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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes 04-28-2022 School Boards 1 APPROVED 6/7/22 MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS JOINT MEETING WITH ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION AND CHAPEL HILL-CARRBORO BOARD OF EDUCATION April 28, 2022 7:00 p.m. The Orange County Board of Commissioners met for a joint meeting with the Orange County Board of Education and Chapel-Hill Carrboro Board of Education on Thursday, April 28, 2022 at 7:00 p.m. at the Whitted Human Services Center in Hillsborough, NC. COUNTY COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Chair Renee Price, Vice Chair Jamezetta Bedford, and Commissioners Amy Fowler, Sally Greene, Jean Hamilton, Earl McKee (arrived at 7:07 pm), and Anna Richards COUNTY COMMISSIONERS ABSENT: None COUNTY ATTORNEYS PRESENT: John Roberts COUNTY STAFF PRESENT: County Manager Bonnie Hammersley, Deputy County Manager Travis Myren, and Clerk to the Board Laura Jensen (All other staff members will be identified appropriately below) CHAPEL HILL-CARRBORO BOARD OF EDUCATION PRESENT: Vice-Chair Rani Dasi, and Board Members George Griffin, Riza Jenkins, Ashton Powell, and Michael Sharp CHAPEL HILL-CARRBORO BOARD OF EDUCATION ABSENT: Chair Deon Temne and Jillian La Serna CHAPEL HILL-CARRBORO SCHOOLS (CHCCS) STAFF PRESENT: Superintendent Dr. Nyah Hamlett ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION PRESENT: Chair Carrie Doyle, Vice-Chair Brenda Stephens, and Board Members Will Atherton, Bonnie Hauser, and Sarah Smylie ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION ABSENT: Hillary MacKenzie and Jennifer Moore ORANGE COUNTY SCHOOLS (OCS) STAFF PRESENT: Superintendent Dr. Monique Felder, Deputy Superintendent Kathleen Dawson, Deputy Superintendent of Operations Patrick Abele FACILITATOR: Will Dudenhausen Chair Price called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. Chair Price welcomed the members of the Orange County Schools (OCS) Board of Education, Chapel-Hill Carrboro City Schools (CHCCS) Board of Education, and staff. She reviewed the agenda and introduced Will Dudenhausen, the facilitator for the joint meeting. Will Dudenhausen led a group icebreaker. Members of the Boards of Education, Board of Commissioners, and staff introduced themselves as they participated. Following the icebreaker, Will Dudenhausen went over the agenda for the meeting. Commissioner McKee arrived at 7:07 pm. Will Dudenhausen invited the CHCCS Board of Education Vice-Chair, Rani Dasi to make opening comments. Rani Dasi thanked the Board of County Commissioners, OCS Board of Education, CHCCS Board of Education and staff for coming together to discuss education in Orange County. She noted that Chair Deon Temne could not be present for the meeting. She discussed 2 the challenges schools faced throughout the pandemic. She said that schools had to make big decisions amidst great uncertainty. She said schools navigated a global pandemic, provided remote instruction, and then pivoted back to in person learning for nearly 12,000 students, while prioritizing safety for students and staff. She said she is proud of the work done by the schools and highlighted what is going well in CHCCS. She said CHCCS is 4 months into the strategic planning process, which is revisited every 3-5 years. She said they are redefining the mission, vision, and core values, and working on a graduate profile that will drive instruction of experiential learning. She noted that Chair Price is a member of the committee, and the plan will be presented to the Board in June. She announced that gap data is growing, and disciplinary framework has been operationalized during in person learning. She said the preliminary data shows CHCCS has been able to reduce the disciplinary disproportionality index rate for four of the six identified student groups, including Latino students, multi-language learners, students with disabilities, and multi-racial males. She said the disciplinary action referral rates are still higher for black male and female students. CHCCS has identified schools with higher disproportionate rates and will provide resources to address the need. She said there have been benefits to returning to in person instruction including an increase in the number of middle school students earning A's, a lower rate of F's, especially for Black and Latino students, students with disabilities, and multi-language learners. She said that the CHCCS budget focuses on continuity of instruction, retention of qualified staff, and reducing the gaps left by vacant position. She said the expansion request is entirely focused on employee compensation and benefits as well as recruiting and retaining top quality staff. She said CHCCS hired a new Sustainability Coordinator, Tommy Blair, and noted some of the projects they are working on including, agreements in process to implement solar rays at Chapel Hill and East Chapel Hill high schools, a grant application in process to introduce electric busses in the CHCCS fleet, re-lamping at several schools, composting and waste diversion pilot programs at high schools, middle schools, and elementary schools, new gardens have been built, and also looking at storm water management surveys and remediation at all locations. Carrie Doyle, OCS Board of Education Chair, thanked all in attendance for this opportunity for discussion. She highlighted some of the achievements from the 2021-22 school year. She said the five-year strategic plan was launched this winter in alignment with the OCS Equity Plan. She referenced the images below, which were provided to attendees in a handout: 3 fr .N 1104 i + � + 11 A strategic plan is our north star and our road map. It explains our district's mission, our vis hour we'll achieve our goals, and howwe'll measure our progress. It also explainsour cor values and beliefs. The belief statements define what motivates us. They help us prioritize work to make the future we want a reality. Through this strategicplan, we'll keep our teal accountable as we strive toward greatness for our students. go rC5MI5'SI0NW --7 students in a safe, Preparing every learner for inclusive environtrent where lifelong Service and we en. . F - success inspire them to reach their Maximum polenlial /.1pop- 3. Excellence In All We- PW' BELIEF STATEMENTS 2. Put Suidenis First D. - Equity Provide5. Whole6. Serve the 8. Accountabil Do Gre6t 4 STRATEGIC PLAN A2 Goal 1:Teaching Tom orrow's Leaders Through a multi-tiered system of support(MTSS), all I earners wiII excel by having access to and benefiting from a rigorous curriculum and instruction that is research and evidence based to prepare them for college, career,and civic engagement. • EquityE mphasis:ddendfyondaddressinegJdes�ncurricejivmandinstrucdon,MofdefMclosed7eacMeverr a cress an d opportuni ty g aps. Goal 2: Excellence &Efficiency Th e district will provide exemplary operational support toschools, staff, and the comrnunitytoen sure a focus on student learning. • EquityEmphasis:Enstue egjWbledistfibodon afhLman,frscvl,and CVO Mi fe5ourresaCross Orange Coonty Scha als. Goal 3: Exemplary Staff Recruit,hire, support, and retain culturally proficient and high-quality staff committed to providing all students with an excellent education in awelcoming environment. • EgLrityEmphasis:Hfe and reMM sw1fthatreflec�3 d7e diWrsity of the district,n-Nffors the demograpMcs01t OCS studen t POP u+adon and who are Committed W becoming cukLvv#Y praficient Goal 4: Empowering Culture Cultivate supportive partnersh ips among families, schools, and community stak eh o I ders to support stu den ts+well being an d en sure all students have wh at they need to be successful. • EgLrityEmphasis:Ventifyandremovebarf7ers andengage in Culturallyresponsive practices