e e and welcome to the April 1st 2025 live regularly scheduled Board of Education meeting I know we're anticipating about a 5H hour meeting so I don't know if you guys want to stand that long April fo I do say welcome and thank you very much for being here uh we do have a lot on the agenda it's all good stuff really is so first thing on the agenda that you have already approved board is our invocation the Lord want to thank you for another day to enjoy the freedoms of our country thanks for the opportunity to serve the public of Davy County Schools serve the staff and our students in this great County we're asking for wisdom for this meeting here this evening as we make decisions and have discussions lastly I want to thank you for your protection and guidance and blessings to our superintendent Mr Jeff Wallace as he begins his new chapter in life in 30 short days we thank you for him we thank you for his Devotion to the staff and students of Davy County and I pray for many years of good health for him all this I ask in your name amen next item on our agenda is the Pledge of Allegiance led by Mr Joe CLE retired Marine to flag the United States of America to the for it stands one nation God indivisible withy andice for all thank you for joining us in that uh board next item on the agenda is to prove the minutes from the regularly scheduled March meeting you've received those in advance I'm asking for a motion at this time Marie makes the motion there a second con seconds any discussion of questions and again thank you for well written notes we appreciate that all in favor show of hand motion carried 60 which reminds me we have seven members but uh Stephanie Hurst is sick she called about 1:30 this afternoon and she sound terrible and she said I don't think I want to pass this around to anybody else and I said thank you I don't think anybody will want it so we uh we wish her a quick recovery uh board there's several uh events in your notes regarding calendar events for the month of April uh one that needs to be added as a reminder you've already got it on April the 8 8th we will have a work session at 9:00 a.m. Mr superintendent that's correct and so uh the other ones I think are accurate and all of them are included on your minutes or notes next on the agenda we have an opportunity to have some farewell messages to the superintendent and I've already told Mr Wallace that I'm not going to say a whole lot because I get emotional and I don't want to take away the recognition that he deserves uh but I will say Jeff there's people in our lives that uh when we first meet him we can say I like him and that's how I feel about you I remember the day you came to my office back in 2005 and he was looking for a principal's job at that time and we didn't have an opening but he made a very good impression on somebody else down the road as well and fortunately was hired um about 2007 that sound right eight 2008 so we're very appreciative of all the work that you've offered to Davy County school since that time and uh I can honestly say you've been a great professional friend and I appreciate that and at this time we're going to have some speakers that are already prepared and so I'll call on Jen Haynes to be our first speaker that's all I can say sorry I'll ask others who are coming up to to speak to go ahead and kind of get On Deck um before we start I told Mr Wallace I would save his real roasting for the retirement dinner um when we're not being live streamed or recorded So I I'll try to keep it pretty professional today um but Mr Wallace I do want to ask you before I start are you listening [Laughter] okay just checking seriously um it is both an honor and a challenge to sum up all that Mr Wallace has meant to this district and to me personally so I'm really going to be speaking um directly to him I could list many accomplishments under your leadership starting out stabilizing Davey high school after constant turnover and principles helping plan and open a new high school for this County which was huge navigating the covid closure I'll never forget that Sunday night meeting and trying to figure out what in the world we were doing and then launching the onetoone technology strengthening safety initiatives renovating this building for virtual school for training space and for central office and while these AC while these accomplishments and many others are significant they're not what defines your legacy what truly sets you apart is the way that you lead with high expectations yes but always with heart caring about people making time to check in to say hello to ask about your family to listen to advise and sometimes to challenge and all of this is rooted in your values in your resiliency from the challenges you have overcome throughout your life we've talked about that a lot and ultimately your faith don't start crying I said for me personally you have been more than a leader you have been a partner a brother and a mentor we have been through so much together and what I appreciate most is the working relationship that we have had the ability to be brutally honest and you give me a hard time for that but it's like siblings to push back to disagree sometimes to say I told you so but ultimately and hopefully to make the best decisions we could in the most difficult times we will all remember the Wallace isms as we call them and we will continue to use them and to laugh about them long after you're retired I do want to say that while your retirement will bring some new advent Ventures and I'm sure more fishing with Caleb you must accept that I will still call you when you are fishing and I do expect you to answer sometimes I pause because we've got to get something in the net right I appreciate your leadership and your friendship and I want to say Davy County Schools is better because of you and so before I turn it over to the next speakers I just want to say thank you I also want to remind you that there is plenty of work to be done before May 1st and there is no time to waste if we're going to put legs on all the things that we need to do to make it [Applause] happen next is Anthony Davis former employee here and now the superintendent in Yadkin County welcome back well thank you very much and I appreciate the opportunity to speak about Jeff for a minute and uh I don't ever like following jenda because she does a great job I was told I had two minutes and it's really tough to uh to bring together 30 almost 30 years of friendship and mentorship in two minutes but I'm going to try uh I had the opportunity when I started teaching at forsh high school um I taught right alongside Jeff and so I leaned along leaned on him as a young teacher to help me learn how to teach and he did that and then I had the opportunity that Jeff needed me um to take on a role that I did not think I could do uh he came to me and asked me to be his um athletic director at forish high school when he was principal there