Regular Session

thank you Dr Marie thank you all for being here too thank you I think you're good to go so this next item is aligned with our priorities 1 three and five of our strategic plan and we are excited this evening to celebrate one of our exceptional Children's Program Educators tonight who was recently recognized as the EC educator of Excellence this recognition was given during the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction at the 2024 state conference Miss Sarah self Maddox our EC director will tell you a little bit more more about this individual and his work here in chadam good evening Mr chairman members of the board I'm excited to introduce Mr Ben Hopkins from mure school he is a longtime EC teacher here in chadam county and he not only supports our EC students but the total School Community if you go to mure it may be his planning period but he's likely still with students what we especially appreciate about him is his ability to consistently

deliver instruction with Fidelity to help support us at the district level with f tuning Our Own instruments and he's currently working with us on a progress monitoring tool for looking at student data to see how we can best support their growth so Mr Ben [Applause] Hopkins you did good evening Mr chairman members of the board and superintendent Jackson I'm Chris poon senior executive director of excellence and opportunity tonight we recognize Mr Michael triplet as our excellence and opportunity Champion Mr triplet our excellence and opportunity Champion aligns with our strategic plan Priority One curriculum and Innovation and our strategic plan priority 3 faculty and staff Mr triplet each day works to reduce the predictability of who succeeds and who fails he works inter work practices that negatively impact a diverse student population and he works to cultivate the unique gifts and talents of every student in our school system um his nominee wrote Mr triplet exemplifies what it means to be a champion of opportunity for all students at both the school and District level he tirelessly Advocates to ensure every student has access to high quality education and resources even more impactful he models self-reflection and personal growth openly embracing vulnerability as a powerful tool to inspire and Empower his colleagues I've had the opportunity to work with Michael for many years um he has worked so hard to improve so many systems in our school system he has worked to support teachers and students and provide summer opportunities for all students and we just really app appreciate the work you do every day thank you Mr

triplet you got to run the [Applause] gaet thank you so much thank you congratulations thank you this next item is aligned with priority two student student health and safety as well as priority five communication and information sharing as reflected in our chadam County Schools Coda civility we invite students staff and our community stakeholders to submit student names for our categories of champions of character words of the month you can see on the document when it's pulled up that we have a different word each month that we ask that our schools embody and anyone can nominate one of our students we select one per month our first recipient for October is Abram Smith a sixth grader at jsw school his nomination included the following quote Abram consistently comes to school prepared for class and ready to learn he models for other students how to take ownership of his education his actions and goals by setting priorities and fulfilling commitments we love how Abram is always Dependable punctual and often goes beyond what is expected okay our next one is Miss Alice Lori an eighth grader from Margaret B Pard Middle School who was selected as our November champions of character and while she's coming up her nomin nomination reads Alice is an exemplary kind and responsible student when she sees a need in our community she addresses it Alice helps start a school cleanliness Club at Pard she takes the the initiative with her classwork and looks out for the needs of other classmates as well she doesn't

ever have to be told what to do she just does it she looks for the odd man out and brings them into the fold for our classroom if a student was out for a while she's the kind of student that would make sure they got all caught up on their missing assignments she's a joy to teach and is very deserving of the award and many more so we have [Applause] Alice kind of child our next item is our power of one award and our recipient for November is coach Barry West who is the athletic director at Jordan Matthews high school he was not able to be here I believe because of a conflict he's right beside you he sneaked in was it coming perfect well I'll read it since you're here his nomination reads coach West has been the athletic director at Jordan Matthews for just over a year under his leadership our Athletic program is flourishing he cares deeply about our Jets and goes above and beyond to ensure our Athletic program reflects the very best opportunities for them Barry has expanded our athletic offerings by bringing JV soccer team and offering the first men's volleyball program in the district he worked with students to establish a student athletic advisory committee providing additional leadership opportunities upgraded our athletic facilities and build a community amongst our coaching staff there is so much more that I could say about Coach West but if you spend just a few minutes with him you'd know that blue and gold runs deep for

