill Bell fight and Larry Hall and Jackie Wagstaff and Michelle cotton laws come down there and fight because of these doggone segregated schools 20 years and 30 years ago you know a decision was made to do the right thing and then a couple of months ago I wish I could say every board member voted in the affirmative everybody didn't but the folks sitting around this table did um I feel like every slide that you gave could have been its own presentation it really seriously could have I feel like the media has done a disservice to you all because they went to every pissed off parent they could find to make this plan out to be something that it's not and uh Dr Pittman I don't go back with

you as long as when he does and I was getting some water sir could you tell me your name again Matthew Palmer okay thank you Mr Palmer um you said and I got I actually am going to go back and look at it and quote it um it was about I got it when as soon as I saw this presentation like I got it I get to 50 like this is your neighborhood school I know how many kids I'm in the schools I sit with parents I know javonia sits with parents we know how ticked off they are that their kids are getting bust all the way across town they get off work they can't get to these meetings the intentionality of this plan like legitimately warms my heart I remember when um mayor O'Neal came and spoke to y'all during covet it was me and a bunch of other people sitting in my office and I legitimately like broke down and cried when she got done because I honestly thought I was like I swear to God I don't think some of these folks get it like this is what parents want if this plan

was a food it would be the everything bagel like I don't know how you like I I personally think so it looks like and people right well if you put cheese on it like I gotta uh but this is by far the most encouraged I I do not like I've been hurt by some of the language I've heard in school board meetings I have been broken down I have not been able to encourage parents I'd feel very different today I feel very different today my spirit feels but if this if if I I don't know what's gonna happen if y'all run me out of here I get hit by a bus tomorrow I will be able to say with dog on it we took a step in the right direction and I say all that to say I'm not going to jump on the marketing part I'm happy that Wendy got to bring up some of that the reason why it's so important I don't know we know about these opportunity vouchers I was at three churches this weekend doing you know my rounds meeting the people and one of the things that I saw two of the churches had private

4 million dollars by 2026. it would we will have approximately 945 students to go to private school values utilizing these vouchers uh to 2 612 students that is what they project so from 9 45 to 2612 and we all know that there is zero evidence that kids that utilize these vouchers do better in these private schools than they do in Durham Public Schools so I want to make

sure that folks know that they can get a decent good education in Durham public and I just I feel like whatever y'all if y'all got to send out a video if we got to be the ones to do it each the feeder one mainly and I jump back on that one I know how many parents wish their kids could just go right up the street where they were like I got it I know I've been upset about the application program and here it is you're saying 50 for neighborhood and then you're gonna open it like this is the most Equitable way to do it and then you say you doing it within the confines of the law and and I I wish I wish I had a video tape to go back and I'm gonna stop here because you said it was almost like right in the wrongs is intentional integration brother it was just so profound that one little sentence that you had and I hope y'all tattooed that and let these black parents know because they are turning the corner and this might be the one thing that turns them around so thank you thank you thank you doc thank you for the leadership of the board but this is this is what black parents have been asking for it took 30 years and I hope y'all can get them to look back at Durham public school and

say this is where I want my kid to go to Virginia my quick reaction just want to say thank you to commissioner Burns uh for the world of uh compliments uh this has been work um in the last three or four years so we started from scratch uh we did it really methodically to make sure that we don't really upset a lot of folks along the way but we landed in a good place now implementation that's where it's going to take a lot of efforts not only in our public affairs but the entire Community to tell those good stories I'll say this as I track numbers of our students leaving us going to private or Charter Schools they come back to us at a high school because they know we finish strong we have best programs and our students are going to places uh about a month ago I had a good conversation with one of the provosts at Duke University telling me stories about how he had two

students two of his kids went to Riverside High School they end up at Yale and then another one Harvard University we have great stories but it's going to take all of us to be able to share those stories I heard a lot from our parents complaining a little bit about Middle School in the past that's what we're doing this work we really want to make sure that all these foundation work exploration work is going to be in the Middle School to get those students ready before they go to the high school so we need everybody to be ambassadors of public schools the most equalizer for all of us if we are sitting here because of public schools it's going to take all of us and uh voucher those are really conversations that uh we all know that's going to destroy public school um as we come to County Commissioners we come to County managers as we're tracking those numbers enrollments going down we all know the story is the same across the state Across the Nation but all the resources that you've been able to provide to us that's how we're trying