and I was a very very young coach and teacher at the time uh and I said no I can't do that and he said yes you can and so I said all right I'll give you one year I said you I'll give you a year to to bridge what we've got going on and then you need to find somebody else to take that so seven years later I was still athletic director at forish high school Jeff has a knack of finding things in people that they don't find in themselves and I didn't have it in me I did not see and myself but he did um so he offered me that mentorship and taught me he didn't do things for me he taught me how to do those things and then I didn't realize that I would have the opportunity to come back here and come here to Davy County and join Jeff again and be able to to to work with him and what a great honor that was and I'm very thankful and grateful that he and Dr Hartness saw something in me again as an inexperienced person to come into a role that I didn't have a ton of experience in and and you know I feel like we made it work um and had it not been for that opportunity I definitely would not be doing what I am today as superintendent of yaken County there's no way I could have done it without that experience so Jeff I just want to tell you thank you for your friendship and thank you for your mentorship because I would not be where I am without you so thank you Clint junker our former School Board chair welcome back Clint good to be back I thought I'd be less nervous on this side but I'm not sure which is worse so I had the pleasure of uh serving on the Davy County school board for 10 years uh had had the the last six-year term so whenever you guys are complaining about your four-year term think it used to be six so I got the last one and then got another fouryear and I I will have to say it's probably the best thing that ever happened to me um and I don't know about you guys but I never planned to be on the school board um it was a comment the night before it closed down to put your name in the hat that Dr Steve at a basketball game I'm walking by him and he said hey I put in the $10 I paid the $10 for you jokingly about being in I took a couple steps I stepped back and I said when when's the last day to uh put your name in it he said tomorrow at noon um I put my name in at 11:45 to go in there and it is the best thing that I ever did you write one letter to the editor and all of a sudden people are like boy you ought to run for school board or whatever and you hard not it was a hard no until 15 minutes before so I'm thankful for for for doing it because of the people that I that I met um the hot button right at that time was the school you know I think it's incredible that we're sitting here in the results of that uh didn't really care where you stood on any other issue besides where are you on the school that's that's what that was the hot button um and so when I put my name in the Hat I wanted to tour the school so it's the first time that I got to see I'm not sure if we'd met before I think we'd met before but that's the first time that I got to see um the respect that people had for Jeff Wallace uh jenda at the time was principal brand new here uh I got to meet jenda and real quickly I was like who is this lady I mean you're talking about just leadership and and everything but we've got to walk through the Halls Jeff was toring us through and the respect respect not fear but the respect that those kids had for you uh just blew me away and it wasn't again it wasn't a fear it was a love and a respect as in like a father uh coming up hugging on him Mr Wallace and he was immediately naming them name naming their names asking them how they're doing in school there was just this expectation I've already heard it from the first two speakers um love support and challenge that's hard it's usually challenge or support and and and Jeff has a way of doing both and it's just absolutely incredible so I got to see that firsthand and then fast forward I got elected on the uh board and we're we're looking to find a replacement for for uh Darren Hartness and what big shoes to feel and thankfully I think it was the best decision that I was ever a part of in the 10 years I was on the board was to say yes to you uh we knew what we were getting with Jeff Wallace there was some gaps potentially but man we knew what we were getting and little did we know just a few minutes few months later that this thing called covid Hit And if you want to see what a true leader is made of you throw him in a situation that there is no script for there there's you don't learn that in school it just it explodes and you're just left there as a leader to try to put everything back together and you're doing it in the school system which means you're under the radar microscope of of political everything and man what I saw in you was just true leadership and again it's it's it's been said already twice now your ability to light the fire inside of people not under them because that takes fear yelling all that stuff but to to to light that fire inside of people is something that's just inspiring to me um and it doesn't go unnotice and it's harder to do but man you get the results of what we what we've got here so I'm just thankful for that I'm thankful that I call you a brother you go through that kind of stuff together and it's just it's different it's just absolutely different so thank you I love you one last thing I got to come up here and talk to the board one of the greatest things that that that I feel like we did as a as a as a board was man is respected each other and I don't follow it's amazing you get off this board and you just sort of go about your life and the school system carries on without you I I thought man this thing's going to fall apart without me and it's actually doing better without me but like one of the things that that we did was man we just we respected one another and again I'm saying I don't know what's going on if we are aren't I just encourage you guys to man if you know that you've got the back of the person on the left and the right man you're doing something right and this isn't about agreeing it's not about agreeing it's about almost how you treat each other when you disagree because everybody's watching everybody's watching these meetings and everything I heard so many comments about yeah watch y'all's board meetings other staff at other counties thinking about coming here I mean it's an advertisement you're getting ready to uh hire a new superintendent look for it they watch these meetings and they watch how you interact with each other and that just bleeds down to the rest of the staff and you set the tone um so I didn't know what I was doing in a lot of ways but that was one area that I was like man if I can do anything I'm going to do that um so I just encourage you guys to to keep it up and appreciate you putting your names in the Hat you know uh for that it's a big deal so thank you love