this one up last time you had to down I I have a ma e spe M check y thank you e still e e okay you how you doing always thank you hope nobody can hear me I got ready we oh yeah we did CL you're Ed good evening and welcome to the monthly Board of Education meeting for Elizabeth City pasat tank Public Schools ecps is a progressive Public School District committed to reimagining education so that all students are given choices to discover and explore their hopes and dreams and now to begin the meeting board of education chairperson and Anga C good evening everyone and welcome to the Board of Education meeting for February 24th 2025 at this time would everyone please stand for our Pledge of Allegiance Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the for it stands one nation under God indivisible with li please remain standing for a moment of silence thank you you may be seated we would like to welcome everyone here this evening and we will begin our meeting tonight with Miss Parker and our roll call chair cob here Vice chair pereza here here Dr Sheila Williams pres Tommy old here Angel Band Here Valerie B here and Sharon Moren present Erica Moore is not here Brandon Moore present and rby nun present thank you Miss Parker and now we're going to ask Dr Williams if she will read our ethics awareness statement it is my duty to remind members of the board that it is your responsibility to avoid all conflicts of interests and potential conflicts of interests in accordance with chapter 138a of North Carolina General statutes as public servants it is your duty to continually monitor evaluate and manage your personal Financial and Professional Affairs in such a way as to ensure the absence of conflicts or potential conflicts does any member know of any conflict of interests or potential conflict of interests with respect to any matter coming before the board today let the record reflect that no conflicts exists thank you so much Dr Williams at this time we need a motion to amend the agenda for February 24th 2025 to add to the letter H promotion standards under new business so can I get that motion from someone please so moved thank you Miss pereza and can I get a second second thank you Dr Williams do we have any discussion this evening no discussion is noted please show your positive vote with a show of hands let the record reflect that is unanimous okay now we're going to turn over our agenda to Dr Parker and some recognition we need to approve the agenda as amended I'm sorry thank you okay we need to approve the agenda as amended can I get a motion to okay we have Miss pereza can I have a second second Dr Williams all right any discussion can we have a positive vote with the show of hands please to approve the agenda fantastic thank you that is a unanimous vote now we'll turn it over to thank you very much Mr Robinson now we'll turn it over to Dr Parker for our recognitions this evening thank you chair cob and good evening everybody it's great to see everybody that has come out tonight we're really excited about the recognitions we're going to have on the board's agenda tonight and we're going to start and ask our CTE director Miss Sheila Overton to come forward to recognize some members of our team followed by some presidential mathematics Awards I believe Mr Josh saer is going to introduce that and then we'll conclude with some really exciting recognitions from Weeks Elementary with principal schi power thank you Miss overs good evening I am excited to stand and continue to celebrate Career and Technical Education Month we have some individuals from CTE that I would like to recognize on this evening and while we have phenomenal staff amongst all of CTE these particular individual will stood out with that being said do we want to do a group or one by one one by one or group okay so as I call the CTE um staff members please take your certification or your certificate and stand um by the board we have four individuals who could not make it tonight because of previous engagements with family or Sports and I would just like to give them a shout out as well miss Angela Hayes she's the Health Sciences teacher from North Eastern High School Miss Jennifer Mitchell who is the business teacher from nor Eastern High School Miss Marquita Wiggins who is the marketing teacher from pascot tank County High School and Mr Dale Smith who is the firefighter from Pascal tank County High School school next I would like to call miss Monica manzer and Mr Daniel manzer to the front as they come up I would like to share that Northeastern High Schools FFA is the largest chapter in Northeast North Carolina with 244 members at Large so this qualifies them to apply for the National Gold chapter award this semester that could recognize them as a national outstanding chapter of Distinction at both state and National level now if I continue to say everything there is to say about these folks we'd be up here four hours so I'm going to condense that in saying that they also advise competitions such as the veterinary science natural resources land judging and livestock please congratulate Mr and Mrs Monica [Applause] manzer next I ask Mr Tony Johnson to please come up now this person he is he is is a natural leader at nor Eastern High School he's never afraid to try anything new with that being said he is going to support our Aviation Academy through his Pathways in CTE he has become a support buddy to many CTE teachers and non CTE teachers he also serves as the CTE department chair and member of the sit team I present to you Mr [Applause] Johnson next I'm going to ask Mr Christopher Richley to come to the [Music] [Applause] front so Mr Richley will be closing out his third year as teacher here at ecpps and he has just blossomed and he is a true leader in his building at pchs he is beginning to lead P plc's focusing on analyzing data and facilitating discussions on best practices for improving student literacy he partners with various departments with cross-curricular integration and collaboration he also leads Hands-On initiatives coordinating projects with his construction students throughout the buildings to offer any support possible for example the dismantling of retired desk and chairs so that the greenhouse could be used for other activities in CTE let's give it up for Mr [Applause] Richley next I'm asking Miss shenita Moore to please come to the front [Applause] Mi Miss chenita Moore is our special populations coordinator and she ensures that every student who qualifies under the special populations category receiv receives services and have access to Korean technical education classes and activities she works really close with our exceptional children's Department to ensure that all of our students are success ful in the programs offering strategies to teachers who need support in this area she also LED our fall semester interns ensuring that all of the guidelines from DPI we complied and we were able to row that program out successfully she also does all of our Publications for CTE Facebook and if you're not following check us out you'll be missing lots of good stuff and last lastly she led the initiative of CTE student of the month she was wanting to capture students who may not get recognized in any other regular situation these are students that you see in a corner they don't talk a whole lot they may not have the highest academic level but they still shine in their classrooms so let's give it up for Miss shenita