[9:15] I'd like to welcome you to the September 17th Board of Education meeting. We'll call this meeting to order. At this time, this airs will share the invocation. As we begin tonight's meeting, let us take a moment to reflect with gratitude on the success, success will start to another school year. The board has worked hard to move our district forward to strengthen communication, base challenges, and keep our students and educators at the center of our decisions. But the true success of this school year belongs

[9:45] to the dedicated teacher, staff, administrators, bus drivers, custodians, nutrition teams, support staff,

[9:51] and so many others who show up every day for our students. As we conduct our business tonight,

[9:56] may we lead with wisdom and humility, listen with open minds, and remember that every decision we make

[10:02] ultimately reaches a classroom and a child. May we continue building on our successes,

[10:07] working together through our challenges, and always remain focused on our shared purpose,

[10:12] providing the very best for the students of Kareta County.

[10:15] Thank you.

[10:16] At this time, Alexis will lead us in the pledge.

[10:44] Do I have a motion to approve tonight's agenda?

[10:48] Second.

[10:49] All in favor?

[10:50] All right.

[10:51] All right.

[10:52] Now to our public comment session.

[10:54] The public comment session is a time when an individual or a group can address the board

[10:59] about our schools.

[11:00] This is not a time to speak about issues or concerns involving identifiable personnel.

[11:06] Matters of this nature should be submitted in writing to the superintendent and your concerns

[11:11] will be addressed.

[11:12] Individuals or groups will be called in the order in which they signed up and will be asked

[11:16] to limit their remarks to three minutes.

[11:19] And please state your name and address.

[11:21] Do we have people signed up tonight?

[11:24] Do we have anyone here for public comment that didn't know to sign up?

[11:27] Just want to make sure?

[11:30] Okay.

[11:31] All right.

[11:31] I just wanted to make sure.

[11:35] Did you have?

[11:36] Okay.

[11:37] Okay, I'm going to let you come up because I don't want someone to not be able to make a comment based on a technicality.

[11:43] Just come right forward and we're just going to sign up.

[12:14] Just while we're doing that, just so the public knows when you want to sign up for public comment, there's a sheet outside.

[12:20] And you just sign on that, but we're certainly not going to turn anybody away tonight, so thank you for coming.

[12:32] Mr. Wolff or Wolff?

[12:34] Wolff, all right, go right ahead.

[12:36] Okay, so on August 27th, the Carthac Elementary School, the bus was a substitute bus in

[12:47] the morning which is fine that happens, we all get that.

[12:51] They sent out the notice that there was going to be a substitute bus at the time of pickup

[12:56] and it was going to be an hour late, at the time of pickup.

[12:59] There was already kids on the bus corner waiting for the bus, some of those kids just sat there

[13:04] for an hour. That afternoon, they also substituted the bus. They split bus roads. They didn't

[13:14] alert anybody. Our kids were dropped off in an hour early. I've got a second grader

[13:21] and a fourth grader. Our neighbors have a kindergartener and a second grader. They were just kicked

[13:28] off the bus. Just, here you go. No parents, nothing. My kids ended up walking down the street.

[13:38] There was an adult home at a neighbor that played frankly. We don't really know.

[13:47] The kid, he took care of them, but they're assured it into his house.

[13:51] And again, you can understand my concern. I've got two little girls.

[13:56] Since then, we've been trying to, we've wrote the Transportation Department, we've been

[14:02] in contact with Ms. Dowdy, asking to see the videotape, so we can see the interaction

[14:08] between the bus driver and the bus monitor.

[14:13] Because it's beyond me that two people, two adults, would show kids off the bus of that

[14:21] by age throughout an entire bus route, yet they did.

[14:28] We've been trying to get a copy of that.

[14:31] We were told we'd be able to watch it just yesterday.

[14:35] We were told that the tape, if you will, I guess, was put back into circulation and

[14:42] record it over, and nobody would be able to watch it.

[14:46] Now, I'm in transportation myself, everything is digital these days, I mean, everything is digital.

[14:54] They said they watched it, so it's hard to believe that they didn't download the file and watch it.

[15:00] I'm very, very concerned about, when a parent asks, when there's an incident serious like this. The documentation isn't kept, right? It just seems beyond belief kind of. And the fact is, as they keep saying, well, we've taken care of this. We've asked, it hasn't been a corrective action. What actions have been taken?

[15:28] So far, we've got nothing.

[15:31] It's just very concerning.

[15:45] Right now, we welcome you to stay that they help

[15:50] reach out.

[15:52] There are some other things.

[15:53] It's not unusual for us not to be able to talk about corrective action.

[15:57] But thank you for taking the time to speak tonight.

[15:59] Thank you.

[16:01] At this time, we have a student board report.

[16:05] Alexis.

[16:12] So, JP nap.

[16:13] Even the students at JP nap have been adjusting very well lately.

[16:17] they're all getting to routines and they now like know what to expect from

[16:22] their teachers and their classes and their homework and what to do on time.

[16:29] There's not really much going on at the moment at JPNAP. I know on September

[16:34] 25th there is an ASVAB Career Exploration Test that in

[16:40] 16 in order to take it the students are going to be able to do that. October

[16:44] second, we were senior meeting in October 9th, we have our junior meeting in Club

[16:49] Day, which we have once a month, usually in the first Friday of every month.

[16:55] And then on October 16th, we have our chunk of trade event for FBLA, along with an

[17:01] art show. And then on October 20th is our Beta Club

[17:07] blood drive and I'm a part of beta club actually and it's going to be for a few

[17:12] hours. They have like some restrictions by encourage everybody's like people

[17:17] that can donate to show up and try. It is a lot. I know that North Carolina is

[17:22] also going through a blood shortage right now so it's very crucial and

[17:26] important that we get as much donors as possible.

[17:31] And then on October 22nd is

[17:36] usually will email out parents and let them know if their kid, if they would prefer them

[17:42] to come in and just speak to the parent, if they're struggling, it's very helpful to

[17:45] students, especially if they're just having a hard time.

[17:51] And then October 27th is our pre-ACT test, which usually the sophomores take that every year.

[18:01] And then on October 30th is our Monster Mash Dance, which that's pretty fun.

[18:07] it gives the students a chance to actually have fun and not have to like worry about school

[18:14] and all the stress for that. And then we also have our Charleston rat fundraiser going on right now

[18:21] for beta club.

[18:24] So that's pretty interesting and that's pretty cool thing to get to do.

[18:28] And then we also have our some trips planned for the future. We have a London and Paris trip that

[18:35] students are able to sign up for and then we also have a Japan trip and I think in 2028 which even

[18:44] the current juniors right now can even sign up for to like do as a last trip for JPNAP

[18:54] and yeah that's about it

[19:07] so she is playing tennis with me, so she did send me some comments.

[19:11] The PSAT will be administered at her at Cali High School on October 7th.

[19:16] Her at Cali School is offering over 26 different clubs for students to explore this year,

[19:22] and they do have a built-in club time, so students are excited about that.

[19:26] The first club day of this Friday, the students enjoyed getting to experience the different clubs.

[19:31] Shiloh herself is involved with the Safe Club, which is students against violence everywhere.

[19:37] Jim LeSloore to another year with a new member.

[19:40] The upcoming October SAT will be offered at Curts at Crystal, which is great for our students

[19:45] to be able to take back on October 3rd and they don't have to drive too far.

[19:50] Our FAFSA night will be Tuesday October 27th.

[19:54] Shiloh did want me to invite the community to the Homecoming Football Game, which is Friday,

[19:59] October 9th.

[20:00] and then students reminded of the incoming dance

[20:03] on October 10th.

[20:05] Students are gonna have a different assignment.

[20:08] Next month, they're gonna talk about the elective offerings

[20:10] at our elementary schools.

[20:12] There was a little concern about different offerings

[20:14] at different schools, so our student board members

[20:17] are gonna be great and do some work for us on that

[20:19] and have a presentation, so thank you.

[20:22] At this time, Matt Mullins and Kelly Harrison

[20:26] will be doing a transportation update.

[20:28] Good

[20:43] evening, Chairman Parker, ladies and gentlemen of the board and Dr. Loops.

[20:49] We're here, Ms. Harrison and I, to give a brief update on the current state of transportation,

[20:56] steps being taken for improvement and plans being implemented for better recruitment and

[21:02] retention in the future.

[21:04] For those of you who don't know Ms. Harrison, she came to us four years ago.

[21:08] So we recruited her from Camden.

[21:12] She came in as what we call a flex driver.

[21:14] She was given a full-time route.

[21:17] And she was given some office duties to fill the time.

[21:21] And she very quickly learned our business system software, critical processes in the office

[21:27] reports that needed to be done to satisfy DPI standards.

[21:31] and she's recently become a subject matter expert on our Tim's routing

[21:37] software, which is no small feat. But in the absence of Ms. Hoffman for

[21:44] maternity leave, we're very fortunate to have her on board. So I'm going to get

[21:49] into the first slide here.

[21:54] Current status, 43 routes being covered by 35 drivers

[21:58] for a shortage of eight.