you next is Lor Smith also a former board member yes I'm not Wendy horn she's not here tonight um my name is Lori Smith I did serve on the board for four years alongside Clint um and dub and my first year first month actually the first time as a Schoolboard member that December was when Dr Hartness retired and stepped down and so it was our job as a board to elect the new superintendent um and it was an honor and a pleasure we're so glad that Jeff applied and stepped into those shoes like Clint said it was some some big big shoes to fill with Dr Hart and such a true man of God and a leader and just a great leader for Davey CUNY schools but Jeff stepped right in and just took the reins and it was so great to work alongside him in the trenches with him during the covid pandemic I mean like Clint said no one expected that we didn't know how to handle this but we all worked together and we even agreed to think outside the box I mean we kept our kids in schools even hybrid two days a week when other districts around us weren't doing that you know we truly felt like every decision we made was what's best for the kids what's best for our students what's best for our staff and Jeff always always put that to the Forefront of every decision and I just want to thank you for all your your years of service um just the dedication Jeff your compassion um going and serving in the schools and walking on do tour in the different schools with Jeff and and seeing the the little kids come up to him and they're like oh what do what do you do he's like I work for you and they're like really they were so you know excited and didn't know who he was but they told him that he thought that was really neat um another one of my favorite memories was um when I was on the board we actually all served U Thanksgiving meals to our students and Jeff served alongside me and we just walked into some really tough situations um pretty sad situations what some of our students actually go home to every day and I think it just opened eyes um but it was great to serve alongside Jeff he's he's the servant leader um and I'm just thankful that I had the opportunity to work alongside you I did want to present you with something I had I thought it was special it's a picture of you and Dr Hartness um in the War Eagle at the groundbreaking of the high school [Applause] thank you Lori and next is Karen Stevens principal in our at we more Davy well I feel like I'm I'm honored to be here to represent not only myself and and what I have learned from you but also I feel like from our other administrators and the amount of notion that we felt the day that you announced this I could tell that they have had the same experiences that I have had um you have really had a great impact in a positive way on my career and um the thing that I want to say is that you've always always been invested in the students the staff and the families in our community always you always put kids first you've been present in the buildings it's it you pop up anywhere and you're ready to talk to people walk in classrooms have conversations and those conversations are meaningful conversations and that's how you gather and you know what's going on throughout the county one of the things I've always adire admired about you Mr Wallace is that you genuinely care about us genuinely not just as as employees or colleagues but as people he remembers our families he asked about our kids you always ask me about my boys you check on my well-being when you know I've had a tough situation you check in you've seen me at my best and my most challenging times and you've always had my back and you've always been supportive he has been a leader that has taken action he has provided Direction drove District wide initiatives and goals and encouraged us to move from conversation to implementation he trust us to run our schools he always challenges us to put legs on it personally he has seen me in coach mode and understands my leadership style he too knows how to motivate a team and bring out the best in others I want to say thank you for your leadership your mentorship your friendship and the countless ways you may have made a difference I'm better because of you our district is better because of you your impact will continue long after your final day at Davy uh County Schools we wish nothing but the best in your next chapter and whatever you do next don't forget to put legs on it [Applause] next is Miss Donna Dunn English teacher at Davy County high school so Mr Wallace was the fourth principal in four years at the high school so needless to say he brought some desperately needed stability to the staff and the student body he coined the phrase it's a great day to be a war eagle and that phrase is still in circulation today one of the first things I noticed about Mr Wallace in the the first year that he came to the high school is he said about learning the names of all of the troubled students on campus and every morning you would see him walk up to students call them by name shake their hands and have a conversation and that continued for all of his years as principal he was building a culture at that High School I was in his office one morning for a meeting and four senior boys rolled in sent there by the attendance officer for being tardy one too many times and the conversation that the boys had with Mr Wallace was quite striking they got scolded but that conversation had a tone of dignity and respect and those those boys absolutely respected him right back he was a principal who believed in helping kids make good choices and when they didn't he believed in giving kids Second Chances he held his teachers to account so one day I wasn't at my cafeteria Duty and Mr Wallace strolled on down to find out why not the answer was it was 4-day work week I was lost in my days didn't know what day it was just missed my duty but I always respected that he would come to us us he always held us to high standards he expected us to do our job and do it well and do that every day and for that I have always had a lot of respect my favorite thing about Mr walls is that we could expect him in and out of our classrooms multiple times a day pretty much every day he knew what was going on in his campus he knew if we were humming along well or if we were not humming along well and I appreciated that a lot he always came to my leadership class to speak every semester and those were wonderful messages about making good choices and it it struck me how much passion he must have had as a classroom teacher because he was really in his Zone in front of the kids in the leadership class uh and was always so honest and open with them if I had as a teacher to say one of the things that I appreciate about you the most as the superintendent it would be standing your ground in the days that you decided we were going to put kids in front of teachers and do an AB schedule because great leadership is following the