Moore [Applause] next I would like to call because these two ladies have very similar roles Miss Mary Luton and Miss Courtney Simpson So Mary is from Pascal tank County High School and Courtney Simpson is from Northeastern High School they both serve as Career Development coordinators they assist students in navigating through career paths resume writing interview techniques networking and with potential employers they are currently leading our spring internship opportunities with students they plan and Implement career activities throughout the schools many course fairs military and various other events they also focus on our Middle School where we know the focus is much needed offering career awareness to these students they are also responsible for leading our CTE fifth grade event annually let's give it up for Mary Grace Luton and Courtney [Applause] Simpson and lastly I would like to ask Miss Helga Brown to please come to the front [Applause] so miss Helga Brown is our curriculum and instruction management coordinator she oversees the implementation and evaluation of curriculum and she ensures that it aligns with educational standards the students needs and supports the administrators the teachers and other stakeholders she is responsible for all of cte's accountability testing credentials Project based measures and she leads all of the plc's in CTE let's give it up for Miss Helga Brown thank you good evening everyone all right the presidential awards for excellence in Mathematics and Science teaching also known as the pain award are the highest honors bestowed by the United States government specifically for K12 science technology engineering mathematics and or Computer Science teaching a serve as models for their colleagues inspiration to their communities and leaders in the Improvement of stem education since 1983 more than 5,200 teachers have been recognized for the contributions to stem education up to 110 teachers are recognized each year at ecpps we are honored to recognize two teachers who have received nominations upon recognition the teachers have completed an intense application process which requir these teachers to reflect deeply on their experience and teaching practices providing a rewarding professional development experience let's please get him a hand when we call them up um when your name is called please come forward to receive your certificate the first one is presented to miss Aaron gray it says certificate of recognition is presented to Aaron Gray from nor easn high school for your nomination for the presidential awards for excellence in Mathematics and Science teaching right we also have certificate of recognition this certificate of recognition is presented to Elizabeth wton from EC excuse me Elizabeth City Pascal T Early College for your nomination for the presidential awards for excellence and Mathematics and Science [Applause] teaching thank you good evening I'm Jim schiffbauer the proud principal of weeko elementary school I also have with me Miss Don stylings my assistant principal we're here to uh share with you some fabulous individuals we'd like to recognize our weeksville staff memb and some awesome weeksville students first we have teacher Stefan Bill Mr Bill is the heart of our exceptional children's team he's a team leader and always willing to help Mr Bill is also one of our awesome Elementary School basketball coaches thank you Mr Bill for all you do for us [Applause] next I have Miss trenque with Felton Miss Felton is our amazing music teacher that engages all our students in the love of Music Miss Felton always has a smile in his array of sunshine around weeksville Elementary every day thank you Miss Felton for everything you do [Applause] next I have Miss Lisa [Applause] gayet Miss guette is our wonderful school counselor that supports not only our students but also our staff's well-being she is a true team player and is always upbeat and positive around weeksville thank you Miss guia for everything you do for us every day [Applause] you next I would like to recognize Miss Allison Hopper Miss Hopper is our outstanding art teacher that hooks students into the creative side of the fabulous art pieces that they hang in our hallway every day miss Hopper is a wonderful person that does great things with art and we couldn't do anything without her her artistic abilities definitely shine around weeksville thank you Miss Hopper thank [Applause] you next I would like to recognize Miss Adriana Deon she goes by Miss a miss a is one of our fantastic reach Associates that we have at weeksville she works with second and third grade students she teaches small group students she teaches whole groups of students as well as she translates for us when we're struggling to speak with our Spanish speaking families miss a pretty much does it all for us for second and third grade and through the rest of the school thank you again for Miss A for being a valuable asset to [Applause] weeksville now I can stand up here the rest of the time announce everyone on my staff members because they're awesome but we had to select just a small number to keep this meeting short so but I do have some students that I would like to recognize and again I have 315 students that are fantastic but we did select a small number I would like to start out with my kindergarten student Lucas smithley come on up [Applause] Lucas his kindergarten teacher said that he is an outstanding student and such a good friend to everyone in class he's also a great helper with everyone as well Lucas your kindergarten teacher loves you next up for first grade I have Harmony crittin her teacher said she works extremely hard in school and loves to read and she is such a joy to teach every day come on up Harmony here next I would like you recognize Judson lamb my second grade student come on up [Applause] Judson judson's teacher said that he's an amazing reader and loves helping all the other students also one day he tells me pretty much every day that he wants to take my job and be principal of the building so he's ready to take the keys in the walkie-talkie so we'll make it happen I think here someday this year next I would like to recognize our third grade student Miss Destiny [Applause] Sproul Destiny's teacher says she works hard in all her subjects and is very kind and caring towards her classmates she leads by a good example every day more not here next I have Neymar pan de la Cruz one of our fourth grade students I don't think he's here tonight Neymar his teacher said that he works very hard at school and puts forth 100% effort in his work every day he's also a good friend that likes to help each others and work in teams so thank you [Applause] Neymar I also have another fourth grade student Angelique De La Cruz come on up [Applause] Angelique Angelique angelique's teachers say love her and the love how she works and is the passion for reading and what she does every day she has very creative ideas to share with her classmates and works well with everybody in school thank you [Applause] Angelique now on to fifth grade Eden Sutton come on up Eden Eden's teachers say that she is a trueborn leader in the school she works very hard at school workor and she does a great job leading our SGA as the president she is also a member of the basketball team for the girls and the girls cheerleading team so she does both and she also won third place in the district's science fair for um Elizabeth City great job