Regular Session

Okay,

now we're good. Okay.

Are we ready?

We were about to say something.

I wasn't.

I see.

I see. I see.

Okay. We'll consider ourselves back in open session. Thank you'all all for being here. We appreciate it. We're running a little bit behind, but we'll we'll try to catch up.

Um, let's start off if we can uh for um our moment of silence. I know um uh a whole lot of things going on in our world. Um a lot of things for our children to experience too, good and bad. So, you know, just as we get into um close to what are we five weeks in, maybe school-wise, seven weeks in. So, we're further than that. So, we're getting close to the end of the nine weeks and school changes a little bit, then everybody gets tired and uh um everything else going on. So, if we could, let's just remember everybody and our our our country in particular, too. Thank you very much. Let's all rise for our pledge of allegiance, please. I 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 very much. Uh we'll move into um do I have a motion to adopt the agenda?

So moved.

Second. Got a motion and a couple of seconds. Uh, all in favor with an I, please. I. Any opposed? Like sign. Thank you. Do I have a motion to approve the personnel

Second.

Got a motion and a second. All in favor with an I.

I. Any opposed? Like sign. And do we have a motion to approve the consent agenda?

So moved.

I. Any oppose? like

and Mr. Chairman, I have a quick uh legal update from closed session. The board has settled the matter of BB versus Chattam County Board of Education, 25 EDC2482 um for a total monetary term of $80,000, which includes attorneys fees and reimbursement for educational services as well as other non-monetary terms.

Thank you.

Okay, Dr. Jackson, superintendent's announcements, comments, please.

Good evening, Mr. Chair, and thank you. Um, we are back here and it is uh exciting times in our schools. Um, I will start the evening with um I I have switched to video format for the um monthly update. So, I will have that shared at this time. [Music] [Applause]

Heat. Heat. Heat. As you can see, Mr. Chair, lots going on. And I was um of special note. I want to specifically thank our PTA thrift store. That's a lot of money

uh again this year. Over a half million dollars that went back into our school.

So, I want to thank our our individual PTAs and our our clubs and all of the groups that come together to make that really really work. It's a it's a um an amazing um outpouring for our community. But to have three of those stores that do that just makes it um uh a very very special. Uh I'll move to my next item. Uh this month we celebrate our national our principles with national principles month. uh we did not want them to have a separate night out. So uh uh but we did want to at this time say that we really do appreciate the work that goes into leading schools especially in this time in this day and age. Uh it is very very difficult uh to stand in that gap and stand in that space every single day facing all the challenges that our school principles face uh from the safety of children to the nurturing of children to the teaching of children uh as well as to supporting the adults to making sure that everyone has a place and a home. It's not an easy feat and I would be remiss if I did not take the moment to thank them uh publicly for the work that they do for our students and and for our community. We do have one two in the audience tonight. They they just enjoy

they representing and make speeches. Is that correct? They're making speeches then

they're here to make long speeches and all that. But you all don't mind. Let's give our principles a We are so very fortunate.

And what's amazing, if you look at every one of those pictures, look real close. They're all smiling.

Doing a great job.

Now, as a former principal, does that mean you didn't smile sometimes?

I wouldn't.

I got accused of that. Mr. Poston will know I got accused and I said I have to keep my principal look.

Just checking. step.

Speaking of amazing principles, um good evening, Mr. Chairman, I'm Dr. Jackson, members of the board. I am Chris Posen, inram assistant superintendent for academic services here to recognize our excess and opportunity champion for tonight. Um she could not be here, but her wonderful principal said, "Hey, I'll come and stand in the gap for her in herstead." So, Miss Breedlove um congratulations to her ex's opportunity champion, Miss Laura Lloyd. U Miss Lloyd was nominated by her principal for this award. Laura Lloyd is a picture of a warm demander. Miss Breedlove wrote, "She knows her standards. She knows her students and she knows the research behind teaching." "She's a lifelong learner and does everything in her ability through differentiation and scaffolding to have all of her students rise to their grade level standards. through responsive classroom techniques, knowledge, and gradual release, her students own their learning and their thinking in all subjects. Um, making her our excellence opportunity champion for the month of September. Miss Laura Lloyd, [Applause] the whole shebang. Good. Congratulations.

You got this. We're fighting over here over the slides. Okay. Thank you. Uh, good evening board members, Superintendent Jackson, and guests. As most of you know, I'm Jessica Pacion, um, the public information officer for the district. It's my honor to now recognize our September power of war power of one award recipient, excuse me.

Someone whose expertise, innovation, and deep care for students have made an extraordinary difference at Silope School. I ask Miss Wendy Pillars if she could join me at the podium. She's the ESL teacher at Silk Hope. Wendy brings over three decades of experience in education both across North Carolina and around the world. She recently earned her certification as a North Carolina environmental educator, an accomplishment that requires more than 200 hours of dedication, like 200 hours. Let me just Okay, fun hours. Um, and a true passion for connecting students to the world around them. Since returning to her ESL role this school year, Wendy has hit the ground running, creating weekly resources for teachers, collaborating across grade levels, and pushing into classrooms in to provide hands-on support whenever she's needed. She enriches lessons by w uh weaving environmental learning into her teaching, inspiring students to explore, question, and connect language learning with real world real world experiences. Her nominator shared that Wendy's work doesn't just benefit English learners either. It elevates learning for everyone. Her creativity, collaboration, and unwavering commitment to her students make her an invaluable part of the Silk Hope community. Wendy, thank you for reminding us that one person's passion can spark curiosity and connection in others. You embody every spirit of the power of one, and we thank you. As a small token of appreciation, we have a gift card for you and a pin. only very few people have it. So there you go. Thank you so much for what you do.