tr7atstrengthen Connections and aommLVicoLion Md7 families,studen n,and the Community. How It All Works Together eyermhl Film we to cUSLUM ALL wtadmm-is receive what Carrie Doyle read the Strategic Plan Goals and Equity Emphases on the image above. She said some of the Commissioners were able to attend the hard launch of the Strategic Plan at Central Elementary School in early April. She said OCS is seeing improvements in literacy due to changes in curriculum and alignment with the Science of Reading. She said teachers are 5 working on letters training and have implemented the Heggerty Phonemic Awareness curriculum. She said this has resulted in impressive command of beginning and ending sounds in students K-2, as well as the ability to rearrange and recombine words to change one rhyming word into another. She said the 10-12-minute daily curriculum, builds phonological and phonemic awareness. She said this instruction is important because research shows that 75% of students who do not read proficiently by third grade never reach reading proficiency. She referenced the image below to demonstrate student achievement: STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT k�w al SY21-22 Beginning cf Year(BGY) &Middle cf Year(MGY) Reading and Math Data �LA'L'Z lnl GO[: ■"1PII EP;�K B2W-War, BBn:rrr4 r1 -7rdl 5;uD� v NC DPi arrcnr ss ar 9371872 .. GY$de K Rerercn¢Dare Iconpale 71ee res ul es r¢p Iris.a xljer aopuaxw ryl. .. OrarygeCouniy 71-2ae0r 450 73116%1 7811 7341 EHlsifi+ 5<[taal5[Pic] 23-22:mor i 455 14TR3k: :IS-s 1126%, '58195L1 v Grade 1 FWN— ,D.L. IC—p—mrss res ales agiins.s wid.r pap-6-4 IF Ydtl$tCBUnII 212x9CY '� � a0f�8h7 1011,11W 93i2AL? 4q5 khaals[NCI z+-zs h+ar 47 I ietr.==: �s;vsl 123{2P7t} 1051239Y1 v Grade 2 RCiewce aa[a 14 P'nr.N�C PSC r[SUIn ain5�d W�dCr 90f}U a[Mrtr OrarkgeCounty L1-22Bar IIS 7aiasti} i zxx} ewirx} SW Schaal s f Nc} 21-22 ElY 497 i"Lain bXi#hl 1i1rpE4} 112p23M} '•` g5rade 3 IZef—.D.L. Ir-anp—Ih—rcula egalrrr.a wl�er,pnp--[ Orange Coun 21.2280r 70113241 5$ 5{hd41s[h#p 27-2£hear 9A!& I The data in this table shows the change in composite scores between the Beginning-of-Year (BOY) and Middle-of-Year(MOY) an the DIBELS Sth Edition reading assessment. This data showsthat each grade level experienced growth between the beginning of the year and middle of the year assessments. L40y Math at h9UY Ma[h al M ROY hhaihl.k� MOY Ntaih% T. DOY[41aih% MOY Math 96 c High Risk Hi§h Risk t_hanpe at Maderate at Modera_e Change at Late Risk at Law Risk Cht Gre:lp Risk Risk k 30% 19% 1L% 27% 16% 3;E 43% 65% 2 1 36% 24% 12% 18% 151A 335 45% 61% 1'. 7 28% 27W. 1% 22% 15% 716 50% 58% 8 29% 23 bqs 21% 1S?a 6;�.; 5096 6296 1: 4 25% 19% 6% 17% 151% 2,16 58% 66% 8 5 23% 16% 7% 16% 10% 6% fi1% 74% 1: 6 IL 29% 1 299a -10% 1 18% 1 17% 1'ro 63% 5a% { 22% 18% 4% 19% 14% '1-A 59% 68% 24% 23% 1 22% 1S% aMo 54% 59% &L_ AI bjn r.—.1- 'S ,i_ r.n r'S 5 r _._I.&---_:i:-- J-i- '- iL - _---- i --iL- __-J'-- Carrie Doyle said OCS is continuing to grow in its ability to serve and engage its diverse community. She said bilingual family liaisons were hired in the summer of 2020 and have been 6 helpful in establishing effective communication with families, especially those where English is not their first language. She said OCS is looking to hire another family liaison to assist in communications with families where there is longstanding distrust. She said that community connectedness is crucial. She said that the family liaisons have regularly offered Parent Academies in several languages to discuss report cards, Power School, FAFSA, and computer classes. She said OCS is in the process of securing a bilingual office assistant at each school, currently there are eight. She said OCS is looking at ELA curriculum changes, more development for teachers with PLC training, and is in the process of selecting a new SEL curriculum. Chair Price made opening comments on behalf of the Board of Commissioners. She noted the importance of technology and internet access for education, economic development, agricultural and rural businesses, health care, and more. She said the pandemic highlighted the need for broadband in all households to ensure a sound basic education. She said the county assisted some families during the pandemic with hot spots, but this assistance was temporary and insufficient. She said broadband is essential to bringing equity and closing the achievement or opportunity gap. She announced that on April 26, 2022, the Board voted on a contract with North State Communications to deploy broadband in the unserved areas of the county. She said the plan will provide access to at least $9,898 households and there is a list of precise locations to be served. She said the county will continue to add households to the list if it is discovered they have been omitted inadvertently. She said the plan allocates $10 million in ARPA funding as a grant to North State to offset the capital cost of a rural fiber deployment. She said the total cost of the project is around $45 million. She said that current service pricing is available on the North State website, and the contract requires North State to provide a 200 MBPS package for $40 per month until at least two years after construction is complete. She said service will be available to households on a staggered schedule, with the first services being available in the spring of 2023, and all identified locations being completed by December 31, 2024. She said the contract also includes standards and metrics for customer service, network quality, and reliability, to ensure a responsive and reliable network for residents who choose to subscribe. She said the Board cares deeply about children in Orange County and wants to work with school systems to prepare students to compete and thrive in a global 21 st century society. Will Dudenhausen invited Carrie Doyle to discuss school safety. Carrie Doyle said it has been a good year health-wise despite the challenges. She said the demands on teachers, nurses, principals, and staff, has been immense at times, and she appreciates all those who persevered. She said OCS tightened down on masks during the Omicron surge. She said that if 2% of any school's student population tests positive, then that site returns to mandatory indoor masking for one week. She said most weeks, schools have had numbers in the single digits, and the 2% threshold has only been passed at two sites over six weeks. She said after one week of mandatory indoor masking, those sites have returned to few or zero cases. She said OCS is continuing to use outdoor spaces, which were built up during the pandemic, and is providing masks and onsite testing. She said OCS has also recently broadened opportunities for visiting and volunteering in schools. She invited Will Atherton to speak. Will Atherton said OCS has a new director of security to ensure a comprehensive and consistent approach across all schools in case something happens. He said OCS has also assigned a Head of Custodians at each school that looks at all facilities windows and doors and identifies issues and addresses them as quickly as possible. He said OCS is also working with SROs to ensure they are walking around campuses and doing thorough checks as well. He said many security improvements cannot be discussed publically, for obvious reasons, but said this is an area of focus for OCS. Carrie Doyle said a couple of schools need roadway or sidewalk improvements, particularly for schools that are beside one another. She said there are some risks to pedestrians due to traffic and the roadway, as well as risks to students walking between schools. She said there have also been some right of way issues come up at school sites. She said she is looking forward to communications with the Board, CHCCS, and law enforcement partners going forward for a