[0:23] Can you hold that one up? Thank you.

[0:35] Good. Y'all good?

[0:37] Sorry.

[0:38] Good.

[0:43] Good evening, and welcome to the September 21st, 2026 Davidson County Board of

[0:49] Education Retreat. I will call this meeting to order.

[0:52] If we could please stand for the pledge of allegiance followed by a moment of

[0:55] silence.

[0:59] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic

[1:05] for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty

[1:11] and justice for all.

[1:26] Amen. May be seated.

[1:33] Superintendent update, Dr. Slate.

[1:35] Just some key dates to remember, Mr. Chairman.

[1:40] Our next board meeting is October 5th here at David Townsend at 6:30 PM.

[1:45] Inside your board packet, of course, is the Board of Education meeting schedule.

[1:50] Please note that the retreat in February is also shifted to Davidson Townsend

[1:54] Elementary School as well.

[1:57] Thank you very much for that. Some operations, Mr. Johnson.

[2:02] Good

[2:02] afternoon,

[2:18] board. From operations this evening, I'd like to introduce Nicole Ray and her team

[2:23] from Performance Services to describe a method of construction called

[2:28] design build, and I would invite her to the podium at this time with her team.

[2:44] Thank

[2:50] you.

[2:50] Good evening, Dr. Slate, Mr. Chairman, members of the board.

[2:55] If it pleases the board, I wanted to present to you all tonight to expand on the

[3:00] facility needs survey material that was presented to you back in August.

[3:06] As Mr. Johnson had mentioned, my name is Nicole Ray.

[3:10] I'm a business development manager with Performance Services, and with me I have

[3:14] Dr. Rodney Shotwell, who I believe you all know, and also Bob Weede.

[3:23] So in August, our team had presented some high-level data and results of the

[3:29] five-year facility needs survey that's required by NC DPI.

[3:33] So for this slide, just a reminder that the average age of all Davidson County

[3:38] school buildings is approximately 55 years.

[3:45] And this is also a review slide that we had included in the August presentation,

[3:50] just highlighting the tremendous amount of need in Davidson County schools.

[3:55] Overall, the district has approximately $350 million in capital needs and deferred

[3:59] maintenance, which has increased approximately $250 million

[4:05] since 2020.

[4:07] While my company, Performance Services, presented the facility needs at our last

[4:12] meeting, we really didn't get a chance to get into who we are as an organization

[4:17] and why we provided this service to Davidson County schools at no cost.

[4:24] So Performance Services is a design build company.

[4:28] We have offices in Charlotte and Raleigh, as well as 19 other states.

[4:32] This slide is representative of a few of our North Carolina team members, but I

[4:37] want to highlight the fact that Dr. Shotwell, Lisa Jackson, and Dr.

[4:42] Beasley are all part of our team. You guys are familiar with Dr.

[4:46] Shotwell, but Lisa Jackson is a former superintendent of Pamlico County Schools,

[4:50] and Dr. Chad Beasley is the former superintendent of Allegheny County Schools.

[4:55] And I feel incredibly blessed to have such phenomenal North Carolina educators on

[4:59] our team.

[5:04] So our company is a little unique in that almost 90% of what we build across our 19

[5:09] states is K12. Our strategy and kind of our approach

[5:14] to our business is that we want to be our district partners' most trusted

[5:20] advisor. And the way that we support our school districts doesn't stop or start

[5:24] with just one project. So similar to how we've provided the facility needs survey

[5:30] for Davidson County Schools at no cost, we were able to help about a dozen North

[5:35] Carolina districts with their facility needs survey this year at no cost.

[5:40] We also have in-house grant writers and funding specialists who help our districts

[5:44] apply for grants like the Needs-Based Grant.

[5:47] We regularly offer no-cost roofing and envelope assessments.

[5:52] And then last but not least, we're proud supporters of several North Carolina

[5:55] education associations like the School Board Association with Ms.

[6:00] Ramona and Whitney and Leanne and that group.

[6:06] Also

[6:08] with North Carolina Public School Maintenance Association, so I'll be there at

[6:13] Atlantic Beach later this week supporting those guys with the operations team.

[6:18] And then also the Superintendents Association with Jack Hoke, and then last but

[6:23] certainly not least, NCAT with Brock Womble.

[6:26] So we feel really blessed to be able to come alongside our North Carolina education

[6:31] and partner in that way. So I'm going to turn it over to Bob Weede, who will tell

[6:36] you a little bit more about the Performance Services company profile and kind of

[6:40] how we got started.

[6:43] Thank you, Nicole. Again, my name's Bob Weede.

[6:46] I'm the director of design build for Performance Services.

[6:50] So I thought I'd spend a few minutes on who we are so you know who's talking with

[6:54] you. So

[6:56] we've been around for going on 28 years. I've been with us for 25.

[7:01] And we are a design builder, which means we have our own group, our own team of

[7:05] architects, engineers, project managers, control specialists, all one team, one

[7:10] point of contact. You don't get into a lot of the finger-pointing.

[7:13] We'll get into that in a minute. But we started out really focused on

[7:18] HVAC and controls. That was our bread and butter, and we've done thousands

[7:24] of HVAC, mechanical, electrical, plumbing projects to date, over 2,000 buildings.

[7:30] We currently monitor over 1,500 buildings through our performance assurance group.

[7:37] And so

[7:39] we benefit from an extensive knowledge of school buildings.

[7:43] The vast majority of our work, 87% of it, is in the K12 market.

[7:48] So we know schools, and there's very rarely a situation that comes up that we don't

[7:53] have experience on doing that. So we started out in that arena, and then really

[7:58] what ended up happening is our clients pulled us in to be more of a complete design

[8:02] builder. "We love what you're doing with our mechanical systems.

[8:06] Can you put this addition on? We love your process, your single point of contact."

[8:09] So that's how we grew into what we are, which is a full design build company.

[8:15] So we've mentioned design build. In construction, there's really three procurement

[8:21] methods. You have design build, which is one point of contact, single contract for

[8:25] both design and construction services. One person responsible for all that.

[8:31] Now, under the way we work it, we go out and competitively bid all the cost

[8:35] categories involved so that you're getting the benefits of the other two in terms

[8:40] of pricing, cost competitive bidding,

[8:44] but a single point of contact so there are no change orders with our projects, and

[8:48] we'll get into that in a minute. The other two methods around here are construction

[8:52] management at risk, and that's where you have a construction manager and an

[8:56] architect. The challenge is they both have their own individual contracts.

[9:02] Now they will partner together to some extent, but ultimately they are

[9:06] fiduciarily responsible to each company.

[9:10] And so you can get into this finger-pointing.

[9:13] "It's not my fault, it's their fault," and a lot of times the customer falls in the

[9:17] middle of that with either delays or change orders.

[9:21] The third method is design bid build, and I will tell you, I think

[9:26] Each of those have their strengths.

[9:29] If you're doing renovation work,

[9:32] if you're doing quick turn work, you want cost-effective solutions on something

[9:37] more than just a driveway or a parking lot or something, design-build really stands

[9:42] out well. If you have a great design and you're building a new

[9:47] school out in a field, and you work with a construction manager, that should go

[9:52] pretty well. If you're just doing a simple roof job or a parking lot, then

[9:55] design-bid-build might be your best solution.

[10:00] So each one has their best bet. Big thing about design-build, and I'll get into

[10:05] that, is single point of responsibility.

[10:08] So they've done numerous studies out there.

[10:11] Latest one was Department of Commerce and University of Colorado.

[10:14] They basically came back and said design-build's about 3% to 4% less, significantly

[10:20] less change orders. But the big thing, it's anywhere from 20% to 33% faster than

[10:25] the other methods. Now, I'm going to tell you, in these days, in these times, if

[10:29] we're shaving six months off a project, I'm going to save you money.

[10:33] And the reason is because we're all working together towards the same

[10:39] solution. And when we're going through, and let's say we're looking at your

[10:43] buildings like we did on your study, and we're going through that, I'm not just

[10:47] having my designer there. I'm having my project manager who's looking at it from a

[10:51] constructibility standpoint. So we're identifying those issues during design

[10:57] before they get out into the field, because that delays things and it costs you a

[11:01] lot more money. So we identify those, and then the other thing is, because we've

[11:05] done a couple thousand buildings, we do a postmortem on each one of those.

[11:11] What went right? What went wrong? What caught us? And they get identified.

[11:15] And so my engineer alone, just on HVAC, has an eight-page checklist that he

[11:21] goes through when we're going through a building on a design to make sure we aren't

[11:25] going to get caught on any of those.

[11:26] Because you put it in the drawings, that's a $20 issue.

[11:30] If I have to do a change order, that's a $200 or a $2,000 issue.

[11:34] So we address those, and it's one of the reasons we can do no change orders.

[11:38] So I mentioned that within design and construction management, you get caught in

[11:42] the middle a lot of times, because the designer's going to go, "That should've been

[11:47] on the construction guy." The guy's going to say, "That wasn't clear on your

[11:50] design." And the owner's left going, "I got to get this taken care of." And so it

[11:54] falls into your contingency or something along those lines.

[11:57] Did you have an interesting story on that one, Dr. Shotwell?

[12:01] I do.

[12:02] In one of my interim positions, I was able to put out for bid a new

[12:08] school project, and while we were working through it, one of the things, it was in

[12:13] Halifax County, I was in Weldon City.

[12:16] And what I noticed, that there were no true shelter in place that

[12:21] provided showers,

[12:24] food prep. They were using the community college, but the community college doesn't

[12:28] have a commercial kitchen. And so one of the things I asked them, because we had a

[12:31] small generator, I was like, "How much would a big generator cost?" Well, that was

[12:36] cost prohibitive. So the compromise was, we're going to put a switch on there,

[12:42] and then that way Emergency Management can have one of those tractor trailer

[12:47] generators come in for emergencies. And I said, "Great.

[12:52] Let's do it."

[12:55] The architect, the engineers,

[12:58] the construction manager, it took five weeks

[13:02] for me to get that answer, because they had to go from point to point to point to

[13:06] point. And the thing I have noticed working with this company, too, is that

[13:12] sometimes it just takes days, or maybe a week at most to get it changed, because

[13:16] they're all working towards the same thing.

[13:19] Because we were holding back money for change orders, and I know that's where,

[13:24] under traditional building, that's where they make their money, too.

[13:28] But for us, it was just ridiculous that I had to wait that long, because it ended

[13:34] up costing $332,000 to do that. But now Halifax County, if

[13:40] a big weather storm comes through, they can go there, and that place, Weldon High

[13:45] School, can be used completely without any power coming from the grid

[13:51] or anybody like that. And to me, I just think that's a big thing.

[13:56] Because the other thing that made me upset about that project was the bids came in

[14:00] first, $4.5 million over budget.

[14:03] That delayed them getting into school.

[14:06] Matter of fact, they just opened the school this past week.

[14:09] The kids had to stay out of school for a week so that the teachers could move in.

[14:13] Wow.

[14:13] It was supposed to have been ready during the summer.

[14:16] Here's the thing that they did. That was in June.

[14:18] September, all of a sudden, we come in under budget $138,000.

[14:24] But what they did is they went out and they actively recruited people to come in

[14:27] and do that second bid, and they did some value engineering, which I didn't like,

[14:31] but it didn't affect the overall aesthetics.

[14:33] My point is, that's what we do

[14:37] on the front end so that you don't get that delay.

[14:39] Because I kept trying to explain to my board,

[14:43] once we get the thing open, things will start rocking and rolling.

[14:46] But that delay cost them being able to move in in July as opposed to September.

[14:52] Thank you, Dr. Shotwell. And just to kind of add on to Dr.

[14:57] Shotwell's story, his process that took him five weeks in Weldon City, using

[15:03] design-build, would've been resolved in eight hours.

[15:05] It would've been resolved in a day.

[15:07] So I think we've kind of

[15:10] hammered home the fact that design-build is one team with sole accountability, but

[15:15] just to provide another visual aid, our architect, our engineer, our account

[15:19] manager, our construction, they're all Performance Services employees.

[15:23] We all wear the same shirt, have the same email extension.

[15:26] We are all one company, which does make the communication a lot better.

[15:30] Zero finger-pointing.

[15:33] Dr. Shotwell and Bob also both mentioned our no change order guarantee.

[15:38] So if there's a problem, we pay for it if it's a design error, but

[15:44] it's sole accountability, taking the risk off the district and off the board.

[15:51] Your neighbor over here in Yadkin County Schools just recently tried out

[15:55] design-build. So you all, I'm sure, have contacts over there, so feel free to reach

[16:01] out to the folks you know over there.

[16:03] But they have just been incredibly pleased with the design-build delivery method.

[16:08] They had a million dollars to spend. They wanted two roofs.

[16:11] We ended up delivering four roofs instead of two.

[16:14] We built credibility with them and also with their county commissioners by coming

[16:19] in under budget, so the superintendent was able to take his plan to the county

[16:23] commissioner and show that he was getting double, basically, the scope, and we

[16:27] still delivered $40,000 under budget.

[16:30] And they were very complimentary of our process and the speed, as Bob had

[16:34] mentioned, that we avoided delays that they had traditionally seen in previous

[16:38] projects with different procurement methods.

[16:41] So next steps, obviously, we did the five-year facility needs study for you all

[16:46] already. It was a very high level with Mr. Johnson.

[16:49] We would like the opportunity to maybe do something a little bit deeper or more

[16:54] concentrated or concerted. Again, we regularly provide facility studies at no

[17:00] cost, but I think we are all in agreement in this room that there is a tremendous

[17:03] amount of need here. And we would be more than happy to kind of help you all tackle

[17:09] some of those more pressing

[17:12] projects. And maybe just kind of start the relationship slow so that everyone can

[17:17] kind of get to know Performance Services, get to know our team, and at the end,

[17:21] what we hope for is a very successful partnership.

[17:25] So that's all we've prepared for today. I know we're just a little bit over time.

[17:28] My apologies for that. But any questions from the board? Dr.

[17:32] Slater,

[17:34] Davidson County.

[17:36] What ratio have you guys seen as far as success with the needs-based grant with the

[17:41] state, applying for that and having success there?

[17:44] Yeah, so we just started applying for needs-based grant last year with

[17:50] districts. And so, as you're aware, there's a little bit of a science to that,

[17:55] right?

[17:55] Very much so.

[17:58] And so, I'm trying to choose my words carefully here.

[18:03] I feel like

[18:05] Dr. Slate has mentioned in the past that Davidson County may not be as competitive

[18:13] as maybe some other, more rural districts.

[18:18] That's not to say, let me switch and put my DPI hat on.

[18:21] That's not to say that you shouldn't apply or that you can't apply, but there is a

[18:26] rubric, a scoring rubric, and if you all are interested in entertaining what the

[18:31] math on that looks like, we'd be happy to provide that in a subsequent bulletin.

[18:41] Any other questions?

[18:44] That's what I was going to ask.

[18:47] And you said you guys have grant writers on staff?

[18:49] Yes, sir. So

[18:52] our grant writer

[18:54] hails from a previous life. She had an 83% success rate, so she was able to help

[18:59] Rockingham County Schools apply for the Renew America School grant.

[19:04] So she successfully helped them apply for that.

[19:07] I believe she also helped them apply for the COPS grant and was awarded.

[19:11] So for me personally, I've worked with her also in a previous life, and she and I

[19:16] applied for the COPS grant, the School Violence Prevention Program grant, I'm

[19:21] assuming you all are familiar with that,

[19:24] for a district in South Carolina, and we were successfully awarded as well.

[19:27] So she's learning North Carolina, and learning DPI, but we will be applying

[19:33] for a few more this year.

[19:36] The grant successes are relatively moderate.

[19:41] Oh, I'm outside of my swim lane on that question.

[19:44] She has an Excel list that she keeps running that I would be happy to share with

[19:49] the success ratio and her total award. It's in the multi millions.

[19:54] Because she's a national resource for us, so she

[20:00] doesn't just support us here in North Carolina, she supports all of our states.

[20:05] So in Colorado, they have a BESS grant, and she has helped that team.

[20:10] In Arkansas, they have a different kind of community grant.

[20:12] She's helped that team as well. So we're-

[20:14] She's national.

[20:15] Correct. Yes, sir.

[20:23] Any other questions?

[20:26] I don't think so this time. Thank you so much for y'all-

[20:28] Yeah

[20:28] ... coming and sharing with us tonight.

[20:29] No, thank you.

[20:42] The School Boards Association.

[20:45] Yeah, Ms. Ramona.

[20:45] Yeah. Ms. Ramona, the North Carolina School Boards Association.

[20:55] Well, good afternoon. What an honor to be before you today.

[20:59] With me is Amber Horton, who's assistant director of

[21:04] board development.

[21:08] I had the pleasure of meeting Donna.

[21:11] Well, she first encountered me last year at a dinner where I was not trying to be

[21:17] funny, but I think I had a comedy show.

[21:20] And I promise we will be good today.

[21:24] But I wanted to say, one, congratulations on the awards that we were able

[21:30] to share with you guys. Appreciate all that you're doing for the

[21:35] children here, and I just want to

[21:40] acknowledge that what you do is you make a difference.

[21:45] Excellent, did I change that? I didn't?

[21:50] You did.

[21:50] I did? I wasn't touching it.

[21:55] And so here the comedy show continues.

[21:58] But I will say,

[22:01] we're not going to be long before you because we had a great session with you, year

[22:06] before. I believe it was last year.

[22:08] Last year.

[22:09] And so, we're going to continue with that conversation, but just a quick refresher.

[22:14] We know that excellence in the classroom begins with excellence in the boardroom.

[22:19] We say that over and over. What happens at the board table matters.

[22:24] And so what you bring, what you do, it has an effect on student achievement.

[22:29] Congratulations on the scores. They were great everywhere, and

[22:35] that's a testament to the work that boards are trying to do to make a difference in

[22:40] every child's life.

[22:44] I'm not going to show you a good show.

[22:46] That's about a town council that was behaving badly and didn't understand that

[22:52] whenever you're the best show in town, good things probably are not happening for

[22:58] your community. And that's what we want to avoid, and that's what Amber and I will

[23:02] focus on today. So, the elements of effective governance, and I

[23:08] apologize, the font changed, but don't worry, we can get through this.

[23:12] But elements of effective governance, there are three things I want to focus on

[23:18] before I turn things over to Amber. One is the individual.

[23:21] What you bring to the table matters.

[23:25] And this is kind of small to see, but hopefully you can see it.

[23:31] Even with my no-line progressive glasses, that's really tiny.

[23:36] But I will say that the focus you have as an individual board member, the mindset

[23:42] that you bring, the mindfulness, the level of commitment,

[23:47] understanding your roles and responsibilities, and doing the things that you have

[23:52] to do to be a team member, all play an important role in

[23:58] being

[24:00] a happier board member.

[24:03] The second element is the board. What you guys do, and I will

[24:09] start with, in her book, "The Essential School Board Book" by Dr.

[24:14] Nancy Walser, she identifies the common practices for school districts

[24:20] with increasing student achievement.

[24:22] They goal set, they identify the most important things that need to get done in the

[24:28] district. They operate by protocols and norms, and we're going to talk a little bit

[24:33] more about that. They understand the critical role of the chair.

[24:37] That would be you, Nick. And then,

[24:41] they are involved in the community, and they evaluate themselves with some

[24:46] regularity. So what we are going to do is

[24:52] always look at the four critical building blocks of an effective school board.

[24:57] It's what we talk about in core training.

[24:59] It's how we kind of summarize that work of the board that Dr.

[25:03] Nancy Walser talked about. And the first one is unity of purpose.

[25:13] Nope. Okay, graphic on. But your unity of purpose,

[25:19] it's the vision you have for the district, and you have to own that vision.

[25:25] It's your vision, your mission, your goals, it supports the common

[25:31] ground in which your school district operates.

[25:37] And if I'm not mistaken, you guys are coming up on completing your strategic plan.

[25:44] So you're going to be reviewing all of this.

[25:48] And one of the things that we like to do, and I'm going to let Amber lead this, and

[25:54] so that you hear a different voice, because that would be exciting and thrilling as

[25:59] we talk governance.

[26:02] Hey, everybody. Good afternoon. Hopefully, everybody's well.

[26:05] Like Ramona said, I am Amber Horton, and I have the pleasure of working with Ramona

[26:08] in board development. So when we were with you last time, we talked about these

[26:12] four building blocks, but we really only got through the first two.

[26:15] So we want to kind of do a quick review, set you up for some of your strategic

[26:18] planning that you guys are going to get into, and we've got a little bit of work to

[26:21] do with that. And then we're mostly going to talk about norms and protocols and set

[26:24] some protocols up for you all. With your unity of purpose, though, it's your

[26:28] foundation, right? Ramona always says, and if you've come to core training, that

[26:31] it's an arranged marriage, right?

[26:33] That you five together are an arranged marriage, and you are put together under

[26:37] some unique circumstances, and you've got to work through that.

