Regular Session

I guess we'll cut our mics on if we can. Is that on?

Okay, we're good. Okay, Ready? Ready. Good evening everyone. Um, I'll call the session of the Chattam County Board of Education uh to order. Today, our primary task is to elect the chair of the board and our annual reorganization as outlined in schoolboard policy. Uh, we will conduct the election by voice vote as stipulated in your schoolboard policy. This time I will now open the floor for nominations for the position of chair of the Chattam County Schools Board of Education. Are there any nominations at this time?

Nominate Gary Leonard.

There's a nomination for Gary uh Gary Leonard. There is a second. Um uh this time there will there's no need for discussion on those. But is there uh are there any additional uh nominations? Hearing none, I declare the nominations closed as we have only one nominee, Mr. Gary Leonard. We will proceed directly to the voice vote. All those in favor of electing Mr. Gary Leonard as the chair of the Chattam County uh school uh board of education, please uh signify by raising your right hand.

So Leonard did

I'm abstaining from this one now.

Any opposed? Seeing none, it's um election by acclamation. Um uh any opposed? I have to do that. And so there are none. So there is election by or selection by acclamation. Um with the m with the majority of eyes, I hereby declare Mr. Garen Leonard elected as the chair of the Chattam County Schools Board of Education. Congratulations, Mr. Leonard. Thank you. Thank you, sir. That's okay. I appreciate that very much. Thank y'all for your confidence and uh you're an awfully good board to work with. So, I appreciate that tremendously. Now, you got a script, Dr. Jackson.

You got a script. Do I do I have to follow that? I'm good over Okay. All right. Uh I won't be as exact as he was on that because that's probably attorney speak there. Uh so next thing on our agenda would be uh the nomination of a vice chair. Um the nomination is open for vice chair right now. Does anyone have a motion?

I mot that uh Dell Turner be approved as vice chair. Second.

Got a motion and a second for Miss Turner. Are there any other nominations? Do we have to move to close or can we go ahead and vote?

You can go ahead and vote. Okay. All right. Uh with no other nominations, we have uh Dale Turner uh has been a motion has been made for her as vice chair and a second. Uh all in favor uh raise your right hand. And Miss Turner is abstaining. So any opposed like sign. So Ms. Dale Turner is our vice chair. Thank you, M. Turner.

[applause]

All right. Uh, now do we have a and I'll say thank you'all and just bear

with us for a few minutes as we go into close session. But do we have a motion to go into close session for the items listed on the agenda?

So moved.

Second.

Got a motion a couple of seconds. All in favor with an I. I.

Any oppose? Like sign.

Thank you. All right.

Are we going to

We're back in. Yep. I believe so. Forgo getting up and down. I think we have kids.

Yeah, we do. Thank you for that. Give us one minute. We'll be we'll be good to go. and we'll consider ourselves back in open session. Um, Miss Turner had to leave, so we'll be short one today, but, uh, we'll go ahead and move forward. Thank you all for being here. Looks like a whole lot of standing room only there. Uh, I know we've got a lot of artists that we're going to, uh, congratulate today, too. So, we're looking forward to it. Um, do um, first on our agenda is our moment of silence. And just remember this uh any time of year of course with the cold weather and uh we've had a little ice and snow of course our inexperienced well if you live in North Carolina you're probably unless you move from somewhere else you're inexperienced with ice and snow anyway and driving. So uh I know we have a lot of students that that do drive too in our high schools. So, I want to make sure that we remember them and of course just uh everybody during this time hopefully that everyone can uh get to winter break and refresh and be ready to go again. Uh so, if you will just uh pause for a moment of silence, please.

Thank you. Could we all stand for our pledge of allegiance, please? I

aliance 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.

I heard our young people, too. I like that.

Thank you.

Yeah. Yes.

All right. Do we have a motion to adopt the agenda?

So moved.

Second.

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

I. Any oppose? Like sign?

Okay. Do we have a motion to approve the personnel agenda?

Got a motion and a second. All in favor

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

So moved.

Second.

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

I. Any oppose? Like sign. Thank you. Now, if the rest of the meeting goes that quickly, we'll be okay. So, uh, superintendent's announcements, comments. Dr. Jackson.

Yes. Um, Mr. Chair, thank you so much. And, um, welcome to everyone. Uh, happy holidays. uh we're going to share a a brief video clip uh and then we have some recognitions with uh many of our our students who are here tonight. So, we'll start there.

Heat. Heat. Heat. [music]

[crying]

lots going on.

We look forward to a a great break. And at this point, I'm going to ask Mr. Chris Poston uh to come forward and we will move forward with our recognitions of our our students who um had some great artwork. um displayed at the uh North Carolina School Boards Association uh art contest in Greensburg. here tonight.

We're here tonight, I'm sorry about that, to recognize our elementary students um as Dr. Jackson said, who um received recognition at our school board association. This recognition aligns with strategic plan goal one curriculum innovation. I'm excited to share that Chattam County schools had submissions from every elementary school um in the North Carolina School Boards Association poster contest. Three Chattam County School students entries were recognized at the state level and 12 entries were honored as honorable mention. This year's contest asked elementary students to draw a picture of what makes your public school stronger or super with two grade spans K2 through five um being represented. Entries were submitted online and the top posters in each category were showcased at the 2025 conference. Some of our artists are here tonight. As I call each up, I'll invite the students to come to the podium and be recognized and also receive greetings from you all. Our first student is Harrison Wall Wsonic. Harrison

Winsic. Thank you. practice that

I'm

[applause] right there. Our next student is from Virginia Cross Elementary. Harrison's from Sour City Elementary is Kurlon de Pod Morales. Kon.