clear understanding of how to address the unique issues as each school site. She said OCS is interested in exploring the opportunity for ordinances to prevent disruption to school operations. Will Atherton said there is a program between Cedar Ridge High School and Grady Brown Elementary for high school students to read to elementary school students. He said it is dangerous for students to walk across the street, so this is an additional reason to investigate this issue. George Griffin discussed school safety from CHCCS. He said in July 2020 the school board voted to establish a school safety task force in response to community concerns about revisiting the presence of School Resource Officers (SROs) in schools. He said that the public comment and discourse at the time reflected national conversation on the role of law enforcement in society. He said that some were for, and some were against the SROs in the schools. He said at that time, the Board of Education asked the taskforce to take a broader look at safety and security and look at the best methods to create a safe and welcome environment in all schools rather than just focus on SROs. He said in July 2021, CHCCS Administration reported their work to the Board of Education and received approval for a one-year interim MOU for SROs with local law enforcement agencies. He said they also extended the administration safety and security review to June of 2022. He said this was done because the administration noted that the pandemic impacted CHCCS administration's ability to connect with the community effectively. He said they did not feel that there had been sufficient involvement of students, staff, and community input. He said they came to the Board and asked to reorganize their work. He said a guiding council was developed and they have identified strategies by examining school policies and practices. He said the central organizing question for each group was "What do students and staff need to feel and be to be safe in CHCCS. He said the work council will be presenting their recommendations and report to the school board in June 2022. He said that a draft of the strategies has been shared preliminarily with school board. He said that in addition to school safety and security, the Board of Education will be reviewing options for SRO program as well. Will Dudenhausen invited any questions or comments. Commissioner McKee asked if outside access to classrooms had been corrected. George Griffin said CHCCS still has classrooms with doors to the outside. He said they would love to change that. Commissioner McKee said he wondered if those doors with outside access had been incapacitated. Rani Dasi said CHCCS has plans to address that as part of the long-term capital plan. Carrie Doyle said several of the elementary schools still have classrooms with doors to the outside, but said the doors lock automatically so are not accessible to the public. She said that she believes the parents enjoy the outside access. Patrick Abele said based on the physical design in older buildings, some classrooms are built with outside access. He said another area OCS wants to continually address is mobile units for classrooms vs. brick and mortar. He said anytime students are in mobile classrooms, it presents the same concern as classrooms with outside doors. Commissioner Bedford said she and Chair Price meet with NCDOT quarterly and ask about sidewalk improvements at Cedar Ridge and Grady Brown, but that she is not sure if they have asked about improvements for Orange Middle and High Schools. She said their next 8 meeting is in May they can mention that. She asked for a map of the issue at Orange Middle and High School so they can better present. Commissioner Hamilton said she petitioned the Board to look at ordinances related to safety and procedures for large gatherings and demonstrations on school campuses. She said she is not sure when that will come back, but that is something the Board heard and is open to addressing. Chair Price said that issue was discussed at a School Collaboration meeting and discussion is slated to happen by the end of this school year so that there will be a plan for the next school year. Bonnie Hammersley said the petition Commissioner Hamilton brought forward about large gatherings will be discussed at the Board's work session on May 10, 2022. Chair Price said it would be good to know from both school systems the amount of funding it would take to address the issue of outside access to classrooms. She said it would be helpful to know how many schools need issues addressed. She said that the exterior doors concern her because of the incidents that could occur with people walking into the classrooms. She said that it is about making sure campuses are safe for children. Riza Jenkins said CHCCS is looking at both short term and long-term solutions to this issue. She said some of the structural changes are long term, but in the short term, staff has been working on adding and closing in fences around schools for outside classrooms and mobile classrooms. She said that the perimeter is being looked at first and once that is secured then the buildings can. She said the buildings will take more money and time. Chair Price asked if Carrboro High School was supposed to be enclosed. Rani Dasi said the schools in CHCCS that come to mind with classrooms that have immediate access to the outside are Frank Porter Graham, Estes Elementary, Sewall Elementary, and Carrboro Elementary. She said administration is working on the long-term plan for Capital and it should be available to share in the summer. Chair Price said she thought that Carrboro High School also had issues with securing the perimeter around the cafeteria. Commissioner Bedford said that Carrboro High's cafeteria is designed to expand when they have a need to fit more students and that may be what she is thinking of. Commissioner Hamilton said the Capital Needs Work Group hopes to work between the county and school systems to have a long-range plan that will address all the capital needs of schools and the financing needed. She said it is important to keep in mind all the capital needs that need to be addressed. George Griffin said the operations department has done a thorough analysis of safety needs in the buildings. He said he does not want to share details in public, but classrooms are kept locked, staff wears badges, and there has been a lot of attention to what can be done immediately. He said that while they are not discussing the issues in detail in public, the safety needs have been addressed and reviewed. Will Dudenhausen invited CHCCS to discuss school mental health. Riza Jenkins said that prior to COVID-19, 1 in 5 children had mental health disorders, but only 20% received care. She said the pandemic exacerbated existing disparities in mental health services. She said that access to mental health support is a strategy and that CHCCS has implemented some to address these challenges. She said that in January 2022, CHCCS made a commitment to prioritize social-emotional well-being of every staff and student in the district. She said the commitment entailed creating an intentional timeline of the school day to set a tone for both self-care for students and staff through increasing the school capacity for compassion and wisdom. She said the school support system developed a website, CHCCS Cares, which serves as one stop shop for everything social-emotional and mental health. She said it also served to spotlight successes and create advocate relationships in emotional safety. 