Eden and then last I would like to recognize Jonathan Green he couldn't make it today it's his birthday along with someone else's birthday too I hear um he's a fifth grade student and his teachers said that he has a passion for Learning and he loves Aviation so even though he took to day off for his birthday I know where he went he went to the aviation museum in Virginia Beach so he's still learning he leads in his classroom by staying positive and setting a great example for others he also was a second Place District science fair winner for ecpps way to go Jonathan so at this time that concludes our recognitions and we're going to show the video for weeksville now thank you [Applause] welcome back to weeksville Elementary School home of the Bulldogs this year we are that b school for Elizabeth City Pascal tank Public Schools we are 1 and a half% away from being that top a school and we're going to get there got some great initiatives going on this school year we are still doing our mindfulness and our resiliency with calm Minds kind Hearts we' have established a strong sgaa student body where they're creating some good initiatives for the students getting excitement around the school we also are an advanced teacher role school where we are developing teacher leaders inside our [Music] building I'm mallerie Dale I'm second grade teacher at weeksville and something that I Incorporated this year is uh social emotional in our morning meeting so we just kind of sit and talk and get ourselves ready for the day might be some breathing techniques things that they can use to kind of regulate themselves if they're feeling out of what we've learned our okay zone so it's been very beneficial so a morning meeting you know helps build our classroom Community it um gets the kids engaging with one another and so we start each day with a a greeting they get to greet their classmates and then we do some sort of activity so today we complimented our classmates and then got some wiggles out with um a freeze dance and then after our freeze dance we kind of our bodies back down with some of oural strategies and so today we practiced our birthday candle breathing and then we have a morning message and so then the kids are ready to go hi my name is Eden Sutton I am the sgaa President of wheatville elementary school I am in the fifth grade and I have been here for six years my name is Jacob Raper and I am the vice president of weedville Elementary I've been here for six years and I'm in the fifth grade I wanted to be um sgaa president because I been told multiple times that I'm a great leader and I just wanted to make sure the school had fun because I love fun and I love learning so why not just add it together and make learning fun well we have meetings with um the SGA um peers and we discuss um like spirit week so we get for Christmas this year we did a um Santa shop at in at Friday and um it was really fun in my opinion it's important to be a school leader because if you're not leading and you're not doing what you're supposed to then you're you can throw off the whole school you can make you can make other people start acting like wrong not acting not act right so if you leave and you show other people how to act then I I think that's very good and you can help the whole school out we are rual bulldogs where everything you do every day matters thank you everyone for visiting weeksville Elementary School we were glad to share with you all the amazing things that are going on out here come on out and join us anytime we would like to say thank you to all of our weeks full staff and students and at this time this would be our public comment section of the meeting and we do not have anyone signed up for public comment this evening um we are going to move into the Super superintendence report but before we do I know a lot of you are saying okay it is time for me to go home and cook dinner and we realize that if you just bear with us and let us do our superintendent report and our student board member reports then we will take a short recess so that you can go out and get that hungry crew fed for dinner so we're going to turn things over now to Dr Parker for the superintendent's report thank you madam chair and I will be brief for the reports uh so that the highlight of the reports our student board members can just jump in um just two things I want to mention here one I want to say to our families and our staff in particular that have been patient and flexible with us as we've had to adjust school schedules due to weather um one I appreciate the patience and flexibility of everyone um we recognize that when these weather events happen that um folks work that U they have jobs they have commitments and anytime we delay or modify our school schedule we know that has an impact on the operation of fam so um as we prioritize Safety First and uh recognize that those multi-ton buses have a different approach on the highway and we have to consider that in our younger drivers in high school um we recognize that a delay of school comes at an inconvenience um at the minimum so thank you for everybody who who's worked with us on that as we prioritize safety um I I hesitate to jinx it but it looks like um we're hoping we can move into this season and be in the clear here but somebody did tell me that the Farmers Almanac said this weekend supposed to snow again according to Farmers Almanac so um you know but that's not me taking one side of the other on snow that's just saying what I heard um so hopefully we'll we'll be uh we'll be in clear soon on snow um the second thing I'll mention here is I want to uh thank our Education Foundation for a recent fundraiser over uh the weekend that they held um and was able to to um have a really successful fundraiser and partnership with monteros and Andy mono helped us with a a soup sale and I believe we were able to sell all of the soup that had been prepared it's a very successful fundraiser and I also want to mention that our Child Nutrition department um I see some of whom are here tonight Tammy Reinhardt is here uh prepared rolls um I don't know if anybody in the house for members two things come to my mind from school lunch spaghetti um and two the rolls that were so good and they were like Golden Corral rolls if anybody knows what I'm talking about um so our Child Nutrition department prepared some of those and sold them at the fundraiser at Montas and you can take them they're frozen and miss reinhardt's here and if anybody like the rolls they could see her I know we have some left but you can get the rolls ready and put them and bake them and then you get Golden Corral rolls too and uh so you can do it on the fundraiser so um what a wonderful uh fundraiser and thanks to Tammy and the Child Nutrition department and monteros for for really helping us out with this this fun rers just an example of there of how people come together in Elizabeth Elizabeth City for the greater good um with that I'll see the remainder of my time and divert over to our student board members for their reports thank you madam chair thank you Dr Parker uh good evening everyone uh it feels good to be back after two months and see all of you again I hope everyone is kicking off the year with a good start a good start because our school is our school held its fall steam Expo last semester and I would like to recognize our winners first place goes to Zoe little second place goes to Casey theard Kira Greer Kaylee