Our next student is from North Chattam Elementary School, Farley Trout. Our next student is Monure School Weston Miller.

Love that picture. [applause]

This way. There you go. [laughter] Y

our next um students from Chattam Grove um elementary is Grace um Perin. Grace

congratulations [applause] Thank you, Grace. Another student from Chattam Grove Elementary, Jane Webb.

Hello. Proud of you, J. Let's go on down this way. Right down there. Yes, ma'am.

Thanks, James.

Our next student is from Bon Lee School, Ava Mayus. All right,

go that way.

Right this way.

Congratulations. Good job.

Our last three students um two students received third place um across our state. And we have a first place winner. Third place is Ariel Ramirez from Salar City Elementary. [applause] Congratulations. Now,

come on around. Where you get a good one?

It's heavy.

Come on. Right here.

And our first place winner um is Arizona Lane from Virginia Cross. Arizona [applause]

congratulations.

May remember Arizona from last year. So, we're really proud of her. Thank you guys. Please give all of our artists another hand clap. [applause] Good evening, members of the board. This evening, we have one more art recognition. We have an annual holiday decorating contest and um submissions from all over the county are submitted. We narrow it down to the top three and the first place winner is um used as the district holiday card. Tonight we're here to recognize the first place winner. Forgive me if I mess up her name. I've been practicing. Doulce Herrera Dwarte. You don't mind joining me on stage on stage at the podium.

[applause]

is a student at Jordan Matthews High School and her holiday card with the tree will be used at the district um for all of the cards we distribute this year. Congratulations. Thank you. And [applause] the second and third place uh winners cannot be here this evening, but their beautiful artwork is on the screen. Thank you.

Oh, second place is here. Oh, well that's a surprise. May I please um ask Molly Gray to come up? Our second place winner is an eighth grade student. [applause]

Your pieces up there and please the board would love to meet you. Congratulations. Mr. Chair, that will end my report. Thank you.

Thank you. Um before we move to the uh public comments, just want to mention, I know you saw at the very beginning of the program uh Shane Henderson and celebration at Pittsburgh Elementary. It was fantastic. And um Shane got what uh all the recognition, but he got $25,000 additional. So that's that's a huge um compliment for him and his teaching. So uh he's not here, but let's go ahead and give him a hand if we will. We'll embarrass him while he's not here. Thank you. Thank you very much. Okay, we'll move on to our um public comments. Um [crying] Thank y'all for coming too. Appreciate that very much.

Okay. Um I think we've got six signed up. just remind you, you have a three minutes uh to uh let us know. If you have additional information or anything, you can leave it with uh Miss Sloan and she'll make sure she gets that to us. Um again, we'll start here at the podium. Uh you'll get the amber light first and

of course the red light. So, um bear with us there if you will. Uh first up is Max Harmon. All right. Uh, good evening. Uh, my name is Max. I'm a carpentry and construction teacher at Jordan Matthews. One of the things that we talk about in my construction class. um is the reality that the men and women who often are the people building one of our most essential pieces of life, shelter, human shelter, are also the group of workers least protected um and and least valued and paid for their work. We know that the work of construction is a a deeply challenging one. Farm workers who grow and you know harvest our food, cooks and cleaners of all kinds, the people who provide the essential services of our world are often the ones that are valued the least. Um, we know that too in our schools, uh, this situation is replicated in terms of the way our classified staff are paid and valued. I want to say extremely clearly though that that is not something that this board or this administration is to blame for. That is a much deeper societal issue. that we know, in fact, quite the contrary, our board and our administration does believe in public education and does believe that our classified staff should be valued to the degree that we all know they provide to our students. But we live with this reality that despite what this board has done in the past, which again we want to give great credit and appreciation for the fact that this county does have stipens for classified workers, which many other counties do not have, the willingness of this board to meet with classified workers a month ago and discuss many of the issues that classified workers want altered in this district. We see and appreciate the fact that you want to work for solutions. And yet we are faced with a situation in which many classified staff in this district are deeply struggling

economically and in terms of some specific work conditions that will be brought up likely by other speakers. Right? But I want to make incredibly clear that this is not a problem that you have caused, but we do believe it is an opportunity you have as our board of education to improve the working conditions and pay of our classified staff. So where does this leave us? Because we know that this is not a problem that you caused, right? We are looking at this at the state level. We are in the process of figuring out how to mobilize on mass in the spring to Raleigh. We are as a local union helping lead the way to get real commitments to affordable housing in this county. And again, we are here in front of you because we do believe that there is something that you can do. There will be again speakers talking about the working conditions, but I do just want to mention briefly the pay because I know that this is something that is moving quickly in this district in terms of budget season. We were hoping that at this meeting we would hear from y'all what the calculation would be for a $2 an hour raise that we had brought to the meeting with Mr. Turner. Um, excuse me, Mr. Leonard and Miss Turner. And again, we thank you for that meeting. But we tried to do our own math in lie of that. um which came to a $2 an hour raise would cost the average Cadam County tax property taxpayer about $2 a month. We believe that that is something that we must do given the negligible amount for our taxpayers and the gamechanging amount of raise for our workers. And so we implore you as a board to bring that forward to the county. Thank you so much for your time. Uh, next up is Angela Angela Red. Good evening. My name is Angela Red and I'm actually new to your district. I am a IA at Pittsburgh Elementary and soon to be bus driver. Um, I'm here advocating for classified employees who are in need of pay raises. The current