[Applause] him put a gold Halo gold congratulations thank you our power of one award winner for October was Miss Angie heggy Transportation support Miss Heggy's nomination reads Angie works tirelessly to ensure our kids with Transportation needs have timely and appropriate rides to and from school each day she patiently answers a multitude of questions collaborates with contract Transportation follows up with schools and and all of that with a consistent positive outlook on everything she and I have spoken more so far this year than the last two combined and she's always able to help me or direct me to the person who can help because of her work every EC student with special Transportation gets to school at the right time each morning Ander returns safely home in the afternoon without Angie this would not be the case congratulations [Applause] and you have to work with her right okay congratulations and congratulations conratulations thank you we good I know our board enjoys that part of the meeting as much as any of it uh the smiles we get from our students and staff is wonderful and parents and parents thank you that's correct um we'll move to our next item public

comments remember uh you have three minutes you'll come to the podium here and present and we only have one signed up Brandy Varner come on up all right hello board and everyone hi um so I'm here representing ccae the chadam County Association of Educators and I just want to start by thanking again the board and Dr Jackson and admin and the County Commissioners who aren't here but you know they can watch Us online um just thank you for the open and honest relationship and the open communication that's existed between us to this point and I know I speak for myself and all of our members that we look forward to continuing that And discussing things with you as we move forward this year um so being as budget season is upon us um I'm here to just present cca's advocacy agenda for the year um so this year we are asking our board and our Administration to prioritize some budget concerns that are deeply felt by staff across our County um we would like to encourage you to look into an incentive pay of $2,500 a year for EC teachers and instructional assistants just to fill those crucial vacancies it is an incredibly demanding job and we need all the good people to stay and to come into chatam for those kids um we'd also like to encourage an incentive pay of $1,000 a year for bilingual staff because they are that bridge between the school and many many families and it's really important that every school has someone who can help families access their teachers and information for their kids um we would also like to encourage the consideration of restoring Master's pay for chadam County teachers who missed that cut off

when the state took it away several years ago um and then we also would like the board to encourage not necessarily budgetary but some program and policy work with our staff working with our staff to increase uh transparency around budget budget allocation just making that information very easy to access for staff so that we can understand it better um allowing teachers um say and priorities in their PD um using their day-to-day knowledge and their expertise to really help them direct what their students need um and then having central office staff um come and support when there are critical vacancies in a school for example the EC positions that are sometimes open this year and then finally um honoring the right for each staff member to meet with Union Representatives during non-instructional time um like I said we um have really enjoyed the open conversations we've had this year and in previous years and we look forward to continuing those with you thank you thank you Dr Jackson just a quick question on Master's pay and and I'm you know I got I retired a while back and so Masters pay the legislature cut off if you you I think Mr BL just cut you off oh he was getting me he was buzzing me okay I'm sorry Mr BCE I won't talk so long just a just a quick question and might have to come to Dr bat what what was the the year 2013 started in 2013 2013 so anybody that had their masters then had started their masters still get Masters paid from the state anybody after that which is a dis incentive to get you Masters I guess or could be yeah okay requires it okay the job does I got okay okay thanks for the clarification I

appreciate I knew there was a date I just couldn't remember when exactly okay thank you for that all right we'll move to informational items uh the northr School Board Association board policy manual updates 5,000 series and of course that's first reading Dr Moran so as you know our district is working with the school boards Association to conduct the audit of our full policy manual and we bring a segment of these to you each month um the policy update this evening is the 5000 series and it has 14 policies for review some of these policies have just minor changes which are footnotes or small legal reference changes or wording shifts some uh policies require a little bit larger revisions based off of legal updates and I'll share a couple of those in a moment and some of the policies in this series have already been updated so on the um correlation chart if you'll pull that up you'll notice there are a lot of items that are already marked green those are policies that are already up to date in our policy manual or were covered in Prior um sessions that we brought to you um the items that are in yellow are policies that are not included in the North Carolina policy manual and the items in red are items to be repealed items in Orange are things that the school boards Association would recommend to be done at a lake date the vast majority of the policies this month are um small changes things again like legal footnotes um slight shifts in wording um a couple that I will bring to your attention policy 5022 registered sex offenders this has a broader scope and definition um that is in line with statutory definitions for what a sex a sexual offender is and it also has a broader definition for what constitutes school grounds also policy 5030 um in the words of the school boards Association this is our trickiest policy in this Bunch um and basically the change that you'll see