[26:39] But each five of you, all five of you, came to the table with an idea about how you

[26:44] wanted Davidson County Schools to look and what you want it to grow and how you

[26:47] wanted it to progress. So that's one of the things we want to just take a second on

[26:50] and to think about. What do you want to see happen, right?

[26:53] This is all going to start to get into some of your work as you start to do your

[26:57] strategic plan. In your packets that I came and brought you, there's a folder here.

[27:04] One of the first worksheets that it has on there on the left-hand side is it says

[27:07] Daily News. And what we want you to do, and this is just a great starting point for

[27:12] you to kind of hear everything, but also for your staff in the rooms to also hear

[27:17] this as well, but we want you to write a quick future headline.

[27:20] So we want you to imagine that it is September 21st of 2036, okay?

[27:24] Ten years from now, there is a newspaper headline, and it comes out, and what would

[27:28] you like that to say? That's ultimately what we want you to do.

[27:31] So take a second right now, jot down on that piece of paper, in 10 years from now,

[27:35] what does that headline say? And this is something that we've done with several

[27:38] boards across the state, and it's actually very interesting, and it's very

[27:40] enlightening for your superintendent as well, and staff to kind of hear some of the

[27:44] key words and buzzwords that you all as the board would like to see.

[27:47] So we'll give you just a second, a couple seconds. I apologize.

[27:50] We'll give you a couple seconds to write what would you like your headline to be

[27:55] I love that y'all are still writing. I just want to say that. That's awesome.

[28:00] Anyone feel like sharing what their headline would be? I will. Do it. Thank you.

[28:05] I'm not still writing. This isn't a paragraph. That's all right.

[28:09] It's a headline.

[28:12] It's a headline. In bold print at the top of the page. I like it.

[28:15] All, double underline, Davidson County Schools exceed growth and improvement and

[28:19] 100% graduation rate. Exceed growth, 100% graduation rate, all. All, emphasized.

[28:24] You getting that, staff? All. All. Perfect. Awesome. We love that.

[28:29] Thank you for sharing. Anyone else have something else they'd like to share what

[28:33] their headline would be?

[28:35] I'll stay on. Our schools are safer today than 10 years ago.

[28:39] Our kids are more successful

[28:44] today than 10

[28:48] years ago. Graduation rate is

[28:52] 99%.

[29:44] Perfect. So we have safety in there, we have graduation rates, and I apologize, I

[29:47] missed that one in the middle.

[29:49] Successful.

[29:49] Successful. Awesome. Great. And from 10 years ago, you're really putting that

[29:53] growth in there. Anybody else have one they'd like to share?

[29:56] I'll go.

[29:57] Do it.

[29:57] Mine simply says, "The standard is the standard.

[29:59] Davidson County Schools continues to lead by example across the state."

[30:03] Ooh. That's good. Y'all getting that? Everybody-- That was good.

[30:07] Yes. That's my favorite so far.

[30:08] That's good. Standard is the standard. Yeah, I like that. Those are great.

[30:11] Are you leading Wake County?

[30:12] Huh?

[30:13] Are you leading Wake County? He's leading Davidson and that's great.

[30:17] Yes. There's no need for that.

[30:18] If we need to, we will.

[30:19] Standard is the standard. Standard is the standard. We love that.

[30:23] Anyone else want to share? You don't have to. Anyone else want to share?

[30:26] Sets the gold standard. 100% schools achieving growth.

[30:31] I didn't mention the graduation rate, but that's where my mind was going.

[30:34] And I also went to the expanding just classroom opportunities and being fully

[30:39] staffed,

[30:41] and being able to fill all of our positions and have the resources that we need.

[30:45] Yeah, growth.

[30:46] Setting the gold standard.

[30:48] Mm-hmm.

[30:48] Nice.

[30:49] Set the gold standard.

[30:51] Why not? Bring it home. Bring it home.

[30:54] Okay.

[30:55] There's no medal on the inside, so there's no spot to be.

[30:58] Davidson County Schools continues to move ahead with community interaction and

[31:02] improvement.

[31:03] Ooh, I like the community. That's different.

[31:06] Yeah.

[31:06] That's really good. Great.

[31:07] Either way, all of you have that vision of, yes, it's going to

[31:13] be Davidson County will be the place to be.

[31:17] Mm-hmm.

[31:17] And that with things are happening that are making me the envy of the rest,

[31:23] the central. Great. Okay.

[31:26] The PTECH.

[31:27] Huh?

[31:27] The PTECH first in the state.

[31:29] PTECH, there we go.

[31:30] Yes.

[31:30] Keep it PTECH. Yep.

[31:32] And the PEMA. No, let's just put every state.

[31:34] Yeah.

[31:35] Why not?

[31:35] Envy of the state. There's no reason why you can't shoot for that and cast that

[31:40] vision out. And what's exciting is you get to hear from the communities and to do

[31:45] these same kinds of exercises with them and to hear what is your vision, and

[31:51] making sure that they have vision that's not focused on improvement and moving

[31:56] forward, but it's focused on our kids have the best opportunity from a

[32:02] fully staffed gold standard-

[32:04] Mm-hmm

[32:05] ... district, and we are making such gains that it will be the envy,

[32:11] the place to be. That's going to be so good.

[32:16] So, one of the things we also want to, and we add in this last question, so thank

[32:19] you all, one, for sharing and participating in that.

[32:21] It actually is really helpful to start to hear some of the buzzwords and some of

[32:24] the things and directions and thought that you all as a board are thinking, as

[32:28] you're working on your new strategic plan.

[32:30] But we want you to think about this last question, too, is what does your board

[32:32] need to consistently do to achieve your headline?

[32:35] And this isn't something that we're going to discuss right now, but we want you to

[32:37] think about, right? You all just shared improvement, growth, being the standard,

[32:41] being the best of the best. So what do you as a board need to do, and what does

[32:45] that look like? Right? A little help with that, though.

[32:49] We've got this visual for you. Just to kind of help see some of the alignment.

[32:53] We've noticed that boards sometimes get a little confused sometimes as to where

[32:58] everything sort of fits together. So we've got this for you here.

[33:01] You've got your superintendent goals, right? You have your board goals.

[33:05] What are things you as a board would like to achieve?

[33:07] You have your teachers who are working hard in their classroom.

[33:09] They're working on their PDPs. They are teaching, and they are setting their own

[33:12] goals as well. All of that's going to funnel into your strategic plan.

[33:17] And one of the things that we're going to encourage is that you continue that

[33:19] alignment. So what your goals are, are going to match directly to that strategic

[33:23] plan. Everything is going to funnel back to the strategic plan.

[33:26] So if the strategic plan says that we are going to have a graduation increase,

[33:29] everything that you do goes back to that point, and you can point to that.

[33:32] This is also something that's really good.

[33:34] Has anyone ever been stopped at the grocery store or somewhere, and you've gotten

[33:37] asked a question about why you're not doing something? Right?

[33:40] So giving you something as this is a good-

[33:42] That happens?

[33:43] It's a good discussion, I know.

[33:46] Oh, man.

[33:48] It's a good discussion point for people, for you all to say, "Well, we actually

[33:52] were working with the district in the northeast, and this really helped them." When

[33:55] you get stopped and you're kind of like, "Wait, what?" It gave them some

[33:59] communication points to be able to say that this is exactly the line that we're

[34:02] giving, according to our strategic plan goal four, whatever it is.

[34:06] It gives you just something to talk to and not kind of go, "What?" And then

[34:09] everything goes back and has your student success at the top.

[34:12] Now, that's what we're here for. We want our kids to do great things.

[34:17] So the second of the four, and we like to think of our four elements of effective

[34:22] governance as kind of like a table.

[34:24] If you're missing one or you're weak in one, your whole table's going to fall.

[34:27] So we did our unity of purpose. We understood what our visions, our thoughts,

[34:30] ideas. And then we have your role of the board.

[34:32] And this is something that I'm actually going to credit to Ramona.

[34:34] She created this cogwheel graphic and kind of put this together in her head to give

[34:38] a different representation, sort of the clock idea that we still normally do,

[34:42] though. But to say that you as a board have your roles.

[34:46] You have superintendent and staff have their roles, and you're working together in

[34:50] cohesion to make sure that your district is moving forward.

[34:52] In order to achieve your unity of purpose, this is going to be the most effective

[34:56] way.

[34:58] And we just think it's a good new graphic.

[35:03] Another visual representation, sometimes that's the best way as adults that you can

[35:06] learn is through experience and through visual representation.

[35:08] Just so you understand, you as a board are part of the ends, and your

[35:13] superintendent is the means. You are going to give the directive to say, "We would

[35:17] like to see graduation rate increase by X amount." And then you're going to give it

[35:22] to your superintendent and your district staff to get there.

[35:24] That's going to be that separation between your ends and your means.

[35:27] You all are going to give the directive, and then you're going to let your

[35:30] superintendent, who you have confidence in, and your district staff, you also have

[35:33] confidence in, to take that to the next level.

[35:39] All right, you ready for the good stuff?

[35:41] Yeah.

[35:43] Okay. So the third and fourth of our elements of effective governance are norms and

[35:48] protocols. And this is something that we've been talking a lot about.

[35:51] A lot of our boards are wanting to do this work, but not quite sure where to go

[35:55] with the work or how to get the work done.

[35:57] So that's what we're going to spend the last part of our time with you all is

[36:00] actually kind of getting into what does that look like and how can we do it as a

[36:03] board, and hopefully leave you with some hardcore stuff.

[36:08] Your norms are going to be your team culture. That's the behaviors of your board.

[36:13] We know that you all are in a great place right now. We've heard great things.

[36:15] We've heard that everything in Davidson is going very well. That's wonderful.

[36:18] This is a great place for this work to happen because it doesn't make it as mucky

[36:22] and as murky as it could be. It shows that your board culture, and you all have

[36:25] worked really hard to sustain a positive board culture. So those are your norms.

[36:30] Then your protocols, though, are going to be your processes.

[36:32] Those are going to be what actions that you take when a certain event has triggered

[36:37] something. When you get the complaint in the grocery store, when you get the

[36:41] wanting something on the agenda, when you get anything of that specific event, how

[36:46] do we do that? And how do we, as a board, want to agree that that's going to get

[36:49] done? So you want to make sure that you've got positive behavior, and that behavior

[36:53] is supported by certain specific actions.

[37:00] And sorry, you got it. No, this year you should.

[37:04] We did. And so finally, the third element of effective governance is, what is the

[37:10] board's job? And I love this graphic because it's similar to

[37:16] a clock, but the board's activities are on the outside, and all of the activities

[37:21] of your staff and superintendent are on the inside. The board sets direction.

[37:27] That is yours. As you begin to work on your new strategic plan,

[37:33] you're setting the vision. You're working with community to hear the mission and

[37:39] establish that. You do those types of things, and we usually do that well.

[37:45] You establish the structure, which is kind of similar to your policy role, because

[37:50] you make the laws of the land, and you keep your board attorney close by.

[37:56] I can't say that enough. Thank God he's here, so he can keep me in line.

[38:02] But you establish the structure by which the district can operate and that your

[38:08] staff can do everything they need to do.

[38:11] Usually at the bottom, creating a supportive environment, that's where you ensure

[38:16] that what you need to do, you're doing, with the proper culture and focusing on

[38:22] those things that are not the day-to-day

[38:27] staff items, which I know you don't do. Bless you.

[38:30] But just creating that supportive environment, and ensuring accountability,

[38:37] reviewing those scores and everything, that's so awesome, and then just keeping

[38:42] everything in order, all while you're providing community leadership throughout.

[38:46] So you're interacting with the community, and as Amber suggested, it's a good idea

[38:52] to have that elevator speech of, "Our schools are doing this to meet these goals

[38:57] that we have established." So you're having that conversation with them and it's

[39:02] keeping that connection with your community.

[39:06] And so if we begin with

[39:10] what's happening at the board table and the culture here, continuing from the

[39:14] conversation that we had last year, do you remember our norms activity

[39:20] that we did last year?

[39:23] It's okay.

[39:24] It's okay if not. That wasn't a test.

[39:27] But as Amber said, your norms are talking about how you behave and treat each

[39:33] other. And I know that there's respect here, which is wonderful.

[39:38] If you don't have the norm-- You guys have election.

[39:42] Yes, I know you're having elections,

[39:45] Nick. So yeah. But if you don't already have your norms written down,

[39:52] write them down and use them as part of orienting new people to

[39:58] the board. You want to protect and to

[40:02] have available for anybody to see, "These are the habits.

[40:07] These are the ways we operate and treat each other.

[40:11] We treat each other with respect. We treat each other with

[40:15] kindness. We listen."

[40:19] And I know you have your policy 2120. We walked through that last time.

[40:26] The thing is, it's great to have

[40:30] what we call a cooperation agreement that doesn't supersede.

[40:35] Your policies are top, but your code of cooperation is an opportunity to plainly

[40:41] state how you want to get things done.

[40:44] This is sample norms from a North Carolina district where they took some

[40:50] things. They were in conflict, actually, when they created these.

[40:55] But look at just this list, and I know I shifted through a lot of different

[41:01] slides quickly, but we want to work on protocols. But look at number one.

[41:07] We treat board members, staff, and the public, mm, with

[41:13] respect, modeling the behaviors we want for ourselves and others.

[41:19] It's a very simplistic way of

[41:23] pulling out a small piece from your ethics policy, but saying it so plainly that

[41:28] this is how we behave all the time at the board table. This is who we are.

[41:33] So, they even have a violation. People who violate, board members who

[41:40] feel their colleagues have violated any portion of the agreement, commit themselves

[41:45] to talking one-on-one with the member in question.

[41:48] If they cannot reach consensus on resolving the matter, the issue is to be brought

[41:53] to the entire board. And I think what's so important is

[42:00] they understand and want to protect what they are doing, what they have.

[42:06] And having that good culture, having that

[42:11] understanding of how we behave and treat each other, it's worth protecting.

[42:16] Because if you don't protect that in an arranged marriage, sorry you have to hear

[42:20] this again, but in an arranged marriage, you can have these little cracks, these

[42:25] tiny little things that can start to be irritating.

[42:29] And then all of a sudden, you have a blowup that started from something that's so

[42:35] tiny. And

[42:38] I heard someone say we didn't all sit at the same dinner table and have the exact

[42:42] same values. And so what could be offensive to me, let me tell you, in my house,

[42:47] Mom didn't let one drop of alcohol in there.

[42:51] She's Pentecostal Holiness, so no. No alcohol in the house.

[42:55] Daddy didn't bring it in the house.

[42:57] But maybe things were different in your house, that it's okay.

[43:03] I've never had a beer.

[43:05] My

[43:08] mother's 87. I will not defy her to this day.

[43:12] But

[43:14] the same things, the same standards that were expected at your dinner table is

[43:19] going to be different from anybody else's.

[43:22] And so you want to have norms conversations to be able to not let any

[43:28] little crack break you from reaching that 10-year goal and those headlines you all

[43:33] set. Any questions on that? Because I'm going to turn it over to Amber.

[43:42] Okay, so you ready for some stickers?

[43:45] Yep.

[43:47] So in your packets, there was a collection of stickers.

[43:51] If you will please grab those for us. We're actually going to get into some work.

[43:55] Our goal is to at least leave you all with one developed protocol, and hopefully

[43:59] continue on your work from there. So let's get started, though, with what that one

[44:02] protocol is going to be. Just a reminder, protocols, though, are going to be the

[44:07] steps that you take when a certain event has been triggered. Right?

[44:10] Again, you want something put on the agenda, you would like to have a response to

[44:15] community complaint. Whatever the specific event may be, we want to make sure that

[44:19] we have, as Davidson County School Board, a way to help and address that.

[44:24] So here's our general process. So we're going to do that tonight.

[44:27] It's a general process, though, for how to facilitate that discussion.

[44:30] So first, right, we're going to decide what protocol is needed. Okay?

[44:35] There's going to be a lot. We've got some examples for you, so we're going to try

[44:37] to help decide what protocol we first want to do.

[44:41] We want to make sure, though, that we understand the issue, that everyone has

[44:44] access and the ability to share what they're thinking about the issue.

[44:48] One of the things that we found, too, is that sometimes particular issues can just

[44:52] be solved with going over your norms.

[44:53] It could just be having a conversation of, "Hey, remember, let's refer back to norm

[44:59] on our individual board member responsibility number 10," whatever it may be.

[45:03] Just kind of helping to review some of that.

[45:05] We want to make sure, though, again, everyone's got a voice.

[45:07] Then we actually want to write the protocol.

[45:09] And we're going to show you some examples that protocols can be done in different

[45:12] ways. Okay? It doesn't have to be this massive step. It could be a sentence or two.

[45:16] Whatever is the will of the board is going to work for you all.

[45:19] We want to work on that culture as best as possible.

[45:21] Then we want to also make sure that we are all clear.

[45:25] We're glad that we have our attorney here tonight.

[45:26] We want to make sure we are all clear in terms of any violations when we've written

[45:30] that protocol. And then we want to make sure, too, that we set at the very last

[45:33] step, that we set a when we're going to review.

[45:35] Just like you review your policies within a year, or you set that schedule for when

[45:39] you're going to review, you want to review your protocols as well. Right?

[45:42] Is it going to be as needed? Is it going to be in a year? Is it two years?

[45:45] Whatever it may be. Because, again, protocols are the will of the board and

[45:49] whatever you want them to be.

[45:51] So

[45:53] here's some other examples for you, just to kind of get your head around them.

[45:55] Visiting schools, communicating with board members, asking agenda questions.

[45:59] Those are all, again, examples of protocols

[46:03] I know this is a little hard to see. The two on the left are actually protocols

[46:06] that were written from boards in Virginia.

[46:08] Surprisingly, this is work that North Carolina has done starts.

[46:13] We've got several boards that started.

[46:15] We don't have many that actually complete it, and we hope that Davidson is going to

[46:18] be one of those boards that completes it and is able to showcase this.

[46:22] So this is in your packet, but on the left-hand side from Virginia, just want you

[46:26] to be able to visually see their protocols are two sentences.

[46:29] When it says how the board is going to set the agenda, it literally says the board

[46:34] chair, superintendent, and board clerk decide the agenda. Boom, done. One sentence.

[46:39] That was their entire protocol. However you want that to work for you is how it can

[46:42] work for you. On the right-hand side is actually a sample of NCSBA's protocol that

[46:48] we've done and a sample protocol on communicating with the media, and we've stepped

[46:51] it out. All right? It has one through five. It really goes into detail.

[46:55] We have some things for you to consider.

[46:57] We just want you to see and know that there is no one way to get this done.

[47:00] It is whatever is going to work best for the board. Okay?

[47:06] All right. So you got your stickers.

[47:09] Ramona here is going to be our Vanna White for you all.

[47:12] Aren't you so glad I brought her? Right.

[47:14] She is going to-- And I wish we were winning money at the end of this.

[47:17] What we've got, though, is that we have got six examples of protocols that are most

[47:22] common for boards that they kind of want to work on, and we want to ultimately

[47:26] decide right now with your board using stickers, to decide which ones are going to

[47:31] be most priority. So on your sheet, green, you're going to use a green sticker if

[47:35] you think that protocol for you as Davidson County Board is doing really well.

[47:39] You're like, "We're great. We're awesome.

[47:40] We don't need to talk about this." You're going to use the yellow if you're like,

[47:43] "Eh, we should probably get there." Right?

[47:46] Red is going to be, "Yeah, I think we need to work on that." And your blue is going

[47:50] to be, "This is not a priority right now." Right?

[47:52] So basically, green is going to be, we're good.

[47:54] Yellow is going to put some caution in there, like maybe something we should talk

[47:57] about, but not a priority. Red is going to be your priority, and blue is going to

[48:01] be not anything we want to talk about right now. Okay?

[48:04] So the six that we have for you, communicating with the superintendent, meeting

[48:08] agenda, responding to complaints, visits to campuses, confidentiality, and

[48:14] avoiding surprises. So what we'd like you to do is of those six in the boxes that

[48:19] are on the chart paper here, take your color. All right? Take your sticker.

[48:23] So let's just say it's a blue sticker for you for avoiding surprises.

[48:26] That feels great to you. You're like, "It's not a priority right now." You're going

[48:29] to put a blue in the avoiding surprises box. All right?

[48:32] So this gives you all a chance to kind of visually see what protocols you'd like to

[48:36] work on first. Questions for clarification?

[48:41] Awesome. If you all will take your chance, take a little stretch break, come up to

[48:44] the board here and place your stickers.

[48:45] Again, green is going to be, you're crushing it. We feel good. Right?

[48:50] Yellow is going to be something we should talk about.

[48:53] Red is going to be something we should definitely talk about.

[48:55] Yikes, we need to work on that. And blue is going to be, that's not a priority

[48:59] right now. We don't need to talk about it. Right?