Young man, you're doing okay. Doing good.

I know. I understand.

Just want to back up a little bit in the agenda. Um Dr. Jackson's great PowerPoint about what's going on in Chadam. Uh people can put a face to a project. Now Jessica and her people are responsible for putting that together. Um don't want to take anything off your plate, but uh he didn't do it. So but Jessica, you do a great job. Excellent.

Mr. Chair, it is um I wanted to take just a few moments of the time allotted for me tonight to update us all on just where we are with our budget and the things that are are are facing not only Chattam County schools but I think public schools right now. And I will um I wanted to do that in a in a way that uh everyone understood not only the national landscape but also the impact that it's having on us locally and that decisions are having to be made that are are are very different from previous years. And so tonight I want to be really clear uh about where we are. And I want to also reinforce that we do have a very uh strategically led plan for how to manage through some of the difficulties that we're facing right now as a country, as a school system. Uh because as I've said to our staff, uh to our parents recently, to our uh educators, um we are not immune in Chattam County. We're just not. We we have to learn to deal with that. So, just for context, we've we've over the years, and I shared this back in July, but I wanted to bring this back that we've really done some very purposeful and meaningful things with our fund balance as a school system. We've done some really really great things that I think we're all proud of. We provided retention bonuses and signing bonuses. We we we uh covered the gap when the state did not uh for our experienced teachers when they didn't get they

didn't get the state raises. We provided meals for all of our kids, even the ones that were in nonC schools. We uh but we also had some unanticipated charter growth that caught us uh at the end of last year. And when you look at over three years when we started looking at that, there's a potential uh impact uh on unanticipated charter cost of about 1.4 million uh that we are working right now to try to see if we couldn't recover some of that. um just these are costs that were not appropriated with the county. They they've done really really well, but these are costs that we've covered the gap because those changes came after we received that. And I think people need to understand that that that's how we have been working very very diligently to take care of our people. But the current financial environment uh this is year 39 for me and I will say that is the most uh challenging I've seen in a while. not insurmountable but challenging. I think we all just have to realize that we're going to have to do things differently. Uh and and I've been saying that uh for the last few months, but there's federal uncertainty. Uh the federal uncertainty uh with the government shutdown, it's not that we're not going to get the money, it's when will we get the money. Sometimes just timing will make a difference. And so if the money gets here and it gets here after the fact, you know, we we still have to cover that spread uh in those spaces, our state budget, we've not had an approved state budget. Um and so we're operating at last year's levels. And so I know everybody knows that prices just stayed the same. No, prices have gone up, but we are still funded at the very same levels uh that we were last year. We've gotten some small increases to try to cover some things uh but not dollar for dollar and I want people to understand that and that's we have rising operational costs for insuranceances and uh some contracts and and utilities and

things like that that are going up. Um so our resources are tight our our fiscal discipline is going to be necessary. I've been saying that since uh June. And so I wanted you all to know about that what I just said about the charter school cost that we have made a formal request uh to our county to to uh have a discussion about reimbursement for the the gap that we've covered using our fund balance over the last few years. And I hope that that is we can be successful in that. But those resources will be used to help us uh again restore and strengthen our our fund balance because the more fund balance we have the the more future um stability as well as flexibility we have. And so we've done some things and and those in the schools have heard me say this again since since June. We've uh implemented a 7525 strategy where we're holding back 25% of uh the budgeted amounts just so that we can uh if we run into any real tight emergencies that we have to re shift money to cover, we we at least have some money in the house that could uh not disrupt schools planning. Uh we reduced 10 positions here at the central office um that we did not fill. And so I know you notice there people who are filling in different roles and and that's intentional and I applaud those people for stepping forward and doing that work. Uh that's important. We've negotiated lower vendor uh contracts. Uh I I applaud our directors. They went to work uh and began doing that kind of work. Uh we've eliminated a lot of the out of district travel. uh not because we don't want people to go, but we just think that it's better for us to use those resources directly in schools and in classrooms. Um we've scaled back the external PD. We've optimized our substitute use of our ESS system. And so, as we said back in June and July, we're not using our ESS to cover the um

teacher assistance this year uh when we were able to do that. and we went back to those schools that were not um uh C eligible that they are now that you can still apply. And I want to make sure parents understand that if a child is eligible even in the schools where uh that's not C eligible, they can fill out that application and still get um and if they qualify, they will still get free meals in that school. They just have to qualify and fill out the application in those schools. So, I wanted everyone to kind of be aware of that that that we are really really focused on making sure that first we do very little to impact our classrooms. Uh the least uh impact on the classroom. We're going to be transparent and accountable. Um I will tell you the truth every day. Even if if you don't want to hear it, just cover your ears. But I will tell you where we are and and just do the best I can with the resources. This is an all of us challenge right now. We're going to collaborate with families and communities. Uh we got we're having conversations with our principles. We're having conversations. I'll be talking with our parent advisory. Uh the best ideas are going to be are going to come for you from you for how we do this. Uh we're going to do this work together, but this isn't the time to step back. It's the time for us to collaborate more, uh to speak out loud, to ask questions, uh and to kind of push forward. But right now, I I can't tell you how long uh things are going to be shut down in DC. I can't tell you how long it's going to take to get a budget out of Roughly. I just don't I wish I could. Uh but I can tell you that we can do the best we can do for our kids every day right here in Chadam County. Um and so I'll be providing these regular updates of where we are uh throughout the year. Uh we'll be monitoring our budget. We're going to be uh having real open conversations. uh and then you know we'll navigate it together and if we hit a wall we have to stop and and have a conversation about how we how we do this

