Minutes from the February 25, 2008 Board of Education meeting

Call to Order:

Chairwoman Russell called the February 25, 2008, BOE open session to order at 7:25 p.m.

Pledge of Allegiance:

Board members led the audience in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

Invocation & Welcome of Visitors:

Dr. David Bryant offered the Invocation and welcomed visitors.

Public Comments:

LaWanna Goods: Ms. Goods welcomed and thanked the Board of Education, Dr. Bryant, Central Office Staff, and the parents and citizens of Chatham County. “I am a parent representative of North Chatham’s Site Based Committee. First, I would like to thank you all for your service to our county and to our schools. Second, I would like to thank you for your approval of the renovations and additions to North Chatham School. However, as we continue to grow there is always needs and hardships. I am here tonight to present some pros and cons for solutions to alleviate the current overcrowding and continued growth in our schools. Our principal, Mattie Smith, is recommending a pod for our school. Here are some pros for supporting this pod. First, this would be a long-term growth investment. North Chatham will continue to grow even after the new middle school is open. Second, North Chatham will be able to maintain a smaller classroom size with increased classroom space in the pod. Without this additional space, the administration will have to increase our classroom size. A pod will also increase the amount of restrooms that we have here. Currently, our bathrooms

BOE minutes, Open Session 2/11/08 1

are overcrowded and valuable classroom time is wasted with bathroom usage. Also, with this limited bathroom time and usage, there are increased health issues with improper personal cleaning and hand washing. Adequate space for increased number of personnel will also be provided in the pod. Office space will allow teachers and administrators to have more space to work, plan and prep. It would also provide a space for our Assistant Principal to have in the pod, to help curtail any behavioral problems that may occur. The pod will increase middle school unity as well because all the kids will be in one area versus going here and there for changing classes. A pod will decrease the travel time that kids have between classes because they are limited with their time. It will decrease the traffic in our main hallways within our main building. It would also decrease the interaction with the smaller kids. As a rule, smaller kids sometimes feel a sense of fear when they encounter older kids or the noise from the older kids. North Chatham would also remain a community school which we all agree is what the community wants. With all these points mentioned for the pod, I am sure it would help retain our valuable North Chatham staff, which we don’t want to lose, not one person. For this option, I do not have any cons, except for parking, which is a problem at this school anyway. I ask that you would please carefully consider these points in making a decision for our school. In addition, I also ask that we remember the words of an educator, Armando Sanchez, If you are ready to criticize a system, be equally ready to provide assistance. Thank you”

Dorothy Cilenti: “I am here to speak for Esther Coleman, President of our PTA. I am the Vice-President. I would like to express the PTA support of the principal’s request for a pod, similar to what you heard from Ms. Woods. We know that the pod will only provide a temporary solution. We are all looking forward to new facilities on this end of the county as we know you are struggling to make happen and it is taking some time to get those in place. In the interim, we feel it is critical to at least have a pod that will help reduce class size, give more office space for teachers so they are not working off of carts and also to provide better safety and security for the children and faculty and also to provide a sense of home for the middle schoolers in particular. We know that reducing class size has shown to be effective in student performance, particularly in the early and middle school years and we feel that with the right funding, accountability and faculty practices and policies, we could really see an improvement in our school’s performance. We agree that we don’t anticipate a decline in the current rate of growth and know that we will outgrow the new pod faster than the new school can be built, but then the new pod will also provide some overflow for the school after the other students relocate. I do want to mention that we are not supportive of moving students to Cole Park Plaza. We know that it is being entertained as an option, after Woods Charter relocates. My reasons are basically for the security and safety of the students and staff issues with regards to transportation; having our school on two different sites; lunch arrangements; school assemblies; cultural events; loss of assurance that parents can have their middle schoolers and younger siblings at the same school and a separation of our North Chatham community. We are also not supportive of reassigning some of our middle schoolers to another middle school, which has also been presented as an option, particularly because we don’t think that this will sufficiently address our overcrowding here and also we have students that would have to travel a long distances on the bus to go to the middle school in Pittsboro. While we recognize that this is a short term fix, we do think that it is at least an acceptable option to have a pod on the campus in the short term. I also would like to mention that we are concerned again about the upcoming elections and the use of our school facility for voting. Any advocacy that you can provide on our behalf with the Board of Elections would be appreciated. It disrupts our ability to use our Multi-Purpose Room, particularly with early voting, it can be up to ten days. Thank you.”