[22:00] All buses are running elementary school routes, middle school routes, and high school routes.

[22:07] And the majority of those buses are running elementary school routes going back and

[22:12] getting another run, middle school routes going back and getting another run, and

[22:17] sometimes high school routes.

[22:21] We're currently accepting applications and interviewing as promptly as we get them,

[22:25] but unfortunately applicants are rare.

[22:29] We've interviewed two hired one

[22:31] and unfortunately within the first week he left

[22:34] the driver a charter service.

[22:36] So wish him luck.

[22:38] Before we leave this slide I would like to say

[22:41] that all of our drivers have stepped up,

[22:44] risen to the challenge, contact Kelly or myself on the radio.

[22:49] Do you have anything else you need us to do?

[22:51] Do you need us for a middle run?

[22:52] you need to pick up this group of children.

[22:56] Everybody has stepped up to carry her

[22:58] and help us out while Ms. Hoffman's out.

[23:01] And I can't say enough about the team we have right now

[23:05] from director down to the office staff

[23:09] at the schools and the APs who are helping out

[23:11] to cover the shortage that we have.

[23:19] Currently we're working on the 10-day drop-ad process.

[23:22] This process is a manual procedure implemented

[23:24] one student at a time.

[23:25] through the TEMS routing software, it allows the removal of students who have not written

[23:30] on buses in 10 days in the addition of students to buses from the extensive waiting list

[23:35] as space allows. When we started this process, we had 211 students who were registered after

[23:41] the deadline of August 7th that we could not fit on the buses due to the shortage of drivers.

[23:47] We're now down to, on that list, with the drop-ad process, we're down to 67. So we've added

[23:54] well over 150 students right out of 150 students to the routes due to the drop-ad process.

[24:01] We're conducting weekly transportation admin meetings to better organize and streamline

[24:05] the transportation process through coordination between transportation, HR, finance and the communication

[24:12] departments as well as superintendent and assistant superintendent.

[24:18] Moving forward, we've created a driver recruitment campaign that includes sharing information

[24:24] in relation specific to the ease of earning a CDL with curves up county schools.

[24:29] Flexible scheduling, reaching specific stakeholders, parents, retirees, people seeking supplemental income,

[24:37] piloting, drive your neighborhood option,

[24:40] candidates to be recruited to drive shorter shifts in their own neighborhood to support their neighborhood,

[24:45] either on elementary, middle, high, or all three, if they wish.

[24:50] This target's high density neighborhood, such as Evil Creek,

[24:53] Foss, Flora, Waterloo, Ranch Land, and this information has been shared,

[24:58] or some of it has been shared on our social media platforms

[25:00] and through additional channels.

[25:05] I'll explain that.

[25:07] So moving forward again, we've created a new web page,

[25:13] or should I say Ms. Bowyer has,

[25:16] add it to the Transportation Department section of the website,

[25:19] which details recruitment the requirements and steps becoming a school bus driver in North Carolina

[25:24] information has been shared with staff regarding incentive pay for electing to drive for athletics

[25:30] field trips or other after hours needs and I can say that since that hit our website or hit our

[25:36] emails on Monday have had about six phone calls from teachers wanting to drive athletic trips and

[25:41] and things of that nature and we're also reaching out to legislators to bring awareness to the barriers

[25:47] and concerns that exist in the hiring process.

[25:54] And what you'll see on the next few slides

[25:55] are some of the flyers that have been created again

[25:58] by our communications department, Ms. Bowyer.

[26:15] There we go.

[26:16] You have any questions?

[26:17] Yes, ma'am.

[26:25] There you go.

[26:32] Yes.

[26:32] How can it come to use directly or can they go to HR first?

[26:35] Applicants go into when they apply.

[26:38] I get an email, and then I call them as soon as they hit

[26:41] my email.

[26:42] A

[26:46] number of how many bus applicants there have been

[26:49] in the past two to eight months.

[26:53] I'm just curious, like, how many?

[26:56] That's probably some, I don't know if HR

[26:58] has that ability or not, but we'll look into it.

[27:01] I can tell you it's probably less than 20, but,

[27:04] but yeah, yeah.

[27:06] Yeah.

[27:06] It has a

[27:10] tremendous, yeah.

[27:11] Yeah.

[27:11] I think that's the power of the information

[27:13] of the community.

[27:15] Yeah.

[27:15] I understand that's a great question, Emily.

[27:17] Yeah.

[27:17] To understand what we're dealing with.

[27:19] We can't create them, we can't create applicants.

[27:22] yeah currently we have you had one in training this week correct did we have

[27:27] another one that was signed up we have one in training right now we have one

[27:30] that is got everything but her school was endorsement and that she will be

[27:34] taken a class on the 28th of October and and that's it for now right it's it

[27:41] for right now okay yeah we have two we have two so we're down eight bus drivers

[27:49] is that correct? Yeah. So if we had the eight bus drivers, everything would run smoothly for the most part much more smoothly for sure. Yeah, I mean we've been we've been down.

[28:01] This is probably the most we've been down, but we've been on five or six for the last couple of years and doing double run, triple runs going back and Kelly every day looks at which bus driver.

[28:14] I mean, and it's not just the eight that we're down, we have people that are sick, we have people that have to go to the doctor and she's splitting routes every day, which is no small feat.

[28:27] Thank you.

[28:29] First, thank you, Ms. Harrison, for stepping up.

[28:33] I know if it was me, it would be no, but I want to thank you for stepping up.

[28:39] I have a couple questions or comment is it so from from the start if you accept them

[28:47] till the time they can get on a bus and drive our students is how long?

[28:52] Two to three months. That's crazy. Yeah. We and I know that's not us. That is a state

[28:56] mandate. Yeah, it's state. Well, it's just a believe DMV is shorthanded as well. They have two people

[29:02] within a certain location, a region. Yeah. And they're covering every county. I think it's important

[29:08] That people just because somebody applies doesn't mean they're they're on a bus in a week.

[29:13] Yeah, you see the you see the dates. These are virtual dates. I learned today that the 28th through 30th

[29:19] date is closed.

[29:22] So we as a county get 10 people per virtual class. Be nice if we could get 10 people

[29:28] in that virtual class. But if we don't fill it up, they allow other people to fill it up. But I doubt

[29:33] any of them are getting forward. They must be doing something for people from the western part of

[29:38] state because that one is full, but it's every two weeks and then after they pass the test on the

[29:45] fourth day which typically they do but if they don't they have to take it again. We're looking at 14

[29:51] days minimum having the license before they can go on the road. Then they go on the road for three days

[29:57] and take a test and then they go through

[30:00] We're going to do the physical process and the licensing process at DMV, but it very rarely do you get the DOT person back here within that 14 days. It's usually 14, 21, 28, depending on his workload and other counties. Okay. And that what happens in that meantime, when they're waiting to get the bus. We lose people. Yeah, of course. They moved on. They need a job. Yeah. Yeah. We lose people. I can go get my CD.

[30:29] I can go pay for my CDO and I can go drive a dump truck or drive a garbage truck and make

[30:34] good money.

[30:35] All right, and the other thing is, and I always hate this when I say back when I was in

[30:42] school.

[30:43] But when I was in, I remember high school and college students were driving the buses.

[30:52] Is there a way we can connect with MACU or ECSU and COA and the students get extra credits

[31:02] if they drive a route?

[31:05] I know Ms. Dowdy's looking into some of those things and we're looking into coordinating

[31:10] with other places but that wasn't something that I thought about.

[31:14] I do know that we can't use high school students anymore, those days are gone.

[31:17] Even if they're dual enrolled.

[31:20] I believe they have to be 18 or older and out of school.

[31:25] Well, for instance, my daughter's 20, she is an online UNC Charlotte student, and it might

[31:33] be a target market audience to say, hey, come drive around, you're, you know, I don't

[31:39] know.

[31:40] Yeah.

[31:41] Okay.

[31:42] We're taking all brain strength to piggyback on that.

[31:45] So the state has a monopoly on how to certify.

[31:50] We would love to partner with COA.

[31:52] Mistality went down that route and we are not allowed.

[31:56] Only the state through the system were around with 13 other counties, they are in complete control.

[32:05] I have a question.

[32:07] So if they do already have their CDL, do they have to go through this whole process still?

[32:13] Yes.

[32:14] Okay.

[32:14] If they have a CDL without the PNS endorsements, they definitely have to go through the three day and the 14 day waiting period, but we're still fighting why if they come to us from this state or another state with a PNS endorsement, they're legal on the road according to the state patrol or the share department, but they're being told they have to go through at least a two day fast track program to recertify even though their license carries the

[32:44] was the class V with a PNS endorsement, which is what happened with our charter man.

[32:49] The man that left for a charter bus, he came here with PNS.

[32:52] We thought we could throw him on a bus and the DOT testing agent said, no, we have to

[32:56] send him through a class.

[32:58] And then we talked him down to okay, Kim, we do like a two day fast track, just visit, see

[33:05] how he does put him on a bus.

[33:07] And he finally agreed to that, but still, if he, if he has a PNS, why do we have to go

[33:12] through that?