[49:04] So of your six, again, communicating with the superintendent, meeting agenda,

[49:08] responding to complaints, visits to campuses, confidentiality, and avoiding

[49:11] surprises. Come on up. Come on down.

[49:14] Say hi to somebody if you haven't said hi to them yet.

[49:17] You are in kindergarten. It's fine. We're learning.

[49:19] Who doesn't like stickers?

[49:20] Yeah.

[49:21] So don't use

[49:23] green, yellow, red, and blue. You can't use any other colors.

[49:28] We don't-

[49:29] Only your primary ones.

[49:31] Yeah, only primary.

[49:37] I don't know what you mean by avoiding surprises.

[49:39] Well, great question.

[49:42] Oh, yeah.

[49:43] No, that doesn't mean. Not at all. That's a great question.

[49:46] If you don't have to wonder what it means, that's a good thing.

[49:50] That means nobody's surprising you.

[50:28] See, that's good. That's great.

[50:44] That's okay.

[50:47] Well, we talk about avoiding surprises sometimes in the arena of

[50:54] if you're out in the community, which all five of y'all are, and somebody comes up

[51:00] to you and asks you something that's going on in the school system and you don't

[51:04] know anything about it, that's a surprise you don't want.

[51:08] Or you can be like me and never go to school anymore.

[51:12] Correct.

[51:14] But then it's also-- I mean, Ramona, you can jump in here, too, if you think I'm

[51:19] wrong, but also that's a two-way street in

[51:23] if you have questions before board meetings-

[51:27] Mm-hmm

[51:27] ... see if we can

[51:29] at least let them, let your staff know, Dr.

[51:33] Slate and his cabinet know, "I'm going to have some questions about this." Come

[51:36] with that information.

[51:37] So it's not like a you're getting caught with your pants down.

[51:38] It's not the other direction.

[51:38] You're-

[51:41] You don't want to have a got you moment-

[51:43] Correct. That's what they call it

[51:44] ... for the staff, and you don't want to be the got you person.

[51:51] We got you.

[51:52] Well, we should have sticked to stickers.

[51:55] And if you don't-

[51:59] Well, that's okay.

[52:00] You have seven? That's okay. Don't worry. If it's green, which it is. That's okay.

[52:06] Substantial compliance.

[52:07] Substantial. And that's okay.

[52:11] I, um-

[52:14] It's like we agreed on one.

[52:16] The most red that I'm seeing is on responding to complaints.

[52:20] Four said that that is something that they would like to work on, and someone said

[52:23] that that is, the yellow for that, so they do have a process for that.

[52:28] So you have some there. And then we kind of flipped for avoiding surprises.

[52:32] So we got four that said yellow and one that said red. Okay.

[52:36] It looks like confidentiality, great. You're crushing it. Great job.

[52:40] That's great. Can I say thank you?

[52:42] Thank you, guys.

[52:42] Thank you.

[52:44] It's not always been that way, but I feel like this board is doing just great on

[52:47] this.

[52:48] Most of the time, that's one that's fully red.

[52:50] I don't know.

[52:51] Meeting agenda looks okay too. We got some green there.

[52:55] Visits to campuses look green. And then probably our third, communication with

[53:00] superintendent is probably-- So I would say responding to complaints, avoiding

[53:03] surprises, and communication with superintendent is probably kind of where we want

[53:06] to start working from.

[53:08] All right.

[53:08] And not-- Okay. How do we feel about responding to complaints kind of universally?

[53:14] Kind of roughly where we came here. Okay? Okay, cool. All right.

[53:18] And-

[53:18] I don't like starting with the worst and hardest

[53:20] ... starting with the worst is okay.

[53:21] That's okay.

[53:21] Well, and first we have to-- So we may not finish everything, but Brittany's going

[53:24] to give you something so you know kind of how and where you need to go with this.

[53:28] Right? In your packets, there is a worksheet as well in the back, and it says,

[53:33] "Operating protocols guide worksheet" on this.

[53:38] We put two copies in there in case you didn't have a lot of pages to get this.

[53:43] Okay. So if we're following our flowchart, though, of looking at trying to figure

[53:48] out how we write this protocol, what are some of the things, what are some of our

[53:51] concerns that we're having with responding to complaints?

[53:54] Let's just kind of talk through, clarify the first one, just because it clarifies

[53:57] the issue. So we need to clarify the issue.

[53:59] When we say responding to complaints, what's the issue? What's the concern?

[54:02] Where's the problem we want to help to dial out?

[54:04] Is it community complaints that you're worried about?

[54:07] Is it-- Where do we want to start?

[54:09] I'd say community complaints.

[54:11] I would think at times, and everyone included, we don't hear about things until it

[54:17] comes through the internet or somebody shares a post or something.

[54:20] You turn on the TV.

[54:21] You turn some-- Whatever that is. And so oftentimes, no fault to our own internal

[54:26] staff because they've not even been notified.

[54:28] So admittedly, from the folks, the complainers that have posted stuff or said

[54:32] things, the question is always, "Have you shared that with..." And oftentimes it's,

[54:38] "No."

[54:38] No.

[54:38] Or they put it on, they went to the internet first.

[54:41] Yeah, we found social media is way faster than the-

[54:45] It's the devil

[54:46] ... school.

[54:48] It does.

[54:48] Okay. So we're hearing, is it, and if I'm listening, is it responding to complaints

[54:52] is more if you all would like some communication, some lines to be able to say,

[54:57] like some direct lines to be able to have, to be able to say, like, "Have you-"

[55:03] to experts and have you tell him, is that more what we're going to do?

[55:07] I think we-

[55:08] I think we generally-

[55:09] We've gotten better at that in general, to say, "You've got to go through the

[55:12] proper channels."

[55:14] Listen,

[55:16] if an email comes through, we're saying, "We have forwarded this to the appropriate

[55:20] channels. We can't handle this, but somebody in the central office and/or needs to

[55:25] investigate."

[55:26] We never say, "I can handle it."

[55:28] Yeah.

[55:29] We never say, "I can handle it."

[55:30] No.

[55:31] And a lot of times we'll even include those folks and say, "While this is not in

[55:35] our realm of expertise, these folks are in the day-to-day.

[55:39] If you don't get satisfied, if you need to come back to us, you can.

[55:43] But right now, give them the opportunity to handle the problem at hand."

[55:48] So that's what everyone's doing now?

[55:50] Mm-hmm.

[55:50] We say it's operational, and then send it to him-

[55:53] It usually includes someone-

[55:54] And then follow up

[55:55] ... someone, if not multiple people involved in the cabinet level who can help

[55:59] answer their question. If it's curriculum, obviously it's Dr. Coley.

[56:02] If it's something with-

[56:04] Well, if it's Terry

[56:05] ... athletics or operations, it's Mr. Johnson.

[56:07] If it's someone's feelings or something going on with a counselor or something,

[56:12] then it's Dr. Greer. So we try to divide that based on who it is.

[56:17] And as the board attorney, do you hear any problems?

[56:21] I still think it's just prevalent in our community.

[56:23] At

[56:25] least I do, I feel uncomfortable

[56:29] with

[56:31] how frustrated our community is. Even though we're probably handling it

[56:34] appropriately, it's still how do we maybe-

[56:39] Root issues.

[56:40] Uh-huh.

[56:41] Like the root of how do you-

[56:42] Yes.

[56:42] Right.

[56:43] And/or, yes. And/or-

[56:45] It feels like there's a serious lack of trust.

[56:48] So no matter what we do-

[56:49] Yes

[56:49] ... they're going to pounce on it-

[56:51] You're exactly right

[56:52] ... and immediately assume the absolute worst of us no matter what we do, and

[56:56] that's very hard to deal with on a daily basis.

[56:59] And it takes time, right?

[57:03] It didn't take us two years to get here in this spot in our community, so it isn't

[57:07] going to be fixed in two years. So that takes time and consistent follow-up and

[57:12] follow-through with things. I think the biggest thing for all of us is those

[57:17] blindside moments of like, "Dr. Slate's not aware, our staff's not aware, no one's

[57:23] aware of anything," but next thing you know, the whole community's aware of it, and

[57:27] it's one of those things that as if we've known about it and just purposely not

[57:31] doing something to fix it.

[57:33] Yeah.

[57:34] When you ask, "Oh, have you shared this with your folks?" or, "What do you

[57:38] recommend as a solution?" "Oh, I don't have that.

[57:41] They don't ever hit me." So that's the hardest part for us is letting them know,

[57:46] "Hey, have you followed the proper chain of commands?

[57:49] And then if you have, then let us get involved."

[57:53] The one thing we've also found is that people lie a lot.

[57:56] Yeah.

[57:56] So they say they followed the proper chain, and they haven't, or they just-

[58:02] Right. Didn't want to answer

[58:02] ... of course, want to jump right to the top without ever going through anything

[58:05] else, and we're all members of this community, so a lot of times we know people

[58:10] personally. So it's challenging.

[58:15] And oftentimes, our children are involved in the same situations that these other

[58:19] folks' children are involved with, right?

[58:21] With this AC issue at North Davidson or Ledford, my child or Ms.

[58:25] Kunce's child's involved in that as well, right? So we feel their pain also.

[58:29] I think there's a big differentiator between us as parents here and

[58:35] humans, and then, "Oh, they're the board." It's some farce of what we're trying to

[58:40] accomplish.

[58:42] Right.

[58:42] It definitely is a challenge getting your community to understand that you don't

[58:46] have all the power, and it's something you have to communicate over and over

[58:52] and over.

[58:57] But it's what you have to do.

[59:00] You're educating them on what a board member individually does by

[59:06] saying, "You've got to go through the chain of command.

[59:09] If you

[59:12] want your situation handled as quickly as possible, you've got to go through the

[59:17] chain of command, because if you don't start there, it's going to take much longer

[59:23] and you're not going to get the resolve that you're looking for."

[59:29] And that's educating people.

[59:33] And as you get new people on the board, it's important to have a conversation with

[59:38] them. People are going to come straight to you.

[59:43] And unfortunately, nothing like that because you care about what's happening to

[59:48] their kids. You can express that care, but you certainly have to say, "This is the

[59:53] fastest way to get it handled." It

[1:00:01] sounds like everyone is comfortable with the knowledge of who does what in the

[1:00:05] chain of command. It's just a matter of

[1:00:09] the few minutes that it takes to share with someone and also make them understand.

[1:00:16] Any of this has to come back to me

[1:00:20] before the board as judge and jury.

[1:00:23] I can't let you share too much-

[1:00:25] Right

[1:00:26] ... when it's personal. And so it's having that care.

[1:00:30] I think you guys understand exactly what needs to happen, but it's just

[1:00:35] uncomfortable. And there's also some messaging that you want to get out in the

[1:00:41] community about you have to build that trust.

[1:00:47] I think as each of you speak it to say the same thing with a good heart because

[1:00:52] these are your neighbors.

[1:00:56] Catch them in church some days and say, "I hear you." I think

[1:01:02] everyone wants to be heard, but you've got to let people know that someone did.

[1:01:07] Well, just an example. So Friday night at the football game, we're standing there,

[1:01:12] right? And I'm standing beside this lady who I didn't personally know.

[1:01:16] My wife's like, "Yeah, that lady's the one that loves to talk about you all the

[1:01:20] time on the internet about how terrible you are and this and that." But I'm

[1:01:23] standing right beside of her and have never had a personal conversation with her as

[1:01:27] a person. So I want to introduce myself and be like, "Hey, this is my wife.

[1:01:31] These are my kids. This is who I am." And I think we all feel that way, but

[1:01:34] oftentimes it's just--

[1:01:39] A very smart coach told me one time, "You can't reason with unreasonable people at

[1:01:43] times." So how do we find that common ground so that they understand we're in this

[1:01:47] boat with you, right? We need to be all rowing in the same direction.

[1:01:51] And the minute that one person's rowing opposite of all of us, it only slows us

[1:01:55] down in the district. And we don't always have to agree.

[1:01:57] We don't agree a lot of times with things, but we try to treat each other with

[1:02:00] professionalism.

[1:02:02] And we've agreed to disagree on things, right?

[1:02:04] And we've had strong-spirited debates.

[1:02:08] But when we leave, we still treat each other with respect and humans, and we've all

[1:02:11] done that and going to try to do a good job of that.

[1:02:14] I think what's going to be a wonderful experience is establishing your new

[1:02:19] strategic plan. Because you're going to be able to hear

[1:02:25] from constituents what their concerns are.

[1:02:29] And hopefully,

[1:02:31] if you do it as kitchen table conversations where you might be someplace,

[1:02:37] not in the forum, but just to hear and talk and let them speak.

[1:02:43] McDowell County did this when they had some turmoil out in the community.

[1:02:49] And two portions of the community felt like they were not being heard, and the

[1:02:54] board had a listening opportunity where they could come and talk.

[1:02:58] And I don't know if that people would do that, but if you put yourself out there

[1:03:03] and say, "We want to hear what's on your mind," because it sounds like an

[1:03:07] opportunity to connect with the community that that needs to happen because you

[1:03:13] guys know how to handle complaints.

[1:03:18] But it's the opportunity to connect with the community on some meaningful way so

[1:03:23] that you can begin to establish trust and get them to see you as well

[1:03:29] as you seeing them and hearing them.

[1:03:32] So I don't know that this fixes the protocol. It doesn't fix the protocol.

[1:03:36] But people use social media to fuss at us. And we're one of five.

[1:03:41] I'm one of five people that make this decision.

[1:03:43] As you said, it's an arranged marriage.

[1:03:46] And so I always say, "Listen, I can't change anything.

[1:03:49] There's five of us that have to change it." But we use social media against us.

[1:03:53] Why can't we use it for us? I know that's not a protocol situation, but as we go

[1:03:57] towards elections and things like that, maybe a simple

[1:04:03] description of what-

[1:04:05] Yes

[1:04:05] ... the school board does, that might be something that would be helpful for our

[1:04:10] community to understand that we're here to make policy again.

[1:04:14] It's a policy-driven issue instead of necessarily trying to fix

[1:04:21] everything in the day-to-day. I think that's something that's

[1:04:31] Well, I can't sing Samantha's praises enough, but that's the one thing I will say

[1:04:35] is that having her in our social media corner has made some pretty significant

[1:04:40] progress in just some of the graphics that she's done have been impressive to me to

[1:04:45] be able to show that

[1:04:50] she's focused on different communities.

[1:04:51] But she's also been able to have something that we've asked for her from a board

[1:04:56] brief or from a board meeting to explain certain things and in simple,

[1:05:02] easy terms, because some of what we do is really complicated in my opinion.

[1:05:07] Yeah, and I love that because I feel like there's a serious lack of knowledge of

[1:05:12] what that-- And I can say this from going back before I was on board, I had no idea

[1:05:16] what the board does. And so many people in our community have no idea.

[1:05:20] They think we are judge and jury- Jury and executioner ...

[1:05:23] and come straight to us if you've got a problem, because all those other people are

[1:05:27] lame. They don't know what they're doing.

[1:05:30] So they just want to come to the board immediately, but they don't know that's

[1:05:34] counterproductive. That's not going to fix their problem.

[1:05:37] And if they could see that, and we could put that out, and they could see this is

[1:05:42] the chain of command. This is what you do if you have a problem.

[1:05:47] And just make it just clear to the community.

[1:05:50] Is Samantha here?

[1:05:52] No, she's not.

[1:05:52] She's not here.

[1:05:53] I just-

[1:05:54] I was going to say, "Samantha, come up with that brilliant."

[1:05:57] I got a note.

[1:05:57] I got a note, too.

[1:05:59] Yeah.

[1:05:59] I was typing a note and texting it.

[1:06:02] Well, I think-

[1:06:03] But that's a good point because it's not just happening here.

[1:06:06] And people can use social media, be proactive, and

[1:06:12] I think

[1:06:14] this is protocol because we're talking about educating the community.

[1:06:18] I am excited about that.

[1:06:19] Samantha does the positive things.

[1:06:22] Mm-hmm.

[1:06:23] It's always like that, and one of the best things, in my opinion,

[1:06:27] is that it's not an open season for rebuttal. That's not the platform for that.

[1:06:31] It's just good points we're punching into the community, and they don't use that

[1:06:35] like the other Facebook pages to just down us.

[1:06:39] Mm-hmm.

[1:06:39] There's some positive approach.

[1:06:40] Well, the reality is there are thousands of positive things that go on on a daily

[1:06:44] basis across our district. Yeah. And if we're not properly reflecting those out to

[1:06:48] the community, then all they hear and see is the loudest, and it may be a small,

[1:06:53] small portion of people or of the negative that happens.

[1:06:56] And we have 2,700 employees, right? Things are going to happen.

[1:07:00] We have 20,000 students. Bad things are going to happen from time to time.

[1:07:04] That's inevitable. It's any business-

[1:07:07] But there's so much good

[1:07:07] ... Right, but there's so much good that outweighs of that, and I think that's been

[1:07:10] a big thing that adding that position and showing those positive things that are

[1:07:14] going on help

[1:07:17] visualize some of that.

[1:07:18] And I bet you it's going to make a difference. Adding that position is vital.

[1:07:24] We had to get a communications person a couple of years ago because it was like us

[1:07:29] just trying to each do it. The noise is so loud when people want to

[1:07:35] be negative.

[1:07:36] Mm-hmm.

[1:07:36] But I'm so glad you've done that, and

[1:07:40] I'm excited. I know we follow-

[1:07:42] And I think, unfortunately, it used to children education was off limits from a

[1:07:47] political spectrum, right? Whether it be left or right.

[1:07:50] And unfortunately, in today's society, let's go after the most vulnerable to make

[1:07:55] our talking points the loudest, and that's our older folks and our younger folks.

[1:07:59] And so public education, I think, is under attack from both sides because we've had

[1:08:04] it personally, right? We've done things where we've had one direction come after

[1:08:08] us, and we've done things where we've had the other direction come after us.

[1:08:11] And that's just inevitable in what we do.

[1:08:14] But at some point, we have to get back to the baseline value of we're here to keep

[1:08:18] kids safe, make sure they're educated, and set them up for success in that 12-year

[1:08:22] window that we have them in our hands.

[1:08:25] And once you hit those goals, it'll be exciting to say, "This is why we do what we

[1:08:30] do because these are our goals."

[1:08:35] We might have a great idea, but if it's not part of where we're all going, it's

[1:08:41] important. You just tie that language in with what we do.

[1:08:47] And I for what it means to y'all.

[1:08:50] So let's go back to your protocol. We just need make sure we're all kind of clear

[1:08:53] and understanding. So the protocol we said is we're assigning complaints because we

[1:08:57] all feel like we do a pretty good job, but let's just write it down so we know that

[1:09:00] is the protocol. I started the language you all helped me on here. Okay?

[1:09:04] So I feel like for you all for this one, I'd love it be a set where there seems to

[1:09:07] be a sentence or two within that protocol.

[1:09:10] So I'd start to say board member complaint to the appropriate, do you want to say

[1:09:14] staff member? Do you want to say- Member or members Okay, perfect.

[1:09:19] Because sometimes certain issues are a multi-pronged approach, right?

[1:09:23] It's not necessarily one person can give them the answer that they need.

[1:09:26] So there are times when we have to lump in a couple different leaders to help

[1:09:31] answer those questions. And that would be easy win for you all right there.

[1:09:35] So we want to talk about advocating, and that's kind of the extent of it.

[1:09:40] You're just changing it, right? Essentially, it's going to be board member

[1:09:43] complaint to appropriate board member. That's your protocol, right?

[1:09:47] So then what do we do when you think about for violations?

[1:09:50] Now we've had the conversation before too.

[1:09:52] They say that typically they want to be chair designated.

[1:09:56] HR has a conversation with them first, or they might have a personal conversation

[1:10:00] first, right? I'm just going to use a really nice example.

[1:10:02] If I have violated this protocol anyway, right?

[1:10:05] Ramona's going to have a conversation with me because we haven't gone through

[1:10:08] formal charges yet. Right? We kind of have to do it as staff, just a conversation.

[1:10:12] That's going to be on the protocol too.

[1:10:14] It's a regular violation to-

[1:10:17] I thank the chair for consistency.

[1:10:20] I think so. The biggest thing that I will say and share is, for future and

[1:10:26] present myself as well, I never want this to be a situation to where we have these

[1:10:30] protocols and norms that are then used as weaponized against other board members-

[1:10:34] Yeah

[1:10:34] ... to create the illusion of, "Well, you didn't do what I wanted you to do, so

[1:10:39] we're going to use this against you." While you may not be doing anything that

[1:10:43] breaks protocol or norm, it may just be an avenue to use to say, "Fall in line and

[1:10:48] get into..." And that's not necessarily always the case.

[1:10:51] I think when we've had conversations like that, sometimes we've used it in closed

[1:10:57] session just to even just have dialogue.

