Regular Session

better Gap we'll start with we'll call our regular session for Monday January 13 2025 to order um do I have a motion to go into close session for the items listed on the agenda Mo got a motion second got a second um all in favor with an i i i thank you we'll be back how far you have learn e

e e living where yeah I bet I take no responsibility for how she acts okay I had to sit between them

what name c Wonder we're supposed to wait till 6 to start so I'm just want see Miss Howard I didn't see Miss Howard back we'll consider ourselves back in Open Session thank you all for being here we appreciate you taking the time to be here um like to take just a moment our newest Board member Miss Anna Carlson um she was sworn in December and we just welcome her to our board and look forward to working with her and Miss Jane Allen Wilson is unable to be here but she's joined us virtually uh but being she's virtual she won't be voting on the items but she's uh she'll hear the discussion be able to ask questions as such um so again thank you all for being here and I will turn it over to you Mr ham please I said this last month month I think I said this last month and the month before and the month before

that every time we meet it seems like there's something else in the world and our nation uh to somehow redirect our Focus uh of our own personal lives and uh to say the least uh Western North Carolina is not off our minds and now we have California and uh uh there's just from the video I've seen of California and Western North Carolina there's there's just no words to explain what they're going through and and how blessed we are so that that puts a puts a burden on us to help them and that that that's our responsibility and um that's national uh close to the home um the day after Christmas um one of our students James Grant from Northwood he was a junior he passed away and as if that's not bad enough um his mom is a member of the Northwood staff so um that was a a double whammy for Northwood and uh it hurts all of us when we lose one of our own and um our condolences and thoughts and prayers go out to uh to the grant family so let's remember all those things um at this time let's have our moment of

silence thank you let's all stand for a Pledge of Allegiance please pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you let's see we'll move on to our do uh do I have a motion to adopt the agenda move uh got a motion do I have a second second got a motion to Second all in favor with an i i any opposed like sign thank you do I have a motion to approve the Personnel agenda Mo got a motion second got a second all in favor with i i i any opposed like sign and number nine do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda I move thank you got a motion a second all in favor with an i i any opposed light sign thank you okay Dr Jackson superintendent's announcements and comments please I think I have it yeah I I can make louder now so you're good two two buttons tonight and that's too many um good evening U Mr chair and thank you uh for the opportunity to just share some of the again the amazing things that are going on in our school district uh I will um be sharing with you just a few of the things that happened in December as we launched into a new year but before I do that I want to say happy new year uh to everyone one and a happy 2025 um but in December we had some great things going on that I don't want to uh leave uh without giving some level of of U of uh celebration to the many staff members who put their time and effort into it first the chatam Arts Gill we have the Annual Arts U at the

meal which was amazing once again if you've not attended that I strongly encourage you to put that on your calendar that is an amazing um experience for our community uh as we move uh through uh we had many many concerts but I was so very pleased to see the growth in our Strings program uh down at The Silo City and Virginia cross elementary schools that program is now about three years old uh but they had great concerts otherwise but that is an amazing um uh program that we have um been watching grow over the past few years and just watching how proud those youngsters are to take those instruments and learn them from the from the ground up and hopefully we're going to continue to grow that program but you see recorders at the bottom but those students at at the top are are string players who are who have fallen in love with that instrument and they keep coming back and the program keeps growing um the next item is uh Mr Michael triplet was named at December Equity champion and we celebrate the work that he does for uh our students um again the Fine Arts are are growing in the western end of the county um at uh chadam Central which has not uh we've talked about at the beginning of the year they've not had a full-time band director in many many years uh and so this year they do and as you can see that program is really starting to grow and he's beginning to build uh the necessary things at that program um and finding just nuggets of talent throughout the building a young man in the bottom uh Corner uh can't remember his name but he's a tremendous singer and he was here and did a little mini concert right here in the lobby of this building uh for our holiday breakfast this year he's he's going to be um an amazing performer as he grows but you can see where the schools in that feeder pattern uh join together to begin to build a community they need to build that program um next item is our uh science fair which was held uh at Jordan Matthews High School our students again presented things that I could uh I can't pronounce uh and they they some of the

science work was just amazing so we were excited about that uh our our students at se forth High School uh participated in the state finals of the quill uh and place third overall uh and our student U ion swi of um George Moses Horton uh won the narrative uh uh state champion uh this is a part of our ncasa um Scholastic uh cup competition where our students participate across the State against their others in multiple uh competitions and and literary works and different things and our student stud are extremely competitive in this and uh Dr Moran has promised me that we're bringing the cup home this year right she's like give me a low thumbs up and per Harrison uh just an amazing uh holiday concert there I got to attend uh it is just amazing what um uh they do there with their with their course program one of our smaller schools but a great and and really just strong strong music program there excited about that um our um chattam ear colge was recognized as the Pont Triad one of their signature schools representing uh chadam County this year uh we recognize a school in each district each year and this year based on their historical record of just academic Excellence chadam Early College was recognized as our signature school and so we're very excited to celebrate with them uh again our Dance Program had their uh SE forth had their winter concert um and one of the things that we've not really celebrated in our district our dance programs and as you can see from these pictur it's just amazing amazing work uh and uh their Coral program also I think sometimes we forget that c4th is a school that's three years old uh and they behave like a much older school and so we're excited

about the quality and maturity of those programs we have the peont healthmobile the dental clinic visit Syler City uh this this is an a great asset in our community where our students get uh uh opportunities to learn about good dental hygiene uh and it's free uh and uh say that yeah they can receive services on the dental mobile free of ser free of free of charge and uh we are so excited about that and being able to offer that to our families here's the holiday card that went out our students uh we recognized a student at the last board meeting but we wanted you to see those those holiday cards and the designs that we um uh had to choose from our students did a great job um with that and with that we are going to oh there's only one other thing that I would announce and I'm sure everybody wants to know and that's that the commanders did win last night uh just want everybody to know that um just I doink that's right so we're excited about that and we we um we do great work in our in our in our district and and I'm just excited about what 2020 5 has in store for us here in chadam county and before you move on I don't know if y'all have noticed or not but we've got one of the exceptional superintendence probably in the country that gets out to these events for our children so we appreciate that tremendously Dr Jackson because a lot of times as busy as Administration is it's tough to get to all of them and you get to a lot of them so it's impressive we do our best sir thank you thank you and as well we have board members who support us and we're just a a good community and I keep saying saying that that let's continue to wrap around our kids and demonstrate and show up for them every chance that we get so that's what I appreciate most about being here so thank you sir um and then today it was a great pivot uh to celebrate January is School Board appreciation month and I'd like for everyone in the room to just stand and give our school board a great hand for the work that they do for our