hair and asiah brothers and third place goes to cydney dindorf Rowan KES and Maddie bundon Deca has been preparing for the career development conference through mock role plays practice test and fundraising they sold besti boo bags the 14th of February to fundraise for competition and recently sold Crispy Cream as well competition is being held this week in Greensboro North Carolina wish our club luck we'll trust they'll do well our cafeteria staff also had a cookie fundraiser this month and all the pro proceeds benefited our school nutrition education my classmates really like these cookies and we appreciate all of our staff especially our Lunch Ladies as they are the heart of our school afjc has been on the move as well they have been preparing for our unit inspection happening this Friday they also conducted an awareness presentation at the middle school through exposure we hope to recruit potential Cadets our school also had a course Fair this past week where we had the opportunity to showcase the multitude of courses and opportunities that Rising freshman have current students were also there to provide insights I would also like to thank our school counselors for all for for all that they have done to support our students it has been a busy month as our students have been applying for scholarship ships our graduation coach has created a bulletin board outside of the library to celebrate our senior college acceptance letters as well um our principal also held a student and staff checkin through Google meet during this past week when we were virtual to see how we were doing and we play Jeopardy and watch everyone have a good time in a more relaxed environment we would also like to recognize our very own Ariana skills who plays fourth at state competition for wrestling in her respective weight class this cludes my report but I would also like to include that Brandon Erica and I had the opportunity to attend and speak at the committee of 100 in early January the public school Forum of North Carolina eggs and issues in late January and the Delta Kappa Gamma lunch in early February I know I say this often and I don't mind saying it again but thank you all for trusting us and providing us with these opportunities to network and engage with people within our community and our state thank you [Applause] good evening everybody um it's nice to see all all of you again it's been two months we haven't been here in a while um I hope you all enjoy the snow cuz I know I did I enjoyed the break I thank you God for it um at the early college sophomores and juniors have had the opportunity to receive ACT prep through the Princeton Review this opportunity will help improve their overall ACT scores on Saturday night we will have a semiformal dance Casino Royale and the Dolphins Den on the COA campus from 700 p.m. until 10: p.m. our PTO is hosting a Captain Bob's pork chop plate sale on Wednesday March 5th from 11:00 a.m. until 2: in the Seaway parking lot tickets are $12 I hope y'all are listening meals include pork chop green beans mac and cheese and Hush Puppies we are raising money to help with prom calls if anyone would like a ticket please see me or my principal I'm going say that again please see me or my principal we need some money guys pre is on a Saturday April 5th at the Arts of alar the theme is star night and we are excited about this event our semester is almost one half one half over and we have many other events planned for students thank you again and I thank the board for this opportunity thank you so much to our student board members and at this time as promised we are going to take a very short recess just a couple of minutes so we can transition for those of you that need to we will gavel back in in just a few that's oh my God I don't know what did I'm go it trying to get that would be over $100 for the agenda offici so they Ved thank you so much I'm stuck between the two I I told Zoe I'm stuck between the two I told zo that point the agenda she said that she was also um but that's crazy I did not know she was a business the I was I was looking the other day there was another guy right next to us she was asking where I was from and I was like City and go me I don't think I'm going to do too but I was like beine item F on new business they're be a motion to policy we'll probably beever back don't it's I like y yes it is [Music] alrighty we are going to continue on with our meeting and now we are at um needing a motion to approve our consent agend agenda I move to approve the consent agenda thank Dr Williams a second thank you Miss bogs we have a motion and a second do we have any discussion on the Cass agenda this evening if not can you please signify a positive vote to accept the consent agenda with a raise of hands please note that is a unanimous vote but that Miss Bolan is not present all all right now we are going to move into items for information and I am going to turn things over to Dr Parker thank you madam chair uh we're excited uh tonight to welcome the executive director of the North Count teaching V program and Miss Kelly cow is going to introduce Mr Bennett Jones Thank You Kelly thank you good evening board chair Cobb Vice chair pereza board members superintendent Parker and members of the community I am here to introduce Dr Bennett Jones the director of North Carolina teaching fellas program but before he comes up I'd like to share a little bit about our partnership the North Carolina teaching fellas program commission has selected 20 public school districts across the state to receive a recruitment Grant to promote the teaching fellows program and the teaching pro and the teaching profession at whole and we are proud to be one of them this program allows us to expand awareness of the North Carolina teaching fellow program and launch the teacher Cadet program which provides our high school students with new opportunities to explore be inspired by and prepare for careers in education at this time I'd like to welcome Dr Bennett Jones to share more information about the teach and fellows program thank you very much thank [Applause] you thank you good evening uh board members Dr Parker it's great to be here I will share two quick sto stories if I can uh real quick one uh I am the principal that had both uh Daniel maner and Monica manzer working for me and Johnston County and then they came to me in 2020 and said they were moving here and I quit much uh not long after that and took this job uh so they were phenomenal it was great to see them when they moved here uh so I've known them for a while and two I want to give a shout out to Dr Parker and your students I was at the egg and issues uh event a couple of weeks ago and got a chance to hear about your community schools and the things you're doing and left so impressed with the great work that ecps is doing uh in their schools and and kudos to all of you on your uh continued efforts uh I am here tonight my name is Bennett jolens and I am the director of North Carina teaching fellows program I come to you as a lifelong educator I was a 25y year K12 educator uh finished as a high school principal in Johnston County before I moved into this role the North Carolina teaching fellows program has a long history in North Carolina uh and it got uh truncated in 2011 and was brought back by the general assembly in 2017 under a couple of different parameters but we continue to be a uh merit-based loan forgiveness program for anyone