economy has greatly changed along with our job responsibilities. For example, an IIA who has a bus route works an average of about 50 hours a week. Um, with us being paid monthly, we have to go back into the building and do things so that we don't owe the district money. If we were getting paid bi-weekly, you could offset that problem. Um then I could therefore look at my time and say I'm too tired to go back in and work extra hours seeing how our actual day starts in the dark and it ends in the dark. You the district's motto is one cadam and although I've been here for a short time I'm trying to figure out how classified employees fit into that. So going forward I'm wondering how we can fix that. how our voices can be heard and we feel a valued part of the district. For example, with the bus trainings, we're required, and nobody told me this when they when I was hired, that I needed to pay for a DOT physical because my insurance does not pay for that. Um, and then I need to be uh reimbursed. So therefore, I'm taking away from my household, my budget, my income to pay for a physical that's required for my job that my insurance doesn't pay for that I then have to put my general bills like water, lights, food to side to aside so that I can be reimbursed. Um, I'm still waiting for uh the reimbursement for the actual CDL permit and then DMV told me when I come back I have to pay them another $90 to get the actual permit. So, I was wondering if the board could possibly figure out a way how to pay for these things if since

it's part of my job description. Um, lastly, I feel like ECTAs should be paid differently from Gen 8. gened simply because they endure a whole lot more than what a gened IIA would endure. Um, some of some kids can be a little aggressive. Some might need to be um have cogn well toileting issues and it just feels like you're asking IAS to do a whole lot more, but nobody's taking under consideration what it is that we're actually giving. For example, I have to drive over here to the bus garage to pick up papers that I think should come via email or um through your carrier so that it can be taken care of. Again, thank you for your time.

Miss Red. [applause]

Next up is Jennifer Goens. Good evening. My name is Jennifer Goins. I've worked as a treasur at Jordan Matthews High School for over 20 years. We appreciate this opportunity to be heard concerning the equity and value of the Chattam County Schools classified staff. All the parts of a body are important for it to operate functionally efficiently. Our classified staff is somewhat the backbone of our school system. Our bus drivers get our students to school safely. The child nutrition assistants are responsible for food for our students. Our custodians make sure that our students have a clean environment. Our instructional assistants support our students individually to accomplish their tasks in the classrooms. Our office support staff is essential to our school to

operate as smoothly as possible. All of these classified responsibilities are important parts of our team contributions for our students to have an environment that is conducive to to learning. Although these jobs are not directly involved in teaching our students, these jobs are parts of the system that are necessary for it to function properly. We are asking that the Chattam County School Board of Education to show [snorts] recognition for equity by allowing classified representation for input when there are decisions about implementing any changes that would directly affect classified workers. We understand the financial conditions of the education system at the federal and state level are in jeopardy. But when the conditions start to improve, we are asking the Chattam County School Board of Education to recognize the value of the classified staff with a monetary compensation package that honors and the dignity and importance of our work. We are asking for a sustainable $2 an hourly increase. The classified jobs are the lowest paying jobs in the county. A lot of these employees are living from paycheck to paycheck. Some don't even have enough money uh for to their next paycheck. There is a large gap between the sub supplement amount of classified and certified staff. Example, the entrylevel certified employee gets $6,800 a year and an entrylevel classified employee gets $1,500 a year. The high-end example is that the certified employees with 26 plus years gets $10,800 a year plus 3.75 of their annual salary. The classified employees with 26 plus years gets $2,000 plus nothing. We are asking the gap between the certified and the classified staff staff supplements be made smaller. In closing, the Bible

says, "It takes a village to raise a child. Please see that we are part of that village, too." Thank you for your time and support. [applause] Uh, next up is Deborah Sanford. [clears throat] Good evening. Uh my name is Deborah Sanford and I'm um at George Matthews High School. I am a bus driver slashia and uh been doing it for quite a while and most of the ones that have came up here have already said what I'd like to say to they they've already put it out there about you know we would love to have the increase of the $2 increase an hour on on our pay. Um, I think I I know how we got the budget, but one thing I wanted to point out to you is that as I a bus driver, we carry the most precious cargo there is, our children. And we watch truck drivers and other people get paid big time money and stuff. And I they they hauling caddles, furniture, and all of that, you know. But we carry the most precious cargo, your children, our children, and we think they are worth more, you know, than what it is. Not that money is everything, but as uh some of my co-workers have already said, um the pay we get sometime we still have a hard time making it through the month, you know, trying to budget budget your money for a whole month. you know, things come up, you know, emergency comes up, you know, that you have to use money and stuff and then you've already run out because you only get paid once a month. So, we are asking for that.