students every single day all day especially Miss Turner thank you for that um they really are just an amazing now did Miss Turner she's supposed to make her speech this is where Miss Turner makes her speed and and we won't even put Mr bl's three minute timer on you can just eloquent yeah um and moving on thank you thank you sir um and thank you for the opportunity to share uh moving through the uh the rest of my time uh good evening Mr chairman members of the board superintendent Jackson I'm Chris Poston um senior executive director for excellence opportunity tonight we're doing something a little bit different where we are saluting staff members who've submitted proposals to support work that aligns with our Excellence opportunity um commitment that supports all kids is in their school um and we want to salute tonight Miss Crystal pter from Virginia cross Elementary and her principal Miss Beck Miss pter submitted a proposal that we would like to support that reduces the predictability and ensures success for all of her students that she works with as a curriculum coach at Virginia cross um Elementary School and her project is called breakfast brainiacs the breakfast bring programs offers targeted math before school tutoring um to support students based based on their data students will receive small group instruction goal setting and fluency practice 3 days a week from 7: to 7:50 a.m. the program aims to Booth math proficiency and to close the achievement gaps by providing focused structured um consistent learning and a um um consistent setting thank you Miss pter for Champion students and designing opportunities for success thank you

thank you [Applause] when I read that all that was before the Bell ranggin thank you Miss P I'm waiting for my big check like I wanted the priz patrol that's right U Miss Bond our second um um recipient could not be here tonight she had an emergency that came up but we want to salute her as well she's from North chadam School her proposal is to implement a rigorous culturally Rich curriculum for Learners in grades 35 the program will immerse students in diverse Global perspectives um that sharpen their critical thinking literacy and empathy towards others and we want to also salute and thank Miss Bond um from from North chadam again she couldn't be here tonight so thank you all I got clicker happy good evening board members um I have the honor of telling you all about December's champions of character as reflected in the chadam County School's code of Civility we invite student staff and our community stakeholders to submit some student names for the category they best fall under for our champions of character word of the month our core beliefs become observable observable behaviors by teaching modeling and encompassing our habits of character in all we do in doing so we in we Inspire learning and Empower all Learners to be productive citizens December's character uh characteristics is perseverance Scholars who persevere challenge themselves when something is hard those who persevere will keep trying and will ask for help at this time I would like

to recognize fourth grade student Mr Alexis osario Espinosa from Virginia cross Elementary [Applause] School how are you you have a break now this is for you some prizes and then we also have a certificate and if you don't mind I'm going to read what your nominator wrote about you is that okay all right so Alexis's nominator describes Alexis as always up for a challenge and never backs down even if he knows it will be tough not only is he willing to try the challenge but also share his ideas and teach others about ways to tackle something hard Alexis doesn't get frustrated or upset if he doesn't know how to do something but instead comes and asks for help so that he knows what to do in the future he takes any feedback I give him and immediately applies it to his learning you absolutely exemplify December's perseverance characteristic congratulations remember I want to give you let's give a fist bul good [Applause] job every month we also select a staff member from the district who has had a powerful impact on shaping the direction of someone's life someone who exemplifies The Power of One in December Miss Wendy Albright from the bonley school was named as the power of one recipient and she's here tonight your nominator submitted the following statement about you miss Albert is just as her name implies All

Bright she is such a positive influence on all the students at Bon Ley School I have worked alongside her for the past three plus years so I see almost daily the positive impact she has on the students here at bonley she truly cares about each other each student and each student's well-being she serves not only as our front office administrator assistant data manager but also athletic director coach supporting the athletes in all areas basketball baseball and volleyball is she's ever absent the students are forever asking where's Miss Wendy she wears other hats too it's a long list nurse counselor disciplinarian disciplinarian when needed uh Miss Wendy is truly an asset to bonley school and chadam County Schools we are blessed to have her serving the children and staff we love Miss Wendy and feel she is most deserving of the powerwind award and we agree congratulations you what do you not okay and we're next move to our public comments and Mr BL just gave me to sign we don't have any signed up so we'll move along to our uh let's see item a on information items uh North Carina School Board Association board policy manual updates the 1000 Series in first Reading Please Dr Moran good evening Mr chairman members of the board I'm Dr Amanda Moran assistant superintendent for academic services and instructional support and

this aligns with all five of our priority areas as you know our district is working with the school boards Association to conduct an audit of our full policy manual tonight we have for you the 1,000 series which are governing principles um this policy update only has five policies for review you'll notice in the chart if we could pull up the chart we like this one really well I know it's short this time um in the chart you'll notice that many of these items are marked in green and all right all right maybe not many of the items are marked in green they were done in our Fall updates and our spring updates while they're getting that up I'll go ahead and just tell you what a couple of these changes are um policy 1010 is the board authority and duties this is updated because of the requirements of the Leandro case it does not specifically list each of those requirements it just stipulates um that the board must abide by those requirements the other policy to note that has more substantive changes 1320 which is title one parent and family engagement it requires that we have parental notice which we do this already but it does codify in the policy that we have to provide families in a timely manner all assessment data in any Title One school um chadam County Schools does that already through our regular parent conference um and quarterly updates the other changes for the other policies are simply um typos that the school boards Association found or um reference changes so really the only the two policies had any type of major changes the other thing you'll notice in the very bottom there is one um regulation that is listed it is the discrimination and harassment regulation while we don't have to bring that for board approval the school boards Association did notice