9 She said that they also need quantitative information. She said they have been implementing their social and emotional screener to every student for almost three years. She said that the student response rate has increased, and they encourage all students to be open to tell them their social and emotional needs. She said they continue to do additional assessments in the social and emotional engagement, and these determine strengths and opportunities as the district continues to implement SEL. She said that another assessment that has launched is the two solutions in one assessment tool (behavioral threat assessment tool). She said this looks at suicide risk assessment and the behavioral threat assessment. She said both are proven methods to help prevent acts of violence in the schools. She said that it provides the administrators the tools they need to monitor interventions and progress. She said they are currently providing training for all staff related to mental health and safety. She said that this year they launched and innovative learning and training platform designed specifically for their school staff. She said it is web based and self-paced. She said these courses are offered by experts in their fields and complies with the state training requirements. She said that staff has access to the training, and it provides a library of resources. She said that additional training has been provided to address ongoing trends of suicide in teens. She said that in the future they are looking at potentially doing a summer vaccine clinic for middle school and high schoolers. She said that in response to the opioid crisis, they are implementing Narcan training and supplies to all secondary school nurses. She said that they are in the midst of filling the nurse positions for middle and elementary schools and working on an RFP for mental health professionals. She said that May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and the theme is awareness, moving forward to acceptance. She said that awareness is not enough, and that the community must take responsibility for all mental health and share resources without judgement. She said that the school support and wellness provides mental health resources for students, staff, and community. Bonnie Hauser said she appreciates the inclusion of mental health in this discussion. She said it has been a tough couple of years and they appreciate the ongoing collaboration with the county. She said relationships are essential to students' success in school. She said that is especially important post-COVID. She said it is challenging to build these relationships when there is a shortage of school staff, after two years of remote learning, distancing requirements, and extensive absences. She said teachers are exhausted from the two years of remote and hybrid learning and are now facing issues being back in person like absenteeism and behavior on top of learning recovery. She said that students are re-learning how to deal with structured routine and a rigorous school day. She said that she is not sure any school district was prepared for the behavioral challenges that would be faced. She said there are many behavioral challenges every day that come from children simply learning how to sit in a seat, show up on time, and participate in class. She said they are daily challenges and that they need help. She said OCS has asked for funds in the budget to increase salaries for certified and classified staff. She said they need to stabilize staff in the schools for the children. She said it will take every employee, not just teachers, to stabilize the social support structure for the students. She said they have worked with Renaissance to provide mental health services, but they are understaffed and overworked. She said they would like to explore working more closely with Orange County Social Services to provide support to students. She said that in North Carolina the ratio of students to social workers is half of the national average. Carrie Doyle said a few of them just came from the My Voice, My Lens exhibit and that the artist involved with that was also working directly with one of the students at Orange County High School. She said this is an example of the ability to foster belonging and inclusion for all their students. She said there have been qualitative and collaborative efforts between the districts to foster mental health. She said there are mental health clubs at all the high schools now. She said some of the soft/cultural things are being done to support mental health and 10 sense of belonging. She said that the Say Something anonymous reporting app has been vital to reporting instances where there is a safety threat. She said some of the schools are very consistent in their approach to behavior management, for example, the PBIS training used by Grady Brown. She said that she was visiting a classroom there and the kids were signaling with their hands and different gestures to show their agreement in the conversation, and she asked them what they were doing, and they responded that they were using skills they learned in the PBIS training. She said that there are different tactics being used at different schools and that having different approaches at different schools presents a challenge. She said they have a new director of MTSS, and she is overseeing implementation of tier 1 and tier 2 supports. She said that she started off the schools with a self-assessment of where they are with MTSS and some of them said they are already doing it and some of them said we do not know how to do that yet. She said they need more consistent implementation. She said they have done a lot of work to meet that need by contracting with mental health services. She referenced the image below: INCREASE ! SOCIAL • EMOTIONAL SUPPORTS r1dICFIt0F3 41 Shidents At-Risk • M20,70" �- '°r + Referrals up in all areas + All Mental Health referrals increased by more than 1000% + Suicide referrals, specifically up by ENGAGE. CHALLENGE- P N S P! SOCIAL AND • • `� Social and Emotional Learning is the process through which all young people and adults • acquire and apply the knowledge,skills,and sari attitudes to develop healthy identities, + manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, + feel and show empathy for others, + e$#abll$h and maintain Supportive relatlonships, and r make responsible and caring decisions. "4 i CKA LLE NGE_ Carrie Doyle said OCS has recently been able to hire another school psychologist. She said that they recently restructured their EC department to repurpose a couple of positions so 11 that there is a 504 medical coordinator and a mental health case management coordinator. She said they are providing more funding to lead school counselors and social workers that are helping at a district level. She said they are trying to support teacher and staff needs because they are incredibly taxed so they are providing additional work days when possible. Will Dudenhausen invited any questions or comments. Commissioner Fowler said she has felt the increase in mental health needs as a pediatrician. She said if she refers to a therapist/psychiatrist, there is a months-long wait, so there are few resources and options. She said there are not many options available. She said that she is extremely thankful for the fact the schools have involved themselves in addressing this need. She asked if CHCCS is planning to contract out for mental health providers. Riza Jenkins said there are challenges in finding mental health professionals. She said that contracting out is a temporary solution. She said that they are still trying to fill positions where there are gaps. Commissioner Fowler said this is a difficult problem with no easy solution. Rani Dasi said there is a national effort to fund mental health services in schools, but there is a problem with the supply chain and availability of labor. She said that as a country there is a need to invest in earlier stages to provide the support. She said they are trying to find the help but it is