facts but also following some intuition about what the right thing is to do thank you going to miss you congratulations on your retirement next is Jackson O'Brien a student at South Davy Middle School welcome Jackson my name is Jackson O'Brien and I'm here to show my appr my appreciation for Miss Wallace last summer I was looking at Marketplace when I found a great deal on sub fish rods Mr Wallace brought them to me and wouldn't accept any money he told told me he loved seeing kids involved in fishing and told me to have a great year at s Davy Mr Wallace did that out of the goodness of his heart Thank you Mr Wallace enjoy your retirement those were great comments all of you and now for the board your opportunity to share I guess I'll go first well I I already spoke to Mr Wallace earlier so I'm going keep this pretty brief but U Mr Wallace I appreciate your dedication to ensuring that generations of kids were cared for and properly educated in Davy County um by your Fidelity and Leadership you have represented not only David County Schools but Davy County proudly you sure have made have some large Footprints you have made around here and I know that who for sure that whoever comes behind you uh um they got some mighty big shoes to fill and with that said as you enter this uh next chapter in your life I pray that the good Lord is good to you and blesses you and gives you peace and F fulfillment thank you sir anyone else so I just want to thank you for all the the energy and time you put into Davy County um we've worked together when you were a principal assistant superintendent and now it's a superintendent was in a in some trenches back in the day when you were a principal at the at the old high school um but your leadership's always been strong the relationships you have with the kids um it's a great day to be a War Eagle I said that in my sleep the first year when I came off the road uh cuz every morning you heard it when you walked in the doors which was awesome um but your strong leadership um it's been greatly appreciated um Mr it's a blessing for this County and uh and you're going to be missed M uh Mr Wallace I have a I haven't known you and have the experience a lot of Pop folks in this room have but uh I will say this after after I was elected and before the time period between when I was elected and sworn in a lot of people in the community came up and were telling me about you they use all good things they use words like Fair caring he's a great leader you're really going to enjoy working with him um I just want you to know you have far exceeded any expectations I had stepping into this role and um I want to thank you for being patient again step in this new role I thank you for being patient with me stepping into this you definitely deserve all the wonderful words that uh folks have had to say say about you tonight um congratulations on your great career and um I'd just like to wish you and your family all the very best in the future thank you well Mr Wallace you've been a tremendous leader as you can tell listening all these fine folks tonight you're a outstanding human being such fine integrity and character um and I just so appreciate you looking after DAV County not only the schools but being there for us in the community and and maybe a lot of you don't realize Jeff carries a 247 job it's unbelievable the amount of time you put into this and you always take those calls no matter what you always always call back you listen and you always have good advice and we may differ at times but usually you are so sound and uh I'm going to miss you I know I'm going to see you in my backyard fishing um and um I'm really happy for you it's going to be a great chapter for you so thank you and I'm going to miss you friend okay Mr Wallace I feel like everyone has said you know everything and I just it's been an honor and a pleasure working with you over these last two and a half years and you've taught me so much I feel like I've known you for 30 years really we've been through a lot and um I'm really glad that God placed you right here in Davy County um as a mom when I moved to Davy County one of the reasons we moved here was for the schools and um I'm so proud to have my kids here and I'm proud to live here and I'm proud of your leadership because you're what has built so much of this and I'm going to remember all of our walks through the schools and when the kids they they never run from you they always run to you and you'll see kids saying there's the big big boss and they'll come right up and give you a hug or a high five and how you know everyone and you connect with everyone and you love everyone um but you still lead them with such Integrity your faith drives you the student drive you and I just thank you for everything that you do and um we have a couple special things for you here tonight from the board but there's one thing that I want to give you um and I think this is this is one of the most special things and it actually comes from Mr Cartner students at the CTE building who made this for you and um they made it with love and they they knew what it was going to and there's a saying on it it says to Jeff Wallace May 1st 2025 with heartfelt thank thanks for 32 years of service guiding Davy County schools with wisdom and care you championed our rural values you've supported our children and you've built a legacy of Excellence that doesn't just happen with great gratitude upon your retirement we love you Jeff and we have one more thing that we want to share with everyone and it's a video so if you can all turn to the screens we're going to share a short video thank you for being [Music] aad again your heart is true you're a and a [Music] confid my hat is off won't you stand up and take a b [Music] and [Music] [Music] inv thank [Music] you thank you a friend thank you for being a friend thank you for being a [Music] friend IAC of day [Music] night I'm not ashamed to say I [Music] always [Music] stand with walking and hair of noar even it's here I will stand here close and thank you for a friend I to thank you thank you for being a friend [Applause] and in addition you have your family here and I would like to ask before you get into giving us a school report did you introduce your family who always support you well one of them in this group's in trouble there pictures that showed up it' be my beautiful wife it's my wife Kelly stand up Kelly yeah we have with our son Caleb's 27 his wife couldn't be here tonight our daughter Claire and her soon to be husband in about three weeks Mr Matthew King so Claire and [Applause] Matthew say it again my brother and his wife Mr doy right here we do welcome each of you here especially the family and uh you're on the agenda so you might as well just keep right on the rolling well thank you I'll get to some of that in a moment let me there's a building a room full of people that congratulations students and staff and parents were're