to make the best to make sure to provide extra to our students because they can and I'm sorry the state is not fund it's not funding us with all this is so that we your soul that we're trying to provide to all our students we are really excited about the partnership with County Commissioners but we want our community really to believe in us to come along with us we're going to make a DPS and the entire Community better for all our students great great thank you uh commissioner Carter um I have so many thoughts about this and so many feelings honestly I guess I want to just start by saying that you know I really want to thank our colleagues on the board of education for doing probably making some of the hardest decisions that have had to be made related to policy by any local governing body in a long time I mean this is a

generational decision and you know it's going to affect two of my own Generations my my children all went to Durham public schools and now they're having children who are also going to go to Durham Public Schools so it definitely is a generational decision and I it it your your presentation and all the elements of your growing together plan are incredibly thoughtful and and based on you know Theory and research but it's also filled with so much heart I mean I I felt like as you were describing the your your goals everything you're trying to balance your hopes offerings I I could feel adrenaline coursing through my body with excitement but but it also touched me in some sort of way it just it feels you know um heartwarming perhaps is the right word um I think you used that in my machine I also want to say that I thought you know Brenda your questions were right on how do we ensure that this program with

its goals and the boundaries drawn the way they were to achieve our diversity goals and our enrollment goals how do we know they're going to work why do we think they will with neighborhoods that are not racially diverse why would we think our schools are going to be racially diverse well all of your mechanisms for trying to ensure diversity and your drawing of the assignment boundaries to try to ensure diversity will not work unless families make the choices in our community that honor their Progressive values that are always espoused by people in Durham um and and they choose to attend public schools because they're awesome schools and also because there is this element of the common good that really matters in in Durham families need to embrace that and accept that responsibility it is one that we are not allowed to to to shark so I I really do implore all the families of Durham it's I want to just

say though white families you know we know that the demographics for our school district do not reflect the diversity of Durham and it's mostly because white families and middle class families are not choosing to go to our schools um and so that needs to change and I believe that this growing together program is one that should be so enticing and working together let's hope we can really achieve all the goals that you've set out to achieve and I believe your plan is so solid and and thank you all again for doing this really hard work okay Jim all right I don't miss people excuse me of course now not that I'm speaking um I just want to make a couple points I

want to say um I just want to say what a great awesome growing together team we have I'm very proud of their work and it's been an honor to see it over the course of this past year and I wanted to um say I really appreciate the comments from commissioner Burns and vice chair Jacobs about the need for some or the competitiveness in attracting students to the schools and um and we have an awesome marketing and Communications team I just wanted to lift up this one slide that implications and Community benefits the diversity growth access Equity points here it's a really nice graphic and I think this will to me this is what will increasingly become our brand with strong academics at the center and and so that's what you know I think we're really going to see um as this as this plan rolls out the

other thing I just wanted to lift up was that this is all about you know choice obviously we we saw the numbers of like Lottery seats that were desired versus the ones that we have currently but also about that strengthening of neighborhood based schools with consistent see across them but attention to the unique communities that we have in Durham so just wanted to lift that up as well that I don't want to lose sight of you know even though we're increasing access to these different programs that also I'm so proud of this program for for strengthening the schools in their communities and and just really giving more opportunity within those neighborhood schools it was I only had a few comments and then after hearing everybody else just so much more that I just want to touch on so many things that you all

have said thank you for asking the hard questions those are the questions we asked here on um chair Howerton along the process in the four years of getting bits and pieces of this plan I've been working with Mr Palmer and Dr Danner that began in 2016 when dealing with priority zones in the School of Choice and the administration team has just been working so hard to really uplift the values that we hold it's just incredible so again even hear this presentation like we've got invisible pieces you all just got a fire holes all right drinking from the fire holes with all that you just received but Dr Pittman you did such a good job in keeping it concise and to the points and making it easily digestible I don't know it's because I've heard the presentation different parts along the way but there was something special about today's presentation and the the sentiments shared by everyone on this panel right now um to touch on a few points the greatest Exodus from Durham public schools and