there were some discrepancies so we put that on on your list so that you know we will update that and I think that's the bulk of the changes any questions okay thank you Dr Moran type in structure Item B uh you're back up again all right so this particular item really also aligns with all five of our priority areas um but particularly um our priority number three with faculty and staff so chadam County schools has had a long standing history of recognizing staff for extra duties going above and beyond now all of us have in our contracts additional duties as assigned however we do have many staff members that have leadership uh roles in our schools or they have consistent positions that they hold in our school buildings what is a little confusing about that is there are multiple paths that staff may receive some of those extra Duty funds so what we wanted to do this evening is just show you really quickly kind of the three paths in which that can happen for our students our our staff sorry so um the first one is our unified stipan structure and as you know that is something that we brought to you not that long ago just um before the year started and you voted for us to be able to start that this school year the unified stien structure is for those things that are happening consistently throughout the year on an annual basis and to give you a couple of examp examples of that that would be our athletic coaches those would be our Arts folks who are doing performances and um shows After Hours those are our BT mentors our Avid coordinators and our grade level chairs one of the changes that we made in this structure is in the past we only recognized our high school department chairs and so in this new process um schools will be designating um for grades K through 8 also

recognizing those staff who are serving in those leadership roles and so that was added this year and that will um go into effect um and when you pull that particular stien structure up what is a little bit different about this particular area is that it has 14 categories and inside each of those categories are the various roles that teachers play in each of those categories and then the stien payment structure which is not you guys finding it if you'll click on the categories each of the roles that staff can um be given payment for are listed in each of these 14 categories and what makes the unified stien structure different is that when you look at the payment schedule um calendar if you'll click on that tab it shows you that you're also being given recognition for years of experience all right question yes you want me to wait go ahead um y'all did Yan's work beating this horse to find out every nook and cranny and now that it's implemented and all did you did you find out you covered all the bases or did one or two things pop up still learning still learning okay yeah and it's first year so that's good good okay so that's one level of District extra duty pay that St that um staff can achieve the second level is if you'll pull up the next link it is a stien structure for again District work that staff may do where the district is covering this particular pay and this is a contract form that we

use this is for more intermittent type work such as tutors that we hire to support in our schools that maybe didn't meet growth this might be um if we hired an art teacher in our district to support another school who maybe have a sub in a music class um we would provide some type of stien um extra duty pay for that um other examples might be summer curriculum writing when we have large curriculum changes over the summer we often will pay some of our teachers to come in in and create resources and update units um and things like that what we did back in about 2018 we worked to really solidify and make these numbers consistent um in the past before that we had some tutors being paid 15 an hour some 12 an hour and so what we've done is we've made that consistent across the district so you can see our rate for tutors is 25 per hour so this is kind of another way that staff can receive additional um funding one of the ways that some of our schools will use this for example if we have a classroom vacancy our goal is always to get the very best most qualified teacher in front of our students and so in some cases hiring a sub might not be the best option for that usually in high schools when you have more complicated courses that not just anyone could come in and teach um and so what we often will do is have some of our teachers take on an additional section of students during their planning time and they would use this particular stien structure to receive additional pay for that work another example of that would be and we see this more at the younger grades when we have a sub that we're paying for the sub but we also have another teacher who might be writing the lesson plans for the teacher when we have a classroom vacancy we would give them um that extra duty pay for writing those subl lesson plans and we work with principles and

our um academic services staff to work with each school on their unique needs in those areas so that's kind of a second layer of extra Duty and stiens the third layer would be also using the same form but it would be school level duties so while we know we can't pay for every single thing that um a a staff member might do schools do have unique needs some schools have um Scholastic competition teams some of them might have um grounds cleanup Crews that they will pay extra duties for um sometimes the yearbook so every school had kind of has their own needs depending upon what they might be doing each year and so schools can use instructional funds and Contract Services funds that they have available to also use this same form we ask that schools typically use their school Improvement team process so when they're looking at their budget for the year they would talk as a school Improvement team about how these stiens or extra Duty funds would be done within their school so again there are three kind of paths unified stiping which are our athletes and our things that are our Arts our coaches um and anything that is done on an annual basis that is consistent and the second path our things that are intermittent we can't always predict the third path are School level extra duties I know that's a little bit confusing so I'll pause and see if you have any questions but really what we wanted to be able to show here is that in addition to just the unified stien structure we really do have um a number of ways that we recognize staff who are going above and beyond and we've really done that um I have I've been in the district 11 years and this has been in place as long as I've been here um but I'm sure it was in existence um prior to that as well so any questions I think the confusing part was probably we all pulling all of this together and trying you know and I know Athletics hadn't been redone in in many many years but to add all these others I

think it's a wonderful effort uh and I appreciate and I've had several teachers that have mentioned they appreciate it also so thank you very your teachers yeah and if you look at the financial impact obviously um you'll hear in the heads up budget um the piece about the unified stifen going in that but if you look at collectively um across all of those areas that we just mentioned when we did kind of a rough estimate over the last few years each year we um spend about a million dollars in extra Duty um pay out for any of those three categories so um that's a large sum of of funds that we're trying to support our staff I still think it's very well spent so thank you very much for any other questions comments okay um we'll move on to item C Dr man you're still there and Dr Burton I think teach sham update yeah so this item is aligned to priorities 1 three and five and tonight we have a brief update on the teach chadam program teach chatam began with the first cohort in 2022 and this really was an idea that started back in 2018 um it was a partnership between chadam County Schools Carolina Community College and UNCC Chapel Hill um our plans had a little bit of a stall because of the pandemic um but we were excited to get things back um up and running so tonight um Dr Michelle Burton our executive director for secondary programs we'll share a little bit with you about where we are with teach chadam and she'll also introduce you to our new cohorts that's the most exciting part you get to meet some of our students and she'll also share with you what our previous students have been doing um in their coursework so I'll turn it over to Dr Burton good evening um Mr Leonard board members Dr Jackson um as Dr Moran said I