interested in becoming a teacher in North Carolina in elementary stem or exceptional children teacher licensure areas we are at 10 institutions in the state of North Carolina stretching from East Carolina in the east to appalachin state in the west uh both public and private institutions uh as we've continued to move forward in our work in promoting the program I think it is vital that we reinvest our efforts to um recruit uh actively in high schools as a former High School principal uh it came to me that I didn't offer any type of teacher preparation courses I offered courses in Health Sciences and business marketing and other careers that people might pursue but yet over 20 of my staff members were Clayton High graduates yet I didn't offer a teacher preparation course and uh as I have thought about it is why are we not offering more teacher preparation opportunities whether it's in the CTE pathway or whether it's in teacher Cadet uh and so what we reached out to to do is to create a recruitment Grant uh of $55,000 annually for renewable up to uh three additional years so a four-year pilot to where we would work with districts on implementing some type of teacher preparation program that would not only promote teaching fellows but promote the teaching profession as a whole and so uh we really uh were strategic as a commission as to looking at um different groups uh from large districts to small districts rural districts to urban districts to border districts uh from the mountains to the coast we have 20 partner uh districts stretching and covering over all uh eight DPI regions and we're excited to be here to share with that Elizabeth City pasc tank Public Schools is one of our 20 that we're working with uh we're excited about uh the the great direction that this this district is taking and to prepay students and we know that in order to prepare great students we need great teachers and we need to continue to work to fill that teacher Pipeline and teaching fellows is a resource to help bridge that Gap from people who are interested in being teachers to becoming teachers to be highly qualified teachers uh and effective teachers when they return to the classroom and so we hope that this grant uh is beneficial to your District to allow you to be able to facilitate the teacher Cadet program or teaching as a profession however your plan chooses and work collaboratively with other districts as we work to uh strengthen and support the teacher Workforce pipeline in North Carolina so thank you for being leaders uh I have a presentation check for you uh the real check also came in the mail really it did come in the mail uh so it's it's coming as well but uh the exciting thing is is that this is renewable so each year uh we'll be able to learn about what you're doing track your progress and share that opportunity and send you additional funds to continue this program for the next four years so congratulations and kudos to Elizabeth City Port Public [Applause] Schools I'll take that's good I'll give you my account number and R number million i' go what a wonderful night and thank you Kelly Cowell for all your hard work that goes along with that now we're going to move on in our agenda to the new business at hand and we will again turn it over to Dr Parker thank you madam chair we're going to move with asking the board to take action on the 2526 calendar for the early college and Mr Sammy fudge is going to come up to speak to that and as the board will remember we're on a uh bium for our traditional academic calendar the board approved two of those years in I believe October but we do one year for the Early College because we follow the Community College's schedule so that's what this is here about Mr fudge is going to lead us in on that and take any questions thank you Sammy good evening uh Madame board chair Cobbs uh Madame Vice chair Perez of board members and Dr Parker just want to just highlight in U some of the upcoming uh 2526 calendar for the Early College July 31st through August 7th is required to teacher days August 88th is a optional work day August 11th the first day of school May 15th is the end of the fourth nine weeks and May 16th is graduation 2026 so mark that on your calendars so we're asking that the board move to approve the recommended 2526 uh Early College calendar thank you Mr fudge we are what we're going to do board members is since these items are not really related each other we're going to do a motion after each one okay so we need a motion to approve the Early College calendar I move that we approve the Early College school calendar for 2025 26 okay thank you thank you Miss Warden Dr Williams gave us a second any discussion or questions if not can we see an positive vote by show of hands let the record reflect that is unanimous except from Mr Bing okay thank you fud okay good evening board chair cob Vice chair president other distinguished board members I'm pleased to stand before you tonight um to introduce the architect for for the Early Childhood Center here at the former pasat Tank Elementary School um if you recall in October the board voted to award the um architectural contract to Oakley CER design architectural Design Services and Miss Anne CER is here tonight to talk to you about that proposal good evening it's with pleasure I stand here tonight before you um as Miss Tilly said I'm Anne Coler with the firm of Oakley Coler Architects we are in Rocky Mount we work all over eastern North Carolina and um we have submitted a proposal to design engineering design The Early Childhood Center here at this school um after a little history um about our firm and about what we've done so far um our firm's been in business since 1988 um I'm a partner in The Firm we have a staff of 17 five Architects so we're we have lots of capacity to do work for you um we do um primarily as local government Municipal schools Town Halls anything related to local government we work on all over eastern North Carolina um and schools are particularly my favorite I cut my teeth on those as I got out of design school that was the first firms I worked with were School design firms so um that's one of my passions in architecture we um have toured the school we met with the staff in early January um for us for us to understand what it is you need we want to make sure we see and touch and feel and understand the scope and the vision we understand there's a rich history here at this school to honor to to make sure we keep that intact we um Place importance on that and we understand that the the project of An Early Childhood Center is an exciting one and um so we have toured the school we have received existing plans um the the original plans for the school we've done a little bit of work just putting those existing drawings into our system and all of that was done to create a proposal for you because what we want to know is how big is Big if that makes sense um so what our proposal covers is to take the amount of school it's about it's two of the Wings approximately about half the school that is identified for that we would be handling architecture engineering all all of the engineering disciplines um including fire protection we would look at building code the structural capacities and the the bones we call it of the building um HVAC or air conditioning heating fire alarm all of the life safety things and as well as the programs that are required to put an early college in this camp on this campus