very proud of you few and we've got state champions in the room we've got people that's been that I mentioned performed at at at DPI and different things but let me back up out of respect I want to mention to you that a couple of our staff that's not here tonight Dr David blatner and and Cindy Stone principal at South South Davy both lost their mothers in the last couple weeks so um I just want you to remember them and I also want to move to a moment of silence in honor of one of our family members that we lost Miss Mary Carter who passed away last week or the week prior um she's been with David County schools for over 25 years and worked at at kouy as a as a the pic and the manager but you talk about dedicated and love she was a wonderful wonderful wonderful person so if you will join me in just a moment of silence in honor of Miss Mary Carter thank you again congratulations to students and again thank you for what you've done in parents you've already heard it mentioned a couple times these things don't just happen and we know we need you and our coaches and we're thankful for that uh mentioned earlier board we have a you have a work budget work session next week uh at N9 o' here and we'll work our way through that budget and the proposed or draft budget of course nothing official with the capital will be uh when you when you be presented with that may 1 uh and then we have to present that to the Commissioners by May May 15 um open gate continues I've shared that is continuing to go well we will roll that out at three elementary schools tomorrow morning tomorrow and then the additional three schools on Thursday morning so it will be fully implemented by Friday so we're we're commend our team that's put that stuff together and um that's and our principes has prepared their families and their teams just another positive reminder I've been able to do this for the past few few Mays um the month of May where certified staff will receive an additional supplement uh if you recall last year we asked the board to vote for teers if to place the the amounts into tears of 0 to N9 years experience 10 to 19 and 20 and above and we give the most money to our senior staff this had served us for 20 years clay won't let me give you a number but I will tell you that it's going to be more than last year should be but it at least be over $2,000 for everyone so we're we appreciate that opportunity and then their local supplement the two-thirds of the local supplement which is 8% of their salary comes out um in in the June paycheck I want to congratulate DAV County High School's Dance Company class and their teacher Miss Katie Reese uh the the class was asked to perform at DPI last week so they were there performing in in in in in respect of Arts in our schools month celebration so good job to them also I'm I'm proud to tell you that our attendance and again this goes right to that team sitting in this audience our our attendance was has is the best it's been in four years month over month it's at 94.2 two% which is very strong so again our principes and our teachers are making people want to come to school changing gear slightly I can't tell you enough what it means and I absolutely I stood in front of a per I provided closing comments to a 100 superintendents not long ago and I'm absolutely thank you all Donna you made a statement to me my first year there I thought you were going to mention it and it was kind of a raw moment and you looked at me and you said you expect a lot out of us don't you and I said yes I do I mean the stories the teams the teams our retirement date is quickly coming and I often mention to our staff and I've mentioned here before about looking back so I've done that quite a bit in the one final conclusion I will share with you that public education has had a tremendous impact on my life I grew up in poverty alcoholic home my dad was married four times my mom was married twice there were seven to eight alcoholics in my immediate family my brother and I were primarily raised by our grandmother I received free and reduced lunch when I was a student I was a part of a student Co-op and I swept and mopped the cafeteria floors after lunch to earn a little bit of money one of my coach set up my life's trajectory began to change when my teachers and coaches started to call on me to step up and to be a leader and to do the right things I'm 60 years old and through my life I've been given opportunities that I don't deserve but others saw potential in me that's been mentioned tonight they challenged me they supported me they held me accountable again this group of people public Educators changed my life most young men when they're in their early 20s are very proud and I was a very proud young man didn't have a dading that had all the answers my family qualified for government assistance I drove my grandmother to the Yin musla and stood in line to receive free food and free supplies I was embarrassed I wasn't going to let the woman down that raised me in my bre these situations put seeds deep inside of me and a lot that we had to overcome my first Year's principal my fifth day on the job my daughter was diagnosed with cancer I had to make decisions and prioritize I went and stayed nine days in the hospital straight with my daughter 10 and a half months later now you think about my wife buried this and we had a young son 10 and a half months later I was diagnosed with cancer within a year we both there's two episodes of cancer in my house the people that poured into me supported us I got a job in 2000 Excuse Me 1986 at UPS I worked there until 1993 I had a good job making good money and I was in supervision again someone investing in me giving me a chance they said we want you to continue but you got to go to school no one on my dad or my mom's side had ever been to college Beyond high school I went to wils Community College and met someone that I knew from my home that gave me a chance and helped set me up to succeed my head football coach BW Hol his wife Dr Holk was a math instructor there tutored me and helped me get through I went on to appalache State later on earning a master's degree in 1993 I walked away from UPS to start teaching my conviction and calling when to go to education was clear as a bell and I've never looked back if I had to make that decision today I'd make it again public education serves absolutely everyone that walks in the door it doesn't matter where you're from where you live we serve every student whatever their situation my situation wasn't good but public educator stepped into me 2008 I be I gave I had the opportunity to become the Pres principal at David County High School later served as associate superintendent and super and superintendent many of you have said you're better because of me I promise you I'm better because of you you challenged me you helped me grow we Face situations together as it been mentioned some of the the situations we Face were