Hopefully, you can provide. Um, also, uh, what I want to point out too is that I'm a little nervous, so forgive me, but uh, I want to point out that as a bus driver, we u, me and co-workers, some of us get up at 4:30 in the morning. My first student gets on at 5:55 in the morning. We get to school as a IA, we are rushing after being on a bus route for about two hours and stuff. The first thing you want to do is get to the bathroom. And so um we rush off to get off that but we lose time in between there too because we clock out on the bus then you got to go and clock in for IA and we clock in if we can make it to the sometime we go to the bathroom first and then we come and uh clock in but we lose time in between. So maybe five or 10 minutes in the morning we lose. In the afternoon we as bus drivers clock out like three o'clock. Well IIA position knows that the clock out time is at 3:30. Again your eight hours you clock out at 3:30. Well, we're losing a whole 30 minutes on the end there by clocking out and going to the bus. So I would ask that you would take a look at that. you know, see if you can work that out if Well, we can maybe just clock in one time and because we're still on the clock. Even though we clock out, we still go that whole day working 12 hours, you know, to to um be there. And in our classroom, we are I am in the um severe and profound classroom, which

excuse me, your time's up. Can you wrap Can you can you get to what? Go ahead and tell what you going to tell. But it takes a lot more in that classroom to do, you know, we don't have lunchtime. We had to eat around the children, you know, and and um I just I I wish we could trade places. That's what I would like to do and and have that that uh

picture that comes on about trading places. Boss trade places with us. I wish you could do it, but I know we can't do that. But mentally go there with me. Think about it in your mind um about what we actually go through.

Okay. your time. Thank you. [applause]

Greg Meyer, please.

Hey, thanks you all. Uh, I feel privileged to be here. So, good evening. My name is Greg Meyer and I'm a parent. Um, I have two children. My daughter Nora is a senior at Northwood and my son Clark is in Perry Harrison and both really enjoy the public education provided by Chattam County. Um I'm here tonight because we all recognize that the success of our students relies on an entire ecosystem of support and a team whose efforts go unagnowledged and unsung but are absolutely indispensable. And I'm speaking about our classified workers. These individuals are the backbone and the connective tissue of every school. Without them, our schools can't function. Their vital work deserves a living wage that reflects the immense value that they add to our community. We are all aware, every single one of us, of the rising costs of living. It's a problem not only for Chattam County, it's a problem for the entire nation. And we're all feeling that squeeze. So, the ask to echo my fellow community members is that in your upcoming funding proposal to the county that you prioritize the urgent and necessary increase of the $2 an hour raise for every classified worker. And um when I heard this as a parent, I thought, why $2? And when it was explained to me, it made total sense. It's it's a meaningful increase that

respects their dedication in the face of these rising costs of living and a fair wage in addition is a critical tool for recruitment and retention. So our schools can't afford to lose skilled caring individuals and we also need to attract new talent to fill essential vacancies like bus driver positions. So, this necessary raise would be um funded by a modest increase in property taxes as Max talked about. And um you know, as a homeowner in Chattam County, um I I am more than happy to shoulder the sort of back of the envelope $2 a month. I think it was almost negligible amount in order to provide this um incredible raise to our classified workers. Um I I'm very happy and I'm sure I speak on behalf of other parents and other households that we would be happy to contribute here. So my children's success in closing is not just due to their teachers. Um they need the meals served by cafeteria team. They need the cleanliness and safety provided by custodial staff. Reliable transportation provided by bus drivers. And um just in closing, I I very strongly support the investment in our classified staff. Um they totally deserve it.

Thank you. [applause]

And our next speaker is Brandy Varner. [clears throat]

Hello. Um Brandy, um third grade teacher at Chadam Grove. Um, thank you all again for your willingness to hear us out and for um, everything I think Max thanked you for earlier, for agreeing to meet with us. Um, you've heard so much of it tonight, but I want to iterate again the

dedication of the staff to supporting each other and to making Cadam the best possible education system um, we can we can possibly make it. And I think I can do that by laying out how extensive the petition process is. You've seen our asks. You've heard about them from us in meetings. But the petition process isn't easy, nor is it quick. It's months of hard work. It's hundreds and hundreds of conversations, conversations that lead to a majority of your staff and several community and many. Excuse [clears throat] me, I am fighting super fun sickness time. um and major and many community members to support increasing the living or increasing the wage for classified staff and supporting their conditions. We all support each other. We all know how important they are. And believe me, it's not just me either. I'm not running all over Chattam County having hundreds of conversations. Completely impossible. It's a team. You have a large team of educators going into their schools, talking to their co-workers, their friends, and asking them, "What's going well? How is your year? What's stopping you from being the best possible educator you can be? What's holding you back? Or what's making it hard for you to continue working?" Those conversations are varied. The problems are many, and they're not easy. But they allow us to have a picture and they allow us to build a collective voice to come to you with the voices of hundreds and [clears throat] share with you what we hope you can do to help improve our education system. And so we do it every year. We spend months reaching out to our co-workers trying to get into as many schools as

possible trying to make sure we get that full picture and bring it to you because we know the only way forward in this crazy crazy new world we're in where the people at the very top don't believe in public education is to raise our collective voice and let them know how important how vital we are. So again, I thank you for the meetings that you've had so far. I think they're great first steps. I encourage you to not only take the opportunities you're given to show solidarity and support, but create new opportunities to bring collab the collective voice of your staff to the table, not just as listeners, but as collaborators and problem solvers. Thank you for your time.