and how we do it better. Uh but I wanted to make sure that I shared that where we are, what we're doing uh and how we are uh trying to adjust uh address some of these uncertainties that just continue. Every day there's something new. Every day uh there is something new. And so I just ask for your patience. I ask for your grace. But more importantly, I ask for you uh to remember that we're going to do right by kids first. Thank you. Before we move to public comments, I have two quick questions and you might want to designate somebody else to Dr. Jackson didn't know I was going to ask these questions and as as a former educator I know what the Cogna and you know used to be Southern Association all these other things. How all right we we got district of distinction is that am I term that right? Can you just tell us a little bit more or somebody else exactly? I know what it is. Just to how if you're what one of how many districts? 35.

35 in the world.

In the world. You know, to me that's just amazing and and I think sometimes we get sort of shrift to that and and I just wanted to make sure that it was mentioned and people heard that in particular. That's huge. So I'm gonna ask Chris Poston maybe to

come up here

so we can give you a microphone. That that's that's all. And I I'm I apologize for doing this but I thought well you know sometimes we people hear these things and

you know what's that and they don't know. I do know like these colleges that don't have any money and the the associations are not giving them certification now that those are huge for those kids going to college. So to me this was just the opposite of that something something really big. Go

ahead. I

was going to say um our CIA accreditation um is a rigorous process and where we had an outside um consultant come in. They looked at our school um in regards to our academic performance, our teaching and learning in the classroom, but they also heard from students. They heard from teachers, they heard from community members about all the things that we do to support kids every day. And so, and then they um rated us on on a rubric. Um and we, as you guys know, we did exceptionally well. But I think that accreditation really shows um our commitment to One Chadam. Um five years ago when we went through accreditation the feedback they gave us was that hey we are a system um with different schools um this year they said hey you are a school system that's unified in one vision of one cadam and I think that's the complement to this collective efficacy that we have done um in Chattam County schools and I think that shows in our data u from last year um and I think it shows in our hard work of our principles and our dedicated teachers.

Thank you. while he's there. Can I ask one more? And it probably same thing again teaching, you know, my thing is, you know, you wanted him to get to the well, you like for them to get to the four and five, but you want them to three, four, and five, the passing on the end of grade. And I always looked at how much they grew. And you know, if if and and one of the issues I always tried to had to really work hard at when you've got really bright kids, getting them to grow quite a bit is difficult sometimes. And um we're I saw on the website, of course, I've heard this already, number one in the state in growth in school systems. Am I correct?

You're absolutely right about that. Um our school district um exceeded 68% of our schools exceeded growth. um 100% of our schools met or exceeded growth, but 68% of our schools in our district exceeded growth, the highest in the state.

That's huge. And of course, now when we get graded,

another pet peeve. Give me the the the

breakdown again. It is

80%

75 25 I can't remember now. Is that right?

Proficiency, 20% growth.

75% proficiency, 25% growth. And now the state board has given them um the legislature some opportunities to change this. Am I correct,

sir?

And it hasn't been changed yet. Am I correct on that? Okay. I'll get on off my soap box. I you know, pardon.

They've had the opportunity for

I I know that. I'm just Yeah, I do.

And I'm seriously not trying to be sarcastic. I'm just, you know, I think a lot of times when when public sees this, it's real easy to say, okay, you hear this rumor that the school's doing this and they can't do that and all these other things. And when they talk to the kids and the parents in the schools, most time they're real happy and and the ones that on these polls are ones that don't have their kids in our public schools. You know, I I get a little aggravated when somebody that never has since their childhood public school starts complaining about what public schools are doing. I I don't know. I'll get off my soap box. I'm sorry.

And follow up on that. It there's a fine line between as a friend of mine said years ago when we played basketball, he would always beat me. And he said, "No, ham. No uh no brag, just fact. I'm better." Well, there's a fine line there of

tooting your horn and boasting and no, this is one time we need to toot our horn. Absolutely.

Glad uh Gary brought this up because um we all know it. The f the the in-house school family knows it, but the public needs to know. Um you know, we're pretty dog on good.

Absolutely.

Mer I definitely And what he say 35 35th in the world. No, there there are only 35 districts that reach the level of distinction

in the world.

In the world.

I got that right. You can go out and tell people in the world.

I apologize if I got Miss Turner on her soap box over here because I've I've I've been I've been in front of her with that. So, thank you. Thank you very much.

And there is one um Thank you Diane for bringing this over. Um out of a total score of 400 uh that's the max that you

this is on the cognia right

on cognia the max chattam county school scored a 383 out of 400

and so now we have a goal of mastering those 17 points.

That's right. I she we did ask there has never been a school district to get a perfect score and that's not really the goal but the average Cognia network score just so you'll know is 296

yeah that's the average

the geniuses

I love it so I I I give you that and and um so we are thank you for bringing both of those up because I think it's

and our it's the boots on the ground that are doing this I It's it's educators getting kids to buy into what they're doing. So, uh sometimes that's

that can be difficult, but sometimes it it's it's really fun to do. So, we we just appreciate our our educators. They do such a good job. We got one sitting got got a few in here. So, we appreciate that tremendously. It's it's a a very I don't know uh how to describe it particularly. Uh there's so many ups and downs, but but when those those light bulbs go on in that classroom, I don't think there's a better experience for that. Very much so.