not always pleasant but looking back today because of the people mostly Educators in my life saw beond my current situation as you've heard Donna and you've heard Clint and you've heard Lori and Karen mention we often see what we're looking for we see what we're looking for if I look at 6,000 children and see 6,000 opportunities and God created children it makes a big difference and if we see something different and that's what that's not easy that's not easy and I often tell I would tell a child I don't like what you're doing but I love you education Educators in my faith have completely changed the trajectory of my entire family students and families you will get out of school what you want to get out of school you want bad you'll find bad you want good you'll find good and that's true in life you'll get what you want it's not going to always fall into place but you'll get what you want board staff and your community thank you please don't ever forget that we serve children children don't have our the answers I don't have all the answers we don't have all the answers but we serve children you've heard some things that really pierced my heart tonight about Caren because if I didn't care about this job it's difficult to do you've got to care about the people you serve there are plenty of students walk in these hallways that are in similar situations that I was as a young man I encourage you to stay focused on your job the job of serving you CLE into the trust and respect our students our students need us and I promise you board I promise you with the right people the right work and the relationships will change lives it does over and over and over again a special thank you to my family being an educator particularly in educational leader and Leadership impacts the entire family I often told my children and I've said it before we live in you live in a glass house and when you become superintendent you can take the doors off the house anybody just come and go have been flowing your business Caleb and Claire I'm very proud of both of you they would often call me dad when are we going to let school out will you please cancel school will you please tell me first Caleb would offer people he would bribe people that he'd give them the first Contact if they would buy him a Bojangles biscuit his senior year that's a true story him and Todd Naylor's son many times people would say if you got anything it was because of your daddy I can promise you they were told you have to outwork everybody and disregard what people say and you did that I'm most proud of both of you because of the young man and woman that you are today and for earning your own identity and you had the courage to follow your own path parents can't script it out any better and I love you both my wife Kelly true story she's going to deny it we first met in the early 990s at Rich Park when her daddy was president of the of the Legion Baseball team and she was serving hot dogs and she handed me a hot dog and I reached for the hot dog and she gripped it and wouldn't let go of it I vividly remember I'm telling you it's a true story three years later we start dating and I almost messed up I went back into a relationship and didn't talk to her for a year and a half God had different plans you can't be in leadership and not have a good wife or a husband many times I tried to separate the job from home but it wasn't all it didn't always happen so I'd come in barking or complaining and she'd stop say that's enough you're at home not at school not in your office you're not superintendent you're not the head coach be quiet needless to say I often needed that recalibration you've been my been by my side through it all and there's been a lot thank you for your sacrifice and your love and your support and I clearly know that I could not have been where I am today or served without you by my side I shared briefly with you some of the the alcoholic situations was in my home and I have a hard time trusting because everything was fake that I grew up around my grandma was one woman that my brother and I could trust my wife I can trust as scripture says you make me complete and I'm not I'll never forget that I love you thank you thank you [Applause] report okay the next part of our agenda is student and staff recognitions first would like to call to the podium the Miss Tanya Carr to recognize the north Davy Middle School North Carolina Junior Beta Club winners North DAV folks y'all come on up and while they're coming point a personal privilege Mr Wallace I I thank you sir your champion of public education has been phenomenal um and I say that we've had a lot of discussions as I'm president of our our NCA chapter here organization and you have been amazing so thank you sir as well as caring and I do appreciate that bonus thank you um I have the honor of presenting to you some wonderful folks North Davy won the most Awards we've ever won at the state beta uh convention this year and I thank you very much Board of Education members and Mr Wallace and chair plots for uh giving me this opportunity to lift these students up we have to begin Charleston Haynes who was the champion in the Performing Arts solo duo trio variety [Applause] our musicology group also took Champion also including Charleston [Applause] Haynes and Ryan Knuckles and Harper Dyson who unfortunately I think is sick tonight and Addy shopshire [Applause] Hudson Poff took second place in health and PE JD green took second place in creative writing in third place for social studies Mason [Applause] Yang in third place for US History Caroline Schneider in third place for woodworking Ryan [Applause] knuckles in fourth place for painting brle hul in fifth place for US History Ryan [Applause] mcferson thank you very much [Applause] let me announce it let me announce it health and PE Champion Harper Welch [Applause] St congratulations and now we'll recognize the William Ellis Middle School North Carolina Junior ba Beta Club winners good evening chairman pot Schoolboard members Mr Wallace um I'm not talking to you because you're leaving but um thank you for your awesome leadership I am here to recognize a group of students who also went to Junior Beta Club and did a great job there um you will see Miss Clement noise and Miss Hill are the club sponsors and no Mrs Clement noise did not get hurt at William Ellis um um but I'd like to invite them up at this time to tell you a little bit about the awards they received at Junior Beta Club Convention good evening um I want to talk just a bit about our state um convention and how we did this was our second time taking students to States and had a lot of fun big learning curve um first off our um Club won first place in uh the scavenger hunt which is something you do when you're not competing in all those other things but I love the fact that every one of our kids uh that that was was there uh had fun doing that and mingling and working together