challenging. Commissioner Greene said this is a problem that is nation-wide because so many of the systems in place are failing students, and it is failing teachers and school staff. She said that she is grateful for the work they are doing. She said there is a need to support the schools. Chair Price asked how schools anticipate funding these mental health professional positions. Rani Dasi said they start by requesting local funding because the state will likely take longer to acknowledge this as an issue to be addressed in the budget. She said that Gov. Cooper has talked and done some work around this but not to the extent needed. Dr. Felder said some funding comes through state allocation, but it is typically not enough. She said some funding comes from local funds and some funds from Exceptional Children. Chair Price asked if going forward the schools will rely on money provided locally. Dr. Felder said yes. Rani Dasi said interviews have been conducted for the positions, and the RFP for contracted services is being done as a backup. She said there are six diverse applicants that have been interviewed. She said all of the funding provided last year was used for mental health. Commissioner Bedford said Orange County changed Managed Care Organizations (MCO) on December 1, 2021. She encouraged people to call the Alliance hotline for support services. She asked them to report to the Board if they hear the hotline is unresponsive. She said she mentioned at school collaboration that they are at the point of trying to find provider for the crisis diversion center and they have reached out to RHA, the provider of the crisis diversion center in Asheville, and because of needs of the needs of children, they have put serving everyone age four and above back in the model for the crisis diversion facility. She said that they will be engaging with the schools at a future time and asked them to send anyone that they know of that might be interested in providing services their way. Bonnie Hauser asked how to make sure families without access to medical care have a place to go and someone to reach out to when they need help. She said schools see the need and asked how schools and social services can work together on families that they both serve. She said that the Family Success Alliance is doing cool stuff and asked how they can continue to work together. 12 Commissioner Bedford that the school nurses were the contact tracers during the first year of COVID-19 and that they provide a natural connection to the Health Department that can be built upon. Carrie Doyle said state funding doesn't cover all services, so anything beyond that would need to come through local funding. Bonnie Hauser said that in the conversation about masters pay for teachers many people don't realize that includes the social services counselors as well for a loss of the masters pay. Chair Price asked how many nurses, counselors, and other professionals there are in schools now. Rani Dasi said there are nurses in all schools now. She said they will provide information on counselors and mental health providers during their budget presentations. She said they are trying to work toward having psychologists in schools. Chair Price asked if that was two in each high school or just two for high school. Rani Dasi said two in each high school. Carrie Doyle said there is a nurse in every OCS school and that there are currently no vacancies. She said that they have added a floating nurse position, which is now vacant. She said that they have had some recent vacancies in the school counselor positions. Dr. Felder said there is one counselor per school in elementary schools, 4 at high schools, and around 2-3 at middle schools. She said the ratio of counselors to students is very high, so there is a need for more. She said that if they were only funding through the state allotment then there would be even fewer counselors without local funding. Rani Dasi said CHCCS has mental health providers in high schools and will be adding those to elementary schools with local funding. Chair Price asked where the schools send students if they have a mental health need at school. Rani Dasi said the front line is nurses and counselors, who are increasingly overburdened. She said that this continues to be a challenge. She said that the UNC System can't support the need for extreme crisis situations in the community. She said they do what they can with the frontline but there is an intense need for mental health services. She said that if they do not have community care provided then their only help is at school. Will Dudenhausen asked OCS to speak on Teacher Retention and Recruitment. Sarah Smylie said there is a national shorage of educators and that has been growing for years and gotten worse because of challenges with the pandemic, challenges in the state with school funding, and even a lack of salary adjustment for inflation for teacher pay. She said there is also a shortage of teachers of color and college students of color interested in going into education. She said that staff is exhausted. She said that OCS has lost their competitive edge with compensation. She said that some other surrounding districts are offering higher compensation. She said that their certified teacher supplement is the lowest in the region. She said that their classified pay is below the regional market thus leading to an increase in turnover. She said they need to retain and attract talent to school system. She said teacher attrition has improved over past 2 years but still not to where they need it to be. She said that OCS has standardized recruitment and hiring practices. She said that the human capital team is working to diversity their candidate pool through recruiting at HBCUs. She said that they have had some success with the TA to teacher program and that this has helped increase the staff diversity. She said that the use of some ESSER funding for retention bonuses and pay incentives helped reinforce the value put on staff. She said that some of the things that the team is working on is further expanding Grow Your Own so more staff can become teachers. She said they are expanding collaboration with Elon University and North Carolina Central University for teacher intern placement and teacher recruitment. She said that the budget is 13 focused on supporting, retaining, and recruiting staff. She said to make further progress, more people need to be brough to the district. She said the budget request is still not fully sufficient for everything that is needed. She said student and staff mental health is a huge need. She said if there are opportunities, hopefully they can leverage partnerships for teacher and staff mental health support. Michael Sharp said that teachers have been asked to perform a monumental task. He said that when thinking about the teachers that have chosen to leave the profession, they have to think about that not only has it been overwhelming, but the added attention of public scrutiny has increased. He said that there is a domino effect that when teachers resign, remaining teachers still have to make sure that all that work gets done, which exacerbates the problem. He said that in retaining, they need to maintain competitiveness, but also need to be fully staffed across the board. He said that they need to look at whaty their true needs are. He said that they want to make sure that Orange County remains the premier destination for teachers and families moving to the area for the best schools. He said CHCCS is also in partnership with HBCUs like NC Central, and are working on the TA to Teacher program. He said that this will improve diversity hires as well. He said they are doing more support of student-teachers, including networking for them so they can look for job opportunities here. He said