It's tumbling.

Oh gosh. Yes.

Thank you. Sorry about bringing you up, but I appreciate did a good job, Mr. Post. Thank you. All right. We'll move on to public comments. And Mr. Weiss

said there were none. So, thank you. We'll move on to information items. I think Dr. Batton, you're up. Uh, NCSBA board policy manual updates first reading.

Yep.

Okay. Good evening, Mr. Chair, members of the board. I'm Dr. Kelly Batton, assistant superintendent for human resources. This information item tonight is a continuation of our work with the North Carolina Schoolboards Association just to maintain an updated policy guide. This information item specifically is in the 1000 series. In essence, it is the table of contents for um the other policy series. What we discovered, the references to various policies throughout the manual had not been updated in the 1000 series. So that is what is reflected in tonight's attachment for information tonight.

I kept looking for stuff to read on there. You know, I I know I know I did. I kept looking. I said, "Wait a minute."

Yes. because it's usually lots of things. Okay. And that was for information only, correct? Okay.

Okay.

Anybody have any questions?

Okay. Thank you. We'll move on to um action items. Item A, Chad Living Well, Earth Stewart's small house um institute memorandum of agreement. We've done this before, so y'all come on up. Mr. Poston and Dr. Burton, please.

Good evening, Mr. Chairman, Dr. Jackson, members of the board, I'm Chris Poston, intram assistant superintendent for academic services. I'm here with Dr. Michelle Burton, um, executive director for secondary and CTE, um, to share the Chattam Living Well, Earth Stewart Small House Institute memorandum of our standing. We are so excited this year that we get to include Jordan Matthews, Northwood, and Seaffort, and Dr. Burton will share more details.

So, good evening, Mr. Chair, board members, Dr. Jackson. As you heard Mr. Poston say once again, we have the grand opportunity for our students to

participate in um a partnership with Living Well Earth Stewards and their small house institute. And so this means that each of those schools listed, Jordan Matthews, Northwood, and Seaffort, their core construction and construction one and two courses will have an opportunity to build a 400 to 600 square foot tiny house. Um and this uh particular endeavor will allow them um some environmental educational tools that they haven't been privy to before and skill a very it's very purposeful skill development. They will work in tandem with a licensed general contractor with plumbers and with electricians. Um, and each of these houses will be built on the campus of the high school. And as you remember, they have strategic places where they are. Um, and then at the end of the school year, um, the houses will be moved and they will be finished um, by professionals. And last year, one of our houses was actually planted um, in one of our communities. And there is a family living in the house now.

Was that Habitat for Humanity? I believe I'm on their I'm on their email list and I know I got some pictures and I thought one of the houses they had was one of one of these. Okay. Okay.

So, we are asking for your approval this evening for us to um continue this partnership by signing an updated memorandum um of agreement that will include three of the high schools this year.

I move that the Chattam County Board of Education approve the Cadam Living Well Earth Stewards Memorandum of Understanding as presented. Second.

Got a motion. A couple of seconds. Any questions? Discussion.

Can we make the title of this any longer?

I don't think so.

Any other discussion?

All in favor with an I.

I. I.

Any oppose? L. Thank you'all.

Thank you.

Item B, um, YMCA learning YMCA Y learning program memorandum of agreement. Power Scholar Summer Program update and Miss Fowler, Miss Murray, and Miss West. Okay.

Good evening, uh, members of the board. Um, Dr. Jackson and I'm Tracy Fowler. I'm the chief of student services, student support services, and tonight I'm bringing to you theou for the Y learning program. Um, this is a collaboration between Chattam County Schools and the triangle of the of the YMCA triangle. Um, so over the summer there was a collaboration that was the power scholars program and we're going to let them these folks here tell you about the collaboration piece of that. But first I want to you to have a conversation about the um first item is theou piece of this for the YMCA learning program through an award for the 21st century learning grant. The YMCA of the triangle will provide an afterchool academic services um at Virginia Cross Elementary. um it'll be available to only for their students but students from Solar City Elementary and Silk Hope. And so the the minimum number of students will be served will be 60 students. And they're going to be inviting students that were served through the power scholars program. So it' be second and third graders who also received the ser services under the sum over the summer. So um theou is attached. It outlines the agreement. It's very similar to the agreement that was provided for the power scholars um in the summer that you agreed. Um so first of all, do you have any questions about theou and bring that to you first and then I'll turn it over to them to give you some information about the program.

I'm a great program anyway. I'm

there will be no cost to our students to attend the program. Okay. Um do you want to go ahead with theou piece of that? Okay. Want to do a motion? I move that the Chattam County Board of Education approve the YMCA yle learning program

memorandum of agreement as presented. Second.

Second.

Okay.

Got a motion, two seconds. So all in Well, I mean, any other questions or discussion before we move?

Y'all's title is long enough.

All in favor? I

any opposed like sign.

Thank you.

All right. The next piece of this is a presentation to update you on the power scholars program and then to give some up just information about what this Y learning program will entail. I'm going turn over to um Carla Murray and J.