[33:13] Yeah, especially if they have it in North Carolina and they've already been through the training

[33:19] So those those are the questions we have right now

[33:23] Melissa Jason

[33:24] Melissa, do you have anything? Yeah, I just had a quick question

[33:28] It was it was new to me. So we'll run in double routes at one school. Was that correct? Yes, okay, I was

[33:37] Being ignorant here

[33:38] I was assuming that they were leaving from they did an elementary school route then they could do a middle school route

[33:44] Sometimes I'm doing that's where it used to be sometimes they have to go but now they run a double routes for one particular school

[33:51] Yeah, yeah, we we've cleared up the one route temporarily at middle school that was

[33:56] Bus going out dropping off a load of students coming back by picking them up because we were so short-handed

[34:02] That's been temporary temporarily fixed by volunteers at hell hell

[34:07] But we, some, I mean, there are days when the bus is so full, we have to let one group

[34:12] or one neighborhood or one region sit at the school with a chaperone for a while and we

[34:17] come back and get them to go back out.

[34:19] Okay.

[34:20] Thank you.

[34:21] Appreciate it, Matt.

[34:22] Melissa, do you have anything?

[34:30] So we're missing a, do I remember correctly, Matt, when we had the transportation study done

[34:37] by North Carolina State, they actually recommended us having far more buses.

[34:41] But that's we don't have that big of a fleet correct. Well, we have we have 40 we have 43 plus how many spares maybe six or seven, but the spares can't be utilized. Yeah, but yeah, they told us if we did certain things.

[34:56] We might need 70 buses and we almost right. So I think that's important for the public to understand when we did the transportation study.

[35:04] the North Carolina state said yeah 60 or 70 buses would be great. One we

[35:10] don't have the drivers for 60 or 70 to we don't have the funding. Yes right.

[35:15] How much is a school bus? They are up to 150 now. 150,000. So when I started

[35:21] here 10 years ago, they were about 105. They're over 150 now. Yeah. So we have

[35:26] the challenges of the geography of our district. Yes. Of how big it is. And the

[35:31] drivers and the drivers and the drivers is a nationwide problem. The other

[35:36] places may not have the funding and they may have buses sitting in a park in

[35:39] lot a lot more than we have but they well I can say this I know it's

[35:44] unpopular that I teach in Virginia. Yeah but I had students coming in an hour

[35:48] late today. Oh yeah. And we have our cafeteria full every afternoon. Students go

[35:53] to the cafeteria for the for the four to five buses that are late and they

[35:58] they sit in the cafeteria until they're picked out.

[36:01] There's a message.

[36:02] So even in a place that's really well funded,

[36:06] that has enough buses, there's not enough drivers.

[36:09] I was sharing with Dr. Lutz that Oneslow County school board

[36:14] was dealing with this very issue within the last two weeks,

[36:17] trying to do an increase in pay.

[36:20] I mentioned that to Matt.

[36:21] Could he run some numbers?

[36:23] Would we be able to do a pay increase?

[36:24] That's what Oneslow was doing.

[36:26] Um, they're missing. They have hundreds of routes not covered. Yeah. So unfortunately, I hate it for parents. I can tell you, um, I hate it as a parent. I mean, my child's pickup is going to be 45 minutes to an hour. Yeah.

[36:43] And I get it when I'm sitting at work. Yeah. And I'm praying to God that the 15 year old does the right thing and goes to the bus stop 45 minutes late. So it's impacting all of us.

[36:52] Well, when we do our transportation count every year for DPI we've since I've been here

[36:58] We've been anywhere from 2,200 to 2,700 students. We're trying to transport

[37:02] We don't have the drivers to transport those so if we ever had to transport all of us

[37:09] As we've been more in the afternoon. Yeah, more in the afternoon than in the morning. I love over 3,000 in the afternoon

[37:14] 3,000 students like last time I ran numbers it was like 2,700 in the morning and about 3,000

[37:21] on the low over 3,000 in the afternoon on 35 buses.

[37:25] On 35 buses, yes, and I think also the important information

[37:30] of 211 people missing a deadline.

[37:33] Yes, so you tried to plan for the correct amount of students

[37:36] and then 211 people decide not to meet a deadline.

[37:39] Yes.

[37:40] And so now we're dealing with that.

[37:42] Again, we're not making excuses, we're saying reasons.

[37:45] This is these are the facts.

[37:47] These are the reasons and so we need to come together.

[37:50] Ms. Boyer, I would love us to put something out.

[37:54] I'm sure the state legislators will love me.

[37:56] We need to put something out with our representatives,

[38:01] Goodwin and Senator Tillett, emails and phone numbers.

[38:05] So our parents can call and make a complaint to the state about the licensing process.

[38:11] Because we have parents that are upset, I need to make a complaint to the state.

[38:15] Because this is a state problem that's tying your hands.

[38:18] Yes, I mean, we have two waiting, but it's they're not even going to be available to almost Thanksgiving probably

[38:24] And we'll have found another job so I would love us to come up with some kind of brochure

[38:31] So that parents know who they need to complain to I'm going to write a complaint as a parent because it's impacting me as well

[38:38] The only other thing that I think we're going to need to look at and I know it's not popular is

[38:45] alternating start and in times of schools

[38:47] and I know that's not popular but children have to get to school and they can't

[38:51] miss an hour of instruction every day. They can't sit outside until five o'clock.

[38:57] And it might not fix anything but I do think it's my opinion is it's worth

[39:02] looking at. If we alternated times that that's not going to make a lot of

[39:07] parents happy if kids go to school at seven in the morning till two. If somebody

[39:11] starts at nine until four but I don't I think we're at a loss. I think we should

[39:16] We've probably put everything on the table and see what sticks.

[39:20] Yeah, we've been getting steadily worse since COVID people don't want to drive buses anymore.

[39:27] It's a difficult job.

[39:28] Yeah, it is.

[39:29] It is.

[39:29] It's a difficult job.

[39:30] Yeah.

[39:31] So thank you.

[39:32] Thank you for taking the time.

[39:34] I'm sorry.

[39:34] Go ahead.

[39:35] Um, what about outsourcing transportation?

[39:39] Is that even something worth looking into or is that they would have the same issues we

[39:43] have?

[39:44] Okay.

[39:44] I mean, you're saying Chesapeake, unfortunately, Chesapeake pays more than we do and they still have the same problems.

[39:52] People with the most of the people that we've had that have resigned recently, it's just been, I'm burned out.

[39:58] I'm ready for a change and one even told me yesterday I'm putting in my two week notice, but it's not about the money.

[40:05] It's about I'm tired.

[40:07] So it's unfortunate.

[40:14] I just think we're going to have to look at all possibilities because you're trying

[40:18] to run these runs and there's not enough time in between school times.

[40:22] Unfortunately Kelly gets a radio turns on at five o'clock in the morning and she doesn't

[40:26] use to get out of here until five thirty six o'clock at night.

[40:29] Thank you for all you're doing.

[40:31] We appreciate it.

[40:32] Thank you all.

[40:33] has one quick question yeah go ahead has has the bus stops has that helped at all you know

[40:39] we we stopped on the door door it's fed up the routes yeah especially in high density areas

[40:45] like water li and things like that because that's where I drove and it took me like 25 30 minutes to

[40:50] finish my route yeah yeah we were evil creek for many years we were stopping every two tenths of a

[40:56] mile okay door to door stops yeah the children can walk it's all right all right thank you man thank you

[41:03] Thank you so much.

[41:06] All right, at this time Ms. Mazzell has some information for us on finance.

[41:24] Good evening Chairman Parker, fellow board members and Dr. Loots.

[41:28] This evening I'm bringing the 2627 budget resolution for your approval.

[41:33] In your package, you received the budget resolution and the line item budget.

[41:37] Over the next few slides, I'm going to walk through a few different ways to look at this information to give you a clearer visual perspective of our numbers.

[41:44] numbers.

[41:49] Our proposed budget across all six operating funds totals $86,139,605. These

[41:57] six distinct funds include the State Public School Fund, the local current expense fund,

[42:03] federal grants fund, capital outlay fund, school nutrition fund, and other local funds.

[42:12] Looking at the State Public School Fund, our total budget is approximately $38.8 million.

[42:17] While we are receiving an allotment increase for a new school building administrator at

[42:22] Tuls Creek and mandated state level raises, benefit increases, and bonuses, we are also

[42:28] absorbing several state budget losses.

[42:31] These include reductions in classroom teacher positions, central office funding, teacher

[42:36] assistance, non-instructional support, textbooks, and classroom materials.

[42:42] These reductions were due to a decrease in our average daily membership from the 25-26 school year.

[42:51] Our local current expense fund totals approximately 18.2 million, which includes 17.6 million from the county appropriation,

[43:00] 375,000 also from the county for charter school payments, and 250,000 from fines and forfeitures.

[43:08] In the past, the charter schools were included in the accounting appropriation number.

[43:12] DPI has requested that we separate that out to get a more accurate per pupil expenditure

[43:18] number. The reality of our operating budget is 17.8 million, S-375,000 must be paid directly

[43:26] out to charter schools.