[1:11:01] Because if I've learned nothing from the chair, it's that I probably need to

[1:11:07] be reminded sometimes that one of the others is having a conversation-- We were

[1:11:12] having a conversation about something that was pointed, and I need that reminder as

[1:11:16] well. And so maybe if we have that conver- I mean, it's always been a gentle

[1:11:21] conversation when we've had that

[1:11:24] in closed session is what I would say.

[1:11:26] So it could be one-on-one, but I also feel like, so that it's not held against

[1:11:31] somebody like it might have been previously,

[1:11:35] a gentle conversation. Again, as Trisha said, we are all adults, and we really do

[1:11:40] treat each other as equal and as

[1:11:45] friends that all don't have the same common ground sometimes.

[1:11:48] But we really do try to understand each other.

[1:11:51] So a gentle conversation from the board chair may be necessary, but also,

[1:11:57] if it's big enough, the gentle conversation in closed session just to make sure

[1:12:01] that we all are on the same page.

[1:12:03] And we can be progressive. So first you are going to say, "Hey, we're just going to

[1:12:05] do a member-member. Just amongst ourselves, we're going to just have that chat,

[1:12:09] right? We're going to have a chat about it." Then you want to progress it to chair

[1:12:13] designee.

[1:12:15] I would say or designee because there may be times when that communication isn't

[1:12:18] productive between the chair and some, so it may need to be the vice chair or vice

[1:12:22] versa. Well, I think with this board, this has never been an issue. Yeah.

[1:12:25] We are always able to talk, but I know going forward, there will be different

[1:12:30] boards. So it's going to be fluid

[1:12:34] maybe in the future. But right now, I don't see a need to put something down like

[1:12:38] that to change or put something, I don't know, just make a hard, fast rule.

[1:12:44] You don't need this, Bridget, but we're going to have some things to kind of like

[1:12:47] roll into the first round. At least we understand first round, we're going to have

[1:12:50] a different type of conversation. Here's violation.

[1:12:52] Then we're going to have chair designee go through this program.

[1:12:55] Then we'll bring it to the full board in closed session, and something like that

[1:12:58] can sound.

[1:12:59] Yeah.

[1:12:59] This round sets you up for success with that parallel communication.

[1:13:03] I'm also going to give it to you. This is like-

[1:13:06] Right.

[1:13:06] This is not- So your policies are first, and then your protocols, which will run by

[1:13:11] your board attorney to make sure everything is on the up and up,

[1:13:17] is the next step down. It's just a practical guide to help you

[1:13:23] keep any little break from happening in there, so that you're always focused on

[1:13:28] the student.

[1:13:29] To me, it sounds essentially like you're putting common sense on paper.

[1:13:33] Okay. Yes. I was going to say that at one point, but I said-

[1:13:37] Calm me, I'm not

[1:13:46] Can change them in a minute, especially you, Chair.

[1:13:50] Sure.

[1:13:50] Somebody might stand up and be like, "Hey, we need to do this.

[1:13:53] This is a reminder for everyone what our kind of-"

[1:13:57] Sure

[1:13:57] ... we've got. We only have so much.

[1:14:02] So it's just a simple conversation.

[1:14:05] Mm-hmm.

[1:14:05] But it's a conversation that you need to have, and I would encourage you to

[1:14:08] continue to have them as you move towards election season, and knowing

[1:14:14] that some of us that don't have new persons, a lot of new persons, changes the

[1:14:17] whole dynamic. And hopefully, it won't be of too much of a different change, but we

[1:14:23] want to ensure that you're protecting the culture and the processes that

[1:14:29] you've already got in place.

[1:14:32] That process generally makes sense, because the last thing on our sheet is just to

[1:14:35] check in with our attorney, make sure they're not hiding anything, and then to say

[1:14:39] that we are voting on it. We're going to do ideally two to three months to discuss

[1:14:42] it on. Ideally, we want a year.

[1:14:45] Yeah.

[1:14:46] Or at least-

[1:14:46] Well, we just go back to that conversation and looking at it-

[1:14:49] Yeah

[1:14:49] ... and making sure we don't-

[1:14:51] I think once a year is a good standard to set for us as the board transitions,

[1:14:56] people come on, people go off.

[1:14:58] Mm-hmm.

[1:14:58] Just a refresher, even if the board stays the same, it never hurts to have, and

[1:15:01] things change over time, right?

[1:15:03] They do.

[1:15:03] So.

[1:15:04] They do evolve. But ultimately, that's the protocol.

[1:15:07] You should have been having a short conversation where we talk about some things,

[1:15:10] reference and stuff. We say, "Hey, it's real simple, ABC," and that's it.

[1:15:15] That's protocol. Great. Yeah. Good job.

[1:15:18] Good job.

[1:15:19] Thank you.

[1:15:20] And we're not even going to keep you long, so we're done.

[1:15:25] Hopefully, we'll see you at the follow-up conference or-

[1:15:28] The national

[1:15:29] ... or at annual conference. Hope you'll be there.

[1:15:34] Be heard, let your voice be well heard.

[1:15:36] And then we're going to have more training for the board members in December in

[1:15:40] Raleigh, on the 7th, 10th, and

[1:15:45] 11th. We'll be doing it in January, on January 14th and 15th in Raleigh, and then

[1:15:50] we're going to do it for 2025 and 2026 in Asheville.

[1:15:55] It's a free member benefit. It's a day and a half session where we go over the

[1:16:00] basics. We'll say some of the same things that hopefully anyone who's

[1:16:06] newly elected can come and we'll be good, and we say a lot of the same

[1:16:11] things, and hopefully we keep you on a great board with each other.

[1:16:17] It's a phenomenal class, and I love seeing

[1:16:20] how well everyone's doing together.

[1:16:24] Are there any questions or comments?

[1:16:27] So you've got half of them gone. You need to leave.

[1:16:32] Is it good?

[1:16:34] You can have the same-

[1:16:35] We got you

[1:16:35] ... students in other places use telephones and-

[1:16:39] I know

[1:16:44] ... it runs under protocol work, though.

[1:16:46] That makes the general process make sense, kind of how we roll with that on a deal

[1:16:50] again.

[1:16:51] Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for sharing with us, Ms. Allison, today.

[1:16:55] We really appreciate it. It's always-

[1:16:56] Thank you

[1:16:56] ... a good refresher. Thank you for the stickers.

[1:17:00] Yeah.

[1:17:01] Yeah.

[1:17:01] Well, thank you, and we'll talk about all this with each other.

[1:17:04] Thank you so much. Thank you, guys. Thank you.

[1:17:08] Which company are your stickers?

[1:17:11] Which company are your stickers? Oh.

[1:17:14] Curriculum, Dr. Coley?

[1:17:25] I have to say, I felt like I needed to get my phone to take pictures because

[1:17:31] anytime I attend professional learning, I'm always taking pictures so that I can

[1:17:36] share that out. So I felt like I needed to take pictures over there.

[1:17:39] Mm-hmm.

[1:17:40] Great professional learning opportunity. Good evening, Mr.

[1:17:44] Chairman-

[1:17:45] Good evening

[1:17:45] ... Madam Vice Chair, board members.

[1:17:47] I'm really excited this evening to start out in the area of curriculum instruction,

[1:17:52] giving an EC program support update.

[1:17:57] I have asked our EC directors, Susan Russell and Jordan Lupton, to come this

[1:18:03] evening and share with the board, provide a brief overview of our focus this

[1:18:09] year for support in the Exceptional Children's program.

[1:18:13] We have two lenses, one of compliance, so that we are following the law and

[1:18:19] that we are receiving good scores when we are assessed by our indicators,

[1:18:25] and two, we need that instructional focus, because as you know, I've stood before

[1:18:30] you on many occasions talking about schools that are designated as targeted support

[1:18:36] for improvement based upon the subgroup students with disabilities.

[1:18:40] So I'm really excited this evening to have Mrs. Russell and Ms. Lupton here.

[1:18:45] I'm going to turn it over to them, and in your packet, you will have the documents

[1:18:50] that they are going to be providing an overview for.

[1:18:52] Susan?

[1:18:58] Good evening, board members. This evening, I am pleased to present our Exceptional

[1:19:02] Children's compliance support plan for the 26-27 school year.

[1:19:08] Our primary focus with this framework is pretty simple.

[1:19:12] It's to establish a structured framework to maintain legal compliance,

[1:19:18] reduce non-compliance risk, and provide differentiated support to our special

[1:19:23] education teachers in this specific area.

[1:19:27] To drive this work, we have established a dedicated team of EC compliance coaches

[1:19:33] that we have structured across our grade levels as well as our specialized

[1:19:37] programs. Together, this team ensures that every

[1:19:43] building and specialty area has direct oversight and

[1:19:49] a go-to compliance expert. This framework establishes a clear understanding

[1:19:55] of the roles and the responsibilities of both the district staff as well as our

[1:20:00] classroom EC teachers.

[1:20:04] When looking specifically at our classroom teachers, they are going to retain

[1:20:09] primary responsibility for completing the paperwork for the students that they

[1:20:13] serve on a daily basis, maintaining compliance timelines, using

[1:20:19] our tracking systems, and then leading those IEP meetings, those conversations

[1:20:24] about the students that they work with.

[1:20:26] Our compliance coaches, they act more of a risk mitigation

[1:20:32] team. They audit documentation, coach our staff, monitor timelines,

[1:20:38] and proactively identify those risks to prevent non-compliance before it ever

[1:20:43] happens. Looking a little more at this framework, we know that not every

[1:20:49] teacher requires the same level of oversight.

[1:20:53] So to maximize our efficiency, we are implementing a three-tiered differentiated

[1:20:59] support model.

[1:21:01] To begin with that, looking at a universal lens, all of our teachers have multiple

[1:21:06] opportunities to receive compliance training within our ECATS, our Every

[1:21:12] Child Accountability Tracking System, where that is where we house all of our EC

[1:21:17] documentation,

[1:21:20] as well as how to not only fill in blanks within that platform, but also to make

[1:21:26] sure what they're putting in there is compliant and relevant towards the students.

[1:21:31] We have an EC hub in Google that was created last year, where

[1:21:36] standardized meeting checklists, some sentence starters for specific documents, and

[1:21:43] access to previously recorded trainings is available at just the click of a button

[1:21:47] for any of our staff.

[1:21:50] I also meet with our new EC teachers on a monthly basis to help

[1:21:55] them to navigate the ECATS system and developing compliant

[1:22:01] documents.

[1:22:03] For some of our upcoming workdays, we have designated compliance labs where

[1:22:08] teachers can select to go to small trainings and

[1:22:13] learn more about specific documents within the IEP platform.

[1:22:18] And then also, we are currently working to offer monthly after-school trainings.

[1:22:24] Again, looking at specific documents is on a voluntary basis, and kind of seeing

[1:22:30] what kind of interest we have to begin with to see if we need to expand that to

[1:22:34] maybe twice a month. But looking to begin that very soon on a monthly basis for any

[1:22:40] and all of our teachers interested.

[1:22:43] So when looking at the tier support that we have, the first tier is tier three, and

[1:22:49] that is for our teachers who need intensive support,

[1:22:52] possibly new teachers, but not always necessarily-

[1:22:57] But those are ones that have been identified either from our coaches, our

[1:23:02] administrators, as well as we also ask our teachers to self-identify themselves as

[1:23:07] where they felt their comfort levels were.

[1:23:10] And, so those that we identify as Tier 3 will be

[1:23:16] receiving weekly coaching from our compliance coaches, and they will

[1:23:22] also have their paperworks pre-audited before a meeting, and the opportunity to

[1:23:27] lead and co-lead meetings with our coaches.

[1:23:32] And then the goal is for our coaches to gradually fade that support

[1:23:38] as competence is demonstrated. Our second tier, and what we consider moderate

[1:23:44] support, these are for our experienced teachers who maybe just need some refining

[1:23:48] of their practices.

[1:23:51] And so their documents, one of those will be pre-audited, and then

[1:23:57] again, gives time for those conversations with the compliance coaches to show that

[1:24:02] the teachers can demonstrate mastery on those, and then they transition into more

[1:24:07] of an independent practice. And they'll be supported bi-monthly with

[1:24:13] check-ins as well as any pre-audits that they may request, especially if they have

[1:24:18] a complex meeting coming up and they want our coaches to look over those.

[1:24:23] And then our final tier is Tier 1, and that is our universal support.

[1:24:28] And that's for our consistent high-performing teachers who already know how to

[1:24:33] operate independently, and they will have quarterly spot checks, as well as

[1:24:38] monthly meetings with our EC chairs at each school.

[1:24:42] And then, of course, access to all of our resources and have that flexibility to

[1:24:47] reach out to our coaches or any of the district staff whenever they need some

[1:24:52] specific support as well.

[1:24:55] Another central pillar of this accountability instruction is the pre-audit

[1:25:00] protocol, and so we have asked that for any documents

[1:25:06] that need to be pre-audited, that teachers get those to our compliance coaches at

[1:25:10] least five days prior to the meeting.

[1:25:12] And then that gives our coaches an opportunity to look over those, to give

[1:25:16] suggestions or things that may need to be adjusted,

[1:25:21] to get those back to the teachers. And then if conversations need to be had on how

[1:25:25] to move forward with that, they're also given that opportunity.

[1:25:30] This workflow gives a clear window to correct errors before sitting down with

[1:25:34] parents and ask questions of their coach, ensuring that meetings are professional,

[1:25:40] legally sound, and smooth. Accountability is paired directly with data

[1:25:46] monitoring. Our monitoring and accountability coordinator maintains a district

[1:25:50] dashboard tracking timeline, which looks at our different indicators as well as

[1:25:56] upcoming dates for IEPs, reevaluations, behavior intervention plans, et cetera,

[1:26:03] alongside of error categories. And then this is shared monthly with our compliance

[1:26:09] coaches, who then shares that out to the principals and the EC chairs at the

[1:26:13] schools. This plan provides a proactive, systematic, and compassionate framework

[1:26:19] that supports our teachers, protects our district from non-compliance risks, and

[1:26:23] most importantly, ensures our exceptional children receive the quality services and

[1:26:29] legally binding supports they deserve.

[1:26:32] Thank you for your time and continued support of our EC department, and I'm happy

[1:26:36] to open the floor to any questions concerning our compliance.

[1:26:43] How did you choose your coaches?

[1:26:44] I'm sorry?

[1:26:45] How did you choose your different coaches?

[1:26:47] So we actually worked together as a team. We worked with Dr.

[1:26:51] Coley and then Jordan and myself, and we looked as to the qualification of our

[1:26:57] current, because previously we had larger numbers of compliance coaches.

[1:27:02] And we've been moving this needle, this is going into the third year, so this is

[1:27:07] the biggest shift. But we've started shifting that throughout the past two years,

[1:27:11] and we really looked at, when Jordan gets up here, she'll talk about our

[1:27:15] instructional coaches. And so we took our current coaches, and then we looked to

[1:27:20] see those that were stronger in our compliance area, those that had those strong

[1:27:24] instructional backgrounds or those strong EC knowledge paperwork backgrounds, and

[1:27:29] then we chose them from those places.

[1:27:34] I have a question.

[1:27:35] Yes.

[1:27:35] So a lot of this that you spoke on is about teacher education, right?

[1:27:40] Educating teachers, making sure they're staying compliant, making sure they're

[1:27:43] doing the things that need to be done.

[1:27:45] Mm-hmm.

[1:27:45] But a lot of times when we get issues brought to our level, it's oftentimes not the

[1:27:51] teacher, it's the communication between the teacher or at the lowest level up

[1:27:55] through that middle, what I would consider middle management.

[1:27:58] Mm-hmm.

[1:27:58] So your counselors, maybe it's your instructional coach.

[1:28:01] What type of training are we doing to make sure that the communication is flowing

[1:28:05] from not only the top down, but from the bottom up, right?

[1:28:09] Because I think one thing that we hear a lot from the EC is that our staff, maybe

[1:28:13] our teachers, feel supported, but they maybe don't feel heard.

[1:28:18] Right.

[1:28:18] And I think there's a difference, right?

[1:28:19] Right.

[1:28:19] I think being supportive and giving them the tools they need, but the day-to-day

[1:28:24] concerns and struggles, I mean, it's grown, right?

[1:28:26] I mean, let's look at EC arena, talking about 10 years ago, what we would say to

[1:28:30] ourselves. Think back 10, 15 years ago, what EC looked like and what it is now,

[1:28:35] right? It's probably the fastest-growing area in our school system.

[1:28:38] And so I just want to understand, I mean, I think this is a great plan for our

[1:28:43] teachers, but I would like to also understand how we're making sure that that

[1:28:47] middle-level folks, our guidance counselors, the ones that are making sure those

[1:28:52] I's are dotted, that it's being properly pushed down to them as well.

[1:28:55] Sure. So when talking specifically about our coaches-

[1:28:57] Principals and stuff like that.

[1:28:59] Yes. So when looking specifically at our coaches, we are actually doing a monthly,

[1:29:05] we meet monthly with our leadership staff.

[1:29:07] And we are doing some coaching professional development with our district-level

[1:29:13] staff, to help them understand the difference between coaching and just talking at

[1:29:19] people. But having that empathy and understanding, allowing folks to ask questions,

[1:29:24] and then they ask questions as well.

[1:29:27] We have really

[1:29:29] put it aside for ourselves this year to get ourselves more into schools and assist.

[1:29:35] We have an open line of communication.

[1:29:37] Even though we have that chain of command, so to speak, we do have that open line

[1:29:41] of communication, which is one of the main reasons I wanted to take our group of

[1:29:44] new EC teachers. I wanted to go ahead and build that foundation

[1:29:51] at our level.

[1:29:53] Also, as far as principals go, we meet at the K12 meetings.

[1:29:58] We try to do some type of presentation each month.

[1:30:00] Jordan's currently working on compliance about the different indicators.

[1:30:04] And then, we look at just different pieces of information.

[1:30:08] This past month, I did training on seclusion and restraints, as that's required for

[1:30:14] anyone to do each year. And so we're trying to get out

[1:30:20] anywhere and everywhere, and I say we, I mean our department.

[1:30:23] Mm.

[1:30:23] So if it's staff meetings, PLCs, level with principals meetings, K12

[1:30:29] meetings, anywhere that we can get out and show that, "Hey, we are here to support.

[1:30:35] We hear you, and we want to be a part of what's going on."

[1:30:39] Absolutely. I'll just add to that, too.

[1:30:41] To your point, EC doesn't operate in a silo.

[1:30:44] Mm.

[1:30:44] And we've talked about this a lot as a curriculum team.

[1:30:48] And so we are noticing and learning all the different people who need EC

[1:30:52] information that we may not automatically think about.

[1:30:55] For example, we have a monthly newsletter that we send out that has grown in terms

[1:31:00] of the number of people who want that monthly newsletter, right?

[1:31:02] Right.

[1:31:02] Because to your point, our counselors also need that information.

[1:31:05] Our instructional coaches on the gen ed side want that information.

[1:31:08] So we are trying to broaden and really make sure that we are giving that

[1:31:12] communication to everyone who needs it.

[1:31:14] That's great. Thank you. Yeah.

[1:31:17] And this one-

[1:31:18] Oh, go ahead.

[1:31:19] I'm sorry. Just one, not a question, maybe just a recommendation or for the group

[1:31:24] to consider. I mean, I would like to see the compliance data.

[1:31:27] I don't see where the board is mentioned and that being shared with the board, but

[1:31:31] I would think we would want to see that at least twice a year.

[1:31:34] Absolutely.

[1:31:34] So we would know where we're at. But that's not-

[1:31:37] No, that's not a problem at all. And again, we look at that every month.

[1:31:40] Right.

[1:31:41] And our monitoring and compliance and accountability coordinator, that's what she

[1:31:46] does on a daily basis.

[1:31:48] I'm very excited for your dashboard.

[1:31:50] Yes.

[1:31:50] Yeah.

[1:31:51] It's a lot, but it's good.

[1:31:53] Yeah.

[1:31:53] Thank you.

[1:31:54] And if we could get emailed that newsletter also, I would love to see that.

[1:31:58] Yeah, I think including the board, absolutely, 1,000% moving forward.

[1:32:01] Add a couple more to that list.

[1:32:04] Sure, absolutely.

[1:32:07] Mine was a simple question, because I don't quite understand.

[1:32:10] It said, "Maintain the compliance and timelines and document the compliance

[1:32:13] tracker." Are you two managing the compliance tracker?

[1:32:16] Who's managing the compliance trackers apart from the EC coaches?

[1:32:20] I want to make sure that it's not just hitting the coaches, that you guys are

[1:32:24] actually looking at it physically as well.

[1:32:25] Absolutely. So, as I mentioned in there, our compliance and accountability

[1:32:30] coordinator is seeing that overall, and then we meet with her.

[1:32:35] Okay.

[1:32:36] And then also, I meet monthly with the compliance coaches, and she's in that

[1:32:40] meeting as well.

[1:32:41] Okay.