[applause]

Thank you again for all the work you do each day. Uh getting up this morning at 4:30 and going out in cold. I understand. Uh uh I wasn't out at 4:30, but that that's that's a tough job. We do appreciate you doing that. We'll move on to information items. Uh first up is digital learning and artificial intelligence. And of course we got Dr. Samberg and Dr. Bergen. Good evening. Uh my name is Mark Samberg. I'm the chief of technology and school accountability. Uh want to share some updates with you on digital learning and artificial intelligence. Um just first of all an overview of what we mean when we talk about digital learning. So, um, if we look at screen time, and there's a lot of there's a lot of conversations in the news right now about screen time. Um, but I want to be very clear when we talk about digital learning, we're talking about a subset of that. Not all screen time is digital learning and not all digital learning

happens on a screen. Um, so when we talk about what kids are doing on computers, we're talking about digital learning, which we'll go into detail in a second. We talk about students using devices for assessment uh for programs that they do um things like that. And then um logistics, right? I'm going to turn in an assignment. I'm going to get assignments. I'm going to read something or watch a video online. Uh so that makes up what we call screen time. But today we're going to focus on on digital learning in particular. Uh and I want to call your attention to in our strategic plan. There is a a portrait of a of a graduate. Um, I know it's a little hard to see, uh, but this is this is page eight of the strategic plan. Um, and it talks about kind of the the traits of a Chattam County Schools uh, graduate. Uh, just keep those in mind because uh, the these terms will come up again when we get into the digital learning standards uh, which are going to be even harder to see on the screen. I promise you. Um, see

we got it on our computer

like I said. Um, okay. So, uh, this is the digital learning standards for students

and I'm going to interrupt. It is available online if anybody wants to go back and look at if you haven't looked at it already. So, it's it's available under the board too. So, yeah.

So, these are the digital learning standards for students. These uh North Carolina chose a few years ago to map to the ISTY standards. Uh so so kind of five major areas, six major areas around um uh empowered learner, digital citizen, um knowledge constructor, computational thinker, innovator, uh global collaborator and uh creative communicator. So these are things again if you read these there's a lot of overlap with our portrait of a graduate. And also not all of these things necessarily are done online. things like um creative uh creative collaborator, computational thinker. A lot of these assignments are are offline assignments or can be

offline assignments. Um and a lot of these things are media skills, right? How do we how do we teach students how to find information when you know when when we were all in school, you had to go find the books that had the right things. Now students have to to they have more information than they can uh process, but it's knowing what is good and what is not. And that's a different set of skills for research, for information, for for constructing knowledge. So how we how we do that is important. Um so again, this is part of the the the North Carolina standard course of study. It's about um developing those skills needed for the portrait of a graduate. It's about using technology to create, share, and demonstrate learning. And it's necessary. digital citizenship and student online safety and social media literacy is a big part of those standards as well. Um, as I talked about helping students process and survive the modern information landscape and then a vehicle for problem solving, creation, iteration, and expression. Right? Again, these are these are part of our standard course of study. Um, but again, they're not all done on the computer. A lot of these skills can be done offline or are done in in a way where the technology is a support tool, not necessarily the focus. Um it's not students on screen all day long or drill and practice activities as we talk some of those they have their place but that's a different set of things than what we're talking about. Um and um again digital learning is not focused on technology. Technology is the tool not necessarily the task. Um but we have to talk about the elephant in the room uh which is AI and how that is kind of changing everything. Um I always use this uh when I talk about technology trends in general. This is Gartner's um hype cycle for new technologies. Um, some of you may be familiar with this, but the idea that that when technology and the example

that I use for this all the time is is ebooks, right? When ebooks came along, um, ebooks were going to replace all the bookstores and we weren't going to read physical books ever again. And then we kind of go through and now ebooks are terrible and and then we kind of come back to a place where there's a good middle ground and people figure out. But what's different with AI is is the speed, right? So, social media, um, student laptops, smartphones, I'd argue we're still finding our way on this, but that's also now 20 year old technology, right? Uh, smartphones are 2007, uh, Facebook is 2006, right? But, ChatGBT is 2022 and we're already here. So, so this is one of those things where where however far ahead you are, you're already behind. So, we're having to to really be strategic and and think about how we how we teach these skills in in schools. AI is everywhere. So, this is a this is a there's a picture of my washing machine on there because I had to get a new washing machine recently and it has an AI cycle. I don't know what it does. It doesn't fold or iron my clothes. So, it's not that good. But um but um but what's interesting in this is there are some studies there about three and 10 three and 10 teens are saying that they're using AI chat bots daily. Um 25% of students are interacting with students chat bots. Of that three and 10 25% of those say almost constantly.

When you say AI chat bots are you talking about generative AI or just chat bots?

Generative AI.

Okay.