um we understand the requirements of the state the DPI for Early Childhood we'll bring all of that to you um as well as handle all of those reviews and approvals for you so with that um The Proposal that you have I think in your packets outlines our scope of work after conversation we have proposed to do it in two phases one is a preliminary design again just to see how much we can do in this project within that parameter of your funding and then carry it from that point on into the full construction documents um that total is um in your folder at um get to that for again for all of the engineering and Architectural services and including let me add um bidding construction Administration all the way from to tonight until you open school and then you know after that as needed um so that proposal we are presenting to you tonight is for $141,800 um that covers again all those Services we would propose a timeline also have S given you that in the proposal um unfortunately we did talk about how soon can we get this open open but without knowing all of the things we need to address on the state level with reviews I I don't believe that this fall is achievable in the schedule to get this renovation done so it but it doesn't initially take as long as next fall so the proposal that I the timeline proposal I've included addresses everything that would be from day one to to move in and there's still some time left in there um for the summertime for to bring other services in that you need as far as furniture and those kind of things that we can also help you with um I'll be glad to entertain any questions again I don't know if there's anything else you would like to hear from me thank you so much Miss klier everyone should have had access to and seen the packet so at this time we are looking for a motion to approve Item B I'll make a motion to approve Item B thank you Mr old can I have a second I'll second thank you Miss Warden any questions or discussion okay if not please signify your positive vote with show of hands okay let the record reflect that is unanimous with the exception of Miss Bolan thank you so much Miss call thank you we look forward to getting started and we'll move right along to item C and then D on that as well and so Dr mcperson if you'd like to come forward um speak to those pieces there good evening cop Vice chair Presa school board members and Dr Parker tonight I have an update um updated contract for Rivermont a therapeutic private day and a contract for skyrocketing dreams which will transport one of our students to and from Rivermont um last month yall approved a contract for this program that was located in kuruk but due to unforeseen circumstances that program has collapsed um but the program is available in another city um so I've reached out to the transportation um company they have provided me with the different documents that are needed to ensure that there's a safe transport to and from the school so if you guys have any questions for me I'm happy to answer any of those thank you so much okay so we are going to start with item C we need a motion for item C please I make a motion to approve item C Rivermont new story and item we didn't do item just see just see okay we have a motion to approve item C I'll second thank you m Warden we have a second any questions or discussion for Miss mcferson for item C okay if not please signify a positive vote with a show of hands let the record reflect that is unanimous and now we'll move on to a motion for item D make a motion to approve skyrocketing dreams item D okay Miss pereza made the motion for item D can we get a second second second by Dr Williams any questions or discussion about the transportation okay if not please signify your positive vote with a show of hands let the record reflect that is unanimous thank you so much M and now we're going to move on to item e Scholastic Summer self- select quote and miss kinel good evening Madam chair and vice chair pereza members of the board and superintendant Parker uh tonight we're asking the board to approve a quote for the Scholastic books uh in the amount of $ 53,9 n68 and all transparency the quote that's in your packet did not include tax uh they see us as a tax exempt but we are going to add the tax as well so that brings the total to 57,7 7659 again this is an estimate um we will know of hard hard and fast cost after we select the books that the students will be choosing from these books that are being purchased will be used to support um Elizabeth City pass with tank public school's third annual summer reading book program and as in years past we're thrilled to be able to provide the students the opportunity to grow their library at home with five additional books being given this year we hope that that's going to help them create a robust uh Library that'll kind of help them get along their way during the summertime and encourage them to go seek out more books hopefully at the public library uh again this year students in grades K through five will have an opportunity to select their books uh from a group of about 15 titles uh that will be uh selected per grade level with the approval of plans um we will then soon be underway with getting the details in order and getting logistics for each School of how this is going to unfold as well as create a theme and other activities that will support parents and their children with fun activities through their summer reading Adventure I'm certain that as plans are finalized under the leadership of Dr wles and Elizabeth Jordan the board is sure to hear more about this fantastic program and opportunity for our kids so with that I respectfully request the board's approval of the Scholastic summer reading book purchase thank you so much and so now we are looking for a motion for letter e Scholastic Summer Program I move that we accept the Scholastic Summer self- select reading program thank you Miss Warden can I get a second second Miss pereza said going to arm wrestle I think we're going to arm wrestle we're excited about that okay so we have a motion and a second any discussion questions if not please signify your positive vote with a show of hands that would be unanimous thank you thank you so much and now we will move on to letter F Title Nine policy revisions chair c Vice chair president board members good evening so in July of 2024 the North Carolina School boards Association issued special policy updates to address changes in response to the to the new title 9 regulations issued by the Department of Education that were to go into effect on August 1st of 2024 uh Title 9 is the federal law that prohibits sex discrimination including sex-based harassment and the board's education program which includes all school system operations services and activities the new proposed regulations broaden the scope of what constitutes sex discrimination and sex-based harassment prohibited by Title 9 and elimin the requirement that complaints of sexual harassment be handled under a separate process the board did adopt these recommended revisions in January one of the courts considering challenges to new regulations entered in an opinion which while not a permanent injunction it does prohibit the Department of Education from enforcing the regulations at this time the North Carolina School boards Association is working through this but has also advised that we should seek guidance from the board's attorney and we have been working with the attorneys