[1:32:42] The

[1:32:43] three of us usually meet weekly, and we just cover a gamut of things, and

[1:32:48] compliance is definitely something that we're always looking at, because indicators

[1:32:53] come due all throughout the year, and so we want to make sure we're on top of that.

[1:32:56] But yes, ma'am, we have access, and we look at those as

[1:33:02] well.

[1:33:02] Thank you.

[1:33:07] Any other questions for compliance?

[1:33:08] If not-

[1:33:09] Ms. Evans.

[1:33:11] Good evening. I'm pleased to share with you our 2026/2027 Instructional Support

[1:33:16] Plan for Exceptional Children, and the work that we're doing to really strengthen

[1:33:20] the instruction for students with disabilities. You all have seen our data.

[1:33:24] You know that we have some work to do in this area.

[1:33:27] And I loved hearing your future headlines a minute ago, because I'm hopeful that

[1:33:31] this plan is going to get us there.

[1:33:35] We are intentionally asking a bigger question as a department this year, which is

[1:33:39] what does high-quality, specially designed instruction look like in our classrooms

[1:33:43] for our EC students, and how do we know if it's making a difference?

[1:33:47] And so that is really the foundation of this plan.

[1:33:50] Similarly to our compliance plan, at the center of our plan are these EC

[1:33:54] instructional coaches. One of the most significant shifts we did make this year was

[1:33:59] within that leadership structure, as Susan mentioned, where we intentionally moved

[1:34:03] some of those positions into instructional coaching roles.

[1:34:08] So compliance remains critically important, but we also are recognizing that our

[1:34:12] schools need instructional support.

[1:34:15] We need that ongoing instructional support so that we can improve the quality of

[1:34:19] instruction for our students. Our coaches bring many years of experience

[1:34:25] working with students with disabilities, and they understand the needs of our

[1:34:29] students, and the realities that our teachers face in the classroom every day

[1:34:33] because they've lived it.

[1:34:35] So our work in this plan you'll see is organized around four essential priorities.

[1:34:40] The first one is high-quality, specially designed instruction.

[1:34:44] We saw that we needed to clearly define what specially designed instruction is,

[1:34:50] what it looks like, and what we would expect to see in our classrooms across the

[1:34:54] district. We know that it needs to align to IEP goals and student needs, and also

[1:34:59] to grade level standards, but it also needs to be well-planned, it needs to be very

[1:35:03] intentional, and it needs to include progress monitoring.

[1:35:06] We have to have evidence of how our students are responding to instruction.

[1:35:11] We have also identified specific instructional practices and programs for the

[1:35:15] different settings. In our resource classrooms, that would include the use of our

[1:35:21] district-approved intervention programs with fidelity.

[1:35:24] In our co-teaching classrooms, we're emphasizing the parallel teaching, station

[1:35:28] teaching, alternative teaching models, because those are the models that create

[1:35:32] those meaningful opportunities for specially designed instruction within the

[1:35:36] general education environment.

[1:35:38] The second priority that you'll see in the plan is effective service delivery.

[1:35:42] So we want to move beyond simply asking, "Are we providing the service? Check.

[1:35:47] Yes." No. We want to actually ask what does that service look like?

[1:35:52] And so for co-teaching, we want to see that intentional shared planning between the

[1:35:56] gen ed teacher and the EC teacher. We want to make sure there are clearly defined

[1:36:00] roles for both teachers, and that both teachers are actively engaged in

[1:36:04] instruction. In our resource settings, we want to make sure that our instruction is

[1:36:08] directly tied to those IEP goals, that there has been structured lesson planning,

[1:36:12] and that we are using evidence-based high leverage practices in those classes.

[1:36:18] Our third priority is instructional accountability. This is a big one.

[1:36:22] So, in our TSI schools in particular, our EC instructional coaches are going to be

[1:36:28] conducting monthly fidelity observations.

[1:36:31] These are not meant to be gotcha observations.

[1:36:33] They are designed to give us a consistent picture of what specially designed

[1:36:38] instruction looks like across our schools, and then help our schools to identify

[1:36:42] instructional priorities for each of our teachers and decide what support they may

[1:36:47] need next. An important part of that process is what we're calling instructional

[1:36:52] roundtables. And Mr. Jarvis, I think this also answers one of your questions.

[1:36:56] So twice a year, and hopefully in the future more often, our coaches are going to

[1:37:01] sit down with our school administrators and our EC teams to really look

[1:37:05] collectively. What is our data telling us? What is our student data telling us?

[1:37:08] What are those observation trends that we're seeing when our coaches are going into

[1:37:12] our classrooms?

[1:37:15] Are we using our programs with fidelity?

[1:37:18] And then if not, what areas of concern do we see?

[1:37:22] And then we're going to use that information to specifically define action steps

[1:37:26] for each school, because it's going to be different from school to school.

[1:37:29] We want to bring all of those pieces together.

[1:37:31] And then from there, you'll see similar to our compliance support plan, we have a

[1:37:35] tiered coaching model. So some of our teachers just need some routine observations

[1:37:39] and maybe some resources. Others may benefit from a full coaching cycle that

[1:37:43] includes modeling from the coaches, co-planning with the coaches, reviewing student

[1:37:48] data with the coaches, and then teachers who need that intensive support will get

[1:37:53] those frequent classroom visits, and a lot of modeling and support and

[1:37:56] collaboration.

[1:37:58] And then you'll see our fourth priority is continuous improvement.

[1:38:02] So we do not want this to be a plan that simply sits on paper.

[1:38:07] Our coaches are going to analyze all of that data, all of those trends, and then

[1:38:11] use that to determine what professional development needs we need to provide, and

[1:38:16] then adjust the priorities for our coaching throughout the year.

[1:38:20] One important part of that is we've got to strengthen our progress monitoring.

[1:38:24] And so since the beginning of school earlier this month, our teachers have been

[1:38:28] already establishing our baseline data and then using those assessments to

[1:38:33] determine where to start. And then we're going to be repeating those middle and end

[1:38:37] of year or semester. That's going to give us that clear picture of whether our

[1:38:42] students are actually growing, and it's going to allow us to make some good

[1:38:45] instructional adjustments when they are not.

[1:38:48] So we know this work will continue to evolve as we are learning, and we're learning

[1:38:53] from our data. But we believe this plan is going to give us that strong structure

[1:38:57] for instructional impact, and hopefully ultimately better outcomes for our students

[1:39:02] with disabilities. We thank you for your support.

[1:39:05] I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have about this plan or the work

[1:39:08] that we have underway.

[1:39:12] I don't have any questions. I have one recommendation or suggestion I would like to

[1:39:17] throw out there. That during some of this stuff that it sounds, and I know that you

[1:39:22] guys do, and we know it, we see it, we hear it.

[1:39:27] Take Sam along with you to some of this stuff and have her share out to the

[1:39:30] community some of the great things we do in our EC department, because I think,

[1:39:34] again, it goes back to the previous discussion we had earlier.

[1:39:37] It takes one negative and it takes 30 positive.

[1:39:40] Absolutely.

[1:39:40] And I know we've got 30 positive, but we're not oftentimes putting that out there

[1:39:45] for everyone to see. We know it in this room because we're in it every day and we

[1:39:49] hear about it, but the common person doesn't see that.

[1:39:52] It needed to amplified.

[1:39:54] Yeah.

[1:39:54] Absolutely.

[1:39:56] Amplify that. Because I know the great work you guys do, and I know when you look

[1:40:00] at the things that have been added on from a responsibility standpoint since 1970,

[1:40:05] the list for the EC department is staggering compared to everywhere else in public

[1:40:10] education. So we understand that.

[1:40:13] I think it's important that the community sees what you guys do on a day-to-day

[1:40:17] basis more so.

[1:40:19] Thank you. That's great.

[1:40:20] That's all I have. We appreciate all you do.

[1:40:22] At the end of your progress monitoring expectations, there's a highlighted section

[1:40:26] there. It says, "Under construction, the data dashboard for EC."

[1:40:29] Yes.

[1:40:29] Is that something that can be, once it is constructed, is that something that can

[1:40:34] be open to the board, to the public?

[1:40:37] Yeah.

[1:40:38] How can we help with that information?

[1:40:41] Sure. We can compile and share that with you. We'd be happy to.

[1:40:45] They're a little different from school to school, well obviously,

[1:40:49] because the

[1:40:52] tools that are being used are different-

[1:40:54] Mm-hmm

[1:40:54] ... at the middle school level versus the high school level versus the elementary

[1:40:57] school level. But yeah, we can absolutely share that data.

[1:41:00] Just wondering if we could exploit that data to people to, like you were talking

[1:41:04] about-

[1:41:04] Yeah

[1:41:04] ... get them in the know.

[1:41:05] Mm-hmm.

[1:41:06] And not just for positive, but just for data in general.

[1:41:09] Yeah.

[1:41:09] Especially the EC families.

[1:41:11] They're really got eyes on all of the criteria.

[1:41:14] Absolutely.

[1:41:15] Sure.

[1:41:15] Yeah, the more informed they are, the better it is.

[1:41:18] The less problems.

[1:41:19] Yes, exactly.

[1:41:20] You know, I'm amazed at how many of our high school folks, when they have a

[1:41:24] one-to-one in their classroom, how positive of an experience it is, right?

[1:41:28] And a lot of times you think, "Oh, it's going to be a disruption, and we've got

[1:41:31] this..." More times than not, having that one-to-one, having that assistance in

[1:41:35] there, is a positive for all the children in that classroom, right?

[1:41:38] Mm-hmm.

[1:41:38] Your gen ed folks and those that maybe have a disability.

[1:41:42] And again, I don't think we do a good enough job reflecting that in the community

[1:41:47] of what that means to those kids that are your typical kids, right?

[1:41:50] Yes.

[1:41:51] And being inclusive and understanding that.

[1:41:55] So-

[1:41:55] Absolutely

[1:41:56] ... I would encourage to continue to do more of that.

[1:41:59] Will do.

[1:42:00] Thank you for this information.

[1:42:01] Thank you.

[1:42:03] Yeah.

[1:42:05] Thank you.

[1:42:05] Anything else?

[1:42:06] That's it.

[1:42:06] Thank you all so much.

[1:42:07] Thank you. As you can see, these ladies work extremely hard, and when we talk about

[1:42:12] the world of exceptional children, there are so many facets within, and that's

[1:42:17] already been shared. A lot of work goes into it.

[1:42:20] But you're right, we need to accentuate and share the positives.

[1:42:23] There are many positives happening, and oftentimes when it comes to

[1:42:29] exceptional children, is you only hear the negatives.

[1:42:32] And so we'll start sharing the newsletter with the board, but then

[1:42:38] also we'll do a better job of maybe in the weekly board briefs, instead of just

[1:42:43] highlighting some things that happen, sharing some specific comments from what has

[1:42:48] taken place this week. And of course, getting Samantha to go out and cover that and

[1:42:54] run it on social media as well. So thank you for that.

[1:42:57] Yeah.

[1:42:57] Great suggestions. Also, I wanted to add this.

[1:43:00] When someone asked the question about communication, I believe it was you, Mr.

[1:43:03] Chairman. One thing we talked about is also putting out a Google Form

[1:43:09] survey to EC teachers to collect some information and

[1:43:15] feedback from them, especially as we look at these two areas that we're focusing on

[1:43:20] this year to again, bring information specifically back to these ladies and to--

[1:43:26] That can then go forward to the coaches as well. So thank you for that.

[1:43:32] The next item I have this evening is the English Language Arts standards rollout.

[1:43:37] So one thing that the Department of Public Instruction has been doing for the last

[1:43:42] six years is, um, developing the next set of

[1:43:47] standards, K12, for English language arts.

[1:43:51] In your packet, I have given you an infographic of our rollout for the new ELA

[1:43:57] standards, as well as a timeline for that rollout.

[1:44:02] And tonight, I just wanted to give you a brief overview of this.

[1:44:08] Davidson County Schools will be rolling out these new ELA standards, K12, under the

[1:44:13] banner of A Year of Learning or a Future of Success, and

[1:44:19] that is to equip our teachers. This year is considered the installation

[1:44:25] year by the Department of Public Instruction.

[1:44:27] What that means is, because there have been significant changes in

[1:44:33] the K12 ELA standards, they want teachers

[1:44:38] well-versed and educated on what those changes are, so that teachers can

[1:44:44] begin right now thinking about how the new standards compare to the standards

[1:44:50] they're currently teaching, and they have been teaching for the last nine years.

[1:44:56] Because as I said, there are substantial changes.

[1:44:59] So I want you to understand what some of those changes are and why we're going to

[1:45:03] do a year of rolling this out with our staff.

[1:45:07] First, these new standards align directly with the science of reading.

[1:45:12] That's the K-5 letters training that our K-5 teachers are all required, and

[1:45:18] EC teachers in K-5 are required to take part in.

[1:45:22] These standards are also evidence-based practices for ELA instruction.

[1:45:28] They focus on building student knowledge, vocabulary, and

[1:45:33] comprehension. I'm really excited for October the 5th.

[1:45:37] You're going to hear what Davidson County Schools has already done in building

[1:45:41] student knowledge, and we're on the cutting edge of some great work happening

[1:45:46] across the state of North Carolina. So stay tuned.

[1:45:48] We're excited to share that with you.

[1:45:51] These new standards also ensure consistency and coherence across grade levels.

[1:45:56] They prepare students to not only be college-ready, but career-ready, or perhaps

[1:46:02] just for success in life. Full implementation of the new ELA

[1:46:07] standards and state testing on these new ELA standards, so that's third, fourth,

[1:46:12] and fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth EOG reading tests, as well

[1:46:18] as English 2, all of that will take place in the 2027/2028 school

[1:46:24] year. Again, that is the reason we cannot wait to put these standards in front of

[1:46:30] our teachers. If we wait until the end of the school year and then begin to roll

[1:46:34] this out, our teachers are behind and are playing catch up all year long next

[1:46:40] year with understanding new standards.

[1:46:43] So to simplify this for you, I just want you to understand what we're going to be

[1:46:47] doing. This school year, we have designed a continuous cycle of professional

[1:46:53] learning to ensure that our teachers are fully prepared for next school year with

[1:46:58] these new ELA standards. Our ultimate goal is to develop confident

[1:47:04] teachers with a deep understanding of these new ELA standards that reflect

[1:47:10] high-quality instruction and maximize classroom impact.

[1:47:16] So we're going to do that. You probably are saying, "Well, how are you going to do

[1:47:19] that?" Well, first, we're going to build capacity, and we do that by the curriculum

[1:47:23] directors will lead monthly professional development sessions with our

[1:47:28] instructional coaches that are in all of our schools. So Ms.

[1:47:32] Willard will work with the elementary instructional coaches, Ms.

[1:47:35] Bush with the middle school, and Dr.

[1:47:37] Milstead with high school to focus on the new ELA standards.

[1:47:42] From there, the instructional coaches will do the school level training.

[1:47:46] So they will take the exact same model that is utilized with them

[1:47:52] to return to their respective schools and train model strategies and support

[1:47:58] ELA teachers as they begin to take a look and learn and understand these new

[1:48:03] standards. They can also incorporate some of these strategies in with this year's

[1:48:08] standards. The third piece of that is resources and pacing

[1:48:14] alignment. In the spring, we will pull teams of teachers together and instructional

[1:48:20] coaches, just as we did this past spring, and they will work with the

[1:48:26] directors to align pacing and our pacing guides, as well as all of our

[1:48:31] instructional resources, to guarantee consistency, to have that

[1:48:36] coherence across the district, and ensure that we have high-quality instruction in

[1:48:42] all of our classrooms next school year.

[1:48:46] One thing that I am happy to say in my conversations with the Department of Public

[1:48:50] Instruction as part of this rollout and in the training that I've been a part of

[1:48:55] with our directors, Davidson County Schools is in a good spot.

[1:49:00] We have been saving our textbook allocated dollars from the

[1:49:05] state to look at perhaps purchasing a core reading

[1:49:10] program to help align with these new standards.

[1:49:15] But in my conversations with them, they said, "You're in better shape than most

[1:49:18] districts." Because a lot of districts have already adopted, and so they're going

[1:49:21] to have to take what they've already purchased and make that align to these

[1:49:26] standards. If not, supplement other pieces to have the alignment.

[1:49:32] We have our set aside dollars from textbook dollars to purchase the resources we

[1:49:38] need to teach these standards. And so I'm really excited about that, and I'll be

[1:49:43] sharing more information with this board once we get into the spring and we're

[1:49:47] really ready to take a look at that.

[1:49:50] So just to summarize for you, Davidson County Schools is taking a

[1:49:55] proactive phased approach to these new ELA standards.

[1:50:01] We're going to use '26, '27 school year as a dedicated year of professional

[1:50:07] learning and resource alignment so that our teachers

[1:50:12] K-12 who teach ELA standards that our teachers and our students are fully supported

[1:50:18] ahead of the 2027-'28 school year, and before the

[1:50:23] '27-'28 assessment transition occurs, because we know any time there's

[1:50:29] new standards and there's a new test, there's always a gap in there.

[1:50:34] So we're hoping to be proactive by really working on this and rolling this out this

[1:50:40] year. Also in your packet, I'm not going to go through it for you because you can

[1:50:44] see that, you will see our installation timeline by levels.

[1:50:49] So that's in there so you can see what we're going to be doing at the elementary

[1:50:53] level, the middle school level, and the high school level.

[1:50:55] They're slightly different because the standards are slightly different, but we're

[1:50:59] very excited about this work. Just wanted to bring that before you tonight because

[1:51:04] you may hear from teachers saying, "Oh, I'm still teaching the old.

[1:51:10] I'm learning the new. I'm finding a way to figure out how's this new going to work

[1:51:14] with what I'm used to teaching and I've taught the last nine years." So we wanted

[1:51:20] you to understand what we're doing with this rollout by providing you this

[1:51:24] information this evening.

[1:51:28] Any questions about that? It's really just for your information.

[1:51:32] It's good to be proactive.

[1:51:34] We like being proactive. Yes,

[1:51:37] sir. The

[1:51:43] next item I have for you this evening, I am requesting approval of a service

[1:51:47] agreement with Supportive Care ABA.

[1:51:51] This agency would like to provide applied behavior analysis services to students in

[1:51:56] Davidson County Schools that have privately contracted with Supportive Care

[1:52:02] ABA. So tonight I am bringing this memorandum of agreement before you

[1:52:08] for approval.

[1:52:11] Any questions on-

[1:52:12] They've been through the same vetting process as all the ABAs.

[1:52:15] Everything.

[1:52:15] Yes, sir. And they will have an onboarding with me before they ever step foot in

[1:52:20] our schools.

[1:52:23] Any questions? The board heard Dr.

[1:52:25] Coley's request for Supportive Care ABA for applied behavioral analysis services.

[1:52:32] Do I have a motion to approve this memorandum of agreement?

[1:52:35] I'll make a motion.

[1:52:37] Motion. Do I have a second?

[1:52:38] I'll second.

[1:52:39] All in favor?

[1:52:41] Thank you, board

[1:52:43] Thank you.

[1:52:44] The next item I have this evening, tonight I bring before you a request for the

[1:52:48] purchase of OnToCollege. This is an online software program that

[1:52:54] provides ACT prep from Baylor Enterprises Incorporated.

[1:53:00] This is a one-year contract purchase from Baylor Enterprises.

[1:53:06] The cost of this online test prep resource is

[1:53:10] $35,284, and we are using state at-risk

[1:53:15] funds. Typically, what we have done the last number of years, and I want to say

[1:53:20] probably 10 plus years, we have taken at-risk funds to give to our high schools

[1:53:26] for them to provide ACT sessions after school, also tutoring

[1:53:32] sessions after school. And what we have found, in the last seven years, is

[1:53:38] students are not interested in staying after school.

[1:53:41] Now that we have our flex time available each and every day in all of our high

[1:53:46] schools, we want to use flex time with sophomores and juniors in

[1:53:52] utilizing OnToCollege for ACT prep.

[1:53:57] We have had proven results in using OnToCollege.

[1:54:00] We haven't purchased it in several years, but when we did, we were getting proven

[1:54:05] results with using OnToCollege platform.

[1:54:09] It is engaging, it's high energy in the format of it with students, so we're very

[1:54:14] excited about this opportunity. Again, we're using the state at-risk

[1:54:20] funds to pay for this. If you look specifically at the quote,

[1:54:26] you will notice that we do not have all of our schools listed.

[1:54:29] Not all 10 high schools are listed on the quote, and there's a very good reason for

[1:54:35] that. Some of the high schools have developed their own.

[1:54:39] At Central Davidson High School, the instructional coach has developed an

[1:54:45] ACT prep program that they are using, so they have requested to receive their

[1:54:51] allocation of state at-risk funds to be used on something else that's a need at

[1:54:56] their school, based on how this was allocated per school.