Good evening, Superintendent Jackson, Mr. Chairman, members of the board. I'm honored tonight to be here um with Jamie West and um some of the YMCA crew. and my name is Carla Murray, elementary director, and we've really had a wonderful partnership in this program. And I'm going to let Jamie tell a little bit about who she brought with her with uh another member of the Chattam County Schools DPI um partner for the Chattam team that's been part of the summer work and the wle learning work is Whitney Hannam. She's the early literacy specialist from DPI that um has been part of the work at VC and SE um since that position was kind of assigned here. And I love that Whitney has changed her title to early literacy partner because she's really partnering with the YMCA and with both of those schools to support literacy. So I'm I'm honored to present Jamie West.

Hello. Good evening. Um I am Dr. Jamie West. And this is the second time that I've had the privilege of standing in front of such a distinguished group of leaders, but I have to say that I'm just blown away by the fact that I am standing here speaking to a distinguished school district. That doesn't happen every day that you get to do that. Um, and so I'm honored to be part of this. Um, I work for the YMCA of the Triangle. And you may or may not know that the YMCA of the Triangle is our corporate office, but then it's also doubledigit branches scattered around

multiple counties. And one of those amazing branch branches is the Chattam Park YMCA. And so I'd just like to take a moment to recognize Caitlyn and Logan. They are leadership team at the Chattam Park YMCA. They're amazing at what they do. Um and I'm blessed that they're here supporting me tonight. Um I have the honor and privilege to stand beside some fantastic Chattam County Schools leadership. And when we came to you months ago saying, "Hey, will you take a leap of faith and and step out with us in the direction of the Power Scholars Academy?" And you did. Little did I realize what was about to to come about. And so, we're walking away from this summer uh with performance metrics that I think you're going to be very pleased about. And then I'm personally walking away with friendships that um I wouldn't have had we not had this opportunity. So, um, I would love to, uh, hand the steering wheel to Carla.

Um, and she's here to keep me on track. Um, lots of little writing, but we just wanted to remind you very briefly what the Power Scholars Academy is and what the goals are. And that is to provide five weeks of intensive academic intervention in reading and math. And that is focused on mitigating summer learning loss, not just maintaining, but we want to see growth. We include multidisciplinary opportunities. And these enrichments can come in lots of forms and fashions. But as I stood here months ago and said, the beauty of this is we say to the teachers, here's a little bit of money. Bring your passions, bring your strengths, bring your interests. And we know what happens when we spark creativity in an educator. Amazing things happen. And that's that's exactly we had enrichments that include global studies. Um well, I'm not going to I'm not going to spoil the next slide that comes with that, but we had some really great stuff. We also include field trips. We know that learning foundational literacy and foundational skills are important, but learning expands beyond the classroom and we want to provide those opportunities as much as possible. And some of our kids got to ride on a charter bus for the first time ever and that was a really cool

experience. Um, yeah, please. No, jump in. I wanted to say um just to piggyback off this, if you'll remember back when we came to talk about it, Miss Fowler had mentioned Wake County had a similar partnership and several of us went knowing the hard work that we had put into our summer program year after year after year. And when we left that day, when we went that day, I thought, we've got it figured out. We've got a solid summer program. When we left that day, we had seen such wonderful like all field trips, social emotional kids passionate about things and it completely we were vested in this partnership. So it's so allincclusive.

Thank you for that. Next slide. So um the partnership itself is quite a unique endeavor and we have partnerships that happen not only with the Chattam Park YMCA but with the corporate office. And I wanted to take a moment just to highlight that because we have such um as as a YMCA as well as um the YMCA of the triangle we have different footprints. And so the youth development programs that are um shephered by the Chattam Park YMCA are highlighted on the top section. Um and then we are funding Power Scholars Academy through the 21st century grant. We are a recipient of cohort 17 and cohort 18 and we're able to use those funds for cohort 18 um to fund the power scholars program along with the wide learning intervention program at Virginia Cross that we will speak about at the end. Um just some highlights from this summer and Carla jump in anytime. Five weeks of instruction. We had two sites, four grade levels served, 15 classrooms at BCE, 14 at PES, 60 staff members, Chattam County school staff members that we hired. Uh 91 hours of reading instruction took place and we had eight unique field trip opportunities. You look like you had a question previously.

What was the holiday

Oh, go back. Let's go back.

Holiday thing at Perry Harrison.

Holiday care. holiday care. Do you guys want to speak to that or

Yeah, please. And this is Logan. She's amazing. She's our youth associate and she runs our um youth programs.

Yeah. Um happy to talk about what holiday care is. Holiday Care is a service we um lovingly um get to run at Perry Harrison with Miss Breedlove. Um we support um basically their time off from school. We provide a program that is about 11 hours of care um for a parent to drop off. Um they can pay daytoday use. uh they can sign up for all of the days off from school, but the goal is to give them a safe place for kids to play while they were still at work.

I mean, this was in the summer. When I see holiday, I think of Christmas. So,

yeah, we um had actually two days last week when we were off of school on Thursday and Friday. We were there for them. Okay.

We had about 70 students a day participate.

Great.