[43:30] Turning to our special funds, federal funds total approximately 1.9 million,

[43:36] we face the post-COVID decline as Esther Pandemic relief dollars have expired.

[43:42] Additionally, Currytuck sits in the bottom tier of North Carolina districts for federal grant

[43:46] allocations.

[43:47] What that means is we qualify for less than other districts, or sometimes not at all.

[43:53] These federal grants also do not account for state mandated wage or benefit increases.

[43:58] As those amounts increase and our allotments stay flat, we're able to do less with those

[44:03] funds.

[44:04] School nutrition totals approximately 2.3 million.

[44:07] If you remember during the last fiscal audit, the auditor spoke to you regarding the state

[44:13] of school nutrition.

[44:15] Federal and state reimbursement rates have not kept pace with food and labor inflation.

[44:20] As a result, this enterprise fund will likely require local financial support before the

[44:25] year ends.

[44:30] Our total capital outlay budget is approximately 23.3 million.

[44:34] Keyed components include 16.2 million for the final bills for Tuls Creek Elementary School,

[44:40] 4.7 million for capital improvement projects, 1.5 million from the county appropriation,

[44:48] $517,921 from the state lottery fund, $189,148 from appropriated fund balance,

[44:58] and 167.

[45:00] $7,590 for yellow bus installments. Please note that actual cash expenditures for this fund are 1.5 million from the county appropriation and the 189,000 from fund ballots. As most capital funds flow directly through the county and the yellow bus installments flow through DPI. You'll notice fund ballots appropriated directly on the budget resolution for the first time this year. In the past, we handled these as carryover projects.

[45:29] V&M budget amendments, but shifting them to the upfront resolution makes our financial

[45:34] planning clearer and more transparent.

[45:42] This slide outlines our other local funds, which total approximately 1.5 million across

[45:47] three main categories.

[45:49] The majority of this allocation is 1.4 million dedicated to instructional services covering

[45:56] programs such as Medicaid, which directly supports our EC department, Pre-K and JROTC.

[46:05] $114,298 goes towards system-wide support, including things like finance, record scanning,

[46:11] and facility rentals.

[46:13] $2,248 is designated for ancillary services to cover school nutrition debt.

[46:20] This is where we collect student debt from prior years, that's why it's a small number

[46:24] at the moment because we're just starting to collect on prior last year's debt.

[46:28] But

[46:32] again, note that, oops, sorry, let me go back, got ahead of myself.

[46:38] Again, note that 1.5 million of this total fund is directly via other, is funded directly

[46:43] via other local fund balance appropriated, making up the vast majority of the 1.6 million

[46:48] dollar allocation.

[46:50] Over half of the amount is from the Medicaid programs that directly support our exceptional

[46:54] children department.

[46:58] Our proposed investments are concentrated where they matter most.

[47:01] $44.9 million dedicated to instructional priorities, $37.9 million for system-wise support,

[47:09] remembering that $16 million of that is dedicated for Tolls Creek, $2.3 million for feeding

[47:15] our students, and $791,000 in non-programmed charges for things like charter school payments,

[47:22] indirect cost, and un-budgeted funds to cover payroll for the next fiscal year.

[47:27] Federal funds don't drop until October or November each year if we don't carry over funds

[47:33] in those programs and we don't have money for payroll for our people.

[47:39] I wanted to pull these numbers off the spreadsheet and put them into a graph to give us a better

[47:44] sense of scale.

[47:46] Looking at the chart on the left, it seems like over a quarter of our budget goes to capital

[47:51] projects.

[47:52] But that figure is heavily inflated by the 16.2 million left for Tuls Creek.

[47:56] When we strip out that single construction project in the right hand graph, our ongoing

[48:02] operational picture becomes clearer.

[48:05] Capital spending drops from 27% down to a realistic 10%.

[48:10] Without that construction project skewing the chart, you can see that state actually carries

[48:15] 56% of our day-to-day operations, while local current expense accounts for 25%.

[48:22] The graph on the right represents what our district's recurring financial commitments

[48:27] actually look like year to year once the bills for tolls creak are fully accounted for.

[48:35] We continue to face significant fiscal pressures from unfunded and underfunded mandates.

[48:42] These occur when state legislation requires specific services or staffing ratios without providing

[48:48] adequate state dollars to cover the costs.

[48:50] Some of our local major cost drivers include mandated employee bonuses,

[48:56] master's level pay for nurse salaries, school nutrition financial aid,

[49:01] exceptional children services, and local transportation costs.

[49:08] To conclude, this final slide details the breakdown of instructional services,

[49:13] system-wide support, and ciliary services, which is our school nutrition department,

[49:18] and non-programmed services across each fund.

[49:20] These are the levels at which the board approves our budget.

[49:24] These are the same numbers that you saw on the budget resolution just laid out a little

[49:29] pretty here.

[49:30] We are formally requesting board approval for the fiscal year 2627 total appropriations

[49:35] of $86 million, $139,605.

[49:41] Thank you, and I'm happy to take any questions that you have.

[49:45] Does anyone have any questions?

[49:47] I appreciate you taking the time to line item. Everything. It really does help. Okay. But I do have a question.

[50:01] Because there's a lot of lines. Yes.

[50:06] Is it broken down by school? I'm not sure because I I mean there's probably six lines.

[50:13] maybe more that just say teacher salary.

[50:16] So the way it's broken down is to match up

[50:19] with the budget resolution.

[50:21] So all the 5,000s are together,

[50:23] which is the instructional services,

[50:24] all the 6,000s.

[50:26] So it's pulling from different programs to all lump in.

[50:30] So yeah, it doesn't,

[50:32] it's not gonna lump all your teachers right together

[50:34] because they're paid out of different funds

[50:37] and sometimes a different program.

[50:39] Okay.

[50:39] So it's just showing what pots they're coming out of.

[50:42] If it's a CTE pot or if it's a pot from a state.

[50:46] It's showing it based on whether it's instructional services or whether it's system-wide support.

[50:51] The actual PRC is the program, which would be CTE, but that's not how our budget is laid out.

[51:01] Thank you very much.

[51:03] I appreciate it.

[51:03] Also, the state lottery number was the 500,000, 517, I think it was.

[51:09] Because I think it's important that people understand that that's not extra money that we just get from the education lottery, that the state is saying we're going to give you say $100,000 but the lottery comes in and goes but we have $500,000 so they're going to reduce the state by $500,000 and we're still getting the $100,000.

[51:28] It's not an extra money, correct?

[51:30] So for construction projects, it would be the initially the state lottery project was supposed to help fund operational costs as well and it was supposed to help teacher costs.

[51:42] We don't get anything for teachers, we get a little bit for instruction non instructional support which is basically substitutes office staff, but they don't give us extra.

[51:54] They take money out and allocate it somewhere else and backfill it with.

[51:58] Yes, so we're getting the same that we were originally getting yeah, they're just the state is reducing how much they're giving us because the lottery is coming in to make up that gap yes, yeah, I think that's called a bait and switch. I think that's what it's called that's what that is and I don't think I don't think many people understand that that it was a political game to say the lottery funds are going to schools there are lottery funds and then they found ways to take money away from schools. Yes, it's very similar to we're sitting cutting the state income tax

[52:27] I'm going to give that expense to the local government to take care of.

[52:32] You're not saving money, but it looks good on one end.

[52:36] But then the local is left to pay for it.

[52:40] How badly is the diesel price increase going to affect our budget?

[52:47] Mr. Mullins, are you able to answer that?

[52:50] I was just talking to a trucking contractor today

[52:54] And he runs seven big, seven rigs, $15,000 a week.

[53:00] So it's going to, it's going to hit our transportation state funds very hard.

[53:08] Sometimes they give us some extra funding when the prices get bad,

[53:12] but it's never a guarantee that they have it in their kitty to give to us.

[53:19] Mr. Banks.

[53:21] Just thank you for your work you do.

[53:23] You probably don't need to answer this question. Maybe you do. The percentage that the state fund has and our local fund, do you know how we look compared to other districts as far as how much percentage-wise say Camden County's providing versus state?

[53:39] I do not. I would have to go look up those numbers. Would you like me to do that?

[53:43] No, I can look. I can look at those. Are you interested? Are you interested based on our region?

[53:51] or?

[53:52] Yeah, I would say at least our surrounding areas.

[53:54] Okay.

[53:55] I'd like to see there how much their state is paying locally to see how we compare to other

[54:02] It would probably be a good idea to kick federal in there too, because some of them get

[54:06] a whole lot more federal dollars than we get here kind of.

[54:10] So we, I mean the local purple expenditure is the big one that we could just compare apples

[54:15] to apples.

[54:15] We know that day or nearly doubles ours.

[54:17] But the federal funds is where the pinch really is.

[54:21] We don't get a lot of fed money.

[54:24] Do you got anything else Jason, that's a great question.

[54:27] The only thing that I like to add about the lottery is not the North Carolina Educational

[54:31] Lottery.

[54:31] That was a lie to the public.