[1:55:01] And then another example is at South Davidson Middle and High School.

[1:55:06] Teachers there have created a system, and they have been using that.

[1:55:10] They saw great success with it last year during flex block as they

[1:55:16] provided this small group instruction on ACT prep with students.

[1:55:21] So those are just two. All principals had the opportunity to give feedback and

[1:55:27] talk with teachers on how they wanted to proceed with ACT prep.

[1:55:32] Oak Grove High School is another one just off the top when I wasn't thinking about.

[1:55:38] They purchased Albert to support their AP classes, and Albert

[1:55:44] has an ACT prep component in it that teachers at Oak Grove High School prefer

[1:55:50] to use during flex. So, we do allow for that differentiation based on school

[1:55:56] need. But as you can see, the majority of our high schools prefer OnToCollege.

[1:56:05] I've got a question about-

[1:56:06] Yes.

[1:56:07] First of all, have you used OnToCollege before?

[1:56:09] Yes, sir. And we have proven results that it has worked well.

[1:56:13] And

[1:56:14] based on the different schools that aren't listed here, if you have four different

[1:56:17] methods to do the same ACT prep, is there a best practice that's getting better

[1:56:22] results, or is it just kind of carte blanche or whatever works for that school?

[1:56:26] Right. Well, part of it is what works best for each school.

[1:56:29] I will say we have not used OnToCollege in five years.

[1:56:34] We were seeing great results, but due to funding issues, we did not purchase

[1:56:39] OnToCollege because, again, at that time, we were using Albert district-wide with

[1:56:46] our advanced placement courses. And some schools were trying out the ACT prep

[1:56:51] portion of that, which is why Oak Grove High School chooses to use school funds to

[1:56:56] purchase that for their ACT prep and AP to support AP classrooms.

[1:57:02] So we saw proven results. And in the last two years, principals have said, "We're

[1:57:08] not able to really use our at-risk funds because students are not willing to stay

[1:57:13] after school. We would love to be able to take those funds and put them towards

[1:57:18] something that is needed in our schools that will help raise student achievement."

[1:57:23] The majority of them said, "We need ACT prep," because that is one component of

[1:57:28] high school achievement when they get their school performance grade.

[1:57:33] The others felt that what they've worked on is working and they

[1:57:38] have other needs that they would like to spend those dollars on.

[1:57:39] Across the district, they're all getting a chance at ACT prep.

[1:57:42] It just looks different at each school.

[1:57:44] Yes, sir. And then if they choose not to go with OnToCollege, they may be using

[1:57:48] their dollars that will be allocated for them for something else.

[1:57:51] And all of them are getting good results?

[1:57:53] Yes, sir. And like I said, we haven't used this in five years, but we have proven

[1:57:57] results from Oak Grove High School.

[1:57:58] From when you did use it.

[1:57:58] Yes, sir. And we didn't even have a flex block then.

[1:58:03] Mm-hmm.

[1:58:04] We had to find time to use ACT prep with OnToCollege, and most of it was after

[1:58:10] school then.

[1:58:10] After school, yeah.

[1:58:11] Yes.

[1:58:12] So this is going to be used for the pre-ACT kids that are getting-

[1:58:15] Correct

[1:58:15] ... ready in a flex situation.

[1:58:18] Absolutely.

[1:58:18] For all kids, not just-

[1:58:20] We will target sophomores and juniors because it's their junior year they take the

[1:58:24] ACT-

[1:58:24] ACT

[1:58:24] ... but yes, we do the pre-ACT as well with the sophomores.

[1:58:31] Any questions?

[1:58:31] It saved me a whole lot of money because I paid for a program.

[1:58:35] And programs are very expensive.

[1:58:37] Expensive.

[1:58:37] Yeah.

[1:58:37] It was 300 and some dollars.

[1:58:40] Good.

[1:58:42] The board y'all heard Dr. Coley's request for Baylor Enterprises OnToCollege

[1:58:48] ACT prep, excuse me, at a cost of $35,284 paid for with state

[1:58:54] at-risk funds. Do I have a motion to approve this request?

[1:58:58] I'll make a motion.

[1:58:59] Do I have a second?

[1:59:00] I'll second.

[1:59:01] All in favor?

[1:59:03] Thank you, board members. I can assure you, you just made some high schools

[1:59:06] extremely happy about that. The final item I have this evening is Unique

[1:59:12] Learning standards-based curriculum and monitoring.

[1:59:15] Tonight I bring before you, this is a renewal

[1:59:20] that we are requesting approval of Everway for the purchase of a one-year

[1:59:24] subscription for unique learning standards, aligned content, data and assessment

[1:59:30] tools for IEP development and progress monitoring, and tools for non-verbal

[1:59:35] individuals or cognitive challenges for use in our adaptive classrooms.

[1:59:41] Unique learning is aligned to the North Carolina Extended Content Standards.

[1:59:46] This is the software that we have been using.

[1:59:48] These are the lessons teachers teach in those classrooms.

[1:59:53] It is age-appropriate, so when you think about adaptive programs,

[1:59:59] students can remain in school to age 22.

[2:00:02] So it is age-appropriate academic exposure content that is appropriate for

[2:00:08] cognitive depth with unique learning.

[2:00:11] It does provide that multi-tiered differentiation for students in our adaptive

[2:00:17] programs. And as I mentioned, it also helps students that have

[2:00:23] integrated augmentative communication needs, such as assisted

[2:00:29] technology features. It will allow for touch screens and it will allow for

[2:00:35] symbol sticks, all of those many different assisted technology pieces.

[2:00:41] And it provides real-time data and tracking for our teachers at the school

[2:00:46] level for progress monitoring of needs.

[2:00:49] So tonight, I bring this request to you for this unique learning.

[2:00:55] The cost of the extended content standards-based curriculum and monitoring is

[2:00:59] $46,560.73, and it will be paid using

[2:01:04] federal EC funds.

[2:01:08] And you did say this was a renewal?

[2:01:09] Yes, sir.

[2:01:11] So on this quote, it says it's valid until December 9, 2026.

[2:01:15] It is a full year. So-

[2:01:19] That's pretty standard. They may have just said it for the quote's good for-

[2:01:23] That's the length that the quote's good.

[2:01:25] If you look under-

[2:01:27] Terms

[2:01:28] ... the subscription starts on 9/11 and it ends on 19, 2027.

[2:01:33] Okay.

[2:01:33] So it's a whole year.

[2:01:34] Okay.

[2:01:35] Yes.

[2:01:36] Great.

[2:01:36] Is this the only program that the adaptive-

[2:01:39] This is their primary program because it's aligned to the extended content

[2:01:43] standards. There are some other supplemental tools that we use, but this is their

[2:01:49] primary

[2:01:51] lessons with the extended content standards. Yes.

[2:01:56] And this meets the needs of all our schools for our EC-

[2:01:59] On the extended content standards for our adaptive students. Yes.

[2:02:02] Regardless if they're in a program at the school level or Thurston or Thomas.

[2:02:06] Okay.

[2:02:06] They all use it.

[2:02:07] Thank you.

[2:02:08] Yes, ma'am.

[2:02:11] The board heard Dr. Coley's request for the purchase of Everway, an IEP development

[2:02:17] and progress monitoring tool, at a cost of

[2:02:20] $46,560.73. We'll use federal EC funds.

[2:02:26] Do I have a motion to approve this request?

[2:02:28] I'll make a motion.

[2:02:30] I have a motion, and I have a second.

[2:02:31] Second.

[2:02:32] All in favor?

[2:02:33] Thank you so much. Our adaptive teachers will remain very happy. Thank you.

[2:02:38] Absolutely.

[2:02:41] Oh, my Lord.

[2:02:44] Dr.

[2:02:46] Hilton.

[2:03:00] Good evening, board members and Dr. Slate.

[2:03:03] I want to talk to you just a little bit about hiring, recruitment, and retention.

[2:03:07] Last year, I gave a brief report on that information, so I'm going to cover that

[2:03:11] again tonight.

[2:03:14] So first off, I want to start with hiring, and on page three, you'll see our

[2:03:18] historical hiring data.

[2:03:21] And that goes from 2022 all the way through to 2025-26.

[2:03:28] First part of that talks about classified hires.

[2:03:31] You see we started with 250, and it's been relatively consistent throughout the

[2:03:36] last four years, 276, 275, and 270.

[2:03:41] Now if you look at the second line, you see certified hires, 154,

[2:03:47] 157, 153, and 138. And the only reason that is a little bit lower, I think, is

[2:03:52] because our enrollment is going down a little bit, has went down a little bit.

[2:03:57] So in 2022, our enrollment was 17,800 students, and

[2:04:03] now it's 17,246 students. And so certified positions are

[2:04:09] attached to our student enrollment.

[2:04:10] So as student enrollment, if it drops, then you're going to see certified hires

[2:04:14] drop a little bit. Substitute teachers, I do want to point that out.

[2:04:19] We had 155 hires last year, and something good, we started

[2:04:25] the new substitute onboarding program this past year, this past summer,

[2:04:31] and we've already seen 113 actually go through the program.

[2:04:35] So we're well ahead right now on that.

[2:04:38] From what I understand, they told me, I think part of the reason is they're not

[2:04:42] having to pay the $50 to do it. And so we're seeing a big uptake in subs that want

[2:04:48] to work for us. Total subs that we have as of right now, last year, we had about

[2:04:53] 600, and right now we have about 715. So which is good.

[2:04:58] When you think about the overall district, that means there's about over 3,000

[2:05:02] employees in our district working. Yep.

[2:05:07] If you go to the next one, vacancy September 2023 to 2026.

[2:05:13] And you see, in September '23, we had 33 certified vacancies at this time.

[2:05:18] The next year was 43. Last year we had 11, and then this year we have 26.

[2:05:24] Of those 26,

[2:05:27] six of those are regular ed teaching positions.

[2:05:31] We added three of those actually because of

[2:05:36] numbers with kindergarten and things like that.

[2:05:37] But, overall, if you look at the totals, September '23, we were at

[2:05:43] 95. September '24, we had 120 vacancies, 54 and 25,

[2:05:49] and then September '26, we're at 78.

[2:05:51] So we're still much better off than we were with 120 that we were at two years ago.

[2:05:57] And then 95 the year before that.

[2:06:01] So recruitment, I want to talk about recruitment just a little bit.

[2:06:05] Recruitment efforts '24, '25. You see these are some of the universities that we

[2:06:09] attended for recruitment fairs. And you can see that our biggest recruiter is

[2:06:14] actually not a fair, it is student teaching and internships.

[2:06:18] And I think our folks come in, they meet our principals, they meet some of the

[2:06:22] other teachers and staff, and they say, "This is a good place to work." And so

[2:06:25] that's primarily how we get our people, is through that. We got 15 that year.

[2:06:31] You see some of these, we had zero. Just getting one person through a fair actually

[2:06:36] is a pretty big deal. And I say that because a person coming from the traditional

[2:06:41] pathway is going to

[2:06:44] be more prepared and ready. And so if you get a person going through a traditional

[2:06:50] program, that's a big deal. And so although some of those have one, some of

[2:06:56] them have zero. And, if there is a zero there, we've looked at that.

[2:07:01] Like North Carolina State, we were competing against Wake County, so we didn't

[2:07:05] continue going to State. Pembroke just didn't have a lot of people either.

[2:07:10] If you look at '25, '26,

[2:07:14] you see again, our biggest recruiter is student teachers.

[2:07:18] We had 12 that were hired.

[2:07:21] App State did give us another one. But within those student teachers

[2:07:27] are the universities that we have. So like App State provides student teachers.

[2:07:32] UNCG provides student teachers. High Point University provides student teachers.

[2:07:36] So

[2:07:37] when we go to a fair, we're just trying to get extra people if we can.

[2:07:40] It's kind of like the icing on top if we can get one of those people.

[2:07:43] And sometimes we do, and sometimes we don't.

[2:07:47] If you look at the next one, '26, '27, this is where we're going this year.

[2:07:51] In October, App State is the first one. That's a big fair.

[2:07:55] They'll have over 120-some graduates, typically.

[2:08:00] East Carolina, App State again, High Point University, UNC Charlotte, UNC

[2:08:05] Greensboro, and UNC Wilmington.

[2:08:10] And then the number of student teachers, last year we had 34.

[2:08:14] The year before that, we had 25 Thus far we have 25, but that's just thus

[2:08:19] far.

[2:08:21] Right now, as we continue throughout the year, we'll add to that number.

[2:08:25] I would hope that number would be at 35 or 40 before the year is done.

[2:08:28] So that's a good sign that we're getting that many student teachers this early.

[2:08:35] Our student-teacher partnerships, if you look, we have 25 total placements right

[2:08:39] now.

[2:08:40] High Point University,

[2:08:43] we have nine student teachers from High Point University right now, which is the

[2:08:46] most we've ever had,

[2:08:48] which is fantastic. App State usually provides quite a few for us as well.

[2:08:53] UNCG, and you see all of these are working with us this year.

[2:08:57] So 25 total placements this year. It's good.

[2:09:00] I think we're in a good spot right now, and we'll continue to add to those.

[2:09:05] Next, priorities for recruitment 2026, '27.

[2:09:08] So obviously hiring top graduates is one of the biggest for us, and that is getting

[2:09:14] folks from traditional education programs.

[2:09:19] And the reason being because, number one, the turnover rate for those folks is

[2:09:22] lower. And it's a big deal to get someone that's gone through a traditional program

[2:09:27] because they've had the internships, they've had the student teaching, they're just

[2:09:30] going to be much more well prepared to go into the classroom.

[2:09:35] Overall, we have about 50% of our folks going through traditional programs right

[2:09:39] now that we hire, and about 50% are alternative licensure.

[2:09:44] And alternative licensure being those folks that are stepping into the classroom,

[2:09:48] they have a degree, but they have not done any internships or student teaching or

[2:09:52] anything like that. So we average about 50%, but the state average is

[2:09:58] actually only 27%. So right now, 73% of the teachers hired around the

[2:10:03] state are alternative licensure, which is pretty wild. Things have changed a lot.

[2:10:08] Talking about 10 years.

[2:10:09] Yeah.

[2:10:10] Right.

[2:10:11] Yeah.

[2:10:11] It's like it wasn't even an option for a while.

[2:10:15] Yeah, it's crazy. Yeah.

[2:10:16] It was very strict and rigid if it was.

[2:10:18] Yeah. And so now we're 50/50, so we're actually doing quite well compared to the

[2:10:23] state.

[2:10:23] Right.

[2:10:23] Yeah.

[2:10:25] Continue to hire classified staff,

[2:10:30] filling vital roles across the district.

[2:10:34] Early contracts, I'm not sure what this stuff is right there on there, but early

[2:10:38] contracts, we had four last year. We hired four early contracts last year, and we

[2:10:44] want to do more this year. And then finally, Internship to Impact.

[2:10:50] That was a recruiting event we held last year. That was a big deal.

[2:10:54] We're going to do another one of those, so we're going to do two this year, and

[2:10:58] we're going to invite the universities again.

[2:11:01] Typically, it's a big deal for the student teachers when they get to hear the

[2:11:03] superintendent speak, and so we'll have Dr. Slate speaking.

[2:11:08] I think it was this summer actually that we had someone we were hiring came in and

[2:11:13] Dr. Slate was making the rounds around the office, and he just popped in and said

[2:11:17] hey to them. And they were from another district.

[2:11:20] They couldn't believe the superintendent had come in and talked to them.

[2:11:23] So,

[2:11:25] it's a big deal to some of these folks that the superintendent would care and would

[2:11:28] take his time out of his day to speak to them.

[2:11:33] So finally, retention. If you look at our numbers, these are our attrition data.

[2:11:40] And you can see it goes back '23, '24, and '25.

[2:11:46] And those are DCS averages. So attrition being people that leave us and go either

[2:11:51] to another district or leave and go to retire, get another profession, whatever.

[2:11:58] So the DCS attrition data, you see it, the lower the better obviously, because

[2:12:03] that's 12% of those teachers leaving, 11% and 12%, compared to Piedmont

[2:12:08] Triad and then compared to the LEA North Carolina rate.

[2:12:13] So

[2:12:14] as you look at the last three years, we're quite a bit better in all three of those

[2:12:17] factors.

[2:12:21] And for '24, '25, this comes from DPI's attrition rates.

[2:12:26] They run this report in March typically of every year, so we'll get the '25, '26

[2:12:32] data next year.

[2:12:34] So you see where we're at. We were fifth out of all the school districts in the

[2:12:39] Piedmont Triad,

[2:12:42] which I thought was good. And you look as far as larger districts,

[2:12:47] no district that's as large as us was ahead of us.

[2:12:51] And that number obviously goes down, you can see quite a bit, to some of the

[2:12:56] districts are losing quite a few folks.

[2:13:01] But we are 12.8%.

[2:13:05] And then teachers that moved to us from other districts, you see we got a lot of

[2:13:10] folks from Winston-Salem/Forsyth

[2:13:13] last year. We won Thomasville City, Randolph, Guilford, and there were several

[2:13:19] districts that we got at least one person from.

[2:13:21] The Winston-Salem/Forsyth, I'll be curious to see with the '25, '26 data how many

[2:13:27] we got from Winston-Salem/Forsyth for next year.

[2:13:30] You think it'll increase or decrease?

[2:13:33] I wouldn't be surprised if it's higher, actually.

[2:13:35] Yeah.

[2:13:40] All right, and then the beginning teacher retention rate, over there to the side,

[2:13:44] you see the DCS state attrition rate.

[2:13:48] That's what the state's concerned with, and that means people that actually got out

[2:13:51] of the profession-

[2:13:53] Mm-hmm

[2:13:53] ... and just left it completely.

[2:13:56] And ours was 11.7%. The state's is 14.7.

[2:14:00] So again, we're much lower than the state average,

[2:14:03] and hopefully we'll continue to do that.

[2:14:05] We don't have the state average for '25, '26 yet, but we'll get that in March of

[2:14:09] next year.

[2:14:16] All right, and finally,

[2:14:20] leadership culture and support.

[2:14:23] You'll see that the last one's our principal retention,

[2:14:27] as you see there.

[2:14:29] And principal retention obviously a key aspect of retention strategies.

[2:14:37] One of the biggest indicators of teacher retention is the principal.

[2:14:40] They play the biggest factor, and so I think that's a key thing as far as retention

[2:14:46] strategies is that hiring, developing, and retaining high-performing principals is

[2:14:50] a key piece of that. Recognition and appreciation of all district staff members,

[2:14:56] and then the continued robust beginning teacher support program.

[2:15:02] Any questions about our retention data, attrition data?

[2:15:05] Under staff culture, what is the Emoji event?

[2:15:08] I don't know. I was just looking at that too.

[2:15:09] That's why I didn't-

[2:15:11] I think it's just with your icons.

[2:15:13] Yeah. I think it's just icons. Yeah.

[2:15:15] Yeah, they converted your icons into emojis.

[2:15:18] Any questions about attrition or retention?

[2:15:21] Thank you, Dr. Hildreth.

[2:15:22] Good job.

[2:15:23] Thank you.

[2:15:23] Yeah.

[2:15:24] Appreciate it. Absolutely.

[2:15:30] And if I may, real quick on what Dr. Hildreth covered, your student teachers.

[2:15:36] Dr. Hildreth, thank you for that because

[2:15:41] we have affiliation agreements with all these universities, and I review

[2:15:47] all of them, I believe, to make sure it has the standard language that we

[2:15:53] need and want in those agreements, and often wondered what our return on investment

[2:15:59] was, and it seems significant. So I'm grateful for that.

[2:16:03] Seems like the best.

[2:16:04] Oh, yeah.

[2:16:04] Seems like the most efficient, right?

[2:16:05] Yeah. And I did not know that until now, so thank you.

[2:16:08] And I will say to our educators, that's not only in education.

[2:16:11] Hands-on approach is our largest means of employment outside of education as well,

[2:16:16] so it's important that our students have hands-on opportunities to grow into those

[2:16:20] roles that they're looking to accomplish.

[2:16:22] Yep.

[2:16:25] Mr. Johnston?

[2:16:30] Hi, Priest.

[2:16:32] Good evening, board, from operations again.

[2:16:35] Our first

[2:16:36] item this evening comes from Walburg Elementary School.

[2:16:41] On behalf of Walburg Elementary School and the PTO, they're requesting to

[2:16:47] purchase and install a digital sign from Burchett Sign Corporation at a cost of

[2:16:52] $28,000. This purchase will be paid for by the Walburg PTO.

[2:16:59] You should have in your packet some detailed information about that sign,

[2:17:05] specs, and that kind of thing. And we have Principal John Bonventre here if you

[2:17:10] have any specific questions.

[2:17:16] Do we have the power and everything needed?

[2:17:18] Yes, it's all there.

[2:17:19] All there.

[2:17:20] There's an illuminate sign already there.