they are trying to identify talent in the high schools and Grow Your Own sort of programs within that. He said that these will make an impact on recruitment, but retention will need assistance from the budget. Will Atherton thanked the commissioners and Sportsplex for free Sportsplex memberships and said he has heard positive feedback from teachers. Commissioner McKee asked if 2/3 of the EC teachers have left. Michael Sharp said he was using that as an example. Commissioner McKee asked what percentage of teachers left last year in each school system. Rani Dasi said it continues to change, but CHCCS can report back with that data. She said that is a tough question and they are seeing the impacts of other districts that are offering $6,000 hiring bonuses. Commissioner McKee said he would have thought the data would be ready since it is a big deal. Commissioner Fowler said she spoke to the the CHCCS SNAC Chair recently and there were 24 vacancies for EC and 60 for general education in CHCCS. She said there were also EC TA vacancies. Commissioner McKee said that information is helpful. He said knowing the percentages helps him quanitify the need. He said he would like to know the percentages that have left the schools in the last year. Rani Dasi said she wasn't prepared for details today, but will provide them at the budget presentation. Carrie Doyle said in 19-20 there was a 19% attrition rate, and 20-21 that was reduced to 12.5%. She referenced the below images: 14 Classified & Certified School & Central Office (April 2022) Ingo Sued ClaslllleE ftw— 0111ral OMlee iuppa,'L 379f1 Cha18ilFed 4r Carleles OPfrte,SsdlF TeaLtiec AL DstimLS CusLodierm Support m .I LI T FCTeWhPf M".PatF CT♦:LA;0 Mu Sdpp4rr EC Pre-K Trd:'1er,%5#i9aiA Drmrntarr Certified%Wancien HVmmCapital Spi>dafea Human(:apit4l Lkgnsyrs($ub bmrdir.ilor Administr Classraorn ECTeacher Wr-Core Sopp"tStafF et1we TeaAL't Teechee M3irtrellilrtR Techr,lciaa I €I�ricorr 1 Pre-K Teacher 3 ECTeachem 57EM Teacher Meth Coach A4*t;irrt Pirec.WQfhetW44nanp1 NIA 5 1st Grade MK Et Tchr. 15 E51- Inter. pr}wtp of Fai:Was and Carr NaeGan 1 2nd Grads Taacher LitaraLy Coach pisectorof Se Lw" 53fdGra& PETeaiheE hrlamcawhj ryrt.TFmeCustudlan(oorklnuouslypcsted) 14th Grade Math Interuantionist Teacher Iru,enrentian Guidance ow LS"r5 t';Ontln,,oufly pOLWCIJ 1 Sth Graidc Speclallst Counselor Texher Spanish €uiFTin*(Nltl:Nutf DriAi5ilfbntIeeaGrmubu*pom!dl Teacher PmtITime Child NutrltlonAssabnts(ccrntlnuouslypaMedl Art Toachcr OLIIdNumYlon SLbtltulao ImMLluouslppwtud) Reading Classified a aCertifiedSchool • Central Office Vacancies rl rrKLdrr Srhaar Cert�ib�yacars-0ys'. 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IGTE£4mp iar So,T4hr kledaipgeulisr ELA 3HOsef QTE Arinsal$r7OrK@ 1thr. 2 GNigge Qpun5slmm EngFyi Temher Q'mlinq NmrLr4 ioryl F�cllftmgr 5&mxlN4rag T r Errrtral olhfx Outaled Varamim �>yy frrx.6rruLui?Gri�cscrrAs.t.Uirrnur iyypM,{'aa�dFrlrl6Frn. b ChW of$EhaNs is AdSaAgnw m iXraoiorarT2W"A{gWVW 1.5 Wni:Y Ninth Co�n�n1m)i3in cn L�cancatl SorJal WarLPN pigrof Qrmmunkminns 6 Famklkrggamom EqukL Fadkimar STEW CQ, dina-.ur ECPrrgrsnr5pWialW CQ FtpK TSacher Spada Ed4cAt.c"I Olalproc7kian Schnal 45qChokgi5i fla;4Ing NLdsa Carrie Doyle said EC has experienced the biggest loss. Commissioner McKee said he would appreciate percentages to help him contextualize the need going into budget discussions. Commissioner Greene asked about the literacy coach position for OCS. She said she thinks the position was created a couple of years ago. Carrie Doyle said there is a new director of literacy and it is not a vacant position. Dr. Felder said the literacy coach vacancy is for one particular school, rather than the district. 15 Commissioner Greene clarified that the literacy coach position created a couple of years ago was for the whole district. Dr. Felder said yes. Sarah Smylie said that OCS has had literacy coaches for several years and they have recently added math coaches. She said that when there are teacher vacancies then the literacy coach helps cover in the classroom. She said that is an example of how classroom vacancies have other effects. Commissioner Bedford said that in full disclosure the SNAC Chair is her daughter-in- law. Commissioner Hamilton said that her first career was as a labor economist. She said the jobs that we are seeing so many exit from now are done traditionally by women, and traditionally underpaid. She said that COVID exposed that people were working and not getting adequate compensation for their service work. She said that was supported by a societal lack of valuing human service work. She said that now she is a therapist that social workers are also leaving the profession and are overworked. She said she is happy to hear all strategies that the schools are using to recruit and retain. She said that she is happy to hear that come to them so they can think about how to support the schools. She said they are seeing the same shortage of people at the Board of Health. Commissioner McKee asked if the same amount of people are leaving at higher administrative positions above principal level. Rani Dasi said the percentages are lower but they know they are overburdened. She said that the majority of resignations are for teacher and TA positions. She said that they have had 107 teachers leave this school year. She said that continues to increase as other districts have higher supplements and offer bonuses. Sarah Smylie said she isn't sure for OCS, but there are a lot of vacancies across the board at a national level. Commissioner McKee asked what reasons are being given for the attrition rate for teachers. Rani Dasi said like with any attrition, there is variety. She said attrition to other districts and outside of the state. She said they are hearing consistently that people are leaving the education profession overall. Riza Jenkins said people are leaving for signing bonuses, more flexibility with other professions, and remote positions with higher pay. Carrie Doyle said they have been conducting exit surveys and the reasons are similar. She said that some is financial, some is driving distance, some get offers in their counties. She said that they have attracted people with their redesign because that appeals to some teachers and other teachers that might not want to change and they decide to leave. Commissioner McKee said he has talked to about a dozen teachers in the last six months and none of them have mentioned salary as a reason they have left. He said that some of the reasons he is hearing is a lack of discipline in the schools, workload, lack of support from central office staff, and lack of support from management and teachers. He said they do not feel supported. He said he finds it interesting that none of those reasons were mentioned by the school board. He said that the feedback he is hearing is in the community and it is started to feed on itself. He said that they are burnout on virtual learning and they are overburdened with their workload. He said the elementary teachers that he has talked to say there is a desperate need for TAs in those classrooms. He said that the inability to teach several different learning abilities in one classroom is another major reason to them. He said that he is not saying he knows the answer but he is relaying what he has been told and there is a disconnect. He said they need to figure out the disconnect. He said he is sure they will have to increase salary to match local costs of living. He said that a teacher in the rural areas is not being paid what it 16 costs here, but there is a higher cost of living here. He asked when budget requests are received, will there be a carve out of requests specifically for salary increases to retain and attract people. Rani Dasi said there may be some semantic differences in what the Boards