looking at racial demographics is black families that's been trending for the past five years and we need to be clear what has been consistent is about 15 to 70 15 percent of white families consistently across a two-year Point commissioner Carter yes people in their Progressive values need to choose Durham Public Schools because of all that we have to offer and they can hear these things and that increase our racial diversity but our team has been intentional for diversity that affects across very different ranges socioeconomic diversity access and intentionality to program diversity for choice for families so I just I just want to put that out there and just be clear too there needs to be exposure about these vouchers and what's happening at these Charter and private schools we need to look at the desegregated data y'all call for our disaggregated data call for the disaggregated data within those charter schools within those private schools and not only will you see that DPS is most likely doing better and a lot of these standards but also

thinking about the emotional toll that it takes on a child to be in a minority in the school system Durham public school is 80 black and brown that's it so there's there's support there's an ability for our kids to be seen and as y'all drink for the fire holes today I just want to leave y'all with a few highlights as you're going to Champion during Public Schools I like this slide this is our brand diversity growth access and equity that resonates with us what folks in the community want to hear we every school has stem and arts every school has stem and arts access to dual language Montessori and year round if you lead with those programs that's what parents want to hear about and then we have online courses through ignite we have our CTE courses and we have Early College opportunities what more can you ask for what other programs are there out there so again there's intentionality to access that our Administration has brought to us with

the urging of this board and there's Equity there's a menu of options in DPS I have a rising next year I will have a rising high school student and a rising Middle School student those are my younger two and I don't know what school to send them to because there are so many choices do they go to an IB a Shepherd Middle School did it go to a year-round which I've always loved my year-round schools and um or early college I have a high schooler in 10th Grade right now Early College having an amazing experience there are so many choices to choose from in Durham Public Schools we need a state budget to help us better recruit and retain our Educators and our staff our Educators cannot afford to live in Durham we need a plan for our Educators to be able to live here work live play where they where they're working we appreciate our County Commissioners for our teacher supplements Esser funding has supported DPS

but we need more from the state I know I'm preaching to the choir our legislators were here on yesterday speaking to these matters in particular but we are rebuilding we need these things in place so that we can offer excellent customer service and understanding that all of our schools offer academic rigor and safety there's access to every school for academic rigor and safety for all of Durham public school children and DPS has to be a first choice I have no questions I just want to Champion the work that's being done and give you all some good talk points that's what I asked for my marketing team let us know what the talk points are that we can go and expound and actually I don't know that I even need them at this point stem Arts there's access for every school Montessori year-round I know you're rushing me into a language in there DPS the first choice I want to thank our Administration for all the hard work I know that so many

conversations you've had with us some sometimes seek others sometimes individually Dr Pittman I thank you for your availability as well um I'm very grateful for growing together the plan you know just my support and I've had to tease out a little bit of my advocacy in the piece of you know when it came for school for Creative Studies I just have to uplift that that it's not just throwing out the entire plan but just the advocacy of hearing from students who are some who are food insecure and the meaning of having a year-round option especially for high school students who are vulnerable some of them whom are neurodivergent um and just told me like you know their primary meals come from our schools and for a school like School Creative Studies I mean access to food access to adults that are trusted trusted adults I've been hearing a lot of that with my work with youth how important it is to have people in the building that they know like you know look out for them coach Barnes came to the board and advocated you know for his students

there's a lot of mentorship that is happening in our schools and so I you know I I made sure to talk to our admins because I value their work and they know how much I value their work Dr Stacy Stewart my goodness you know I don't know every single week it just seems like there's you know a whole lot that um our Administration is tasked to do and things that they're they're doing they're building the ship and they're also triaging you know so many different um situations and that is really Durham I mean Durham has complex uh challenges you know we're facing gun violence uh we're facing you know and this is not glorifying gun violence this is something we're sad about and not lifting it up means you know we're look we don't want to look the other way we want to be able to get ahead of this and so growing together the equity and growing together is definitely going to help us through providing a global Outlook and I can't tell you how life-changing it is to have a global Outlook when I was at Durham public school student in the IB program I graduated with an IB diploma as well as you know my high school diploma but