Thank you, Logan. And the goal is to provide wraparound services to Chattam Park, I mean to Chadam County School students because we know different um families need different types of support. So, are you good if I move on next slide? Okay, wonderful. All right. Um, so enrichments. These are some of the highlights of the enrichments that we served um at Virginia Cross and Pittsburgh. We had the Olympics, global studies, sea creatures, drumming, roller coasters. Um, the end the last day of power scholars, we had the scholar celebration. And so next year um we would like to invite all of you to come out to our scholar celebration and see this for uh yourselves because it is a very exciting very exciting day

at Pittsburgh. I had a young man tell me um he never dreamed that he would learn to play chess but he learned to play chess this summer on top of reading and that was the kind of celebration of just so many different things going on that day. So, lots of things happened for uh teacher interest. I had another teacher tell me that she loved to be able to teach reading in the morning and then get to do something she was passionate about such as, you know, things like

this. Um others dancing. Um during the power scholar celebration, one of the teachers had a the students sing a song at VCE. So, lots of different things happening other than the traditional hours for reading.

I'm just envisioning, you can correct me, the drumming. Was that on the five gallon plastic drums?

We So, they the kids learned that they could drum in lots of different places and ways. And so, um, there's actually a five gallallon bucket drumming crew that exists, um, on social media. And so, that was some of the, um, inspiration for that for that unit. So, great question. So, this is wonderful stuff and we could talk about the fuzz all day long, but we want to drill down to some of the data because we also Oh, we have one more real fun. Okay, I'm sorry. Pause. Let's rewind. Um, let's talk a little bit about our field trips. So, as you guys are probably aware, um, the power scholar program that we ran in Raleigh, we do have a very, uh, different opportunities for field trips. Chadam, our geographic location does make it quite interesting, but these are some of the opportunities. We had on-site and off-site field trips. Um, and so we have already partnered with PO Health Center for our while learning programs this fall to bring more opportunities to our students at Virginia Cross. Um, the the children just loved it. And that is our one photo of us heading on our charter buses to one of the places that we went. And I think we probably kind of like when you get a gift and the kids like the box more than the gift, we probably just could have ridden around on the charter buses and that would have sufficed. So, um, but when we look at data and so I'm I'm going to let Carla take um the wheel here at this point because her and Whitney both this was a partnership beyond partnerships. It wasn't just, hey, this is the program we have. Take it or leave it. We built this city um to meet the needs because we we just recognize and we're so honored and appreciative of the hard work and the successes that you guys have independently. We didn't want to come in

and take over. We just wanted to provide resources to enhance and I think we accomplished that goal.

Absolutely. That's to me part of the beauty was that we were able to follow our literacy plan that we followed during the year and where we had built our success with summer reading camps in the past and able to tailor the schedule so that kids were able to do the extracurricular, able to go on field trips, able to be there five days for longer days. um which worked out really well for parents and really drill into what we knew from core work throughout the year for literacy. And I'm pleased to share that at both both sites um combined 196 kids grew as measured by MClass. Um, and then we had 63 students that moved to end of grade proficiency, K3, and 20 of those students are in third grade. And we're going to look at that slide, I think, in just a minute.

Yep. And this just breaks it down. Same information, but by grade level. Um, you can see the numbers that grew per grade level per site. And if you'll go to the next slide, this is the one um Miss Reap Closty when you guys got data and accountability information from her a few weeks ago. This is the third grade um slide that really breaks it down. Third grade is unique in the sense that um there are good cause exemptions and that number at the bottom, that purple number changes every year because that is based on the cohort of children. Um, but when you look at BOG, EOG, and alternate pathways that are also allowed in third grade, if we had not done the summer work this summer, we would be 20 students less than on that chart. So, we were able to have 20 more third graders show

proficiency because of the work done this summer. And so this program um we have run in Wake County for several summers and we know that with great things there is obviously a cost to it. And so just to take a moment to look at what your investment was this past summer, thanking you for trusting us and wanting to show you um that we were good stewards of this money that the cost of the power scholars program uh staff salaries, program expenses, curriculum materials um we are supporting our reach to achieve students and so their needs are slightly different than some of our other students that may not need um that proficiency support. the school district district provided transportation, meals, facilities, and so um are there any questions specifically about those numbers um and what the summer uh looked like for us? Yes, sir. How did I know you were going to have a question? I love it. What

it may not be your answer.

Okay. All right.

His answer.

I will happily pass the mic to Dr. Jackson. we're gonna continue this this coming summer and are we go I I always ask for everything and expand it?

Great question. So,

so we're part of the 21st century grant and um this first year and I'll let Dr. West go into more detail, but this first year Cadam um and the Y work together. What you're going to see in just a few slides is that the grant really will reduce the amount. We'll still be partners all along the way, but the amount that Chadam will need to pay next summer looks different. I'm assuming you're talking about expanding it to other areas. And what we had this past summer, we had a site at VCE, a site at PES, Pittsburgh Elementary, and Virginia Cross. and students from all schools

were invited and transportation was provided to those two hubs. So, it was available for K3 invites across the district.

Well, then I'll reward what I said. Are we going to expand in number?

U. Yes. So, the grant, the 21st century grant is a three-year grant and it actually launches at Virginia Cross this year and there's several several metrics um that we have to meet in order to secure summer funding. We've successfully done that in cohort 17. So, we know how to get this done. I have no doubt we'll be able to do this, but this is school year 1 for upcoming 26 summer one and then we have two more years of that. So, the amount that we will be receiving um from the grant for the summer programs is $250,000. For the school year programs, we received $221,000. And so, that's a lot of money that we're able to invest in Chattam County Schools. So, we served three we served right around 300 students. The the price tag for serving 300, and let me pause and say, just as Miss Fowler mentioned, we have to serve 60 in our school year program. We need to serve at least 300 in our summer program. That is the minimum requirement. So we have room to serve more than that. The greatest cost is personnel. And so part of the the win in power scholars is that the student uh to adult ratio is small in the classrooms. It we still have room to keep that ratio small and serve more than 300. So hopefully that answers that question for you. Um and then what the expansion looks like. um because at this point we are serving the read to achieve needs for the whole county. That's the really cool part about our partnership is that we get to dream up what that can look like specifically for a distinguished school district. So um but when we look at what our 2026 partnership will look like um and we're again thankful for this opportunity, so honored to be a to be able to bring you good news, but there is a lot of work

ahead of us to continue this. Um it's an ongoing um um partnership at all all times in every form and fashion. So um this is what this looks like for this upcoming year. And Carla, do you want to speak to this a little bit more um as far as how we move through this?