am Michelle Burton and I am here to give you an update on teach chatam so the goal for teach chatom was to provide students who are interested in education an opportunity to grow that interest and in return come back to work for chadam County Schools um so we began this work through an application window and in the first year we only did one application window this year we'll actually have two this evening you'll meet the fall teach chatam Scholars and then in the spring we hope to bring you another group of Scholars um ultimately we would like to be able to provide some sort of financial support for students um once they leave us and hopefully when they come back to us um students complete uh coursework aligned with educational opportunities and High School um and because we have two courses that we offer now as well as they can choose a pathway through cccc through career and college promise and so just to give you a little bit of information about what we're looking for when they submit an application um we're looking for student information parent information um they do have to answer to essay questions um and then we look at their disciplinary records their grades things that they've participated um so far throughout their educational career and then we ask for recommendations from their teachers um and then the last thing we do is um a student interview so there is a pathway to complete um the process of teach chatam which again begins in high school but we encourage students to choose the pathway that is best for them so for some of them it may be they take the High School courses or they opt to take courses at cccc while they're still in high school

or they choose just to go to a four-year college or university and pursue an education degree if they choose UNC that will also lead them to a master's degree since they're one of our partners and then ultimately they will come back to work for us so this year we have the pleasure of introducing three students to you this evening and these are our new cohort members and and so um as I call students name if you'll come up and then you'll be introduced to the board so the first student I'd like to introduce to you this evening is Payton Douglas pton is an 11th grader at chattam Central High School Payton's goal is to be a second grade teacher and I'm just gonna brag on pton for just a minute Payton came to us as if she were interviewing for the second grade job that day um so we yes we were very impressed and we know that there are great things ahead for her here in chattam County Schools so Peyton I encourage you to greet each of the members of the board you're welcome tired thank you and good luck I taught first [Laughter] grade the next student I would like to introduce to you is m Mr Landon Johnson and Landon is also an 11th grader at chattam Central High School so Landon knows that he wants to teach possibly career in technical education which I'm Overjoyed about and we are going to help him find the right college for him to pursue his goals and dreams so I would like to introduce to you Landon Johnson and I will say that both of these students have close ties to education their parents or their

relatives do work for us here in chattam County Schools um and last but not least I would like to introduce to you Elizabeth Martinez unfortunately Elizabeth could not join us this evening but she is a 10th grader at Jordan Matthews high school and she is also very interested in teaching elementary [Applause] school okay there we go so our first cor cohort of students um we have two left they are current 12th graders Kaylee folman who is a 12th grader at Jordan Matthews high school and Kyle Stenson who is a 12th grader at se4th high school and my understanding is from that's Kyle sophomore picture he didn't like it so he pass asked for an upgrade yes he had you know that's something proba not happy with the picture that we we have utilized and so he let us know that we needed to change he did um we did have three graduates last year Bethany Fox from c4th high school Madeline kerson from Jordan Matthews high school and Lauren cavanis from chadam Central High School this clicker does not like me this even you so we encourage the scholars to participate in a variety of activities we did have one of our Scholars who actually graduated but she committed to being a tutor in the summer read to a chief camp this past summer she really enjoyed it and asked if she could come back again this year um we have we had students participate in question and answer session with current Meredith education students when they came to visit um chadam County in the spring of last year we will be utilizing their services this year for the spelling be um our annual teacher job fair we would like for them to be able to observe a teacher advisory meeting so they see how

things work in chatam and that teachers still have a voice um they will be working with books on break day of the books we will meet quarterly as a group to ensure they are having opportunities to um explore and observe things of their choice um they will have an introduction to teaching fellows this spring as well um we will offer them an an opportunity to be a tutor and read to a chief camp this summer and I have been working with the YMCA to see if we can secure them counseling positions we have several partners that we've been working with of course Central Carolina Community College the chadam county partnership for children the chattam Education Foundation UNCC at Chapel Hill the YMCA the Boys and Girls Club of America and the University of North Carolina systems uh oh um we did want to take a minute to explain the difference between teach chatam and chadam promise and so our students the students in Teach chatam as well as all other high school students in chadam County schools are eligible for chattam promise which is actually there's a chattam PR promise a Harnet promise and a Lee promise through Central Carolina Community College the students must have completed four college courses or 12 credit hours and they and the fast for form and they are eligible to attend through chatam prise free of charge or two years am I right on there for two years and that should bring them up to an associates degree we hadn't got to buy in from a university yet have we no that's hoping not yet and so this year for the first time chadam county is also part of the North Carolina teaching fellows pilot Grant so we wrote a proposal um to obtain $50,000 in an effort to expose our

students to teaching fellows as well as to help them apply and hopefully be accepted into the teaching fellows program and so that is why we will have a teaching fellows Workshop this spring because that's one of the things we've committed to do in addition to that this year for the first time chattam County schools has two courses that directly align with teaching with teach chatam excuse me and canist with teaching fellows and that is um teaching as a profession which is a brand new CTE course that will be offered at chattam Central High School this year and teacher Cadet which is now being offered at c4th high school so our main goal has always been to provide some sort of financial support So teach chatam students meeting the requirements can be eligible for scholarships Andor a signing bonus when they return to us for up to $10,000 to support C course work postsecondary options um and it could be higher if we're able to receive additional donations from various philanthropic organizations so students must complete a minimum of 20 hours of volunteer service related to education and they will be required to return to chadam County schools in and teach for a minimum of three years upon graduation if they receive the scholarship funds um any student that is selected for teaching fellows they don't need the funds because teaching fellows pays for everything and so those students would then be eligible for the signing as long as they go to the schools that yes sir they have to go to one of the schools aligned with teaching fellows and then the district will remain in contact with the students while they're in college and hopefully um have them come and work during the summer with us well that's also some substitute uh we probably have I know