and building rapport with future Beta Club members from across the state so um first place scavenger hunt W um and I'm going to recognize some individuals Miss hill come um I'd like to start with narat Patel who's not with us tonight um narat took first place in eighth grade social studies so congratulations to narat [Applause] um I'd like to recognize amaris Brown who took fourth place in eighth grade [Applause] spelling and finally I'd like to recognize Grace Turner who took fourth place in Performing Arts solo duo trio instrumentalist and she did a beautiful flute [Applause] solo thank you very much race back to recognize Cooper Williams we're going to go out of order a little bit just due to sake of time I'm going to call when I call a group up from the high school just bring the whole group up I know we have some individuals from each group to be recognized and that's wonderful but it is um my privilege to present a couple of athletes and a couple of teams tonight uh I'd first like to start with the DAV High Women's Basketball team so if they can make their way forward at this [Applause] [Applause] time as they're making their way head coach Lindsay Adams these ladies had an overall record of 20 and8 the conference record was 12- two earning them the regular season CPC Championship congratulations to the Women's Basketball team for the 2024 2025 CPC regular season [Applause] Championship as a member of this team Avery Martin please step forward was selected as the 2025 CPC player the year congratulations [Applause] Avery coach Adams please step forward was selected as the 2025 CPC Coach of the Year congratulations coach [Applause] Adams for [Applause] the next two individuals that I'd like to recognize are from our indoor track team so if AJ sweet and Cooper Williams could please come forward the head coach of the indoor track team is Rob risbeck AJ sweet was a CPC champion in the pole vault and finished third in the state track meet Cooper competes in the shop put and at the St at the state meet this year his throw of 61 feet 8 and a 12 inches earned him the state championship Cooper is now a back-to-back state championship congratulations to Cooper and AJ on a great season [Applause] if the members of the wrestling team would please come forward please the wrestling team is coached by Josh Stanley we have many recognitions for this team so please bear with us as we go through this the wrestling team was the 2025 CPC Conference champions the wrestling team had nine state qualifiers for this year's state tournament these nine gentlemen were able to win the 2025 North Carolina High School Athletic Association for a individual wrestling team state championship Davey county is now backto back individual wrestling team state [Applause] champions so individuals when I call your name just step forward and we'll get your certificates when we're done okay some individuals from the wrestling team Andrew Davis was a 2025 North Carolina High High School Athletic Association State play Placer Brett Foster was also a High School Athletic Association State Placer Elliot Gould who could not be here tonight was the state runner up Kaden glass was a state runner up T to was a state runner up and Aiden seev was a state runner up congratulations to the 2025 individual wrestling team state champions and these individuals for an outstanding performance at the state tournament [Applause] the last individual that I have to recognize is our men's basketball coach Josh Pitman this winter coach Pitman had his number four jersey retired at UNC Asheville also recently coach Pitman was named as the head coach of the Triad High School All-Star Game congratulations coach Pitman on these two Great accomplishments [Applause] congratulations to all students and staff who received recognitions tonight it makes it easier to be superintendent when you got that kind of results right that's great yes sir we're so so proud of of you absolutely next board on our agenda is the consent agenda you've had a chance to peruse those items already and receive information about them and so we'll like a motion to have the consent agenda approved chairman Potts I'm sorry to interrupt but I just want to remind the board members that we did have an addendum to the Personnel packet so the cons as you approve the consent agenda it will include that addendum okay so a motion would be to accept the consent agenda with the uh addendum that HR has given us is there a motion Marie has a motion is there a second KH has a second questions or concerns if not all in favor motion carries 60 move to our business items now and the first is the is presentation by Valerie freezer to remediate and readminister the summer program good evening good evening chairman pots board members guests Mr Wallace um last month I came before you guys with a plan uh for a summer program called remediate and uh readminister you guys asked me a lot of questions we just I wanted to come back tonight to ask for your approval of that plan if you had any questions hey I got I'm sorry we have a recommendation Mr frer that we approve the plan as presented I'm sorry what' you say so we have a recommendation from Mrs free friezer to accept the plan as presented I had one question and it may be can we get a mo let me get it on the floor get a motion to that effect and second Second Joe second okay now questions or comments sorry about that um and this may be I don't even know if you can answer this it may be more for Jeff or agenda um the I was trying to get it to open but I couldn't get it to open the um that's supposed to happen on the 16th and 17th yes correct of June that's the last two work days right yes and my question is for and like I said this may be more for Jeff that's the probably one of the busier times of year for staff correct is that giving them are they going to have are teachers going to have time during that gles the the 13th 16th and 17th to like do the things they need like clean out their rooms and things like that that was my concern sure absolutely Michael and we we shared that valer you want to tell us how you came to the decision we again we pulled leadership teams from every school together and uh made sure they went back and talked to their leadership team so it was it kept kind of going out out and back and that's one of the things we asked how do we make sure teachers have the time in their classroom to get things do cumulative folders all that um the principales and leader leadership teams felt like they could stagger the biggest thing what we had to agree is this is an all handson debt um situation so a teacher might remediate on that Monday but not give the testing on that Tuesday uh or if they're given the testing they wouldn't be into the remediation as well with the remediation it's not just on the math or the ELA it might be study uh habits or um test taking strategies we could pull in a variety of teachers to offer those