having the kind of coursework that I knew was graded not by teachers here in Durham my coursework was sent across the world and there was somebody else on the other line who was grading my history papers who's grading my even even when it came to like the music you know it was it was meaningful and Mr Cason was my my my teacher at Hillside and I remember like we were I was nervous my tapes were going to be sent across the world to another country because the IB program has standards that are throughout the world right and so there's a whole lot of partnership where teachers are looking at some of the materials so some of Durham's best work is going to go out into other countries with other teachers that is something that I'll tell you excited me as a young person in Durham public schools and that opportunity to continue to invest in that program and the elementary school options because one of the things is that with an IB Program if students came in currently we just had middle and high they don't really get the taste of that we're going to start with Elementary School just knowing you know that this is the whole pipeline it kind of builds a whole

pipeline um not just for IB not just for the IB Program that actually in the high school component has theory of knowledge and kind of explores philosophy and so many other things um for other programs as well we have pipelines and I really loved how many of you uplifted pipelines the pipeline from DPS Durham Tech nccu those pipelines are so important um we've had so many conversations including talking to a young lady right now who graduated who's going into my alma mater North Carolina Central University coming in as a sophomore and because she came in as a sophomore because of these credits right the credits that um uh you know the advanced placement and also just our ability to have that that option of coming in she's coming in as a sophomore and she's doing the three plus four program the three plus four program at nccu means three years at nccu in any of these tracks whether it's medicine or Veterinary programs or or dental so there's three

different Health tracks and then there's already an assured four-year program like Rutgers University is a partner for folks who want to be orthodontists or dentists or any any Dental Programs there's Boston College that already has the medical piece so we there's already a three plus four program and we can continue to we don't have the slide just showing how many of our DPS students are going into nccu and actually are able to in seven years because of the you know the ability to come in as sophomores because of the credits you're getting um do a full career that would have taken them longer and do that in a three plus four program so I just wanted to uplift that as well and just um thanks thank our Administration and uh thank all of you for for the work but food access we're dealing with a lot with our students um you know year-round schools I'm I'm encouraged that every five years we're going to be looking at this program so that we might I'm looking at y'all bring back the high school either year-round High School option um at some point but the plans are are

definitely well thought of and I understand that we are gaining much more than we're even losing at this point and that's been my communication with families who you know for you know understandable reasons are feeling that they might have lost something but we're getting so much more thank you to our team it's a great presentation I want to say that the school board has been getting presentations probably for the last two years and Community engagement started in 2020 I think you've had over a hundred different Community engagement and probably more virtual and also spending time in every school and with all that Community engagement it started with history we talked about the history of emerging of the city and the County Schools we know that some families probably still didn't hear it and so really ask that you all really continue to kind of be champions for this work I think there will be some tough transition in 24 25 as families are trying new elementary schools as their boundaries have shifted and I just appreciate what y'all shared earlier and continue to share that in the next

coming years because I think the transition will be challenging but I think if we stand together really strong families will hear from our government from other families who want to Champion our public school system and I think we also have ambassadors who've been working with our office of public affairs so if you know people who want you want to connect please do so they can help kind of share this we know that families talk to other families and that's how they hear information and so we can connect you with our office of public affairs so they can have the information to be sharing with folks I really really rich conversation um you can you make quick we're going to run out of time yes I just wanted to respond to chair Umstead I'm I'm volunteering right here to be a Storyteller and I think we we have a lot of storytellers right here on our board people many of us are Durham Public School parents students and I think another story that we need to tell in the middle of this picture is that we have the best teachers in the world in