Absolutely. So um the state of North Carolina requires summer um learning 72 hours of reading um for second and third graders. So we're hopeful to expand the opportunity for second and third graders this upcoming summer. So more invited when we see that 20 third graders reached end of grade proficiency at through one of the pathways. We want to ensure that our that's part of our strategic plan goal 85% and we really want that to be as high as we can. So we're hopeful to invite um more second and third graders and that is where um the state provides money for read to achieve summer opportunities.

The criteria for in invite basically looking at uh EOG different things there in particular. Yes sir. And that's how they get in.

They look at um for third grade specifically, they look at EOG, MC class, um all the different pathways. That's right. Um and so really it looks the same in the sense that um the Y and what was really cool is these folks were Cadam employees, but they were hired by the Y and we worked to collectively to support um them along the way. The top part has what the Y would be funding and the bottom part has um the transportation that was part of Chadam um the costs that we incurred meals and facilities and then the RTA person is the read to achieve person that really makes sure that we're meeting all the requirements of read to achieve

and so you guys are essentially going to be getting the exact same program with the opportunity to expand for a much lower price tag. So the investment is $100,000 and we provide everything else. And you can see the full cost for 300 students, we've done this enough, is upwards of $460,000. So we're excited to bring this opportunity. And so again, in order to secure those funds for the summer, we have to meet all of our metrics for the school year. And so the grant application that we wrote includes a while learning intervention program at Virginia Cross for the school year. We are required to provide 300 hours of intensive academic interventions. We will be covering literacy and math. That's always required and we have to walk alongside the district literacy and math plans. But then we also will will be providing STEM and physical education um instruction. One, we feel STEM is very powerful and important. And two, physical education, we're the why. We know what the research says about um giving our kids time to move and all the social emotional benefits. Um we are funding all the things that you see there um for this program. it is at no cost to our participants and that we just need from Chattam County Schools a facility which is Virginia Cross and then um assessment data to be able to track

and we've been working with um to ensure that students that attended this past summer from Silope Virginia Cross and Ser in second and third grade are identified. So it really is a wraparound program. Students that went to summer school will be invited to Y learning. Transportation will be provided by the Y and those students will also be invited this upcoming summer. So, it's just that continuous work um in literacy and lots of fun, too.

Great. So, u I know we've had an opportunity to ask questions along the way, but do you guys have any other additional questions for us?

Just a comment. Thank you. I know we ran into a problem a couple years ago, Dr. Jackson, I guess, with the after school

especially for I know the central district and y'all worked with us. The Y worked with us extremely well. I see the Y bus transporting in the afternoons and I just want to thank y'all personally for that. I thought that was actually the first time I heard the question. Uh Dr. Jackson invited me to the parent advisory u meeting here at

I don't know if it was where we met at Horton I believe it was

former student hit on me hard about no afterchool care in the central district uh particularly and so mentioned that and y'all made it happen so

be the chatter park yca

it's been it's been wonderful and thank you for that I see the bus quite often and pick up grandkids and things so thank you for that

wonderful thank you so so much for your time. I appreciate it.

Thank you for what you did.

Yeah.

Let's see. We don't need to We We're good. That's already good to go. All right. Thank y'all.

Uh y'all are in the bullpin back there. I can see you. Item C, uh proposed 2 2027 through 2033 CIP uh projects.

And that's more good news, right?

And Mr. Vice, Mr. Drum Miller. Go ahead.

Absolutely.

Mr. Chairman, members of the board, Dr. Jackson, my name is Chris Blice. I'm the assistant superintendent for operations. I'm joined at the podium by Mr. Randy Drum Hiller, who is Chadam County Schools director of new construction and maintenance. Uh we're here to present the proposed fiscal year 2027 2023 capital improvements program for schools. Uh to just give a bit of background, uh what you're seeing tonight is the proposal that will be sent to the county manager who in turn will take it to the county commissioners to consider for funding. Uh and that's simply what this is tonight is it's just a proposal. Uh Dr. Samberg, are you able

to open the attachment? How much does it cost us to move that?

I think Dr. Samberg found funding for that.

Put on the back of your truck.

All right. While Dr. Samberg is getting to that, my apologies for

You got it. I've been on my computer, Mr. Price, if you need it. You good?