Right. But that also presents some uh challenges right. So so um right some opportunities. So three and 10 teachers use AI weekly survey saving say they say they save up to six weeks a year. Um Google will now translate a meeting to

another language using your own voice using your own inflections which is pretty neat. Um, AI can do some things for intelligent tutors, right? We've had intelligent tutors for a long time, but now with AI, they can be be a lot better. Um, right? Uh, so there are also some risks, right? So, so you've seen the the news, right? AI can can very confidently lie to you and make stuff up. Um, AI has some environmental impacts. AI um has um allegedly occur encouraged um some stu poses some mental health issues has encouraged um some children to to inflict harm on themselves or others. Um right and also now we're seeing things like um AI evidence showing up in court or or AI legal briefs where the the the um the precedents don't actually exist, right? We see people turning to AI as a companion for mental health, right? So, how we teach students to get ahead of this and and to recognize this and and how we bake this into our social and emotional curriculum is also becoming increasingly important. So, we'll talk a little bit about what we're doing. So, we have um two products that we have available to all teachers here. Uh one is called Magic School, one is called uh Google Gemini uh but specifically in Google Classroom. Um, and these tools are available to all teachers. They are purpose-built for K12. Uh, they are designed with some safeguards in mind. They allow teachers to kind of pre-do some things. Uh, so that students get a more curated AI experience that they're still using these tools, but it's not kind of the wild west and and whatever tool they happen to find. Um, we do allow high schoolers to use um some of the chat some of the commercially available chat bots. uh and and um LLM's after hours uh

not during school hours because we want that that experience to be controlled by the teacher, but after school hours they're they're a little bit more open um in high school and elementary and middle school. So most of these services by their terms of service are not supposed to be used by students under 13. So we honor that and and restrict for that reason. Uh Chat GPT teacher uh ChatGpt released a chat GPT for teachers. We're looking at how that roll out's going to go here. Um, they kind of sprung it on us and we're trying to we're trying to figure out how to how to use it and then uh developing additional uh units for digital citizenship for AI for how how these all uh work together. So, uh before I go any further, any questions?

Yes, I have a question just you know since since we provide the laptops. So just wondering if if we're able to I mean I imagine we can't but I might be wrong about this but but I know you know if you have the the actual computer in front of you you can you know gauge the history but are we able to collectively do that?

Yes.

So so there's tools that there are tools that teachers have available. Number one is we do have a web filter that monitors and and records sites where students are both both on campus and off campus. uh the gaggle uh program monitors for things that may be of of potential concern from a from a kind of student safety or mental health standpoint and flags those for the student services team. Uh teachers in their classrooms have access to a tool called GoG Guardian where they can uh restrict um the websites a student can use or they can allow only certain websites. None of these tools are perfect, right? this is a Swiss cheese kind of thing where you hope one of the layers catches catches things. The other thing is that um AI is being baked into new tools every day. Everybody is in a rush to add AI. So So um sometimes we can't necessarily there there was a tool called Google Lens that came out that we that Google released

but didn't also didn't release the ability to block it until six weeks after they released the feature. So it was there, it could not be detected by GoG Guardian, and we had a six week lag time where we couldn't block it. Um, so there are these there are these things that are constantly coming up that that pose challenges. Um, but to answer your original question, yes, we can we can monitor.

And for the tools that we that we have that we've approved, I'm thinking specifically about Google Gemini. um what sort of protections are we thinking about for the fact that this is a massive data collecting apparatus that then will use that data to potentially train its own AI better.

Right. So when we when we talk about Google Gemini, we are using the um the education version of Google Gemini which is covered under the the Google Workspace for education terms and conditions which means that they do not mine that data as part of their as part of that Google for education license agreement. Education K12 data is not uh or used in training of of the larger models.

I think that's a really important distinction kind.

Thank you.

Um all right, so I'll turn it over to Dr. Berin at this point. Talk about our AI pedigogies uh document. This is I think two years old at this point.

Good evening, esteemed board and superintendent Jackson. I am Kira Bergrren. I'm the director of digital learning and media programs and I'm going to talk to you about a couple of things that we are providing for our educators so that they can continue to model and support ethical and uh ethical use of AI as well as u uh modeling AI literacy for their students in the classroom. So one of the first tools that we've provided is our AI pedigogies document. This document is being heavily used this year with our DISC program and we'll talk to you a little bit about that in just a moment. But these are our these are our guidance for our

educators. Uh they it is very strategically aligned with the state guidance that was put out two years ago. So as soon as the state put out some guidance, they reminded us and reminded us that their document is a living document. It is subject to change. It is changing as rapidly as they can keep up with the [clears throat] AI advancements, right? Um, so we continually check that document, see what updates have been made, and then we are putting that into our document. So, we're kind of saying the same thing. This is a living document. Um, in it has the guidelines for success, which we will talk about um, in a bit, but that is a poster that is going to be delivered to all of the schools in January for use in classrooms for teachers to point out how much AI use their students are allowed on each assignment. We'll talk a little bit more about that in just a moment. We've also been maintaining our AI implementation timeline for the past couple of years. So any major steps that Chattam County is taking in order to prepare our teachers and our students for use with AI and ongoing uh generative AI projects has been recorded in there. So we had our big DISC um conference last year. DISC stands for a digital innovation. Sometimes it was summer camp. Last year it was steampunk camp. This year it is um digital innovation summit challenge and we have the whole elevate chatum theme tied into it with some gamified learning in the process. So that is our annual technology conference for our educators and uh the so part of that is also in the implementation timeline since all of that is AIPD. Um in addition we have returned our school MTAX this year. So MTAC is media and technology advisory committee. It is chaired by our librarians. Our librarians have done a fantastic job bridging the communication between AI pedigogies and our district digital