we've got students in college that are substitutes for us already so I think that's a another Avenue that probably some of them are doing anyway so that's great substitute opportunity a tutoring opportunity both during the regular school year and the summer any questions yeah yes I I was happy to see the information about the scholarships yes ma'am and that you're procuring those scholarships from other places too but what about the publicity but teach chatam I mean are we are we waiting for them to come back and actually teach before we like BL up the whole world with this information about teach chat and so no ma'am the world was blown up beginning in October to help the children understand that this was an opportunity for them this is one of the reasons why we'll have two application processes this year I will go into all of those courses that I just mentioned the teacher Cadet and the teaching as a a profession and hopes to get more students to apply and become a part of the program is that what you're asking about money wise no no no yeah that's what I'm ask yeah I just want the information out there yes maam yeah we're also working closely with the chadam Ed Foundation um and looking for other donors through the chatam Ed Foundation to help support this beyond what we're able to do just within the school district funds other question any other questions anybody thank you very much thank you thank you'all all for being here too Payton thank you okay uh we'll move to action items and first up is the wolf speed donation to chadam robotics team um and Dr Moran and I see Miss burko Dr burko is here to be accepting also so that's great so this item is aligned with Priority One curriculum and in ation and priority five communication and Community engagement we're really lucky in our district to have amazing Community

Partners and wolf speed is once again um wanting to donate to our County robotics team which is our neon cracken group that we've brought to uh prior board meetings for you to meet um and of course uh in accordance with policy 8220 um it requires all donations Beyond $5,000 um to be approved by the bo board wolf speed has committed to um a generous donation of $20,000 to support this work um our team is made up of students from Jordan Matthews high school as well as the chadam early college and they're expanding this year to include students from chadam middle as well um you'll also hear a little bit more at your retreat about other ways that we partner with wolf speed um but we're excited about this donation I mooved CH County Board of Education accept the donation of $20,000 from wolf speed Incorporated to be used to support Cham County robotics team of course neon krens uh participation in the first robotics competition and I think U wol spe's hoping for maybe national International stuff too right am I correct or so that's a motion do I have a second got a second any discussion I just think this is cracking good me anybody else thank you all in favor with an i i i any disapprove same way all right thank you Dr Moran Mr ham I've lost my thought here for a minute here 20 Item B 25 26 heads up document yeah now you don't look like Dr Jackson Miss Smith here but we'll go ahead we'll go ahead and let you come on up there anyway so it's okay it's probably a compliment for um Mr chair tonight we will begin

the process of sharing um uh where we are with uh initial thoughts around budget development today and tomorrow we'll be talking about budget priorities with with the board uh tonight we just want to share where we are in our anticipated thinking around where um we believe our uh request to the county uh will uh Focus uh based on preliminary information again I share with the public that we we know very little at this point and particularly with transitions uh at the state and the national levels uh we cannot at this point really with any sense of certainty really talk about funding uh to be quite Frank and so we are we we have taken what we know at this point and we've taken what we know our needs are going to be uh and these are just our anticipated needs as of what we know right now um luckily Dr Jackson we have our chair of our County Commissioners miss Karen Howard here to hear it again she's heard it already but this is this is getting it again then Miss Howard thank you for being here um thank you Miss Howard again I I I say this over and over again I think our superpower is the fact that we've had stable uh leadership as a school system that we're able to see both our uh the road that we've we've traveled and we have very good lenses around where we want to go people who understand that so this makes a difference for us uh I've shared a lot of the information uh that I will share before we share the numbers but as I said to our County Commissioners recently it's important that we are able to show a return on the investment schools are an investment uh and we go and we ask on a regular basis for that investment and I think it's important for us to be able to say uh if then if

you've made this investment then we're able to show you that that investment makes a difference and so our why and and and is always align with our way every time that a person gets up to this Podium they really talk about how the work we're doing aligns with our strategic plan that is not an accident uh that is very intentional and it's it we want our community to understand that we are staying the course around where we're headed how we're getting there and why we're doing it and so our work is tied with what our students do we've said that we're going to provide it in a way in which there are three Pathways for our kids uh to success and that's through the Arts that's through acade Athletics and most importantly that's through academics uh and so we are we're we're going to do that we continue uh to compete at the state level and we are performing above the state average we're not perfect perfect but we're making progress we're getting there so the resources that are being poured into our school system are not for are not in vain uh we recognize that we're going to have to continue to work to get better we've got to be open about our challenges and make sure that we're doing that we have our schools that are outperforming uh the state in terms of our school performance grade 84% of our schools um have met our internal uh self-imposed metric of a see or better or uh meet an exceeding growth that's 84% compared to the state 67% and we think that that that's been consistent over the last few years and we know for a fact that uh those schools that are not uh that are in that are shaded blue that we have really intentional plans about how we work with those schools we continue to um perform well in the region we're competitive with the district around us uh we um way County and Chapel Hill we constantly kind of figh and in certain areas we are better or above them I'm not going to say better but above and they're uh above us in some areas but when you look at the

composite uh we are continuing to be there our graduation rate uh that is our proof in the pudding uh 90% of our kids get to the Launchpad uh 90% now uh our four-year uh graduation rate we calculated 89.7 The State said 90 and so we're going with that uh we say that over and over again we'll take that um but we also celebrate that five-year graduation rate too because that's an indication to our community that we don't give up on kids uh that even those who don't get there at that first uh shot we we don't give up on them and and those kids who don't make it in their fouryear uh with their four-year cohort we're still very successful at getting them there to uh uh the end this is this tells you how competitive our kids is are 30 $6 Million worth of scholarship and a lot of that money is tied to again an investment that this board authorized and that's through Abid a lot of our kids who are in fact uh experienc our Avid programming uh they are earning uh scholarship and they're breaking Cycles in their families so that they are the first in the uh in their families to make it to College that's a return on an investment that you can't really quantify um uh every single and then we were just talking about the teach chadam and and the chadam promise we have we our kids earned over 5,000 credits college credits last year uh I was looking at our we have nearly 800 kids enrolled in our uh dual enrollment programs and another 700 kids enrolled in AP so that's about 1500 kids who are taking college level courses in Cham County Schools that's a return on the investment because because when you look at that that's money that we're giving back to parents because they don't have to duplicate uh those courses when they get to college and so we've got an