to revise the policies that are presented to you this evening to ensure we are in compliance so a quick summary of the changes that we are adopting this evening are requesting to be adopted this evening the first is policy 7 1710 4020 7230 discrimination and harassment prohibited by federal law uh this separates the Grievous Pro the grievance process and clarifies the report versus complaint and references G the grievance process which will now be defined in a new policy 17264 36 7237 it also updates the legal and cross references policy 1720 4030 7235 Title 9 non-discrimination on the basis of sex clarifies report versus complaint and references the applicable policies for grievance process up again updating cross references policy 1725 4035 and 7236 Title 9 harassment prohibited conduct and Reporting process clarifies the reporting process for sexual harassment and references policy for the grievance policy for sexual harassment policy 1726 4036 7237 Title Nine uh sexual harassment Grievous process this policy we're actually asking the board to adopt this one this evening and it defines the grievance the grievance process for sexual harassment policy 4023 7233 pregnant and parenting students and employees this really simplifies and clarifies the requirements for students and employees separating the and policy 4329 7311 bully and harassing Behavior updates policy references in section A so this evening uh policy code 2420 states that policies introduced and recommended to the board must be in writing and policies will not be adopted until a subsequent meeting the policy further states that the board May wave the requirements of this policy in accordance with policy 2450 suspension of board policies so this evening we are requesting that the board um under three actions first suspend the requirement of policy 2420 adopt these six new or six policy revisions effective immediately and then reinstate policy 2420 thank you Miss Haynes okay so first of all we need a motion to wave chair cob I make a motion um pursuant to policy 2450 to suspend the require reement of policy 2420 that the policies um that are here before action in order to adopt them with immediate effect okay so we have a motion on the floor and I need a second I'll second okay Mr old has seconded the motion do we have any discussion about that we are motioning to wave see if I have any discussion about that before we go any further okay so now we need to vote on suspending the policy can I see a positive show of hands let the record reflect that that is unanimous next we need a motion on the floor to approve the six policies effective immediately okay so Miss Perez has made a motion to approve the new six policies effective immediately can I get a second I'll second it thank you Mr old we have a motion and a second any discussion about the immediate approval of these six policies okay if not please signify your positive vote with a show of hands let the record reflect that that is unanimous now we need to make a motion to reinstate policy 2420 I make a motion to and state policy 2420 okay thank you Miss pereza can I get a second thank you Miss bugs we have a motion and a second to reinstate policy 2420 do we have any discussion if not please show your positive vote with a show of hands please okay let the record reflect that is unanimous and we are good thank you misss next we're going to move on to the participate learning Financial Proposal with Miss Tilly good evening again um in your packet was a proposal by participate to continue offering services for our global leaders programs in all the elementary schools and at River Road and as well as the Dual language immersion program cost the total cost was 320 $325,000 okay um do we have a motion on the floor to approve the participate learning Financial proposal I make a motion to approve item G 2025 26 participate learning Financial proposal thank you Miss bugs we have a motion do we have a second I'll second thank you Miss Warden we have a motion and a second any further discuss question on the participate learning Financial proposal questions or discussion okay if not please signify your positive vote with a show of hands let the record reflect that that is unanimous thank you Miss Tilly and then finally we have letter H which is what was um the amendment of our agenda this evening promotion standards and I'm going to let Dr Parker address that thank you madam chair um we have a presentation here but also provided the board handout I think it might be a little bit easier to read with the with the printed copy here so each board me has a copy of that but the proposal here tonight stems with uh really some Evolution that is occurring right now in high schools across the state uh for promotion standards and uh we've become aware in the past couple weeks of an area where I think our promotion standards could be a little more student friendly um and so so that's what the proposal was based on tonight but um as many in the room and we have many Educators here tonight can remember that when North Carolina transitioned over to um most of our schools in the state not all of them now but most of the schools in the state have transitioned in the past two decades over to a 4x4 block schedule where uh students take four courses a semester and they're 90 minutes typically when that happened uh it became very common for stud for school districts to have a requirement for grad graduation to be uh between 28 and 32 credits um since that time there's been some Evolution on one's progress toward graduation and there are just so many opportunities in front of our young people today particularly stemming from the partnership over the past 10 years with our community college system that's emerged through a program we call career in college promise and so we have right now uh many of our students that earn um and Brandon's on track to be one of those a student who will earn a high school diploma in four years and also graduate with an associates degree at the same time and uh two decades ago that just wasn't possible so um I just say that um we're in a a place now where students have so many options and so we're trying to think about how we evolve our promotion standards to re reflect some of the evolution that's happening right now and just opportunities in the high school so currently for a student to graduate in North Carolina they're required at a minimum to have 22 credit um 22 credits that is evolved from uh legislation over the past year that has now placed all high schools in North Carolina on the 22 credit as you will remember three years ago our local board policy required students to have 28 credits um we two years ago asked the board to modify that for HL trig to give HL trig a 22 credit option and move our credits to 26 the board approved that which I think was a really helpful thing and then about 6 months after the board took that action the state passed legislation putting every High School on 22 credit and so uh in many ways the Board of Education was Progressive um and saw the evolution of that and then the state followed with this legislation and so what that means is students can now graduate high school potentially in their junior year depending on their circumstances and when they achiev credit and so that's causing this conversation that we're having tonight and sort of the evolution around um the value of some students graduating early but also the value of some