of Education are sharing and what he is hearing from teachers. She said that they have heard about wanting more work/life balance, more flexibility, and they are working to create those environments. He said that their entire budget ask is focused on teacher and staff benefits, including support services. She said they need to feel safe and supported in the classrooms. She said she appreciates his outreach to teachers and that she does not think they are that far apart in what they are hearing. Carrie Doyle echoed Rani Dasi's comments. Ashton Powell said that as a teacher a lot of this is related to mental health. He said that personally, he is on medical leave from the School of Science and Math from work related stress. He said that the stress of being a student in today's world is also impacting teachers. He said that he still feels guilty having to take time to deal with his mental health because he knows the impact that is having on the workload of his fellow teachers. He said that their careers changed four times in three years. He said that he is not as optimistic about the survival of public administration as others are because they were getting crushed before the pandemic and now they are barely surviving. He said there needs to be more adults on campuses to do the work. Commissioner Fowler said using pay to bring more people in lowers work load. She said that recruitment and retention would lower the workload. Commissioner McKee said he understands the workload and lives with a teacher that was in the schools for 30 years. He said if we do not figure this out it will get worse. Bonnie Hauser said there is a breakdown in the school community. She said that a lot of the schools have new administration and new staff. She said that the networks and relationships are being rebuilt and they are stressed. She said it is an incredibly stressful time because school is not home anymore. She said they just don't have the pulse of students and staff like they once did. Chair Price asked how custodial staff are being supported. She said they are really important in keeping the schools open and clean. Patrick Abele said both in house and outsourced custodial services are being used. He said they provide a very important role within school setting related to safety and cleanliness. He said they have been outfitted with new tools, uniforms, and shoes. He said they also added a monthly stipend to head custodians for the role they play. He said they are starting to open up facilities for community use and that provides additional time for them to be on the campus. He said they will ensure that they are compensated for overtime. He said they are fully staffed. He said there are a few vacancies for head custodians. He said that the pandemic has exposed that the outsourced services have not been performing where they should be. He said that with labor and market changes the prices have increases dramatically. He said there is uncertianty on the impact on future budgets. He said they are looking at bringing people back in-house because they know that when they work for school district, they care about kids, school, community, and will show up when they are supposed to. Rani Dasi said CHCCS also has a combination of in-house and outsourced services as well. She said they are working on a restructure to redisturbute custodial staff and they will have more to share in the future. Chair Price asked if there is a preference for in-house or contracted custodial services. Rani Dasi said that for a lot of the same reasons that Patrick Abele mentioned they also have a preference for the positions to be employees of the district. Will Dudenhausen invited Chair Price to comment on human/community services. 17 Chair Price said they have been considering ways to retain teachers and one of the ways is making sure teachers and staff can live in the communities. She said that for students, it is important to make sure they have safe home environments. She sid that from the county side, they have good partnerships with non-profits to provide some degree of workforce housing. She said that gentrification is continuing to happen and they need to figure out a way to have an inclusive community. She said that food is also an issue that the county partners with organizations for. She said there were teachers that went to children's homes during COVID just to make sure they had enough food at home. She said these situations still exist. She invited other commissioners to speak on the work of the county on these topics. Commissioner Bedford said she is liaison on the Board of Social Services. She said that in July a lot of federally funded benefits for food an dother services will go back to pre- pandemic levels. She said that is for all ages. She said that the county is trying to plan for that and use ARPA funding. She said that there will be some planning to stretch those dollars and meet those needs but this is bad news. She said that some families may also become ineligible for benefits upon recertification. Commissioner McKee said he made an information request a couple of weeks ago to both Boards of Education. He said that he does not believe it proper for an elected official to ask management of schools for information directly and that he did not feel it proper to ask his chair to make that request for him without going through a board vote. He said that what bothers him even more than not having the information relayed back to him was the implication that there was a racial undertone associated with his request. He said that his request was specific because of the concern of performance of the low performing and low wealth groups of students. He said that there was no racial overtone to it and there will not be. He said he doesn't understand why the information wasn't provided, other than it may take time to respond, because it is important. Ashton Powell asked if the racial overtone was that he has not received a response yet. Commissioner McKee said no that it was implied that he did not go through his chair, who is African American, to get the information. Rani Dasi said that she can't respond to the racial overtone but that they have been speaking to the issues in school and the shortages and with respect to that there are often delays in even the school board receiving data that they are looking for. She said they were told that county staff could provide it and she did not realize that there was still the expectation for the schools to provide that information Commissioner McKee said he would not have asked for the information if he did not feel like it's important. Carrie Doyle said there is a time component on their end and that it is not data that is readily available the way it was requested, so it will take time to compile. Commissioner McKee said his concern is performance of the school. He said that everyone knows that the performance of the schools is nothing they can brag about, especially for low wealth and certain categories of students. He said they can talk about teacher pay and teacher retention but that will not change the life outcome of students with poor performance. He said that the only thing that will change their life outcomes is changing their proficiency. He said he does not know how to do it but he knows the outcomes. He said that he knows someone that graduated as non-proficient and that he struggles collecting and interpreting data. He said he will probably make it but a lot probably wont. He said you can't work at McDonalds or a $10 job and make a living. He said that he has no illusion that everyone can go to Harvard or be an A student. He said that every student should come out performing at the best of their ability and he does not think that they are. Rani Dasi said that respectfully, that is the work that they