amazing teacher Corp a return on investment last year we really focused in on our our our our supplement so that we could build our Workforce our teachers have responded they they are they are doing the work and making sure that our kids are taken care of we have some schools where 100% of our teachers met or exceeded um uh growth um and so by the Numbers once again we'll say that our demographics are shifting we're about half uh uh white and half uh kids of color uh in our community and and that's a that's that's a shift uh and so we have to make sure that we are sensitive to the needs of all of our kids and so when we talk about our strategic planning we talk about all we mean all that every kid has a right to a good education here our enrollment continues to grow you're going to hear more about that in our retreat tomorrow about uh where we where we are with our enrollment where we are with projections um uh you know we continue to serve as the largest employer uh we are the largest employer in chadam County um and um and so we have to have people understand that we are about1 130 $140 million business on some days of the week we have that the operations of a large uh very complex organization rest here in our school system because at its roote we're the biggest uh restaurant in town we serve over a million meals uh every year uh and this year we're serving those meals to our kids free of charge another investment and because of that already we have um uh uh served nearly a million meals already and we're just halfway through the year um and so we've got Auditors in the district this year auditing our food service program this year they're excited to see I'm excited to hear uh what they're doing there uh our large we're the largest Uber uh in town we've got transportation we uh transport nearly um we transport

over a million miles a year and realistically we do it safely um that's an that's a return on the investment that we're providing and so we still have major challenges that are up against us growth is growth is here program options uh uh Equitable opportunities uh for all students our communication uh making sure we are telling the story where we need to tell the story to the right people at the right times uh making sure that the we're balancing the needs of our funding uh across the board and that our aging facilities are taking place but most importantly that we're doing it in a safe place for adults and kids you'll hear more about this this is the old slide you'll see the new slide tomorrow uh I I will just say um surprise surprise the growth is starting and so so you'll see that tomorrow uh we have many many promising practices that are in place here um and one we will be sharing pretty soon and that's our one Academy where we've made the decision that we don't throw away kids that's a return on it on an investment we are investing in those kids who have fallen out of love with school and we're just giving them a chance to come back and date for a little while at least to you can get your diploma then you can go on and be the adult you want to be uh and and so we have lots of amazing things that we're doing for our kids um promising practices we just heard about the unified stien uh honoring the work that teachers do every single day increasing that supplement thanking working with our commissioners those Investments matter uh and then you'll hear more again tomorrow about choose chadam and us trying to uh address the the the issue of housing uh for our employees um here in town that's not something that schools do uh but we are we've decided we're going to wait into that space to help our teachers find places to live so that they can live in this community uh and so those are investments taking care of our students

you're going to hear about all of those things that you've invested in around um uh uh the the work around uh uh Yonder pouch and and and Gaggle and um the um uh go guardian and the work that we're doing to keep our kids safe uh while they're with us uh that's an invest M um and so ultimately it really is if the investment um is worth it uh then the return definitely is is what we really want for our schools and I said at our our state of uh state of the schools that uh every year I want us to know that our school system is is strong it's it's growing it's performing but most of all it's shining uh we started our year with that theme we want our school system to be an example uh not just for uh those who have kids in our school system we wanted to be a factor for those who don't we want it to be uh a a return on investment for those who don't have kids in our system and so as we build out a budget that's what we're putting at the front uh we're putting those kinds of things on the table but I wanted you to have a sense of uh this is not just a uh coming up every year saying gimme gimme gimme this is truly about how we invest and how we take those Investments and build upon a school system that this community can be proud of so I'm going to turn it over to Britney uh she's going to share with you just our assumptions that we have right now uh and we are excited that uh Britney Smith is our uh our finance officer and she will be uh leading us through the work right now and so we're excited to have her make her debut right here at a board meeting so there you go Britney good evening Mr chairman members of the board um this let's see so this first slide just kind of gives you a comparison um from the 23 school year to the 24 24 being last year just

how we ranked um amongst amongst other counties in North Carolina um in regards to our different funding sources so in our state funding we actually um went up 10 spots um which was only increase of $587 but then in our federal funding we actually dropped quite significantly um main reason for that drop that $743 drop was mainly Esser funds um in 23 we used the majority of our eser funds we still had um a little bit left in 24 in the current school year in 25 we have very very little um so that explains that big drop um the local funding is has remained the same we've remained the same in rank but we did increase 99 um so total funding overall that was an increase of very small increase but still an increase of $43 but I ask a question right well it's just I just thought of this too could by us being diligent and spending our exra money like we're supposed to could um you know making sure and other districts might have waited till the last could that skew the 5242 is what I was wondering I didn't know if it could or not all right you know if eser money ours was spent earlier right and some districts were spending later and I wondered if maybe by some spending later that might also skew the 5242 down there about ranking leas probably I just wondered sorry Britney go ahead you're good you're good it accelerated for a year yeah that's what I that's what I was wondering if it might have changed yeah and and the piggyback on that the because we were du

diligent and spending the money we didn't come up at the end like so many systems around us and releasing staff and teachers and principles and assistant principles because I won't say they overspent but they didn't budget well Administration did a really good job you did a good job so this next slide it just gives you kind of a comparison of the last five years in our ask of the county um and you can see the past two years it has been a a rather large increase um partially due to supplement was a big one our new classified pay scale that um that added to that a little bit um the 22 23 year was so small because we did have a lot of eser money um so we didn't feel the need to ask for any additional funds there because we had those SRA dollars um and then the previous two years were very similar go ahead it just hit me when you say the word the term increase we could revert to Dr Jackson's termin ology of um investment investment I like that yeah it does go up it does increase but we're investing that's right so our priorities for the coming school year for the 2526 school year um of course we always aim to enhance our wor our Workforce um and you'll see the ways we're going to be doing that hopefully by in in reinstating our Master supplement um and then also investing in um to make our salary supplement our stti our excuse me our salary supplement