here is that some of the items that we had in our policy were very chatam mised that's our official wording there um we put a lot of language in there that was specific to us that was really more of a regulation so what we're recommending and what the school boards Association is recommending is that the things we put in our policy are the legal requirements and the things that we had in our policy prior that were more procedural would go inside of a regulation so um a lot of the information will still be there but it'll be in our regulation um the other substantive change there is that um in our prior policy we did not have it listed that political parties do have the statutory right to use school facilities for specific reasons um and youth groups um that are patriotic societies such as boy scouts or Girl Scouts of America must be given priority for use in the school system if the school system receives funds to implement community school programs so those two items were not in our previous policy so those are the largest changes in this series and emergency closings the major um change there is that it adds a specific requirement that Schoolboard members would always be required to be notified um if there was an emergency closing of a school which is in keeping with what our practices are already but it would codify it in the policy he does that anyway so that anyway um and 5240 advertising in the schools um the real change there is being more specific about um discouraging the use of advertising during the instructional period of the school day other than that I'm happy to answer any questions those are kind of the major um shifts in this policy series anyone have any questions goad Dr Jackson Mr chair I just want to I know that we bring you a lot of these each month and but I want

to tell you guys you're officially halfway through we we made the commitment nearly a year ago to literally walk through every single policy and um we're about halfway through and so I thank you all for your patience and your um diligence as we've tried to do this and bring all of our policies up to to date this has been a major undertaking and uh Dr Moran and and Miss lone have just just been dogged working with the school boards Association to kind of keep this train moving but I I I think they're even happy to hear we are officially at the halfway point right now so thank you all any questions okay thank you we'll move along to action items uh Mr BCE is already moving over there even though he dinged me while ago what I was speaking I guess you're fine Mr BCE I I get that at home a lot too so it's all right American Rescue plan act contract go ahead Mr chairman members of the board Dr Jackson this item aligns with goals two and four of our priorities uh the county reached out to us a few months back and uh had some some money that they had borrowed that needed may possibly be needing to be spent uh this would allow us to move forward with the CIP project that we had scheduled already to add air conditioning to uh six of our gymnasiums uh this if the legislature passes something that they are in the process of looking at if that is passed then the funds will be available and we'll be able to use it to do that if there are any extra funds needed to complete the projects the county will provide that as well I think it's wonderful now because you know we discussed this already so I'm GNA add to that so that'll leave us

three gyms that are not air conditioning that is that and and we're planning if the money comes through we're going to go ahead and do this right now which is fantastic but those three gyms are going to sit there till 2829 if I looked at it correctly even though we voted in 21 does that sound right and three gemms I'm talking about is Bennett bonley and silco and so they're going to sit there not air conditioned and I'm not asking to get them air conditioned for five years I'm just hoping that we can figure out a way to move because we have moved them back I think in the process they were it was kind of one of those unfunded things I know and I'm just vening Mr BL not a you so those gyms are going to be and those kids are going to be without air conditioning and so this isn't I I'm a great Advocate to get those others actually I mentioned that multiple times trying to get air conditioned in there so anything we can do to speed that process up for those three schools cuz 28 29 is a long time from 2425 agreed and we did this in 21 am I right again I think it's 2122 school year so I can't remember exactly when but yeah that that's a long time been a bit yes sir and anything we can do to cuz I know those schools were built 1950 What 1950 no this is benett bonley yeah benett bonley the the schools were rebuilt built a new school 1950 yeah but the the schools were built and actually the county and school boards were promising new gyms at those three locations and I can tell you exactly I won't tell you how old my daughter is but she's in her 30s and she was first kindergarten class so it's been over 30 years that we promis those communities gymnasium so uh I'll make the motion that we approve move the the cham County Board of Education approve