[54:34] The education system gets less than what we're at 15%, 15% of the lottery funds actually

[54:41] go to education.

[54:43] The rest of it, I don't know, how far are state arbiters on it?

[54:47] so he is. Yeah, he is on it. So we'll see where he is brutal. I'm kind of glad he is, but

[54:55] that when you only got 15% of that going to education and they're still calling it North

[55:00] County Educational Lottery. That's just a that's just a that's just a lie to the people. So that's it.

[55:07] Again, thank you. This was incredible. Thank you for that work. So if you get us local poor people

[55:13] Federal expenditure, some state funds, and then I think the big kicker for the public is the federal money.

[55:22] That's why we're so dependent on a local dollar because we don't get the federal dollar that other places get.

[55:29] A continued shout out to Miss Miller who is doing continued work to get Medicaid dollars.

[55:35] I don't know how to stress that to the public.

[55:37] Like as a special ed director, there are many directors who do not do Medicaid billable service because of how time consuming that is and they're make it incredibly difficult to do right now.

[55:49] She does that to get us every Medicaid dollar we can possibly get because she knows how tight our special ed budget is.

[55:57] So thank you Miss Miller for going above and beyond.

[56:00] Thank you, this was great.

[56:01] So yes, would you elaborate when you just said is there making it difficult?

[56:07] I'd like you to tell the board what's going on in Medicaid.

[56:10] Oh, I might have to get Miss Miller to come up here and help with some of that, but they've just.

[56:15] You don't have to do that, but it's, they've made it, the government, federal government has made it very

[56:23] cumbersome. They're putting in, we're doing the work and we're getting rejected or constantly.

[56:28] it's just spitting back out and Miss Miller has stretched the dollars so far and that's how we've

[56:34] been able to have great services for our kids. And once again, it's a program issue. We didn't

[56:40] change what we did. We're still falling the rules and yet we're not being able to tap into the

[56:45] dollars. So we're working through it, but it's very frustrating, very much on our radar.

[56:49] So, I know we always talk about reaching out to our state legislatures, legislators.

[56:57] Maybe we can reach out to the federal representatives first, yeah, to talk about some of these issues.

[57:09] That's great.

[57:10] Well, with all that wonderful news, we need a motion to adopt our budget.

[57:17] Second.

[57:18] Second.

[57:19] All in favor.

[57:20] Thank you.

[57:21] We are going to go on to good news.

[57:24] Accountability results.

[57:26] Thank you, Ms. Christie Hodges,

[57:28] the Director of Curriculum and Instruction,

[57:30] has a presentation for us tonight.

[57:47] Good evening, board chair, Ms. Parker,

[57:49] board members and Dr. Leitz.

[57:51] It's that time of the year when I get to stand

[57:53] before you to share a testing and accountability results.

[57:57] It's my goal this evening to use the data

[58:00] to tell us three things.

[58:02] Where our students are.

[58:04] where we're making progress and where the data is telling us that we still have work to do.

[58:13] Over the course of the next several slides, I will outline key components of testing and

[58:17] accountability language that frames the state's expectations for districts.

[58:24] This chart provides

[58:25] an overview by grade level of North Carolina's state mandated assessments for grades 3 through 12

[58:32] of an English language arts, math, science, and other

[58:36] for elementary, middle, and high school students.

[58:39] It's important to note that all assessments here

[58:42] play a role in the state's accountability model.

[58:45] You'll note this chart speaks to both achievement score

[58:48] indicators, which represent 80% of the schools

[58:51] overall score and school growth score indicators

[58:55] representing 20%.

[58:58] This formula is used to determine overall student

[59:01] and proficiency, student growth, school grades,

[59:05] and whether or not schools exceeded growth,

[59:08] met growth, or did not exceed growth, or did not meet growth.

[59:15] North Carolina student performance on assessments

[59:17] in grades three through eight reading, math, science,

[59:21] high school biology, English two, math one, and math three

[59:25] are measured and reported as four academic achievement levels.

[59:29] Not proficient identify students who demonstrate inconsistent understanding of grade level standards.

[59:37] Level 3 students are considered proficient at grade level, which you'll see noted with the acronym GLP for grade level proficiency.

[59:47] At this achievement level, students have demonstrated sufficient understanding of grade level knowledge and skills.

[59:53] Level 4 students demonstrate a thorough understanding of the content.

[59:58] As soon as at this level,

[1:00:00] Local are identified as Career and College Readiness, noted with the acronym CCR. And Level 5 students

[1:00:08] demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of the content. This level also indicates Career

[1:00:14] and College Readiness, and also noted with the acronym CCR.

[1:00:20] In addition to the achievement

[1:00:22] levels, the state also holds districts accountable in the areas of academic growth, subgroups,

[1:00:28] and participation.

[1:00:30] Academic growth reflects the progress students make in a year, in a school,

[1:00:35] over the course of a year,

[1:00:37] with a standard set at what roughly one year's expected growth for one year of instruction.

[1:00:44] In North Carolina, growth is measured using EVAS,

[1:00:48] a statistical tool that analyses results from common assessment.

[1:00:54] Each school receives one of three ratings,

[1:00:56] Exceeded growth expectations, met growth expectations, or did not meet growth expectations.

[1:01:04] Subgroup performance, such as military-connected students, English learners, homeless students,

[1:01:13] with disabilities, and all students, is reported when there are at least 30 students scores within

[1:01:19] a particular group for one or more parts of the accountability model. In regards to participation

[1:01:25] and testing, schools are required to test at least 95% of eligible students to ensure

[1:01:32] all students are included in accountability measures.

[1:01:35] This requirement applies to groups of 30 or more students.

[1:01:41] Since 2013-2014, North Carolina has assigned letter grades, A through F to public schools.

[1:01:50] These grades are based on that 80-20 model where student achievement represents 80% of the

[1:01:56] overall score and academic growth is represented by 20%.

[1:02:00] The combined score is placed on a 100-point scale and converted to the scale you see here

[1:02:06] to determine each school's final performance grade.

[1:02:12] So with that background information in place, let's take a look at what the accountability

[1:02:16] results are telling us about Currytook County Schools.

[1:02:22] This is our district level snapshot and I want to begin with the overall picture.

[1:02:28] We have one school with an A, two schools with B's and seven schools with C's.

[1:02:35] We do not have any schools performing at the D or F range.

[1:02:40] But I don't want us to stop here because the letter grades don't tell us everything we need to know.

[1:02:46] The second part of this slide is equally important, the growth status.

[1:02:51] JP NAP Early College exceeded growth expectations while central elementary,

[1:02:57] non-silent elementary, Moyac Elementary, and Moyac Middle School Met Growth.

[1:03:03] Five of our schools based on the state's accountability model did not meet growth.

[1:03:09] Courier to county high school, Courier to county middle school,

[1:03:13] Jarvisburg Elementary, Sherbro Elementary, and WT Griggs Elementary.

[1:03:19] and this is where I want to pause because I think it's an important part of the story and it's not necessarily the most comfortable part of the story.

[1:03:28] Five of our 10 schools met or exceeded growth this year and that means that half of our schools did not meet their expected growth.

[1:03:37] And that is something that we need to acknowledge and I'm not going to explain that away and I don't think we should but at the same time,

[1:03:44] There is something interesting happening in these results.

[1:03:48] Several schools that increased their proficiency scores also saw their growth index decline

[1:03:55] under the state's current testing model.

[1:03:59] So we're seeing situations where students are performing at higher levels of proficiency,

[1:04:05] but the growth calculation isn't reflecting that progress in the way that we might expect.

[1:04:11] And that doesn't mean that growth isn't important.

[1:04:13] It absolutely is, it just means that we need to understand what each measure is actually

[1:04:19] telling us before we draw conclusions about whether a school is improving.

[1:04:27] Without accountability context established, I want to spend the remainder of our time looking

[1:04:31] more closely at student performance, particularly proficiency over time.

[1:04:37] And I think this is where we began to see a much more complete picture of the work happening

[1:04:41] across our district.

[1:04:44] I'm going to start with one of our most important outcomes, whether students are graduating from high school.

[1:04:52] This year, our four-year cohort graduation rate is reported as greater than 95%.

[1:04:58] That's an increase from 93.5% last year.

[1:05:03] And over the past five years, we've increased our graduation rate by nearly five percentage points.

[1:05:08] I think it's worth noting because graduation isn't the result of something that

[1:05:14] happens in a student's senior year. It reflects years of work keeping students

[1:05:19] on track to earn a diploma.

[1:05:24] Courier Tech County Schools ranks in the top in the

[1:05:27] state in our four-year cohort graduation rate percent. What I appreciate about

[1:05:32] this data is that it again isn't a one-year story. We're seeing a sustained

[1:05:37] The main graduation rate above 90% with the most recent cohort exceeding 95%.

[1:05:45] Courier Tech County High School increased from 92.8 to 93.8% this year, and over the last five years has increased 6 percentage points.

[1:05:56] JP NAP has returned to and maintained a graduation rate above 95% over the last two years.

[1:06:04] We continue to be very proud of this achievement.

[1:06:09] The next several slides I will speak to our year over year data.