increasing it again just a tad bit more than we did last year um securing Financial stability this would just be paying for those increases in our fixed cost operational costs um all of those things that seem to go up every year and we can't control um promoting equity and student achievement our funding our free lunch and free breakfast um initiative that we put in place this year and then strengthening um the safety and modernization of the district um increasing our Capital outlay funding and in U putting in the safety measures that we have put in in and modernizing on the uh student lunch um and breakfast what and breakfast yeah and breakfast yeah um have we lit the fire under other systems to follow suit I would like to know that we are we're pushing the envelope there and getting other people at least two other systems that have abundance of money right are seeing other districts um and I don't know if we are the impetus for that but we're seeing a lot of districts and I think the the pandemic has something to do with that we we were able to do that and we demonstrated that we were able to do that so I think it's very difficult for people to backtrack off of that commitment um and I think so I would say we're saying it I can't say that it's us that's pushing that and we're hoping the feds don't back off correct right yeah correct so our first item um is the restoration of Master supplement and we've got a $250 $250,000 um amount on that so A couple quite a few years back the

state decided that they would not pay uh for Master's level they would not pay Master's level salary unless you had taken your first Master's level course in August of 2013 unless you're in a m in a in a position that requires a master's so we have quite a few teachers here in chadam that have a master's degree however the state says we cannot give them the pay they got it after 2013 in other words basically or weren't taking it during that time okay there are some surrounding counties that provide this supplement um so this would be trying to be competitive with with those surrounding counties also now is there any talk at the state level that they may okay not right now I mean they're asking state board of education is asking for they're asking they're asking just hasn't been the appetite for the past 10 years they've just not been hungry enough for 10 years so this 250,000 would cover us to be able to provide this supplement to those to those teachers and that would be a big incentive or recruitment correct it's important to recognize too there are teachers uh who have their masters but they got it within that window and they are in fact paid by the state for their masters right so you could have two teachers same uh years of experience teaching right next door to each other and one earned their masters and one earned their masters maybe a year after the more after it was put in place versus the other and and so that there in lies the real challenge okay the next item is fixed employee cost of 400,000 um oops so this year with the 25 school

year we saw a a large increase of over $500 per employee just on our health insurance alone so it jumped from last school year it was 7,5 $157 to this current school year is $895 we're anticipating about a $200 increase per employee but it could be much larger than that and we just don't know at this point in the year and they might also are Rumblings maybe the state treasur too where uh putting some some of the cost on to the employee too more so that's all right that's right that could change too in effect is a pay cut correct not much of a pay increase yeah right uh another item would be the retirement cost growth um currently this year our retire our matching retirement v um that we have to pay on each employee is 24.0 4% and we're we're estimating about a 2% increase to that um the 26% again that's another thing that we do not know at this point in the year there's been no any kind of indication of what that that rate may be yet um preparing for a 3 to 4% salary increase for teachers all employees and then this just ensures that we um keep our benefits and wages competitive any questions on that next item would be fixed operational costs of 300,000 um this would be to cover increases in our our um property insurance cyber security Insurance all of those mandated

insurances that we have to pay um we've been alerted that we will have some increases this this coming school year and um this fixed operational it also addresses Rising utility costs um just to keep everything running and everybody happy um the next item is the another increase to the certified and classified supplement um we would like to add another $400 to the license staff um right now uh a BT a beginning teacher their supplement is 800 um per year and we would like to increase it to 7200 and then add for our classified staff at another $100 so right now a brand new classified employee that comes to us they um get a $1,500 supplement and we would like to increase that to 16 and again this is just an attempt to remain competitive to our surrounding counties and everybody else keeps raising theirs too so next item is our school nutrition meals uh [Music] 300,000 um this will not cover the full cost but it will help to um cover the majority of it or at least half of it um so the the way we are able to provide free breakfast and free lunch for all students is we're using um this the C the community eligibility provision um all of our all of our schools except for three qualify under this Pro provision so the cost that we're absorbing right now is basically those three schools that do not

qualify and they have students in there that do qualify but sir you got to have a certain percentage to to meet that yes sir correct and that's an interesting perspective because those other schools that do qualify they have schools they have kids in those schools who don't qualify and that's so it's it really is um that's a great way to look at it Mr letter our next item is our substitute contract um of 375,000 so um with the 2223 school year we chose to go the contracted route and we're using um ESS which is our our vendor um we have increased our fill rate for our subs from 79% and Dr baton said today that it was 98 or 99% 999 um so this of course is a contracted service it costs a little bit more than we were paying um to employ these subs or paying these Subs through payroll um but it is benefiting us using this contracted service they're just able to attract more a a a bigger pool of qualified individuals that can come and sub in our schools a little sidelight to that I know mentioned about our teacher Cadets and subit and whatever I know of a one that we have a student that's graduated at Carolina and graduated at in December and is going to law school in August and is filling in a position at one of our schools for the rest of the semester uh and fantastic young lady so she'll do she'll do a wonderful job but I mean that that's a great way of getting somebody in so

right you'll get a a a full report on ESS tomorrow as well okay thanks is our unified stiping schedule and you've heard a lot about that tonight um 240,000 increase for that um and again that's just to cover we already have been covering the athletic coaches um but this is to cover band theater teacher um grade level leads grade level chairs um just to fully fund that that stien schedule and this year we what you fund balance I guess as much as anything to cover the Gap yes sir um the next item is an additional 250,000 on our Capital outlay um last year was the first year we got an increase on Capital outlay in quite a while um so we we have asked for an additional 250,000 and that would be to to continue to cover those Rising costs on materials Services um the contracted services that we um cannot do here inhouse um that we have to Outsource and to to fund all those increases um we're not so far we've been very fortunate wake County's had a lot of problems with HVAC and closing schools and we've been very very fortunate in that and that that's in part with our maintenance I'm sure doing great job because of our maintenance those guys are really really good so on top of all that everything minus the 250 for Capital outlay um we have to pay of course anything we get from the county we have to pay a percentage to our charter schools so in this we have an additional almost