are doing. She said it feels a little disingenuous for him to ask for inforamtion that takes them away from the work, without a 18 plan to fix it, but he still wants them to spend time getting the information rather than doing the work. She said they are in the midst of a pandemic trying to get kids back to school, hire teachers, develop curriculum, and she can't get her questions answered as a school board member and he is asking for ten years of organizational charts that they do not have access to. She said that their systems are not built that way. She said that their technology is underfunded and has been consistently. She said if they are to focus on the things that work for students, then they have to do the core work. She said that is where a bit of their frustration came from because the work should be the priority. Commissioner McKee said he does not question the commitment from the school board, teachers, or administration and that he did not put a timeline on that request. He said that he can assure everyone in the room that if he had asked the manager for information then he expects it to be provided. He said that he has heard from both school boards that they can't get the information and he does not understand why. Will Dudenhausen said this sounds important and conversations need to be had, but his role is to keep on track with the agenda. He said this was not on the agenda and he does not have a background on it and can't facilitate the topic. Chair Price asked what the plan is for the summer for feeding children and how the county can support that given the need. Sarah Smylie said that the federal government is also eliminating many of the waivers for feeding students. She said those allowed them to feed the children and provided flexibility in that process. Patrick Abele said many sites are open this summer for summer programs. He said all those students will be covered either through USDA funds or local dollars so that no family has to pay for a meal. He said they are not sure about community summer feeding sites. He said they are working with PORCH and other groups to expand offerings. Rani Dasi said CHCCS has funding for a summer food program. She said there will be camps and activities that also include food for the students. Bonnie Hauser said schools are losing emergency authorization for hotspots. She said they have been operating under special arrangements with Verizon for hotspots for $15/month and they have asked them to return those because of the end of that program at the end of the school year. She asked if there is a way to work with the county to provide access. Patrick Abele said staff will be giving an update to OCS BOE about next steps for hotspots. He said that all summer students will have access to technology. He said they are asking for people to bring them in so they can reevaluate and redeploy technologies as they are needed. He said there are options with different providers to make sure they have hotspots available but there is a funding need for capital and technology. He said they are collecting their hotspots, but they will be reissuing those to people that need them. Commissioner McKee asked when they will need them back. Patrick Abele said at the end of the school year but that any family that needs one can contact the school and they will reissue them one. Will Dudenhausen invited board chairs to make closing comments. Rani Dasi thanked the boards for coming together. She said they are celebrating what is going well, while recognizing more work and progress is needed. She said the CHCCS are experiencing a crisis of teacher retention and recruitment, facility needs, and mental health needs spanning across teachers, students, and staff. She said that they look forward to continuing those discussions during the budget planning cycle. She also thanked Dr. Hamlett for her leadership since she came to CHCCS in January 2021. Dr. Hamlett said it is clear that county commissioners, staff, and school boards prioritize safety. She said that there were a number of responses from their social-emotional learning engagement analysis that they can share. She said they are thankful for the resources provided 19 by the county. She said that another takeaway is that education field is not immune to "great resignation." She said that is a pandemic itself across the country. She said that it is competitive in the Triangle market. She said that staff and students are redefining what success looks like in public education. She said that she works alongside forty student equity ambassadors. She said that they need to stop thinking and expecting education be what it was pre-pandemic. She said that students are demanding a more personalized learning experiences, connected to real life and to the needs connected to the community. She said it will be a collective collaboration to achieve success. She said that they are engaging in a summer of service to access the resources in the schools. She said that staff deserve to be adequately compensated. She said she is encouraged by the discussion tonight. Carrie Doyle thanked everyone for their collaboration and attention. She invited Dr. Felder to make closing comments. Dr. Felder thanked the commissioners, school boards, and staff for their work on behalf of children. She said they are working hard to improve outcomes for students every day. She said everything discussed tonight is tied to student outcomes. She said that Orange County values children and recognizes they are their greatest asset and strive to get it right for kids. She said she has never been in a county that invests in its children the way Orange County does. She quoted James Baldwin, saying for these are all about children, despite where they live, despite their race or other ways we identify them, they are all about children. She said that as a county, state, or nation, we will either profit from or pay for whatever these children become. Commissioner Bedford said she values that the elected officials and staff in schools are accessible. She said that she heard both superintendents at a workshop and that they did an amazing job. She thanked Ashton Powell for sharing his story because it reduces stigma. She said that she looks forward to the budget work session. She said this was a good discussion. She said it has been a hard time to be a school board member and thanked them for their work and service. She said they did a budget amendment that will go to schools and facilities. She said that her other daughter-in-law is an occupational therapist for Durham Public Schools. She said the workload is horrible and that this is a national issue, but is especially hard in NC due to the General Assembly. She said the BOCC may not be able to fully fund budget requests, but will do everything possible to support students. Will Dudenhausen said he thought it was a good discussion and thanked the boards for their input and work. Commissioner Richards said she quiet tonight because she was interested in hearing what the schools had to say. She said that she will benefit from future specifics in terms of disparity and performance data. She said she hears the broad issues but would like to see specifics and plans to improve. She said she wants to see the work quantified. She said she would like to know when the graduating classes will be caught up to where they are supposed to be. She said she is interested in where they are going to be with the investments. Chair Price thanked everyone for being there and for their input and work. A motion was made by Commissioner Bedford, seconded by Commissioner Hamilton, to adjourn the meeting at 9:26 p.m. Roll call ensued. VOTE: UNANIMOUS Renee Price, Chair 20 Recorded by Tara May, Deputy Clerk to the Board Submitted for approval by Laura Jensen, Clerk to the Board.