I'm good. I I don't took the liberty of printing it, but the first two pages of the attachment are what's in the current approved CIP budget. Um, and notice that in the future projects, there are 10 um schools, roofing, playground, playground equipment, new schools there. And the order for this is the order that the county actually has it in the approved CIP budget. And you'll notice that that's going to change in what we're proposing uh because we felt like it was better to put them in an order of priority and categorize them and we'll show you how we did that. Uh the second page is the current approved scheduled projects. There are 11. Uh some of those are going to go away. One of them is actually going to move back to the future project status and we'll show you that in just a second. All right. So page three of the attachment is where we show you what we are proposing for the next year. And Mark, if you'll go back one page and a little bit further. One more. There we are. So this is the proposed uh future projects. And notice that they're in a different order, but notice two of them have been moved. And there's one that's come back here. And the one that came back here is the one in red in the middle of the page there, which is the

school wastewater system at Silk Hope. We've had that as a scheduled project for several years. What's happened is that the uh momentum or the the movement that we were receiving from DEEQ seems to have gone away. Now, we're not going to eliminate the project. we're going to keep it as a future project, but instead of having it as a scheduled project and requiring the county to borrow the money, that will actually potentially save a fair amount of money. So, by doing that, we're we're assisting the county in making sure that their budgeting process will be a little bit smoother. So, we put that back on the future project. You can see the order that we put them in. We start with life safety at the top, then capacity expansion, then the MEP, then the facility upgrades. All right. And that's how we came up with the order of prioritizing them. On the next page, you'll see the changes that we're proposing to the actual scheduled projects. Most of these are date changes, and you can see those in the funding years. And over in the information side, the information that's in red is where we've made some adjustments in funding years or the start of the project, that type of thing. And that's based on updates from OE as well as conversations that we have with the county manager's office regarding the availability of funds and their ability to uh structure their borrowing in advance. Down at the bottom, we have some projects that are it's time for them to actually go away. And you can see them in red here. It's resurfacing the tracks that is done. It's been done below that. Uh Seorthth High School, Seforth High School would actually have gone away last year, but there was a an open invoice I think that needed to be paid out of this year's funding. So, they kept it on there one more year. And then, of course, this building that we're here and there we have where we we're showing that we're moving the wastewater proh replacement

off of this back to the future project. Yes, sir. M. um the opening date for the new elementary school.

Yes, sir.

It's pushed back, isn't it?

Okay. Because I I don't ever remember seeing the number 2030. It was

27 28 or something else, but Okay.

moved a little bit later again based on the projections.

Right. Right.

So, below that, we have two projects that we're asking the county to move. And Mark, if you'll go a little bit further down to the next page. Actually, forgive me. It was right there. I apologize. It was right there. My There it is. So, the roofing replacement repair and the HBAC upgrades. Um, Mr. Drum Miller, is there anything you'd like to say about those two projects and why we're asking that they be moved? the roofing or both of them actually are not in terrible need but I'm trying to address life cycles of these roofs coming up so we don't get in the position we were in 2014 and HBAC upgrades we're trying to address So that way where the kids don't get caught without heat or air conditioning like a a neighboring school system did last year multiple times. Yeah.

Not call any names. I'm currently working with the county model

and we've completed a uh a feasibility study or a study for the assessments on the roofs already. We've been able to give that to the county that are prioritized on the MEP. We're actually finishing that now. We have that that'll be done by the end of this month.

And that's what we're proposing is what's on pages 2, three, and four. Or excuse me, three, four, and five. Sorry, pages three, four, and five.

And then we approve this as presented.

Got a motion. Do we have a second?

Second.

Got a second. Uh, you got a comment, question?

Yeah, sure. You look like you've got a comment.

The motion because I Okay. Okay.

Miss Wilson both making noises. I didn't know she said.

Yeah, she did. Yeah, we're good.

Fronting going on. So, okay. I'm good.

Any questions?

I didn't want to stop.

I just had a general question since I wasn't here in 2014. But my assumption is is that it's far less expensive to do the replacements or the updates now than it is to wait for there to be leaks and now we have to water. Same way.

Any opposed? Line. Thank y'all very much. Chad, we thought the line had been cut again. I'm just kidding, Dr. Samberg. Item D, Chattam Education Foundation donations. Mr. Poston, please. Thank you.

Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Again, Chris Poston, in Assistant Superintendent of Academic Services here with um a um donation from the Chattam Education Foundation. They received a private donation in the amount of $10,000 directing the funds to support the tutoring program. Um the the foundation also made a donation to Chattam County Schools in the amount of $25,000 to insist in covering the cost

of the first year of the LL test program for our high school students. Um in accordance with board policy 8220, any donation in the excess of $5,000 must be approved by the board of education. I move CHM County Board of Education approve the Chattam Education Foundation donations of 10,000 and 25,000 to Chattam County Schools as presented. And a big thank you to uh Chattam Education Foundation again for all they do very much. And second turn with the second. Any questions or discussion? I think that's enough said. Child Education Foundation does a wonderful job of supporting our kids very much so and our teachers. Uh all in favor with an I.

I. Any oppose? Like sign? Thank you.

And item E, um 2025 NCSBA voting delegates for the Chattam County Board of Education at the uh state NCSBA conference in November. And I believe you've got four of us listed. Am I correct on that, Miss Long? Um, do I have a motion to approve?

I move that the Chattam County Board of Education approve the 2025 NCSBA voting delegates as presented. Second.

Got a motion and a second. Any discussion? All in favor with an I. I. Any opposed? Like sign.

Okay. Our next um scheduled board of education meeting is Monday, November the 3rd, 2025 at 5:30 p.m. And Dr. Jackson, state of our schools.

It's in my calendar when

23rd. Okay.

9 a.m.

9:00 a.m. on 23rd here at Central Services. Correct. Okay. Do I have a motion to adjurnn?

Second.

Got a motion to second. All in favor

with an I. I I

impose like sign. Thank you all for being here. Appreciate your patience with us.