students staying for that fourth year as well um and accessing the traditional High School experience for four years so currently as it stands tonight before these suggested revisions our local uh requirements for graduation here or promotion rather um deal with six credits being promoted to your minimum this is the minimum requirement to be promoted be promoted to 10th grade a minimum of six credits one of those must have been English one completed promotion to 11th grade a minimum of 12 credits one of which must be English to and also one credit be math one and then promotion to senior year be a minimum of 17 credits one of which must be an English 3 credit and so if you'll turn over um I've identified here on this next slide um how one could receive that English 3 credit currently um there's really one of two options you could take English 3 um before your junior year P mostly I'd say a majority of our students take English three in their fall or uh spring semester of junior year you could take it outright one of our English teachers we have three English teachers that sit on the board right now um and I would suspect ended up teaching uh junior English or English 3 at one point uh that would clearly give you the English 3 credit you've met your graduation requirement if you got the 17 credits you move on to your senior year a second a little more complicated pathway is a student could enroll beginning first semester junior year in our Traditional High Schools could enroll in COA English and there's a requirement from the community college system that requires students to take two community colle College prerequisite courses before they can enroll in the community college class to give them English three the prerequisite courses are English 111 and 112 and so right now as it stands our students take that want to follow this option to pathway they would take English 111 fall semester junior year then spring semester junior year those students are taking two English courses at the same time they're taking College 112 and they're taking English three on our side they complete both of those things at the end of their junior year they're considered a senior they move on and many of these kids take College English 231 in the summer or fall um and they get that English 3 credit but if you'll notice there they're getting English 3 sort of twice um they took it with us as English 3 but they also could have gotten the the graduation standard from the community college because when you take English 231 that's the same thing as if you took English 3 in our high school um so if you notice there we're requiring students to take one unnecessary course which is English three and so if you'll flip over what our proposal is is to give students the option uh for that promotion one thing I I'll point out on that previous slide if if you if you'll notice there the B way it's currently set up it's impossible for a student to be promoted to their senior year unless they also take English 3 because we requ require English 3 as a promotion standard and there would be no way to get English 3 until your summer or fall year if you took it through the college side so that's why we've been requiring English three in addition to those three college courses but that's four courses to get one graduation credit and so that is again that's an evolution of the changes of the 22 credit deploma and some of these other things and that has sort of brought our awareness to to this one issue here here's the proposed revision tonight one to keep the English 3 as a promotion standard but give kids two options one option one stays the same they get English 3 as they would want it they keep rolling we're asking the board to consider a revision to option two and remove that English 3 requirement on the on the option two side so in this a student would take English 111 they would need to have passed 111 and 112 junior year through the college and then if they were enrolled in 231 in the summer or fall that enrollment in that would give the principal the ability to go ahead and promote them to senior year um so that they could pass on but a point I'll mention here is to even get this far a student will would have to have passed 111 and 112 so therefore demonstrating that they one can handle College cours work um and two demonstrating that they're ready to move on to get that English three it just gives the principal some flexibility to promote that kid now the reason we're asking the we to consider this is reducing those four classes to three then allows a student in this Pathway to switch out that English 3 credit for maybe a CTE credit maybe they want to take band there or course or um maybe they want to take a Maring class or an advanced PE class so what this does is it opens up an additional block there in that student schedule where they can still get their English three credit be promoted to senior year but also maybe take a course at other wise would not have taken and so um the last slide right here um I just identified for the board uh some advantages to this revision one we want to continue to encourage more students to take COA courses one they're paid for through the CC P program two it allows students in the traditional High School to be able to move toward getting an Associates too just like we we indicated that Brandon will get at the Early College um secondly it will reduce the class sizes of some of our uh Advanced or our level three and four English courses at the high at the high school because we have students right now that are sitting in English 3 that wouldn't have to do that if this revision were to take place so it'll allow our high school English teachers that have smaller class sizes in three English three and four um allow students to take more classes face to face with us like CTE and then finally it removes duplication of credits and so that's one of the things that we're really looking at very heavy right now is maximizing our time with kids because if kids can graduate now with 22 credit as they can we want to maximize our time with them and we don't want them replicating and duplicating classes and efforts we want to give them unique experiences um that are really creative in the scheduling and so I think this is an example of that there so um I said a lot here so I want to pause and take comments or questions from the board um I wasn't an English teacher and I mentioned we have three on the board so I hope I explain that in English terms that were helpful there um so let me pause there for any questions or comments from the board anybody have anything they want to ask or share thank you madam chair okay so we are looking at um this evening a motion to approve these revisions on the promotion standards letter H do I have someone that was willing to make that motion say moved thank you Miss pereza do I have a second I'll second thank you Miss warden so we have the motion and the second any other discussion questions considering this motion if not would everyone please indicate your positive vote with a sh of hands let the record reflect that that is a unanimous vote and that is is it for the evening I need a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn okay we have a motion to adjourn may I have a second second thank you Dr Williams um positive show of hands for a vote that is unanimous thank you everybody have a safe trip home we appreciate your presence have a good night another one down got