Durham public schools and and and that's really important I am very proud to say that my son is going to start being starting his student teaching at Jordan high school next week um and he's living in the teach house with two other people and one of them is the daughter of the principal Little River she just graduated from a t and she's they're both in the Duke masters of arts teaching program so we're growing our own and I think it's also important that we tell those stories as well I know that at least two of the other teachers at Jordan were also grew up with him one of them one teacher of the year last year so telling the stories of like this are really important so thank you I I will sign up

and and not just having this conversation but the work that you've done before you got here this has been awesome the one of the things I want to lift up if anybody sends me an email the Yahoo address I will not get it it's dead I will I it's been over two years ago that it was hacked I will not receive Yahoo emails so you don't get a response back because I don't know you sent it so one of the things that the chair of um DPS and I talked about is in our next meeting we talked about because all of this stuff around education uh the programs like this that's coming up uh forward in C there's a lot of things that we're doing that's all interrelated so we talked about it on for our next meeting rather than having it just for the elected that we do a community

event and um I put it out at our meeting talked to staff about it to the to the county staff that was going to talk with GPS that maybe we have not talked to JB at Durham Tech but in order to have the parents in that conversation we need to have it in the afternoons so that because there's so much of this is interrelated that our parents mostly don't know what's going on and how do they connect all of this stuff that we're putting out all the stuff that DPS is involved in and Durham Tech is connecting with so I'd like to hear from and you don't we don't have to talk about it today but I'd like to know what the board School Board think about is doing that for our next meeting so that the community can hear some of this conversation um

so okay are you are you coming for the next presentation okay so um so let us know um share Umstead what you think um because um I just think that this conversation needs to be broader than just us at this table um the the other thing that we've got on the agenda is the back to school update we've got I think we've got what we've got about 10 minutes we've got about 10 minutes um how much time you need for your presentation okay and then we have a red report from from Linda Chappelle I I think we're going to have to just get the report otherwise we'll end up going over um today so if you want to go ahead and

introduce yourselves with your presentation good morning good morning I'm Stacy Stewart chief of schools good morning I'm Dr Alvarez saying assistant superintendent for human resources and we would like to begin by welcoming back all of our students who are currently located in nine of our schools we have our five year round schools that began on July 17th and we have our four specialty high schools that began on August 3rd we are currently enrolling over 400 I'm sorry four thousand I'm speaking it into existence okay that's what we're going to do over 4 000 students enrolled I would just like to highlight four areas of focus currently Summer Bridge projected enrollment

Community engagement and professional development with that we decided to do something different this year instead of offering K High through High School offerings for summer learning we focused on our transition grades kindergarten 6th grade and ninth grade as you can see here there were three days of learning for students in kindergarten Four for the sixth and the ninth graders our kindergartners are ready we were very intentional in terms of bringing their parents along to say these are the things that we have to offer at Durham Public Schools we want to invite you in to be partners with us as we educate your children we are projected to have 31 000 44 students enrolled this year and we are committed to engaging all persons in our community at the school

level District level and specifically in the department level I like to take this moment to highlight our El prep and Family Academy we are geared to ensure that our families are welcome as you can see here this year we're going to offer the second year of el prep and Family Academy you have the dates from September through February sign up began last Saturday we welcome families to continue to enroll their students online [Music] and at the end of the day we are all growing together we have to ensure that our teachers are growing together this year we had over 1721 teachers participate in our Splash offerings and this was a plethora of best research strategies

sessions offered to our staff we are really focused on improving the quality and the growth of our exceptional children programs by being intentional this summer training our teachers as well as our school administrators and our schools have been very intentional with bringing teachers into their buildings prior to to go ahead and create the culture that academics and learning begins with our teachers and I will take a few minutes just to offer a human capital review we are working diligently as a district to not only field positions but to make sure we fill them with the best qualified candidates not only Across the Nation but across the world and we'll talk a little more about that in a minute we are all aware of the post pandemic human capital challenges that most Industries

are facing but we have some things to celebrate within Durham Public Schools I would like for you to look quickly at this slide and I'm going to give you some additional context this time last year we were sitting at 249 teacher vacancies this year I know on this slide because we had to turn in materials is sitting at 142 but we've come down about 20 some plus more since I've submitted materials so our numbers are ticking in the right direction even though we continue to have to address vacancy I mean resignations and those sorts of things for our other positions we have 108 vacancies last year we had 115 so you can see a total we are down significantly sitting at about 250 vacancies it is less than that now we have our specialty areas that we look into with EC teachers 41 vacancies EC instructional assistance about 25 Math