sessions we also would rotate students through that session and since it's only in the mornings of those two days it's not the the whole day uh as well as planning for those two days our instructional coaches will provide some sort some resources to help offset that you're welcome Miss Feer I'm gonna take a little bit of Liberty here to your very Point superintendent we're not extremely pleased we want to honor what our staff wants we met we superintendent in our quarterly meeting with State superintendent Mo green this topic was brought up we are anticipating a little bit more flexibility to to to we should we should be able to come back in May with an update y we we we we're going to be able to we should be able to come back to address I just got to get it officially yeah but it's a good point Michael you have the school calendar I can see what were those day days listed as on the calendar or maybe so they're listed as a required and op day and so we have asked can we like if somebody can we maybe work with staff on that optional day if they work on that day um so we've we've we've tackled that okay okay we got a motion and a second on the floor any other questions for Miss friezer or for Mr Wallace I'll approve motion carries 60 thank you thank you appreciate that next uh item 8.2 policy 2310 updates thank you Mr chairman board we presented a policy a revised policy 2310 to you last month there was some uh some discussion around that and and in our preparation for this board meeting there's still some discussion around that but I'm presenting the policy to you there that's there now up for discussion or for the approval to move forward with policy 2310 Madam coun Council I'm going need some guidance here perhaps one member would like to move the table this item is that correct yes Mr chairman I'd like to move to uh table this item until uh next meeting for further consideration regular next regular meeting thank you okay and that is uh in order because it has not been uh we had we didn't have it on the floor disc a motion to table would require a second and then you immediately vote without discussion I'm sorry I didn't hear what you said when a when there is a motion to table it requires a second if it gets a second then you immediately vote on that motion okay so we have a motion by Joe to table this it item to the May meeting is there a second to that effect got a second by Michael okay any questions all in favor we see five all against one motion carries 51 to table to next meeting next item on the agenda is the purchase lighting material for kouy and William R Davy Jeremy Whitaker is the presenter good evening chairman Potts board member superintendent Wallace staff and guest Davy County Schools would like to purchase the materials for the LED lighting upgrade now so we'll be ready to move on this project going forward the summer of 2025 the project will impact two schools KY Elementary and William Mar Davy Elementary School we will be continuing our relationship with City Electric Supply our materials vendor for our previous school projects at a cost of $ 9,694 65 the board approved $200,000 in capital outlay budget last year for one school this summer we have asked the vendor if we could move forward with the additional school this summer to speed up the conversion of our LED lighting at our elementary schools we will provide a labor contract in May's board meeting agenda for next year's capital outlay budget okay so your request is only to purchase the materials go ahead and get them now because it's a six week or so lay over to go ahead and and get those okay further recommendations from Mr Whitaker regarding purchase of materials of money that's already been appropriated is there a motion to that effect uh Jeff makes a motion is there a second Khan makes a second now questions for Mr Whitaker hearing none all in favor motion carries 60 thank you sir thank you next on our agenda is item 8.4 which we we added to the agenda when we first opened up and that is the appointment of an interim superintendant um I would propose to you to employ uh Miss jenda Haynes who you are very familiar with as our interim superintendent beginning May the 1st 2025 um Mrs Wilson and I have been discussing the contract possibilities with with Miss Haynes if she uh is approved here tonight and uh she'll be ready to roll right Miss H I need a motion to that effect to to approve the Joe makes a motion to approve second Conan makes a motion to a second now any questions or concerns I would just like to say thank you agenda absolutely greatly appreciate that one of the questions that Miss Haynes two things she had concerns about one is making sure her current contract doesn't end at time of the interim contract taking effect because she's already under contract of 2028 and the other thing she was concerned about am I going to have an unanimous vote and those are good thoughts for for a good superintendent so thank you very much and all in favor of that motion you see that can 60 thank you very much and we're we're proud to be able to say that you're our interim superintendent got some huge steps to fill yeah she can hand okay Mr Wallace committee report you have a new policy do you want to share with us recommendation sir yes sir thank you Mr pots board we on occasion not too often but on occasion we we have work with organizations and companies to have exchange students come to to Davy County High School primarily uh I've never encountered one younger than that I'm not sure that you could even qualify pretty rigorous uh vetting process goes that the children and the families go through there has to be a host family and typically we know we would we will communicate with them but we put a policy out there just to support that and I'm and I'm presenting that to you tonight and um for to for you to consider over between now and the May meeting and then they'll ask for a vote at at the May meeting regarding this policy but I'll add answer any questions if you have any any now thank you does anyone have a question regarding the policy that's in the our minutes or in our notes okay thank you Mr wace well ladies and gentlemen that concludes I'm sorry it does not is there anyone signed up to publicly address the board M Wilson There is no one signed up to address the board but since I have this microphone I have to say just one thing which is it has been my honor and pleasure to work with Jeff he's like a brother to me in a lot of ways and I will say this he doesn't always know the answer but he always knows when to ask and his moral compass steers all of his decisions and that's just such a pleasure furn attorney I love working with you Jeff and you've earned some fishing and some time with your family and thank you for everything but other than that no one else wants to say anything to you tonight if not ask for motion to adjourn Michael says yes Joe says second all in favor meeting adjourn [Music]