290,000 to cover that Charter School transfer that we will send directly to them y m memory was it is it right now currently 12% yes based on the amount of students am I correcto whatever yeah okay so yeah it'd be close to Six Million I think it was um of of of interest when we shared this information with um our County Commissioners that the conversation was really about recognizing and understanding that these dollars they go to Charter Schools outside of and some of them we have three or four inside CH chattam County but a lot of this money leaves chadam County and so this is local tax dollars that leave that leave our County uh now they follow the student but they go to approximately 16 18 schools um yeah it's close to 20 close to 20 different schools um with one as far away as was it Boon what did you say we don't have that one anymore but at one point we did yeah so I think those are the questions with very little accountability on on our part and we uh I think the question came up so we are requesting um resources for free and reduced meals well they don't provide those meals but they all get um they get an increase because we get an increase whether they provide those meals or not that's a whole different conversation that may be you may want to consider as you um look at your legislative priorities uh I think that's kind of where that conversation landed the other day with with the Commissioners but I I would I would ask the board to really think about how maybe there could be some

advocacy in that space because that you know when you begin to add all of those different things up it's fine to provide that it's a pass through we what we get we we're very fortunate that our commissioners are have been able to do that um but at its root it's unaccountable it's there there's no accountability for it I can't tell you what that six million is for and I'm sure it's meant they're they're doing the right things for kids with those resources but we have to come and and give account for what we do uh we have to show the return on the investment as I've tried to talk about here I don't know if we get that same courtesy from those who we advocate for these resources for on an annual basis not only County Commissioners having the ability they have the desire to help our young people so that's that's also a part of it sure I'm so glad that they do have it because a lot of counties don't have that but still I'm I'm worry that by the state number being accountable for what is obligated under the Constitution to do that it's going to put a strain on our County and there's going to be some Services that's right including ours that's right that might have to take a hit at some point and I don't see the point in doing that that's right so this is the request summary um including the capital outlay It Is Just sh 3 million 2, 9548 um is there any question on any of the categories or no cracking on this please we could have gone just to this slide but the nitty-gritty but that's any questions for for Miss Smith no is

not allowed thank you first her first presentation to us you know as as as the head so we appreciate that tremendously Britney there thank you yeah do we have a motion to approve so moved second got a motion and a second any discussion any questions thank you all so much for putting this together all in favor with an i i any opposed like sign thank you thank you uh Dr Moran item C United Way memorandum of understand standy this item is aligned with priority two student health and safety and priority five communication and information sharing our district has a long-standing history and partnership with United Way of chadam this year you may have heard as you've entered in the community about the United Way big bold goal program that's like a tongue twister um it seeks to move 2,000 individuals out of poverty within 2,000 days this work will be completed with a number of community partner agencies such as communities and schools chadam County DSS our school district chadam literacy chadam County partnership for children the target School pilot in the first phase is Siler City Elementary and essentially this would be committing us to two things one would be partnering student support so we would identify and refer eligible families for um support the United Way will have a new position in the county called a family nav Ator that will help connect families to partner agencies and other supports within our community the second um requirement for us as a school district would be to share any pertinent data um related to the student so that we could track student and family progress um our board attorney did review this mou and added some language in there to make sure that we were really tight with data sharing and furpa um guidelines there's

no cost to us as a school district the United Way will be providing the funding to support this work work um we are seeking your approval um on this mou this evening move CH K Board of Education approve United Way mou has presented second got a motion second now any question any discussion sounds like it's a fantastic opportunity yeah um the executive director of um the United Way of chadam uh Katie Childs she also let us know today that in addition to the paper copy they will send a docu sign it will go directly I believe to Mr Leonard she shared so just be on the lookout for that how long is the period for the pilot 200 days oh that's right 22000 okay any questions any others all in favor with an i any opposed like sign thank you thank you Dr Maran thank you okay item D Mr BL you have to wait don't you risk and Strategic Management Corporation contract renewal you're got up there I prefer to think worth the wait okay Mr chairman members of the board superintendent Jackson uh this item applies to goals two and three in our strategic plan which are student health and safety faculty and staff this is a renewal of our contract with RSM the RIS risk and Strategic Management uh you've heard me talk about them several times in different meetings and different settings uh this is a three-year renewal uh the contract uh totals was $1 1 35,37 $27 rather for the the three-year length and we're asking the board to approve renewing that contract and they've been with us the whole time am I or we've been with them whole time because I remember that am I correct on that we have been with them it's between eight and 10 years now well I was trying to think when the first one because I remember had it at Horton at the uh I remember I remember that so yeah so I knew it's been that long call it has

been it's been a bit it has been a very very positive and very strong relationship for us the professional that day that I saw I know that extremely the thing that I really appreciate about RSM in addition to all the resources that we receive from them is that they are 247 resource for us when bad things happen in the world and we pick up the phone and we call and it doesn't matter where they are in the world and truly where they are in the world uh they call us back and we get the benefit of their knowledge and their credentials to help us work through thanks and I believe you were uh strategic in starting that for our school system and got ahead of many in the state so we appreciate that too very much Miss fer was my partner in all that we did yeah we won't say crime in that either now okay I moved at the chadam County Board of Education approved the um three-year contract extension with RSM second got a motion to Second presented any any questions all in favor with an i i i okay Mr BCE thank you uh next uh we'll uh have our midyear board retreat tomorrow morning starts at 8:30 at 79 West Innovation Hub at 120 Mosaic Boulevard Pittsburgh or my understanding right behind Jersey miks in case you're looking there in particular and before we go a big thank you to the um our public relations department for the new look on the PowerPoint they uh it's um we got we got people in charge of the remote all over the place so uh you don't have one D no I don't have one I I I did tap Dr Jackson one time it did the slide didn't change I go change it change it so that's pretty good so

we're they're they're all learning but it's it's a new look looks great make sure I get my uh point of order here all I need to do is declare a recess we don't need to vote for that am I correct on that is um correct we just we got to re recess on there so all I need to do is say okay we'll just recess till tomorrow morning at 8:30 am I correct I'm in place indicator so what I just said and we'll see everybody in the morning thank you thank you all for being here very much we appreciate good meeting thank you Anna hopefully it would I'll cut my was