9 percent that is down significantly from last year and it's going to continue to go down um for our we currently have 157 bus drivers so even though we have those 68 vacancies all of our routes are covered

but this is to make it the most ideal so that we do not have students that have extremely long bus routes and employees that are having to drive multiple routes in order to ensure our students will get to school but we are set to make sure that all of our students can make it to school on a bus and get home on a bus if they choose I want to cover very quickly especially with our time just some of our initiatives that have worked for us to bring down that number of vacancies and and our ongoing efforts I'm probably going to spend the most time on grow your own in the interest of time and incentives but I'm glad to answer any questions you may have we have our TA to teacher program in partnership with nccu that it was an inaugural program in 2019 we have 14 current teachers in the district who have all remained that have matriculated through that program and we have 42 candidates currently currently

in various stages within that program we are also too excited to announce with our Dream program in partnership with UNC Chapel Hill we have four current mat residents who will be serving with us for three years and in our new cohort coming in we have 11 candidates that will be working in our Elementary and high schools Bull City teaching Scholars I hope to come back to bring you more information about that but that will launch in 23-24 we look to have our first cohort we will be running that application process in the fall um you will also see information on our University and Community Partnerships we've been to over 30 job fairs but it's not just about attending job fairs it's about building relationships with those various universities so that we can have access to candidates have build relationship with candidates and so we

think um Dr mobingo for supporting us in those efforts and we've been able to establish some good relationships there as far as bonus and incentives we know that we're in a day and time where numerous bonuses are being offered and we don't just look at bonuses and isolation we know it's part of establishing that relationship as well as being competitive within a market where we have people giving bonuses all around us so we have EC signing bonuses referral bonuses Math and Science bonuses we have transportation bonuses as well as other incentive incentives related to that home ownership making sure that there's affordable housing options for our employees um in the interest of time I want to come here and just share some basic information with you one of the ongoing greatest challenges we have in securing the teachers we need is related to

licensure in North Carolina so I have some definitions I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this but what you can see from this slide are just a couple of things as far as the individuals who went to college for an education program and completed it to serve for it with the intention of starting an education that would be your continuing professional license as well as some of your initial folks and then our International faculty come to us with experience I want you to think about the fact that now if we look at those individuals minus the international faculty that's 68 of our Workforce so that's where I want to go here and just say one of the things that we are keeping our eye on just in the span of three years our number of teachers in residency has gone from 80 to 137 that's a

25 increase and I say that not to say that those aren't outstanding teachers because they are and they're doing a fabulous job but the mentoring the training the capacity to be able to make them the best teacher they could possibly be looks different than those who come through traditional Pathways so I just want to point that out because that's one of our biggest areas of advocacy that we seek with the state to assist us with making North Carolina more attractive as a destination so I have a question for you for this committee um I hate you having to rush through your presentation because what the teach our teachers are so important that's so important and I feel like you're rushing through this I don't want to ask the committee do they mind staying a little bit I'll have to jet I've got 11 o'clock Zoom call but if you you guys

if you don't mind allow them to take their time and do the presentation Wendy you'll take over and okay great so thank you so much I hate having to to do this but duty calls and thank you so much okay all right say that that is the gist of the overview I I think I was able to capture the key points that I wanted to make I am glad to entertain any questions and we have one other piece of the presentation let's finish the presentation and we can do questions at the end and there was a request to give an update on the new Northern and we have Mr Frederick Davis Frederick without the e

green is again we have a quick uh I say infomercial but this was on the news explaining the excitement about Northern High School so we just want to play that for you and then I'll give you a quick rundown of where we are yeah I'm standing in the new Northern High School that will welcome back hundreds of students in just a few weeks this is exciting as you see the grandness of this the pride in the northern Knights to really have a true new home Frederick Davis is for Durham Public Schools he's a proud DPS graduate and architect who showed me around one of the first faces he showed me was the bakery and culinary arts classroom but you can also look in and see the students in just three weeks cooking some delicious and nutritious meals we put a special emphasis on our culinary arts department here which is an award-winning program you're looking at a 90 million dollar project that's