[2:17:21] Yeah, I knew there was a sign. I didn't know if it'd be enough to run that visual

[2:17:24] board.

[2:17:28] You can't beat that if it's the PTO.

[2:17:31] Absolutely. No, yeah. Right.

[2:17:35] Any questions on this?

[2:17:37] In that situation, do you get more than one quote?

[2:17:40] Yes. We actually, I think I was at five quotes.

[2:17:44] That was obviously the best price, and the company that communicated well with us

[2:17:49] as well. Like I say, the next best was about 31,000, and they ranged all the way to

[2:17:55] 41,000-

[2:17:56] Wow

[2:17:56] ... I believe one actually had it at 50,000.

[2:17:59] For a very similar

[2:18:02] product.

[2:18:02] And the Burchette family are also Davidson County Schools alumni.

[2:18:08] Thank you.

[2:18:09] Yep, absolutely.

[2:18:13] Board, you've heard Mr. Johnson's request for Burchette Signs at a cost of

[2:18:18] $28,350

[2:18:24] paid with the PTO to purchase an illuminated new LED

[2:18:30] sign. Do I have a motion to approve this request?

[2:18:32] I'll make a motion.

[2:18:33] I'll second.

[2:18:34] Shabicha, Sherry will second. All in favor?

[2:18:38] Good deal. Thank you for being here tonight.

[2:18:40] Thank you.

[2:18:40] Yes, absolutely.

[2:18:44] Our next item, board, comes from North Davidson High School.

[2:18:48] This is an easement request from Duke Energy for the installation and

[2:18:54] the maintenance of electrical transformers.

[2:18:58] So if you'll just walk through, first of all, you have an easement document,

[2:19:04] and then behind the easement document, you'll have a map of the area

[2:19:11] that we're speaking of. And what you have there, and I'll turn my notebook around

[2:19:15] so I can read it, you have several items there.

[2:19:19] First of all, you have existing

[2:19:22] transformers, you have existing underground lines, and so the goal

[2:19:28] here is to replace the existing lines with new lines,

[2:19:34] and then to also remove a transformer and then add a transformer.

[2:19:40] So this is a request coming from Duke Energy to make these changes.

[2:19:45] We don't have a timeline on that. What we'll do is we'll get this back to Duke

[2:19:49] Energy, and then we'll work with the school schedule on when's the best time to

[2:19:53] conduct this work. And of course, as you read the easement, the

[2:19:58] goal is that they'll return everything back to normal before the job is completed.

[2:20:09] Any questions on this?

[2:20:11] Just outdated equipment?

[2:20:12] Yes, sir.

[2:20:14] Underground line and equipment.

[2:20:18] Board, you've heard Mr. Johnson's request for an easement at North Davidson High

[2:20:23] School from Duke Energy. Do I have a motion to approve this request?

[2:20:28] I make a motion.

[2:20:29] Do I have a second?

[2:20:30] Second.

[2:20:31] All in favor?

[2:20:34] Good deal. Thank you.

[2:20:38] All right. Thank you, board. Our next item comes from, again, North Davidson Middle

[2:20:43] School. This is the chiller replacement project.

[2:20:47] We request your approval to award

[2:20:50] Superior Mechanical Services to complete the work there at North Davidson Middle

[2:20:56] School. The bid price is $136,575, and that will be

[2:21:02] paid using capital funds. In your packet, you should have a letter of

[2:21:06] recommendation from CES. This job, like all our jobs,

[2:21:12] we had that as advertised, and then we had a public bid opening.

[2:21:16] And there on the next page, you see the bid tabulation that was created by CES as a

[2:21:22] result of that bid opening. And again, our request

[2:21:27] is to award this to Superior Mechanical Services.

[2:21:36] Any questions for Mr. Johnson on this? The board have heard Mr.

[2:21:39] Johnson's request to

[2:21:42] award-

[2:21:46] Superior.

[2:21:47] Superior Mechanical Services.

[2:21:48] Superior Mechanical Services at a cost of $136,575

[2:21:55] paid using capital funds to replace a chiller at North Davidson Middle School.

[2:21:59] Do I have a motion to approve this request?

[2:22:01] I'll make a motion.

[2:22:02] I'll second.

[2:22:03] All in favor?

[2:22:05] All right. Thank you, board. Our next item comes from Transportation Department

[2:22:11] this evening. We have our Director of Transportation, Brad Sweatman.

[2:22:14] He's going to talk to you a little bit about routing and tier scheduling, so I'll

[2:22:18] turn it over to Mr. Sweatman at this time.

[2:22:25] Good evening, board members and Dr. Slate.

[2:22:27] Thank you all for allowing me here to review Davidson County Schools' bus routes,

[2:22:32] the data that we pass on to DPI, how that data impacts our funding, and a potential

[2:22:38] option that our routing department will begin work on over the next few weeks.

[2:22:42] So to start off with just some general data about our fleet.

[2:22:46] Davidson County Schools currently utilizes 176 route buses.

[2:22:51] We have 158 regular education buses with an additional 18 EC

[2:22:57] buses. We also maintain 27 route buses for Thomasville City Schools and Lexington

[2:23:02] City Schools. As of this past Friday, we have 9,957 students

[2:23:08] assigned to Davidson County School buses, 9,727 of those on our regular

[2:23:14] education buses and 230 on our EC buses.

[2:23:19] Currently, this week, we are conducting our TD2 student ridership count.

[2:23:25] This is an important report that we collect for DPI that plays a tremendous

[2:23:30] impact on our funding. This is an actual snapshot of our student riders for this

[2:23:35] particular week.

[2:23:37] We also currently utilize nearly 40 buses that run multiple runs.

[2:23:42] So we are kind of trying to take advantage of a tiered system already, but we are

[2:23:48] very limited on the time we have in the afternoon to utilize any more than 40

[2:23:52] buses. And often those buses will arrive a little bit later than dismissal times

[2:23:57] for our middle school and high school students.

[2:24:01] To give you an overview on how our routing department works, we utilize a

[2:24:05] DPI-supported Transportation Information Management System, this is TIMS, to build

[2:24:10] and maintain bus routing data. TIMS allows DCS route specialists to route buses

[2:24:16] efficiently and safely as possible.

[2:24:19] The use of TIMS also gives DCS transportation personnel access to DPI support staff

[2:24:24] based at UNC Charlotte and NC State.

[2:24:27] These folks are the folks that we call when we have issues.

[2:24:30] They also can look at our data and help us in many different ways if we have

[2:24:34] questions with a particular route or issues with the TIMS system.

[2:24:38] They also give new folks that we hire in the routing department additional training

[2:24:43] on the TIMS routing software. TDTIMS is the annual DPI report required by all

[2:24:48] districts, and this is also another report that we turn in late fall that goes into

[2:24:53] the model for our funding.

[2:24:56] TIMS will be utilized to create bus routes to support a tiered bell system, and

[2:25:01] this also gives us the potential option to benefit many aspects of our bus

[2:25:07] operations.

[2:25:09] Just to go over some benefits and considerations that we view with the tiered bell

[2:25:13] schedule. First off, successful tiered bells transportation plans require an

[2:25:18] adequate time span between bell times for the best efficiency.

[2:25:23] We prefer a 45-minute to one-hour time span because this will allow the majority of

[2:25:29] our fleet to be utilized for both tiered times.

[2:25:33] The benefits, more efficient use of district bus fleet.

[2:25:37] This is typically the idea that you use less buses to transport the same number of

[2:25:43] students, and in turn, that will positively impact our state funding formula.

[2:25:48] State funding for transportation is based heavily on efficiency.

[2:25:52] So the more efficient you are, the more of your eligible expenses that you will

[2:25:56] receive from DPI.

[2:25:59] A reduction in student ride times at all levels due to more buses being used for

[2:26:03] each bell time. This might sound counterintuitive, but you actually reduce your

[2:26:07] fleet, but it does give you the opportunity to throw more buses at each tiered

[2:26:11] schedule to help with times for students.

[2:26:15] And then lastly, increased bus driver recruitment and retention.

[2:26:19] This typically means that more hours are guaranteed to our bus drivers, as well as

[2:26:24] potential eligibility for benefits.

[2:26:26] We are currently dealing with a few locations that are having to

[2:26:31] double route right now. So they are lacking the drivers they need, and they might

[2:26:36] have drivers out sick that they can't find a replacement for and are pulling from

[2:26:41] multiple different schools in the area.

[2:26:43] And particularly in our north area with the way our boundaries lie, a lot of those

[2:26:48] elementaries are supporting multiple middle and highs with their sub drivers

[2:26:53] Some considerations to take into account.

[2:26:56] A tiered schedule will have impacts on family scheduling around the new bell times,

[2:27:01] whether it be bus stop times or potential childcare.

[2:27:03] We also have a pre-K through third policy about drop-off, where if they don't have

[2:27:08] a signed form, we do not drop those students off.

[2:27:12] Route buses will generate preventive maintenance orders quicker due to higher

[2:27:15] miles. DPI, all of our buses are in a software that monitors miles,

[2:27:21] and those miles trigger preventive maintenance orders at certain intervals.

[2:27:26] So if your buses are running more miles, those preventive maintenance orders will

[2:27:29] come in quicker. Breakdowns will impact bus runs for the next bell time.

[2:27:34] Obviously, if you've got a route behind another route, if a bus breaks down, we'll

[2:27:40] have to-- That time for all those other students will be pushed back until we get a

[2:27:43] spare bus or that bus can be fixed. And then lastly, our fueling routes may need to

[2:27:47] be adjusted to accommodate an increase in mileage per day for some buses.

[2:27:51] So, all right. And now let's talk about funding.

[2:27:55] Funding for transportation is a little complicated.

[2:27:59] It's mostly built around efficiency and eligible expenses.

[2:28:03] Our eligible expenses are our bus parts, our fuel, our driver pay.

[2:28:08] As many of you know, fuel has increased tremendously.

[2:28:12] I believe we had fuel rates of $5.10 to $5.40 a gallon last

[2:28:18] week. So we had two deliveries last week.

[2:28:21] So we're anticipating nearly an $80,000 bill in fuel next week or for this past

[2:28:26] week. DPI utilizes a series of reports the districts complete to determine our

[2:28:31] eligible expenses, our fleet data, and our student transportation data.

[2:28:35] These all range from TD1, TD2, TD2R.

[2:28:40] TD stands for Transportation Department, if you're curious.

[2:28:44] But all of these go into the budget simulator and model that DPI uses to generate

[2:28:48] our allotment. Districts with higher efficiency ratings receive a larger portion of

[2:28:53] the DPI state allotment. Currently, we sit at 95.47% efficient,

[2:28:59] which is pretty good, but we also have Thomasville City Schools and Lexington City

[2:29:04] Schools in our data. So all of our data is combined, and it generates an efficiency

[2:29:09] for all three districts that are equal between them for their particular allotment.

[2:29:13] Thomasville City Schools and Lexington City Schools receive an allotment, but it

[2:29:17] doesn't count for the fuel or the maintenance of the buses.

[2:29:20] Theirs are more so for driver pay and other things that account for those drivers.

[2:29:28] A tiered bus routing would increase this percentage and allow DCS to receive a

[2:29:33] greater portion of our allotment.

[2:29:35] So just a 3% to 4% would be very beneficial with a multimillion-dollar budget from

[2:29:40] DPI. So just the 3% to 4% of that allotment is a considerable amount and would pay

[2:29:45] for quite a few weeks of fuel.

[2:29:50] And then lastly, what are our goals with a tiered bell schedule?

[2:29:54] An accurate assessment of a DCS tiered bell bus plan will require the building and

[2:29:59] optimization of routes in the TIMS routing system.

[2:30:02] So our folks are going to take careful time. They're going to build these routes.

[2:30:05] They're going to look at them, make sure they're safe, make sure our students-- No

[2:30:09] changes are made to these routes that would impact student safety.

[2:30:14] Per conversations with DPI staff and in-house assessments, a greater than 20%

[2:30:19] reduction in our bus fleet is possible.

[2:30:22] The one area that I would not see this increase truly possible would be our EC

[2:30:27] fleet. They already travel such great distances and cover so many school

[2:30:32] boundaries, from one student having to cross potentially maybe Churchland over to

[2:30:38] Fairgrove or somewhere in the south area up towards East Davidson or even

[2:30:44] further. So there's a lot of our EC fleet that those 18 buses have such a

[2:30:48] complicated, overlapping network of bus routes that any kind of modification to

[2:30:53] them would take a considerable effort, and we don't really want to impact those

[2:30:58] students' ride times as they already are.

[2:31:01] So I don't see us dropping too many buses for EC because I don't want to impact

[2:31:06] those students in any way.

[2:31:10] We could potentially expand on the number of our door side stops.

[2:31:13] We have multiple roads that we

[2:31:17] know that we're not going to do a crossing stop. Just for instance, 109.

[2:31:22] We are going to do our best and utmost, everything we can to not make a crossing

[2:31:26] stop. I don't even think we have a crossing stop.

[2:31:28] But our route specialists know that that's a road that you're going to make door

[2:31:31] side, or you're going to go into a neighborhood.

[2:31:33] So if you have more buses that you can throw to an area, then you can potentially

[2:31:37] make some of these roads that you might only have one bus going up, you could have

[2:31:40] maybe one going one direction, one going another, so you can create more door side

[2:31:43] stops.

[2:31:45] We hope to reduce the average ride time for most bus riders.

[2:31:48] Again, we're throwing more buses at each tier, so hopefully those ride times will

[2:31:53] come down because you're utilizing more buses.

[2:31:55] And this will also potentially help with any crowding issues.

[2:31:59] We have our 72-capacity buses. That's all of our fleet right now is 72 capacity,

[2:32:05] and that's elementary. If you throw middle and high on, that capacity drops down to

[2:32:10] just right around 50, if not a little bit lower.

[2:32:13] So we've got to be careful on our capacity numbers.

[2:32:15] And in some areas, that might take up one or two stops, particularly in the High

[2:32:20] Point area. If you go up there, and we might have a Lepper bus that picks up three

[2:32:25] stops, and the bus is full already.

[2:32:27] And then lastly, we want to help reduce the number of buses per mechanic.

[2:32:32] Currently, we have eight mechanics. We are down mechanics at this time.

[2:32:36] So anything we can do to reduce the number of buses that they're having to cover

[2:32:40] would be super beneficial for us. They would take on a number of park status buses

[2:32:45] if we were to park buses after this, but those buses can be used for spare buses,

[2:32:51] and eventually they are incorporated into the fleet with self-replacement.

[2:32:55] So with that, I'd like to thank you for your time and your consideration of this

[2:32:58] option in the future. And if anyone had any questions, I'd be more than happy to

[2:33:01] help answer them.

[2:33:03] I have just one quick question from the previous page on funding from DPI.

[2:33:07] Yeah.

[2:33:09] Is it a combined efficiency rate of 95.47 with the other two?

[2:33:13] And if that's the case, I know you differentiated part of that. You broke it out.

[2:33:19] Is there anything that we can do to help them help us in that efficiency, since it

[2:33:24] affects funding?

[2:33:25] Yeah. Everything's combined. This week with the student ridership count, their

[2:33:30] numbers are combined with ours as well for when they go into the budget formula for

[2:33:34] DPI. So their efficiency, they actually might be more efficient

[2:33:40] on if you were just to pull them out with their numbers because they're using less

[2:33:44] buses in a smaller area. So they have the capacity to run those buses through an

[2:33:49] area multiple times and pick more students up, whereas we have the difficulties of

[2:33:53] geography on our side.

[2:33:54] So they're actually looking better on their numbers?

[2:33:56] Yes. And I know Thomasville just parked five buses this past year, so their numbers

[2:34:01] will look significantly more improved than the previous year as well.

[2:34:05] So they're actually helping our numbers.

[2:34:06] Absolutely, yes.

[2:34:11] Any other questions?

[2:34:14] Okay.

[2:34:14] Well, thank you, and hopefully we'll have you a good plan to look at in the near

[2:34:18] future.

[2:34:20] Thank you, Brian.

[2:34:22] Can I ask an operations question?

[2:34:23] Yeah.

[2:34:24] Sorry. It's going back to the chiller plant. It's not related to buses.

[2:34:29] I know we've already voted on that.

[2:34:30] But with that being an emergency replacement, I guess I'm just trying to understand

[2:34:35] what does that timeline look like?

[2:34:37] Does it go through the same normal process to get quotes and that kind of thing, it

[2:34:42] being an emergency?

[2:34:44] No. North Davidson chiller, we had to bid out the chiller itself.

[2:34:50] Right.

[2:34:50] And then we had to bid out the contractor.

[2:34:53] But I guess the turnaround time is still the same, even though it's considered an

[2:34:58] emergency project, is what I'm asking.

[2:35:02] So, I mean, we're ready to hit the ground running getting it installed.

[2:35:05] Absolutely.

[2:35:06] I think what she's saying, is there a differentiator between those that are working

[2:35:09] that we maybe just need to replace because it ages up-

[2:35:12] Those

[2:35:12] ... and those where we've got a flatbed trailer with a temporary

[2:35:18] chiller set up in an emergency setting like we have at North Davidson?

[2:35:22] Is it the same process, or do you have

[2:35:26] ability to-

[2:35:28] Yeah, because I didn't

[2:35:29] Accelerate

[2:35:29] ... accelerate that?

[2:35:29] Okay.

[2:35:30] Is that what you're asking, Ms. Eernerman?

[2:35:32] Yeah.

[2:35:32] Yeah, we bought the chiller through a cooperative.

[2:35:35] Uh-huh.

[2:35:35] Omni Cooperative.

[2:35:36] We did accelerate-

[2:35:36] We did, yes

[2:35:37] ... the actual purchase of a chiller because they were on a state contract.

[2:35:39] That's right.

[2:35:40] And actually what the law, believe it or not, says if you have a chiller or your

[2:35:45] system fails,

[2:35:47] even if it's 100 degrees, that does not really constitute an emergency

[2:35:54] Usually an emergency is associated with an- Mm-hmm ... act of- Natural disaster ...

[2:35:59] natural disaster. I mean, if a tornado came through- Right ...

[2:36:01] and destroyed it, that's-

[2:36:02] But just a unit going down-

[2:36:03] Again, the compliance side of it

[2:36:06] ... that's not deemed an emergency to circumvent the process

[2:36:07] The laws would say that's correct.

[2:36:09] But we did find a little way around that with the state-

[2:36:12] Expedited. Okay.

[2:36:14] Thank you.

[2:36:15] I get what you're saying, because that should... Right.

[2:36:17] Right.

[2:36:17] It's a little different than being proactive and changing things out before they

[2:36:20] break.

[2:36:20] Well, again, that's not a declared emergency- Right

[2:36:21] Yeah

[2:36:21] ... but the law says it's not.

[2:36:23] Got you.

[2:36:24] Unfortunately. Thank you.

[2:36:25] Thank you. Dr. Greer.

[2:36:31] Good evening.

[2:36:34] You want the clicker? Oh, it's down here.

[2:36:35] Okay. I realize I'm the only thing standing between you and dinner, so I'll keep

[2:36:38] that in mind as I'm going through my two items tonight.

[2:36:42] So my first is a data review of our student support services data that we collect.

[2:36:49] We did this last year, I think, for the first time, and we're just going to go

[2:36:52] through and look at some specific data points that we've collected from our school

[2:36:57] counselors, our social workers, and then other student support staff in our

[2:37:02] schools. So, we're going to begin with our K-5 bullying online reporting

[2:37:07] form. You can see the last three years' worth of data here, and the color coding

[2:37:12] might seem a little backwards, but if it's green, that means we had a decrease,

[2:37:16] which is positive, and if it's red, we had an increase, which would be considered

[2:37:20] not so positive. So looking at our K-5 reporting form, we only had three for last

[2:37:25] school year, which is a positive. That is down two from the previous year.

[2:37:30] Our 6-12 SSARS reports, we did have an increase, but not by a significant

[2:37:35] amount. We were up to 379 versus 370.

[2:37:39] That is still a decrease from our 23-24 school year.

[2:37:42] And then looking at our Gaggle reports, we had about 856, which is a pretty sizable

[2:37:47] decrease from our over 1,000 from the previous year or so.

[2:37:54] Just as a reminder, the SSARS reports, that is our Say Something Anonymous

[2:37:58] Reporting System, where students can go in and report bullying or concerns that

[2:38:02] they have with peers or sometimes staff in their school buildings.

[2:38:07] And then the Gaggle reports come directly from our email system and Google

[2:38:11] platform. That is where specific phrases and tags are flagged and then sent to

[2:38:17] us to investigate what's being said.

[2:38:22] The next slide, you will see our PowerSchool/Infinite Campus, because we changed

[2:38:27] last year to Infinite Campus. Looking at our discipline reports, you'll see the

[2:38:31] 23-24 cumulatives, and then 24-25, and then this past year,

[2:38:36] 25-26. So the first thing that you'll notice, and I'm going to come back to this

[2:38:39] part, is a significant drop in our total number of reports from 14,000 and

[2:38:45] then 12,000, and this past year, we had 5,000.