[1:06:14] This is where I want to spend some time because I think this five-year trend tells us

[1:06:19] much more than a single year's score.

[1:06:24] Across all subjects, our grade level proficiency has increased from 55.2 percent five years

[1:06:32] ago to 65.7 percent this year. That's a 10.5 percentage point increase over 5 years.

[1:06:41] And I think it's important to put that number in perspective. When we're talking about

[1:06:45] district level results, moving a percentage like this represents a substantial number

[1:06:51] of additional students reaching proficiency. So it's not a small shift in the data.

[1:06:58] And perhaps more importantly, this isn't being driven by one particular grade.

[1:07:03] Eight of our nine cohorts have increased their proficiency score since 2021-2022.

[1:07:10] So when I look at this slide, the story I see is not simply that we had a good year.

[1:07:15] The story is sustained improvement.

[1:07:20] Across grades 3 through 8, reading proficiency went from 49.6% to 59.4% over 5 years, a 9.8

[1:07:30] proficiency point increase. But again, I don't want to simply look at the overall number.

[1:07:35] The grade level trend tells us something important. Grade 3 has increased more than 15 percentage points over 5 years.

[1:07:44] Grade 5 is up nearly 14 percentage points and grade 6 is up more than 12 percentage points.

[1:07:50] And we're seeing gains across every grade over that five-year period.

[1:07:54] We do have some year-to-year fluctuation, grade 4 and grade 7, for example, decline this

[1:08:02] year.

[1:08:03] But when you look step back and look at the five years rather than one year, the direction

[1:08:07] is positive.

[1:08:08] And we see an even more significant increase when we look specifically at English 2.

[1:08:15] Five years ago, 55.2% of our students demonstrated grade level proficiency.

[1:08:21] And this year that number is 74.2%, a 19 percentage point increase.

[1:08:30] Across grades 3 through a math proficiency has increased from 56% five years ago to 64.6%

[1:08:38] this year.

[1:08:39] And that's an 8.6 percentage point increase.

[1:08:43] So the long-term trend is positive.

[1:08:46] Grade 3 math went from 61.9% to 77.1%, over the 5-year period, jumping 15.2 percentage

[1:08:56] points.

[1:08:57] And 8th grade math saw a 25.3 percentage point jump in proficiency from 21.22.

[1:09:07] There are some grade level results that require our attention.

[1:09:11] Begin grade seven is the clearest example.

[1:09:15] Its proficiency rate has declined over the five-year period,

[1:09:18] and this year's result is 51.5 percent proficient.

[1:09:24] At the high school level, the math story is particularly encouraging.

[1:09:29] Math 1 proficiency has increased more than 16 percentage points over five years,

[1:09:34] from 37.3% to 53.4% and math 3, it's increased from 61.1% to 87.5% again of

[1:09:46] more than 26 percentage points. So while we have some areas of math that required

[1:09:52] attention, we also have evidence of significant improvement in our high school

[1:09:56] mouth outcomes. In our previous slides, we were focused on grade level proficiency,

[1:10:04] students who scored a level three. I want to spend these next few slides and take

[1:10:09] you one step further and look at our career and college readiness. These are

[1:10:15] students performing at levels four and five and so we're no longer asking our

[1:10:20] students meeting grade level expectations. We're asking how many students are

[1:10:24] demonstrating the deeper level of performance associated with career and college readiness.

[1:10:31] Across all subjects, that number has increased from 36% to 42.1% over five years,

[1:10:40] a 6.1 increase. This is exciting. We want more students to demonstrate the depth of knowledge

[1:10:47] and skills represented by these higher achievement levels.

[1:10:51] Reading shows a similar long-term trend, although the gains are more modest than what

[1:10:56] we saw with the grade level proficiency scores.

[1:10:59] Grades 3 through 8 have moved from 29.4% to 34.8% over 5 years, a 5.4% percentage point

[1:11:08] in grace.

[1:11:10] And again, the grade level data is important.

[1:11:13] Grade 3 has increased nearly 6 percentage points, grade 5 more than 10 percentage points,

[1:11:18] and grade 8 nearly 7 percentage points over five years.

[1:11:22] We also have some year-to-year declines.

[1:11:25] Grade four, for example, is down this year.

[1:11:27] And this is an area where we want to continue moving students

[1:11:30] beyond basic proficiency and toward deeper performance.

[1:11:36] This is another result that I think deserves our attention.

[1:11:39] English, too.

[1:11:41] Career and college ready has increased from 33.9%

[1:11:44] five years ago to 49% this year, a 15.1% increase.

[1:11:52] So nearly half of our English two students are now performing at levels four and five.

[1:11:58] When you put this alongside the 19 percentage point increase, we saw an English two,

[1:12:03] grade level proficiency. We're now seeing improvement not only in the number of students

[1:12:08] reaching proficiency, but also in the number reaching the higher performance levels.

[1:12:15] Math career in college ready has increased from 35.9% to 42.8% across grades 3 through 8 over 5 years, a 6.9 percentage point increase.

[1:12:28] Just as we saw with grade level proficiency, the grade level results aren't uniform. Grade 8 has increased more than 23 percentage points over 5 years, while grade 7 has declined 6.6 percentage points.

[1:12:42] So we're seeing some very strong growth in higher-level math performance in certain grades

[1:12:46] while other grades clearly need additional attention.

[1:12:51] And the high school math career and college ready results reinforce what we saw in proficiency.

[1:12:57] Math 3 career and college ready has increased from 36.4% to 63.3% over five years, again

[1:13:05] of nearly 27 percentage points.

[1:13:08] That's significant.

[1:13:10] So when we talk about improvement, we're not simply talking about more students crossing the proficiency threshold.

[1:13:17] In this case, we're seeing a substantial increase in students demonstrating the higher level of performance as well.

[1:13:26] The district level trends give us a picture of the progress our students have made.

[1:13:31] What I'd like to do is spend the next few slides to help us understand that performance in a larger context

[1:13:39] by looking at where we stand among districts across our state.

[1:13:46] When we compare our grade level proficiency results

[1:13:49] with the other 114 districts in North Carolina,

[1:13:53] we see that our students are performing

[1:13:55] at a high level relative to the state.

[1:13:58] Two of our nine cohorts, grade three and grade eight,

[1:14:02] rank in the top 10 statewide,

[1:14:04] and six of nine cohorts rank in the top 15.

[1:14:09] What's particularly encouraging

[1:14:11] is that our statewide standing isn't limited to students meeting grade level expectations.

[1:14:16] We're also seeing a strong positioning when we look at the percentage of students performing

[1:14:21] at the higher levels, three of four and five.

[1:14:25] Grade eight is our strongest example, ranking fourth in the state in career and college ready performance.

[1:14:33] Grade three ranks 13th and our grade nine 12 cohort ranks 12th.

[1:14:39] And when we step back from the individual rankings, the broader picture is also encouraging.

[1:14:45] Seven of our nine cohorts are in the top 25 statewide for career and college ready performance.

[1:14:53] We've looked at how our students are performing compared to the state.

[1:14:58] Now I want to take one step...

[1:15:00] Closer and look at how Curry Tech compares to other districts in our region. This gives us

[1:15:06] another lens for understanding our performance relative to other district serving students

[1:15:11] in our region.

[1:15:14] Across the northeast region, Curry Tech ranks second out of 19 districts

[1:15:19] and overall all subject grade level proficiency performance. Our proficiency rate is 65.7%.

[1:15:28] When we narrow the comparison to grades 3 through 8, we remain second in the region

[1:15:33] and grade level proficiency as 64.4 percent proficient.

[1:15:40] Grade 3 ranks third regionally as 69.9 percent proficiency.

[1:15:46] This is particularly encouraging when we connect it back to the five-year trend that we saw

[1:15:50] earlier.

[1:15:52] Grade 3 reading and math have both made substantial gains over that period.

[1:15:58] Grade 4 ranks 4th regionally at 60.9%, and this is also a good example of why we need

[1:16:06] to look at more than one data point.

[1:16:09] Grade 4's current performance is strong relative to the region even though we've seen

[1:16:14] a year-to-year decline.

[1:16:17] Grade 5, which is represented by three state assessments.

[1:16:22] Readiness, reading, math, and science is our highest regional ranking.

[1:16:27] We are first out of 19 districts at 67.6 percent proficiency.

[1:16:34] What's interesting here is that this isn't simply a high-performing cohort.

[1:16:40] Grade 5 reading has increased more than 12 percentage points over five years, while math

[1:16:44] has increased more than eight points.

[1:16:48] Grade 6 ranks 3rd regionally at 61.7%, and this is another grade where we've seen meaningful

[1:16:55] five-year improvement in both reading and math. Grade 7 gives us an important counterpoint

[1:17:02] to some of the stronger rankings we've just seen. We rank 6th regionally at 53.3%, that's

[1:17:10] certainly respectable related relative to the region, but it's also one of the areas where

[1:17:15] a trend tells us we have work to do, particularly in that.

[1:17:20] Grade 8 is another particularly strong result, third in the region at 69.5%.