over 200 000 square feet grand staircase yeah in common areas and media center constructed to meet students learning needs even the mock-up floor plan of how this room will look is still on the walls it's really almost like a small community college as we know that students learn with diverse abilities now and so we made sure that the design captured those many facets of student education this new location is just 2 miles up the road from the old Northern High School officials haven't decided what to do with that space yet but teachers like Lauren Castine say there's excitement building among her peers really excited to not have to worry about the facility and be able to actually get down to the meat of teaching the new school comes within the nas walks and two stoplights to

ensure school safety our kids are already great our faculty are already great I'm excited to see how much greater they can be with these tools and it's still an active construction site with workers working around the clock to pull this thing off before the first day of school I'm told construction should be complete by Van August 28th we'll see Joel back to you no pressure so uh thank you um and so you see it every day in my chair I'll give you an update we're working around the clock and I like to use analogies to help people understand the building environment it's almost like buying a new house so there will be some blue tape uh but that doesn't mean that the students won't be safe and won't be in an inviting state-of-the-art facility some of the areas that we will be still continue to improve or some of our off-site road improvements which have no real impact to the building itself and

so there are many people who along the main Corridor of Roxboro Street can see some of the active off-site road improvements but however as you meandered through to the front door I assure you that this will be a school for 2000 plus students with culinary arts ROTC a various amount of CTE training and we're going to be proud of this school and I'm excited as a former doing public school student to be able to give students a real inviting learning environment I want to add one piece also just to say Lauren Castine who was featured in this is also our coordinator for Bull City teaching Scholars so she is actually working on an education Pathway to make sure that we kind of have that grow your own even from our middle and our high schools thank you commissioner for funding this uh particular school and I think we have

a Reuben cutting dates already uh Shino Cooper do you know the date September 14th so commissioner you should be receiving uh invite for that particular event thank you the presentation Dustin can I ask you just to highlight our partnership with um Self-Help Credit Union around the affordable housing that's something that our bodies have talked about together and I just would love if you could highlight that information yes so just to give a highlight we are so excited about our partnership with self-help we have recently sent out communication to all of our employees that gives them an opportunity at housing and the name South Square thank you South Square Townhomes it just escaped me um where we actually have a preference for if our employees meet the requirements they can secure housing any

available housing that is there in South Square we are also working with them we're excited about that opportunity especially with the number of new employees that we have coming into Durham public schools and the expense that it takes to be able to live within Durham so we are grateful to self-help for that opportunity but they took it even farther it is not just about the housing at South Square we are working on a whole educational piece that could help lead our employees to home ownership and so we want to be able to provide as many of those options as possible for our employees and and look for great Partners in that work thank you commissioner Jacobs and then commissioner Byrne thank you so much great information being shared today um first of all I would love to get more information about this partnership with

self-help this sounds fantastic and I had heard they had bought the apartments across from South Square so I'm in South Point so that is fantastic um two things one is the grown in Durham I just want to make sure to emphasize because I know about it because my son's in it which is the partnership with Duke um he would not be becoming a Durham public school teacher without it he's benefiting from a fellowship and it is requiring him to teach in Durham public schools for two years also he's receiving subsidized rent as a part of you know the teach house so one of my questions is just you know what is the current status of that partnership with Duke because they're they are providing the tuition subsidy and subset they are directly paying for the rent for the their two

duplexes and that's supporting at least 12 student teachers but also first year teachers so wondering how can we expand that partnership with Duke and perhaps you know other other partners as well I think it's a great model um because also this the student teachers are getting a lot of support so that was my one one question and the second is for a future meeting Dr Mecca I would love and I know I sound like a broken record but in the future I know the next meeting we're going to focus on education to Workforce but I would love to hear what is going to be the process for assessing the the land the the ReUse of the land and the buildings at Northern so that's that's I'd like to hear at a future meeting thank you let me go ahead uh respond to the first one to teach house I have a meeting with the person responsible on