learning plan and bringing that to their staff and their administrators with what are the expectations for helping our students uh graduate meeting that portrait of a of a graduate mentality. Right? that um Dr. Samberg talked about a moment ago. So in our digital learning plan, our goals for this year and next year are outlined and it is the responsibility of the MTAs to bring about those goals for their schools. Talk about um implementation of AI instruction tying all of those things together as part of our digital teaching and learning.

That's the back button.

Here we go. [laughter]

That would be me. So don't worry.

Um, one of the really cool tools that we provide in our AI pedigogies document is the crosswalk that we have between the every framework which is a state guidance tool and the ISTY standards that Dr. Samberg showed you all a moment ago. So folks can see how they tie in with each other. And uh, in the document those links under the ISTY standards, we have one for students, we have one for for teachers. Those links are are interactive. So, if you're a student, you go to the links, they go to about a three or four minute video explaining each standard to you and and how it's used in your assignments every day. And if you're a teacher, there's a link that

it [laughter] show's over. Yes. Um there's there are some links um explaining to the teachers how to implement those standards in their classroom. So

you can see later if our safety guy back there initiated that thing. Doc Dr. Walston could have he could have set it up there.

There you go. So again, uh this is so this is one of the coolest tools that we have in our pedigogies document. This is the poster that's going to be delivered to schools to go

up into every classroom in January. This is a guidance for teachers to refer to with students. It's studentf facing poster where they can point out no AI use is allowed for this assignment or some AI use is allowed to help you brainstorm and organize your thoughts or AI can be used for your final product as long as you a evaluate it for accuracy b you cite it properly and c it doesn't replace the critical thinking skills that our students need. So, Dr. Burgerer mentioned uh the disc conference. Uh in the past, that had been either a summer a summer um experience or a last year it was during a PD day and we wanted to do something a little bit different this year. Uh namely uh find a way to to recognize two things. Number one, every teacher in this district is at a different place with this and and a one-sizefits-all or a conference or a PD day is not necessarily it's going to be great for some, useless to others. Um, but then also that that uh we wanted to protect uh teacher time as much as possible and and create a way to get PD without without requiring a large time commitment. Uh so we are we funded um all of this work through a grant from the department of public instruction and we got permission from them to modify the grant to allow us to do this kind of gamified uh virtual experience. So this year for disk teachers will earn credit and they'll earn cus for for disk by actually implementing AI in their classrooms. So if they do that they submit that as an artifact then we'll give them recognition for that. Uh so this will be year three. There's 10 opportunities for teachers to earn credit. They can do as few or as many as they want. They can do them in any order that they want.

Quick question. Um, just in case I mean the listening public's not here to ask these questions or but I just curious about the ways you might be encouraging

teachers to use implement AI because I think that distinction for people that have delved into it less deeply might have that have a fear around it may not may need to hear about the benefits of of it.

On the DISC website there's a lot of supplemental resources on there. We're talking like very basic videos on how to have a conversation with chat GPT all the way up to how to get certified level four magic school use. So there's a plethora of resources on there um in addition to the the AI pedigogies and things that we've already provided. I didn't mention in the pedigogies there's a big appendix in the back that has letters home notifying parents hey we're going to use AI on this particular assignment if you would like your student to opt out please sign and return you know that kind of stuff um in addition to the the classroom guidance and the crosswalks and things

and one of the one of the um opportunities for teachers is hey try this yourself and you earn credit for just I'm gonna ask GBT you know what the weather is you know what weather was and this you know and and and right to to encourage some of those baby steps to help people um begin to recognize how it can be used

and like Dr. Samberg mentioned the gamified piece. So every teacher is going to receive one of these mountain posters and on the poster are grayscale images of the digital badges they're going to earn for implementing AI in their instruction. So, there is a badge for exploring data privacy. There is a badge for teaching your students how to site AI tools properly using APA or MLA style. There is a badge for evaluating an AI output for its accuracy and for whether there are hallucinations in what it gave you. um for analyzing different AI outputs for bias and which one covers the material in a different way, in a more scholarly way versus a more

opinionated way. Um so these are the 10 micro credentials that that teachers and staff can earn. They earn them by completing a course. The course just basically outlines the objectives that they have to meet for their artifact. It has the supplemental resources, where to submit their artifact, and then the instructions that they'll that will be um followed through for reviewing their artifact. There's a rubric. It's a two-point rubric. Do you either are you getting to the meeting the expectations or do you meet the expectations for the artifact? They'll turn around, they'll get the certificate and the digital badge. And then in about two weeks in the corer, they'll get a sticker version of the digital badge they earned to then put on that poster. in the posters or outside their classrooms. So, that's where the gamified piece comes in because it's going to hopefully instill some friendly um competition amongst colleagues. I think I think that's it. Do you all have any questions for me or about DISC? Oh. Um, if uh uh folks who earn all 10 micro credentials for DISC will get an exclusive t-shirt that says I climbed the summit and they will also get an exclusive gold badge for that as well.