[1:17:26] And this aligns with what we saw earlier.

[1:17:30] Grade 8 has made one of our strongest five-year gains in mathematics and is among our strongest

[1:17:36] performing cohorts overall.

[1:17:39] And finally, when we look at grades 9 through 12,

[1:17:43] Currytook ranks 3rd regionally at 71% proficient.

[1:17:47] That brings us back to one of the strongest stories

[1:17:50] in this presentation.

[1:17:52] Our high school results are showing substantial improvement,

[1:17:55] particularly in English and Math 3.

[1:18:01] The results are clear.

[1:18:03] What we are doing is working.

[1:18:06] Over the past five years, our proficiency has continued to grow.

[1:18:10] So, our next step isn't to change course, is to stay the course.

[1:18:15] Continue providing high-quality learning resources, continue ensuring equitable access to

[1:18:21] those resources, continue ongoing training and support, and continue to make decisions

[1:18:28] that are right for children.

[1:18:30] Thank you, and I'm happy to answer questions.

[1:18:33] Emily, do you have anything?

[1:18:34] Yep. Thank you for that presentation. It was very thorough and informative. I'm just

[1:18:42] curious as it seems that the high school 9 through 12, the grades were really good.

[1:18:52] So why would, why did they not be growth if the grades are next?

[1:18:59] So that's a mystery and I wish I could answer that.

[1:19:04] Okay.

[1:19:05] I have a plaque in my office that says everything is figure outable except for this.

[1:19:11] So you'll probably be reading.

[1:19:15] There was WRL came out with an article this week on concerns around the accountability model and how all five

[1:19:24] of our schools that increased their proficiency levels did not meet growth and so I wish I could

[1:19:32] explain it to you, Miss Crottick. Unfortunately, I am unable to do that. Thank you. Sandy.

[1:19:41] Thank you. You're welcome.

[1:19:45] Melissa. I feel like most people who have worked in the school system

[1:19:50] know that the growth part is just this weird, tricky formula created by the state that makes no sense.

[1:19:59] It was something we struggled with at Weeksville that it was so frustrating because you worked so hard

[1:20:04] and I know how disheartening it is for the teachers especially.

[1:20:08] To have worked hard, seeing their student scores, be proficient, be hitting what they're supposed to be hitting

[1:20:14] and then still not meet growth.

[1:20:16] And so, I really want to say to all of our staff that we see you and we know that you're doing well.

[1:20:22] And please don't let some made up number by the state get you down.

[1:20:26] Because to me, it's like in whose line is it anyway.

[1:20:30] The numbers are made up and the points don't matter.

[1:20:33] That's kind of how growth feels, Mr. Bate.

[1:20:37] I don't have anything.

[1:20:38] Just thank you for all you're working to and trying to explain it the best way you can to.

[1:20:43] Okay, thank you.

[1:20:44] Thank you. This was a terrific presentation. And I thank you for highlighting the high school

[1:20:50] because they really were disappointed. They thought they were a B. As someone who

[1:20:55] pushed through the thousands of pages of data on the state site, I could not understand

[1:21:00] how a school that had 50% proficiency was a B in our region. And then we have 87% proficiency

[1:21:07] C and WRC. It's a little bit of word soup of what happens. We're going to look at achievement.

[1:21:14] Obviously, we understand why the state looks at growth. But for the public, what happens

[1:21:20] is when a school is at 10% and it grows to 50, well, they've grown 40 points. We're at 50

[1:21:26] and we grow to 87.5, which is to an 87.5% pass rate in math 3 is phenomenal.

[1:21:37] And for that

[1:21:37] I do think it's important to note that it's the best scores the high school has ever gotten.

[1:21:42] And we have a lot of wonderful things.

[1:21:45] Thank you for highlighting grade seven because something went on in grade seven.

[1:21:48] Then I'm sure y'all will be on because grade eight looks like rock stars and then grade seven.

[1:21:54] Although I teach grade seven, that's a tough lot of things could go on with grade seven on any given day.

[1:22:00] It's a whole other thing, but just thank you so much.

[1:22:03] I think the numbers are great.

[1:22:06] The graduation rate, again for parents in the community,

[1:22:09] when you see the five people that are number one in the state,

[1:22:12] the state doesn't distinguish above a 95% pass rate.

[1:22:16] So when you're above 95%, they consider you a rock star

[1:22:19] and you get the gold medal and they don't distinguish that.

[1:22:23] So for us to jump to that is incredible for us

[1:22:27] to be number one in our graduation rate.

[1:22:29] So thank you and your team for your work.

[1:22:32] Thank you. Thank you.

[1:22:33] All right, this time we have a motion to accept the consent agenda.

[1:22:39] Do we have a second?

[1:22:41] All in favor?

[1:22:43] All right.

[1:22:46] Informational items.

[1:22:47] The next Board of Education meeting is October 15th, 2026.

[1:22:52] We will have a 4 p.m. work session at the PLC, and then we always meet here at the historic

[1:22:59] current at courthouse if that is says six should that say six thirty six thirty please

[1:23:06] don't comment six we won't be here so six thirty one October 15th at this time we have

[1:23:12] board member and superintendent comments Emily thank you earlier this month I was able to attend

[1:23:21] with Dr. Loots the listening session at not silent elementary school for the tolling of

[1:23:28] of the Nuts Island Courier Tuck Ferry, there has been a survey out for that.

[1:23:34] I believe that survey has closed, but you can still contact your state legislatures as well as Congressman Don Davis's office.

[1:23:50] He did have a representative there, so this is something that does concern him as well.

[1:23:56] I just, it will affect county officials and student drivers.

[1:24:04] So please contact the representatives and say that you do not want the toll.

[1:24:14] Lastly, I would like to Dana shared some good data from the CTE department.

[1:24:21] So I just want to read on that for you.

[1:24:25] Career Technical Education CTE is the modern evolved term for the traditional vocational education updated to integrate rigorous core academics with hands on technical training for both college and career readiness.

[1:24:42] In the 2021 school year, 9% of our CTE students earned a credential.

[1:24:50] Last year, we had greater than 95% of our CTE students earning a credential.

[1:24:57] So that is a huge increase.

[1:25:00] So I want to thank the CTE Department and teachers for

[1:25:05] working with their students on that great achievement.

[1:25:10] This year, the CTE Department is also increasing offerings to include computer science, natural resources, and child development.

[1:25:20] Thank you.

[1:25:22] All right, Sandy.

[1:25:24] I am going to piggyback a little bit on what Emily was talking about with CTE.

[1:25:31] I'm not sure where the narrative came from.

[1:25:34] that our school system and our district puts a lot of more energy into college pathway than a career pathway that could not be farther from the truth.

[1:25:48] And I think it's important that we highlight what Mr. Edwards has done at the high school and ensuring that students who want to enlist or

[1:26:01] employee have a pathway. He has created the student pathways document and I'm going to post it on

[1:26:11] Facebook or social media where I'm going to post it everywhere because it's pretty amazing. It

[1:26:16] has a curriculum, the expectations, the student experience, community engagement, there are graduation

[1:26:22] requirements. It's literally if a student wants to go into interior design, here's the pathway.

[1:26:30] If a

[1:26:31] Entrepreneurship Marketing, here's the pathway, go in military, here's the pathway.

[1:26:36] I just think it's important that the public know that the CTE, that's what it is.

[1:26:41] It's career and technical education, and Emily provided a great definition for that.

[1:26:47] It's important that the public knows that our parents know, that the students know,

[1:26:52] that there are three pathways. Enroll, enlist, and employ.

[1:26:58] and for those that don't know, there is a signing at the end of the school year for students who choose to go into the military, for students who choose to go into their career, just like there's a signing when they sign for college, what college they're going to.

[1:27:14] So I'm just really frustrated that that narrative continues to be put out there that we do not have a great CTE program or one at all when we do.

[1:27:24] So general trades, nursing, fire, EMT, business IT, entrepreneurship marketing, culinary

[1:27:30] arts, military, interior design, machining and welding, and the three extra new ones

[1:27:36] that Emily had mentioned.

[1:27:38] So that's what I have to say.

[1:27:41] Thank you.

[1:27:42] All right, Melissa.

[1:27:45] I am seeing schools starting to really promote all of their activities for the next few

[1:27:51] months.

[1:27:51] And I want to encourage everyone in the district, not necessarily just parents to support

[1:27:57] the schools and these events.

[1:27:59] Even things like trunk or treat, it seems silly and fun.

[1:28:04] It is so important for building community, and if you have it available that you could

[1:28:09] donate candy to them or a trunk to set up, being part of community means that we all do

[1:28:17] this together.

[1:28:17] that it's not just parents, it's not just teachers, that it's all of us supporting the schools together.

[1:28:23] So I really want to encourage everyone to participate in the events that are closest to you.

[1:28:27] I guarantee your school is doing something in the next month or two that they would love to have you support.

[1:28:33] All right, Mr. Bain.

[1:28:36] Just to start off with, I guess you're still here.

[1:28:40] Thank you for coming tonight and telling us about your transportation issues.