[2:38:49] So I'm going to talk about that in just a second.

[2:38:51] But first, you can see the breakdown there of the specific categories.

[2:38:54] There are lots more categories that are included in these reports, but these are

[2:38:58] the ones that we discuss at our monthly K-12 meetings because these are the most

[2:39:02] prevalent behaviors that we're seeing across schools.

[2:39:05] Specifically looking at our higher numbers, you can see we have fights, some

[2:39:09] aggressive behavior, inappropriate behavior, disruptive behavior, and then, of

[2:39:14] course, looking at our vaping down there at the bottom.

[2:39:17] Again, all of these are in the green because they are all decreased from the

[2:39:22] previous year, pretty significantly, and so I do want to talk about that.

[2:39:27] We had a 59.1% decrease, with 7,454 fewer discipline reports

[2:39:33] this past year than in the previous years.

[2:39:36] But as I've shared with our cabinet and then with our K-12 principals, when I'm out

[2:39:42] visiting schools and when I'm talking with counselors and our social workers, one

[2:39:46] of the biggest hot topics that we talk about is student behavior.

[2:39:50] That comes through my department quite a lot, and so when I look at this

[2:39:52] information, it makes me question, "Why did we have such a huge drop in behavior?"

[2:39:58] I would love to say that it's because of all the wonderful things we're doing to

[2:40:01] prevent behavior and to increase our restorative practices in our schools.

[2:40:07] But I think there's some other factors at play here, and one of those is in talking

[2:40:11] with our principals. I think that we have varied

[2:40:15] data collection methods happening across the district in terms of what's being

[2:40:19] entered into Infinite Campus for a major discipline referral versus a minor

[2:40:24] referral. In speaking with some of our high school principals, they have a

[2:40:28] different category for what is considered a major and then what they say is a

[2:40:32] minor. So in some of our high schools, they input absolutely every single incident

[2:40:37] that happens at the school. In others, they're inputting the major ones, and then

[2:40:41] they have a separate notebook of all of the minor incidents that they do not feel

[2:40:44] like qualifies as a major to be put into Infinite Campus.

[2:40:47] So, what that has prompted is that we need some calibration across the district in

[2:40:52] making sure that we are doing it the same at every school, whichever way that's

[2:40:56] going to be. However we categorize a major and a minor, that's not something that

[2:41:00] we have really defined in a while. So we need to come back to that and make sure

[2:41:04] that across the district we are putting in the same type of incidents, so that when

[2:41:08] we look at the data, it's accurate as to what's actually happening across our

[2:41:11] school districts. So that will be happening this year.

[2:41:15] That is on our list to talk about behavior and try to figure out how to make that

[2:41:18] better.

[2:41:19] There is a link there. I'm not sure if you have that in your packet or not.

[2:41:22] If you don't, I'll be sure to get that to you.

[2:41:24] But the link takes you to our feeder pattern data comparisons.

[2:41:28] That's something new that we did this year in terms of looking at specific feeder

[2:41:32] patterns for each elementary school, and then to the middle school, and then to the

[2:41:35] high school. Is the data that we're seeing calibrated at that level?

[2:41:39] And what we've noticed is sometimes there it's not as well.

[2:41:41] We will look at our elementary schools that may have 500 incidents, and then all of

[2:41:46] those elementary school kids go to middle school, and we have 80 incidents.

[2:41:49] And it's the same kids that are going through those same schools, and so that data,

[2:41:53] again, isn't quite matching up. So that also will come into that calibration that

[2:41:56] we're going to do this school year, looking at all of our data entry.

[2:42:02] Next, you'll see long-term suspensions.

[2:42:04] So, we had a huge drop last year, about almost half, and we maintained that for

[2:42:09] 25-26. We had 33 long-term suspensions.

[2:42:12] We did have quite an increase there for middle school, though, so you can see that.

[2:42:17] The next slide is looking at our orange folders, red folders, and then mental

[2:42:21] health hospitalizations. So our orange folders are our threat of violence against

[2:42:26] others. We renamed it this year to better align with our state statutes, which is

[2:42:30] our BTAM, Behavioral Threat Assessment Management.

[2:42:34] So now our orange folder is a BTAM assessment.

[2:42:37] This past year in 25-26, we did 192 of those across the district, and you can see

[2:42:42] the breakdown there for elementary, middle, and high.

[2:42:44] A

[2:42:47] much larger number in elementary school because I think that a lot of our

[2:42:50] elementary schoolers are trying to get away with a lot more, and by middle and high

[2:42:53] school, they've learned what's appropriate and what's not appropriate.

[2:42:57] Red folders, we did have a decrease this year, and that is our concern for

[2:43:01] self-harm, the threat of self-harm. We had 366 of those across the district.

[2:43:06] You can again see the breakdown for elementary, middle, and high.

[2:43:10] We did unfortunately have an increase in our mental health hospitalizations.

[2:43:13] So we had 129. When I talk about this data with our principals, I'm very careful to

[2:43:18] say, "This is hospitalizations that we are aware of." This means we assisted with

[2:43:23] transition meetings with those students coming back to school.

[2:43:26] I do feel that there are probably additional hospitalizations that never make it to

[2:43:30] our data collection. But from what we are aware of, we had 129 of those this past

[2:43:35] year.

[2:43:37] The next one is kind of a hodgepodge of data.

[2:43:40] So looking at truancy petitions filed, you will also see there a dramatic decrease.

[2:43:45] We had 79 truancy petitions filed as opposed to 187 the year before.

[2:43:50] A couple of factors for that. The court system transitioned to a new online

[2:43:56] reporting system, and so this past year, they limited the amount of truancy

[2:44:00] petitions that we were able to file.

[2:44:02] So, we did still have way more than 79 truancy petitions that we would have liked

[2:44:08] to have filed, but we were given a limit per month of what we were able to do.

[2:44:12] So Michelle Henderson, our truancy coordinator, had to really go through and we had

[2:44:16] to prioritize which petitions we were going to file and try to assist those

[2:44:21] families to get those kids back in school.

[2:44:24] Looking at DSS reports filed, we did have an increase there of 485.

[2:44:28] Those are DSS reports that our school staff filed.

[2:44:32] McKinney-Vento, that's our homeless population, we also had an increase there, 265

[2:44:37] identified families. Again, those are families that come to us and identify

[2:44:42] themselves or that we seek out and say, "Hey, is there something going on?

[2:44:45] Can we help you?" I would also venture to say we probably have more than 265

[2:44:49] families across the district that would identify themselves as homeless, and we are

[2:44:53] always seeking ways to try to reach out to those families to get them to come and

[2:44:56] talk to us so that we can help them. Foster care bid meetings, we had a pretty good

[2:45:01] increase there, 123 of those over the last year.

[2:45:04] Homebound students has been about the same over the last three years, 25.

[2:45:08] And then TED events, we were down last year with four, so that is a positive there

[2:45:12] for our traumatic events across the district.

[2:45:17] The next slide is our counselor data review.

[2:45:20] Again, we did some calibration with this, and you'll see that here.

[2:45:24] We really looked at, with our parent contacts, we had an increase there because we

[2:45:29] were trying to figure out exactly what does a parent contact mean.

[2:45:32] Is that a parent who is coming in and sitting down with us, or is that a phone

[2:45:35] call, or is that an email? That goes with each of these categories.

[2:45:39] You'll see the consultation with other staff members, a huge drop from 17,000 to

[2:45:43] 3,000. That does not mean our counselors are doing less work.

[2:45:47] That means that we had some conversations about what does consultation with a staff

[2:45:50] member look like, and we were able to better define that, so that we were able to

[2:45:54] really track exactly what we're doing in those moments.

[2:45:57] So that 3,000 is a better indicator of how many conversations we're having as

[2:46:01] opposed to every single stop in the hallway and say, "How's it going?" I think that

[2:46:05] first year we were tallying all of that, as we're trying to get into the data

[2:46:08] collection for the state. School-based counseling referrals, we had 410 of those

[2:46:13] this past year, and then meetings attended there, you'll see that.

[2:46:16] Also, a link here for SISS data. That is a new requirement from the state.

[2:46:21] That's Specialized Instructional Support Personnel.

[2:46:23] That is data that we collect from our social workers, from our counselors, and from

[2:46:27] our school nurses. That is all about how we are helping our families.

[2:46:31] What are we providing for them? Are we providing food?

[2:46:33] Are we providing clothing, resource assistance, transportation, all kinds of

[2:46:38] categories there. So again, if you don't have that, since it's linked there, I

[2:46:40] should have included that in the packet.

[2:46:42] I'll be happy to get that to you so you can review that.

[2:46:46] So this leads us to some goals for '26, '27.

[2:46:49] We want to look at an updated student code of conduct.

[2:46:52] That will bring in that calibration piece, being very clear on paper, how are we

[2:46:56] looking at behavior across our district and categorizing that so that our data

[2:47:00] collection, again, is valid.

[2:47:03] We want to continue discussion of our behavior supports and restorative practices.

[2:47:07] We are really still trying to shift from not just giving consequences, but sitting

[2:47:11] down and teaching correct behaviors for our students K-12.

[2:47:15] And then, of course, looking at advocacy for additional student services staff

[2:47:19] funding. You all, I believe we've shared, but I'll just go ahead and say it out

[2:47:23] there again, we are on a grant right now with our school social workers.

[2:47:27] It's a five-year grant, and right now we're in year four, so next year will be our

[2:47:32] final year with that grant, and if we are not able to secure additional funding, we

[2:47:36] will lose some positions there for our social workers, and that's not something

[2:47:39] that we want. So we're going to continue to advocate for those additional positions

[2:47:43] so we can keep the staff we have and hopefully get more staff.

[2:47:46] Because as you can see from these numbers, we have 16 social workers supporting our

[2:47:50] 35 schools. They each serve two to three schools.

[2:47:52] And I have 57 counselors supporting our 35 schools, which sounds like a lot, but

[2:47:56] when you've got a school of 1,000 and two to three counselors there, it's not

[2:48:00] really that much. So any questions about any of this data?

[2:48:04] I have two questions.

[2:48:05] Yes, sir.

[2:48:07] One is,

[2:48:11] it only lit as green, so that's good, first of all.

[2:48:14] The K-5 bullying online reporting.

[2:48:16] Yes.

[2:48:16] There was only three.

[2:48:18] Yes.

[2:48:20] Three out of all the elementary schools, because I remember three pretty much in

[2:48:25] email.

[2:48:25] And what you're saying is that we've had at least three emails personally to us as

[2:48:28] a board-

[2:48:29] Yeah

[2:48:29] ... maybe more-

[2:48:30] Yes, right

[2:48:30] ... over the year.

[2:48:31] So far this year.

[2:48:32] Right.

[2:48:33] Right, yeah.

[2:48:33] Maybe not quite this year yet-

[2:48:35] No

[2:48:35] ... as of August, but last year for sure, more than three or four emails.

[2:48:38] Yes.

[2:48:38] So how is that-- Yeah, I think that's what you're saying, if that doesn't

[2:48:41] correlate-

[2:48:41] Yeah

[2:48:42] ... it's really only three.

[2:48:43] I think that speaks a little bit to the conversation that you all had with the

[2:48:47] state earlier. Yes. Or with the board-

[2:48:50] Did they actually report it?

[2:48:52] Right.

[2:48:52] Or did they just email you?

[2:48:53] Right. I think that they're-

[2:48:55] The proper channel

[2:48:55] ... not necessarily following-- Right.

[2:48:57] Okay.

[2:48:57] That we have this out there for them to utilize, and when we have that, we take

[2:49:01] that directly to the school and give that information to the principal, ask them to

[2:49:04] investigate. We follow back up with them.

[2:49:07] That would be the proper channel for how to report bullying, but nowadays a lot of

[2:49:11] our reports come directly from an upset parent who may go directly to you, to the

[2:49:15] board-

[2:49:16] Right

[2:49:16] ... or to us, cabinet, or directly to the principal without going through the

[2:49:20] bullying reporting form. The bullying reporting form does have the opportunity to

[2:49:24] be anonymous. So I think sometimes people think, "I'm only going to use that if I

[2:49:27] don't want them to know who I am." And a lot of times they have no problem telling

[2:49:31] us who they are.

[2:49:31] They want you to know.

[2:49:31] They want us to know, which is fine.

[2:49:34] So I think a lot of times we have a lot more bullying incidents, I believe, than

[2:49:38] what is reported necessarily on our form.

[2:49:40] In the system. Okay. Second question.

[2:49:44] I noticed, and it's another green one, so good job.

[2:49:47] Excessive tardiness dropped just exponentially. Are we doing something specific?

[2:49:53] And you broke out some of the other changes and why they need to represent a

[2:49:58] smaller number, but what about that one? Are we doing something that great?

[2:50:01] I wish I could say yes. I don't believe so.

[2:50:04] I think that we have taken the opportunity over the last three years to really look

[2:50:08] more at, are we getting students into class?

[2:50:12] Not necessarily are they one minute or two minutes late, and we're not necessarily

[2:50:15] putting in every single incident of they are tardy.

[2:50:18] And more so, were they tardy as in missed half the class and then they came in.

[2:50:22] And try to be absent versus-

[2:50:24] Correct

[2:50:24] ... present.

[2:50:24] Correct, yes.

[2:50:25] And my final question, I don't mean to take up all the time.

[2:50:28] Right.

[2:50:28] I'm sure you guys got questions too, but I was confused-

[2:50:31] Okay

[2:50:32] ... on truancy petitions filed that are almost 100 less. It's in the green again.

[2:50:37] Yes.

[2:50:39] It was because we're limited by the

[2:50:43] county system?

[2:50:44] Yes.

[2:50:44] Can you re-explain that?

[2:50:47] So it's something that we're hopeful will change as the county gets more used to

[2:50:52] this system. But it was more of, how many cases can they process in the new system

[2:50:57] versus what our typical docket is.

[2:51:00] I've been to truancy court with Michelle a couple of times just to see how it

[2:51:03] works. And prior to this year, we would have a docket of you could have 300 to 350

[2:51:09] cases that are coming in that are reviewed by the district attorney and by our

[2:51:13] Judge Covington. And so now we are on a given day with their new computer

[2:51:19] system, they may say, "We can have 100 on the docket today, so which 100 are we

[2:51:23] going to take?" And so it has just limited what we're able to-

[2:51:28] Limited court system

[2:51:29] ... take.

[2:51:29] So-

[2:51:29] Correct

[2:51:30] ... so starting maybe two to three years ago, the

[2:51:36] state as a whole went to what I call the portal. It's called eCourts.

[2:51:41] Mm-hmm.

[2:51:41] So now all the filings, correct, are online.

[2:51:44] Yes.

[2:51:45] I cannot walk down to the courthouse and file a document anymore. Okay.

[2:51:50] Or if we're outside of truancy, you're talking about-

[2:51:52] Any

[2:51:52] ... anything.

[2:51:53] Anything.

[2:51:53] Including truancy.

[2:51:54] A motion-

[2:51:54] File

[2:51:55] ... a complaint, whatever. And they've rolled that out across the state over about

[2:52:00] a two-year to three-year process.

[2:52:03] Mm-hmm.

[2:52:03] We went live on that, I believe in Davidson County, in October of

[2:52:09] 2025, if my memory serves me correctly.

[2:52:12] Yes.

[2:52:12] And in my opinion now, I'm a dinosaur, and I don't like technology, but I'm not a

[2:52:17] big fan of the portal.

[2:52:21] It slows access-

[2:52:23] I can imagine

[2:52:23] ... to the courts, in my opinion.

[2:52:26] But that's the first I've heard of that, but it does not surprise me.

[2:52:31] Regardless of what we feel of truancy, it's a law, and so

[2:52:37] violating that law is a criminal act or maybe not so harsh a term because it

[2:52:43] is truancy. However, okay, 1,000 kids are truant, but we can't do anything

[2:52:49] about 900 of them because you have a limit.

[2:52:53] You got a choke point of how many they can process.

[2:52:56] So we need to-

[2:52:57] Right

[2:52:57] ... I'm sure something has been done at a higher level than just DCS-

[2:53:04] Right

[2:53:04] ... with the court system.

[2:53:05] And it truly makes the job of our social workers that much more important because

[2:53:08] they're still having mediation and meeting with families and doing all that we can

[2:53:11] on our side of things without

[2:53:14] having the formality of court.

[2:53:18] I just found that, I've circled that one-

[2:53:20] Yeah

[2:53:20] ... as soon as you said it because it was confusing that-

[2:53:22] Yeah

[2:53:22] ... we're limited in prosecuting a criminal or whatever.

[2:53:26] Yeah.

[2:53:26] So, okay.

[2:53:28] Other questions?

[2:53:30] How do you, I guess, anticipate the data that looks so much better over the

[2:53:35] previous years? I imagine it will impact funding but not for the better.

[2:53:41] So, I know you talk about advocating for additional funding, but it's going to be

[2:53:45] hard to do that-

[2:53:46] Right

[2:53:46] ... when our numbers in most situations look good.

[2:53:50] Right. I think as far as advocating for positions,

[2:53:55] I could say that the positions that we have are working because we are seeing some

[2:53:59] positive gains. But as far as the calibration piece, I think our data will come

[2:54:04] back up this year when we say, "Okay, we need to make sure we're putting everything

[2:54:07] in."

[2:54:09] But As far as funding goes, what we currently have

[2:54:14] behavior-wise is not necessarily tied to funding that I think will be impacted with

[2:54:18] our data, if that makes sense. Okay. Yes. Yeah.

[2:54:20] It's more so looking for positions, not necessarily programs.

[2:54:24] Okay. We want people. Right. Yeah.

[2:54:32] That's it.

[2:54:33] Okay. And my last item is just looking at our strategic plan.

[2:54:37] I just wanted to make sure that we are all aware, which has been discussed, that we

[2:54:42] are in our final year of our current DCS strategic plan.

[2:54:46] And throughout this year, we have a timeline for what it's going to look like to

[2:54:50] wrap up and conclude our current plan, and then to start planning and get a new

[2:54:56] plan in place by the end of this school year, so that we are ready to launch some

[2:55:00] of our goals from that plan next school year.

[2:55:02] So our current plan, we have four goals.

[2:55:05] Our first meeting is next week with our first committee to start looking at how

[2:55:08] have we done on those goals over the last four years. What have we accomplished?

[2:55:13] It's one of those things where we love to go through and check and say, "We did

[2:55:16] great. We met all of our goals." But that's not going to be necessarily beneficial

[2:55:19] for us to really just say that and not know what our data looks like.

[2:55:21] So we'll be digging in to really see what we have accomplished and how we've met

[2:55:27] those goals this year. And then you can see the timeline there, just on what you

[2:55:31] have. September, October, we will start reflecting and assessing those goals.

[2:55:35] November, December, we will look at closing out the current plan, making sure that

[2:55:39] we have data to support our indicators that we have met and/or not met.

[2:55:44] And then in January, we'll start the new plan development with either a new team

[2:55:49] than this team that we've started next week or maybe some of the same.

[2:55:52] But our teams will be made up of principals, assistant principals.

[2:55:55] We'll have counselors, social workers. We'll have curriculum folks.

[2:55:58] We'll have directors. We'll have instructional coaches, people from all across the

[2:56:02] district, as well as community members, and potentially some of you as well.

[2:56:06] I'll be asking to sit on our strategic plan committee in looking at what do we want

[2:56:11] for the next four years for Davidson County Schools.

[2:56:14] Because our next plan will run until 2031, which is crazy to even say out loud.

[2:56:19] But we've got to be thinking ahead and thinking what do we want to see in the next

[2:56:21] four years for our school system. And we'll be working on that February, March,

[2:56:26] April, finalizing some of those goals and indicators in May and June.

[2:56:30] And then, of course, over the summer, getting ready to roll it out for next school

[2:56:33] year in August of 2027. So I just wanted you to have that timeline.

[2:56:37] I'll be giving you an update here and there throughout the year.

[2:56:40] And next year will be a big year for rolling out our new goals.

[2:56:42] So any questions about that timeline?

[2:56:45] Thank you, Dr. Greer. Appreciate it.

[2:56:50] At this time, to prevent disclosure of information that is confidential or

[2:56:53] privileged under General Statute 143-318.11A1, to consult

[2:56:58] with the board attorney and protect attorney-client privilege under General Statute

[2:57:03] 143-318.11A3, and to consider the qualifications, competence, performance,

[2:57:09] conditions of employment of a public officer or employee, or prospective public

[2:57:12] officer or employee under General Statute 143-318.11A6.

[2:57:17] Do I have a motion to go into closed?

[2:57:19] Make that motion.

[2:57:20] Do I have a second?

[2:57:21] Second.

[2:57:21] All in favor? We're now in closed.

BOE Retreat 9-21-26

Transcript