The only question that I have is actually around agents and um if we have individuals who are savvy enough to start creating agents, do we actually have a system an ecosystem set up where those agents are going to go live or do we have people can make an agent and it can go off and in its own little sort of agent world.

I am sure we've got both both staff and students who are who are plenty ready to start doing that. Um you know something official we have not we have not broached that yet except to say that we already have a process for reviewing approving um digital tools that we use and they go through that same process.

Okay. So somebody couldn't just create an agent on their own and let it live outside kind of rogue. [snorts] Okay.

people have been coming to the meetings over the last um three decades. Uh they will know that I like to bring in the history of maybe where we've come from and um this is just technology, big umbrella technology. Gary and I can remember back in high school that we were not allowed to use a calculator. They were brand new and we're you still got to do the slide rule and that's how you going to figure things and then I remember teaching first grade it digital clocks were just coming out and remember telling them I said you know y'all still need to learn to read the face of a clock and they didn't understand that. And I said, I don't think uh Big Ben didn't mean anything to him, but I said, I don't think the courthouse down there is going to put a digital numbers up there where the clock is. You you still need to learn this. So this this dealing with and integrating and switching and whether to use AI in an assignment or not, we're we're learning and this is nothing new. So that's just why I like to put things in perspective because um

I mean I remember being at Northwood if you had a calculator in the school three-day suspension. [laughter]

You know things have changed

considered cheating. Yeah.

Things have changed and he had to age me in the process too. I noticed that.

I I noticed. Yeah. That that was very kind. And I think what I mean inadvertently did uh you know you got me thinking about um one of the big issues that we that we come across with with all of this is is is it cheating right if students use AI. I think that that poster Dr. Bergen shared will will help that a little bit um and provide some common language across the district. Um

and it it also reiterates sorry to interrupt. It also reiterates that the teacher sets the expectation for how

much digital learning and how the digital learning is taking place in their classroom every day. Right? So it puts that authority back back on them and and lets them steer those expectations.

Any other questions? I just want to say I think that this actually is incredibly helpful and it's very important not only for our students and teachers to learn how to use AI, but also for them to recognize when the problem and be able to recognize when they're being presented things that have been generatively created.

Thank you.

Thank you everyone.

Okay. Thank you.

Okay. Um action items and I saw Mr. Blice moving around there and Mr. Drum Heler. So, contract selection and contract for Sy Elementary roofing project. Go ahead,

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 Randy Drumeller, who's our director of new construction and maintenance, and we are bringing you the contractor selection and contract for Sther City Elementary roofing project. This is a project that's in the CIP that was approved that's ongoing now and We are bringing you this information tonight. Uh we have the bid tab and the contract linked uh in the agenda, but we're asking the board to approve uh in to award the contract to Owens Roofing uh which would include alternates one and three. If you have any questions about that, we're here to answer them and we'll we'll follow your lead.

What made us not do alternate two as well?

Because we're doing alternate one. That replaces it.

And that replaces it. It operates alternative.

That's probably an attorney question too, I guess. There, right? Yeah. So, that's a good question. Thank you.

So, um, are we um I haven't heard anything, so that's good news. But are we being proactive and preventive in

getting this roof on or are we using a lot of buckets and trash cans all because I haven't seen any buckets or trash cans. So this we're ahead of the game on this.

We're trying to avoid that.

Yeah.

Didn't you do this? We did a survey or a a group came in and did this a while back. Kind of put us on a schedule of what needs doing there. That's what I was thinking. Okay.

Good to be ahead of the game.

Yes. Very much so. Okay. We'll entertain a motion.

I move that the CH County Board of Education approve the contract with Owens Roofing, Inc. for the Siler City Elementary roofing project as presented.

Got a motion and a second. Any discussion? Any other questions? All in favor with an I.

I.

Any opposed? Like sign.

Thank you. Um, thank you. Couple things in particular. Uh, just want to make the audience aware. Uh, the Cogna presentation is tomorrow at 10, yes, here in central services, which is, uh, a big thing. and and George Moses Horton is uh their chorus is performing in the lobby of NCDPI. U that is also tomorrow at 11:30. Science fair is tomorrow, excuse me, Wednesday from 5:30 to 7:30 at Jordan Matthews. And of course, we got all kinds of other things events going on in our district. Uh probably several in particular. Our next board meeting is Monday, January the 12, 2025 at 5:30. And then on the 13th, we'll have our board retreat. Am I correct? Starting at uh that 8 o'clock in the morning. 8:30. Okay. In the morning. Pardon?

January.

Pardon?

Yeah, it is 20. Did I say 25? Okay. I didn't do I said Okay. 20. What it says on Oh, I'm sorry. 2026. I'll get it right. Okay. Thank you. Miss Turner

comes back to get on me. Y'all notice that real quickly there. That's That's her That's her job to keep me moving forward and straight. Uh do I have a motion to adjurnn?

So moved. Second.

Got a motion. Second. All in favor with an I.

I.

I. Thank you. Here you go.

Thank you. Because I wrote it down. Where was it? Somewhere. Oh, ago I said he changed