[1:28:45] It's concerning me because it is a safety issue, and I just thank you for bringing that

[1:28:50] to us and hopefully we'll be able to get you some answers.

[1:28:54] That being said, transportation has always been an issue for the county.

[1:28:58] It's a very difficult county to provide transportation for.

[1:29:02] I've said it before.

[1:29:03] If you drove from North Island to Corova, you can drive through Greenville about the same amount

[1:29:08] of time.

[1:29:09] It takes you to drive this county.

[1:29:11] But I'm glad Ms. Parker brought up about the high school.

[1:29:14] The high school is actually to me, is actually starting to, I guess, right word, feel like

[1:29:19] a high school.

[1:29:20] There's some issues that are being addressed, but they're doing a great job out there and

[1:29:26] hats off Ms. Edwards, because I don't think it's showing, our data is showing exactly what's

[1:29:31] happening out there.

[1:29:32] The staff has increased, he's hiring folks, so I'm happy with where we're going to

[1:29:39] the high school. With that being said, I spent right much time at the high school. And

[1:29:44] I have to give a shout out to, I think it's Miss Austin and Miss Pore at the high school

[1:29:50] that worked front desk. It is impressive that they know everything that is going on in

[1:29:58] that building.

[1:29:59] May not be-

[1:30:00] I want to write a right word. I hope I'm not insulting them. The friendliest, maybe, but for a student to walk into the office and say, where am I supposed to be? And they just right off top of their heads, where they're supposed to be? What time they got to be there? What time they're going to leave? It's impressive. And when I got there and asked her question, I just got to say I'm sorry, Mr. Edwards, but I was asking Mr. Edwards some questions. He picked up the phone.

[1:30:29] he called Ms. Pore. Ask her to question. Then he give me an answer. Turn around and ask

[1:30:34] another question. He picked up the phone. Guess who he called? Call Ms. Pore. Ask her to question

[1:30:39] and got the answer. So, my hat's off to all our staff that worked in front offices. You're

[1:30:47] impressive. That's all I got to say. So, thank you.

[1:30:50] All right, Dr. Lutz.

[1:30:53] I've said a lot about the high school and everything should be said.

[1:30:56] But they did not get what they rightfully deserved.

[1:31:01] I'm going to point out a couple of other buildings in particular too and that is Griggs and

[1:31:06] Jarvis Burke.

[1:31:07] We're both did not get what they deserved.

[1:31:10] Jarvis Burke held on to a B with the best scores they have ever had in the history of their

[1:31:15] school.

[1:31:16] A 74% pass rate, three grades three through five in math as a title school.

[1:31:22] one of two percent in the state that there are B, yet they didn't meet growth in math.

[1:31:28] Nor did Griggs meet growth. They had the worst math growth in the state, yet their fourth grade

[1:31:34] math teacher had a 78 percent pass rate on a test that's normed to only pass at 70 percent. Anything

[1:31:42] over 70 percent in the state of North Carolina is good. And it's been mentioned, all of our schools

[1:31:50] that increase their scores, including NAP went down in growth.

[1:31:54] NAP lost two points in growth, despite having the highest proficiency rate,

[1:31:59] proficiency scores in the history of their school, greater than 95%.

[1:32:03] I have been in contact with state legislatures,

[1:32:07] age and state school board members, and it's not fair to our teachers,

[1:32:12] it's not fair to our kids, it's not fair to our principals put in the great work.

[1:32:16] and it's important that we get something adjusted.

[1:32:21] I thought Chris needed a great job

[1:32:22] of talking about it's unfigurable.

[1:32:27] Thank you, Kelly and Matt, Susan,

[1:32:30] Chris, and I'm gonna throw in Jennifer Woods

[1:32:32] for her work with CTE for your presentations tonight.

[1:32:35] They're always top notch,

[1:32:37] and we're off to, I feel better about her

[1:32:40] off to the year after tonight's meeting.

[1:32:42] I think it's gonna, we're gonna head

[1:32:43] in the right direction here.

[1:32:44] I mean, it's been a rough start,

[1:32:45] our transportation, they've done.

[1:32:48] Yomans work, but we lost three drivers

[1:32:50] or before we start, and it takes two months

[1:32:53] to replace them.

[1:32:54] We're up against it.

[1:32:55] We do take our feedback from our public.

[1:32:57] We do meet that we are meeting.

[1:32:59] We do get things adjusted.

[1:33:02] We can't always share exactly what's going on

[1:33:04] when it comes to employees.

[1:33:05] So I want to thank everyone again here for being here tonight,

[1:33:09] and that concludes my comments.

[1:33:11] All right, the real MVPs of the night are these children

[1:33:14] who have set like angels.

[1:33:18] Are they students in our school system?

[1:33:21] We're going to have to get a picture for social media because y'all are rock stars.

[1:33:26] And whatever you're doing as parents please write a book because my 15 year old wouldn't have set like that tonight.

[1:33:34] So y'all are rock stars, thank you.

[1:33:36] Thank you parents for sharing your concerns.

[1:33:39] I know it's uncomfortable for people when parents talk about concerns.

[1:33:43] We want engaged parents, we want to hear the good, the bad, the ugly, so that we can get better.

[1:33:50] So thank you. There are pain points. We're going to work to get better.

[1:33:54] So thank you for taking the time and children. Y'all are awesome.

[1:33:58] Now you've got to be sweet tomorrow after this lack of sleep, but we're going to get a picture with you

[1:34:03] because y'all need to be highlighted if your parents are okay with that.

[1:34:07] Our community engagement meeting is Monday at JPNAP PLC at 6 p.m., again, we want parents to come.

[1:34:17] This was an initiative, Sandy and Emily have worked very hard on community engagement.

[1:34:22] This is something that's a big deal we want to hear. This is how we get better.

[1:34:25] We see that we're academically getting better. We've been awarded in communication, that we're getting better.

[1:34:31] That's the direction we want to continue to come.

[1:34:33] We want Ms. Hodges to be able to stand up in years to come and have lots of ratings

[1:34:38] that are number one, number two, number three, and we're only going to get that with

[1:34:42] parental input.

[1:34:43] I was going to echo, but I don't need to echo and roll and list employee.

[1:34:47] That is our motto.

[1:34:49] We want to be excellent in all of those areas.

[1:34:52] We are super excited about our ROTC program.

[1:34:54] We are fully staffed with two people.

[1:34:57] It's an incredible program for enlist.

[1:35:00] We're doing great with enroll.

[1:35:02] We have more opportunities in CTE.

[1:35:06] We have more AP offerings.

[1:35:08] We're doing a lot of good things there.

[1:35:10] And then employment, which is tied to those skills.

[1:35:12] Ms. Dowdy also serves with COA on their board and

[1:35:17] us to be able to partner and make sure we're partnering with COA.

[1:35:20] I think what Mr. Banks meant to say is the secretaries aren't warm and fuzzy.

[1:35:26] That's what he meant to say, warm and fuzzy.

[1:35:29] I'm not warmer fuzzy either.

[1:35:31] So that goes how it is.

[1:35:33] So he meant to say warm or fuzzy, Ms. Bauer,

[1:35:36] if you just would work on some type of advertisement for us,

[1:35:42] we're going to blast our state representatives

[1:35:44] and you can certainly tell him that Dana Parker asked you to.

[1:35:47] We are going to blast them about the ferry,

[1:35:50] about teacher pay, about accountability,

[1:35:53] and about the transportation system that they've given us.

[1:35:56] Because what really continues to happen,

[1:35:58] And it's also interesting with Ms. Mazzal when she talked about the budget, where required

[1:36:03] to give a budget to the county commissioners in the spring.

[1:36:07] And then the state doesn't do a budget, if they even do one, that's great.

[1:36:14] But if they do it, it's in the summer.

[1:36:16] So we've asked Mr. Banks and I work with the chair and co-chair of the Board of Commissioners,

[1:36:22] we're going and asking for money, and we're completely blind about what the state's going

[1:36:26] to do.

[1:36:27] So that's how we then come in sometimes and we think hey, we're going to be great, we're

[1:36:31] going to be able to fund these things.

[1:36:33] And then the state rolls out unfunded mandates and tells us you have to do this, you have

[1:36:39] to raise this pay, we have to do this, and we have no way to prepare for that.

[1:36:45] It's like you doing a budget at home and not knowing how much your bills are going to be

[1:36:50] within five months.

[1:36:51] So there's some work to do with the state, we're going to keep working and keep partnering

[1:36:56] with them but we want to partner with parents. We want y'all to help us. If you want to go to

[1:37:01] Raleigh with this, we went to Raleigh last year. I would love to take a big group. Maybe Mr.

[1:37:06] Mellon's we could get a bus if we get lucky. And we'll take a bus to Raleigh as Dr. Loots looks like

[1:37:11] dear God know. All right. So we want parents to be engaged. So thank you so much. At this time I need

[1:37:20] a motion to adjourn. Second? All in favor? All right adjourn. I'd love a picture of

[1:37:28] the children want to wake up. We need to thank y'all. It's up to your

[1:37:31] their mom and some daddy's, they might not wait.

Board of Education

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