my calendar and the plan is to take my cabinets to go visit uh some of those places as well the last time I went there was probably five years when I came in and I met with one of the vice provosts of Duke University was able to get me in touch with that person so we have a meeting coming up we're trying to see how we can scale it up and let me just add it's I would say if if it's the tuition part and also the housing so it would be great for Duke to expand that support for German campus well do you think I did not respond to the second one Northern High School so next time we'll make sure that um our initial plan that we have for that particular facility will be able to bring to you but again we still have more conversation with our board uh what's going to be the best use for that facility but eventually we're going to come to you commissioner Burns because I also have a hard stop I've

stayed a little bit over I have been monitoring um one thank you for the presentation thank you for all the recruitment let me at least start and say that um you know turning the corner on that is is huge we're going to have better outcomes with more teachers with better teachers but I do want to Pivot to self-help so I when I saw the purchase it's about 230 two to three bedrooms is there set aside for teachers I know you say if they qualify so I know there's going to be some kind of programmatic um process to getting but of those 230 units and I imagine well is there set aside like how many units are available for Durham Public School teachers if that's been set up I think with self helps requirements they can't just say these this number are reserves are in public schools but it is based on its income based right and so our employees Reach Out directly to them and we're going to meet with them together some stats and so I know

immediately when we sent it out like within the first 24 hours we already had a dozen respondents right who could see the criteria had assessed that they met the the criteria and we're already reaching out to self-help but as far as a hardcore number that this is how many we're setting aside for Durham Public Schools not a hardcore number but a um a precedence in in assessing them for the actually being there there's a flag that denotes them as a DPS employee I mean it's helpful because you do have well back in the day right now I don't this housing let me not say anything about housing I'm not trying to make the news um like the city officials uh 10 15 years ago you know when they when people were building starter homes you don't even see starter homes now in Durham which is ridiculous uh when you were building starter homes they said okay oh you're done public school teacher 3 000 off you're uh you work uh as a police

officer three thousand because they wanted teachers and police like and you don't see that or it would be ten thousand it'd be something like that on a hundred and ten thousand dollar home so I'm always looking at what type of Partnerships but um if that could be solidified I don't know what your attorney would say I know that this was a lot of work I know before I remember I did have a conversation with Emily about it uh for like two hot seconds I I would just be interested to see in a year what that looks like and how many were able to get in and then how we can possibly replicate that because their bodies not focused on this issue and I think the two bodies sitting around this table are all right there are no other questions or concerns we do comment sorry Miss Valley DARS sorry just wanted to shout out the um the presentation I'm excited about the

teacher housing and everything but I I wanted to just note the uh the screenshots of some of these posts that just shows so so much joy and the El Prep Academy families are so excited you know they're they're really grateful for those opportunities when we take a proactive approach to look at our data you know disaggregate the data and see where we're hurting the most right and I I said this at the last board meeting I've said it a couple of times uh the work of equities the work of continuous Improvement so it's like we continue to improve and we continue to look at the data look at where you know the subgroups and and continue to figure out what do we need to lift them up and I am just so inspired by the leadership that DPS has right now the leadership that continues to work and build and continues to to just grow out and and set the expectation our families are watching that so I just want to thank Dr Stewart I want to thank Dr lesane Dr mubenga and Dr Pittman and all our admins who are here for the continuous work that they're doing to make sure that equities

is centered in all our work thank you hey Doris and thank you staff for this presentation yesterday I had opportunity to sit on a panel and our new teacher orientation and it was incredible to see a super diverse group of teachers men there were women there were folks across different racial backgrounds Durham Public Schools graduates were in the room like it was an incredible room to sit into and Dr Kelvin Bullock and his team really led a great day starting off with Equity the first thing they did was Equity one-on-one training at the new teacher orientation yesterday so thank you all again for all your hard work and we're looking forward to a really great start to the traditional school year hmm the next item in our dinner was a just a Pre-K update from Dr Chappelle thank you for being here did anyone have any quick questions on that all right I'm gonna move us next to public comment do we have any no public comment

all over with that we are adjourned thank y'all so much