the American Rescue plan act contract as presented I'll get off my soap box after that second got a motion a second any and anything we can do on those other three a quick question is one of the reasons why they're not chosen because there's because we're thinking think of building the new we're not thinking we've already voted to we're just waiting on money to do it am I correct been approved the funding is that's it wouldn't make sense to put and of course they're getting moved back again so that's that's that they've been moved back multiple times so yeah why and and Mr Leonard I think it helps helps our case that when the Commissioners contacted us that they had some extra money it didn't take too long to figure out how to spend it then y'all y'all were shovel ready I guess we we have this project in place we're ready to go Miss uh Mrs Turner in answer to your question uh the county has to sometimes move projects around due to their borrowing schedule and they try to align things so that when they are borrowing money they can do a number of projects at one time so that rest with them just please let them know that we have three gyms that be on a condition for another 5 years or four years or whatever and we you know hopefully we can do something in the process maybe to piggyback on this and and I'm just I'm just throwing this out that um you know our surrounding counties tend to um uh get Bond referendums approved U fairly frequently so uh if that would speed the process up maybe if I may the the reason that um it was moved back was because they tried to borrow so you get the best uh interest and the best um use of the money the best rating and so it was just a matter of trying to you

want to you don't you don't want to go one year and get for a very small lending then go get another one and then go get another one you try to bundle these projects together um initially this project these projects were bundled with the new elementary school um and because that has kind of been pushed back a little bit we T tried to tie it they may have to be decoupled um that's kind of a conversation we have had but the in event if you remember it was supposed to go ahead and move forward I believe this coming school year and we had to move it back one time I think that's the only time it's that's the only time I know of yeah yeah and the idea was to try to do them all at one time because of the um ability to borrow and to get the money at a good rate that would be beneficial to the county so some of that had to do with when it would be most advantageous for the county to borrow the money not necessarily that they want to leave us in the heat uh they want to do that no I understand that I'm just saying we're going yes sir we're going we're going to fix these so we need to fix the others do something there and I think if my memories and it might not my memory is not that great anyway sometimes I want to think those gemms would have been built this year initially 20 it's either this year or next year one they originally in 21 I'm pretty sure it was either this year they were supposed to be complete I was thinking it was this year but I'm not sure on that I I did some research on the other but I didn't look back on that there they're more than um beyond the time to make this happen and so we've pushed it and pushed this up forward if you remember it had been on the what is it um uh on the list future project future projects forever and we we got this moved on the on the funded project so it is a funded project it's just a matter of when the borrowing will happen that's the scary part when it's going to get funded yes sir see that's the part that worries me because I you know that's my area I'll hear it and I don't blame them for hearing it too you

know they should you know we need to do something in that so understand so we have a motion in a second any other discussion all in favor with an i i i any opposed like sign thank you all right so C Parks and Recreation memorandum of agreement for use of Jordan Matthews athletic fields Mr BCE Mr chairman members of the board superintendent Jackson this item uh will formalize a very longstanding relationship between Jordan Matthews high school and the souler city parks and Rick um they use our Fields but we in turn uh Jordan Matthews High School use the soccer fields located over at the Paul Braxton campus uh so definitely in our best interest to get this formalized and get this in place and theou uh does include both of those uses and this won't enter I and I know they've been doing this for years and uh used to and I don't know if we still do share gyms that that the city own too you know as far as practice time and whatever but as far as for our other M that we have with like the U American Legion and softball base softball this is still JM will work through that with with them too so we're good go ahead I moved that the chadam County Board of Education approve the silor city parks and recreation memorandum of agreement as presented got a motion and a second any discussion any questions all in favor with an i i any opposed like sign thank you Mr blce thank you sir next Board of Education meeting is Monday January the 13 2025 at 5:30 and then the following day is our Retreat am I all day Retreat there okay um sir do I have a motion to adjourn move got a motion do I have a second second got a second I'll in favor with i i any oppos

like sign thank you'all very much o' is 3 minutes prior