Serena McClamroch: “I am a parent and an avid volunteer here at North Chatham School. I do not have a prepared speech; I am ready to speak from my heart because I am fed up as a lot of parents are. I have a couple of questions that I am hoping that we will hear answered tonight. First, the timeline for the middle school, and why it has been moved back; timeline on the high school; when we can expect this expansion in our cafeteria and the multi-purpose room to be completed. As a middle school student and elementary school student parent, I would really like to see my son stay here and get another pod. My biggest concern is the parking; we are already dealing with it without the pod here. I think that this is something that needs to be addressed now. Whether we knock down some trees and put up a parking lot in front of the school or what have you, it is never going to be less crowded than what it is right now. If we could get an honest time line from you all, it sure would help a whole lot. We get jerked around more than any other parent in this county, I feel like and I left Wake County for the very reason and I am encountering it again. If you could give us a good concrete deadline on when we can expect the middle school to open. I just heard last month that it has been moved back to 2010. I don’t know why, if that is the truth, I am hearing this from some of the board members here at school. I would just like to see some hard questions answered here tonight, no beating around the bush. If we know what to expect, then it is easier to deal with it. Thank you for being here and thank you for considering it.

Chairwoman Russell interjected that the time lines for both the new middle school and the new high school are posted on the website and there have been no delays;, actually we have been able to move them forward. October 2008 is the date of completion for the North Chatham expansion. The time line for the high school is on the website, but for that project we have to wait for the release of funds from the county commissioners.

Ms. McClamroch asked what the factors to getting those funds released are.

Vice-Chairman Clark stated the county’s debt ratio. The county commissioners can only release
funds according to what they can get and that depends on the county’s debt ratio.
Chairwoman Russell stated that the commissioners are working with us to get this done.

Flint O’Brien: My name is Flint O’Brien. I’m a founding director of GoodSchoolz and you may know that I’m running for School Board. We’re here to talk about overcrowding. I also need to point out the fact that we had this same conversation in this same room a year ago. The school board promised solutions, but in fact, the situation has gone from bad to worse. A year ago, you said the middle school was on track to open in 2009. Now you say it will be 2010. As you know, we are moving the middle school grades from this school to the new middle school to help with overcrowding. It was one year away. Now it’s two. Why did this happen? We’ve heard a lot of excuses, but I do think it’s important for you to hear what informed people are saying: If the school board cared, or the superintendent cared, or the assistant superintendent of facilities cared; if any one of them cared, that middle school would be on time. No one’s saying individual board members don’t care. We are talking about the actions of the board as a whole. It’s not just me saying this or parents saying this, that’s what some of the County Commissioners say. They’re just as mad and frustrated as we are. We just added three more trailers at North Chatham. They were supposed to arrive last August to relieve overcrowding. Then they were supposed to arrive over Christmas break because Virginia Cross opened late (last October). Somehow, no one even thought about moving them until December – that’s why they are just opening this month (hopefully). I could go on about progress on the new high school and similar issues, but I won’t. We don’t expect perfection but we do expect to hear what the fallback plan is. You knew the middle school would not be on time a year ago when you stopped the design process. You knew this more than a year ago and we still don’t know what the plan is. This is déjà vu. We had the same conversation a year ago. I don’t want to be here next year having the same conversation about the exact same problems. We will not make any progress as long as this board refuses to do the most basic planning to dig ourselves out of this hole. We don’t want secrecy. Tell us what you’re going to do and we’ll support you. The current strategy of no planning and no communication is unsustainable. I have talked about North Chatham, but this is not an isolated problem. The entire county is clearly exhausted with this kind of behavior. We are angry and frustrated. Our organization, GoodSchoolz, has tried to push things along in a responsible way. Ultimately, it comes down to leadership and initiative. If this board is not committed to solving our problems, they will not be solved. There is no one else. I must apologize. I did have some good things to say about the board, but you only gave me three minutes, so I had to cut something out.

Mary Blythe: “It is increasingly difficult as the parent of a North Chatham student to stay positive and it is very hard to stay positive as a North Chatham property owner. I know that you probably know this, but it is not easy to sell a house here because we don’t have the school. Where are the schools for this part of the county? We have seen and driven by that sign for that high school for many years. I know that there was quite a discussion about that last year. Where are we with that? Another thing is that I am very concerned about these health issues for sanitary reasons at this school. It is disheartening when all these children are standing in line to go to the bathroom. They are taking all this time out of their school day to stand in line to go to the bathroom. What I would like is for you to be our representatives to the Board of Commissioners. Can you not be our voice? Aren’t you supposed to be our voice as parents for the Board of Education, to talk to the commissioners and say, “It is time to build schools.” We need to grow up as a county. We have a lot of population that is growing like crazy, and even before that, these schools were overcrowded. I would like for you respond to me as a parent and a property owner. Will you be our voice to the commissioners?”

Adoption of the Agenda

Board members reviewed the agenda for the meeting. The following changes were requested: Strike item # XII. Federal Relations Network Conference. Deb McManus requested this be postponed to a future meeting; she is awaiting information pertinent to her presentation. Strike item #XIII. Annual NCSBA Conference Presentations. Chairwoman Russell requested this item be removed from the agenda and postponed to a future meeting in the interest of time.

On a motion by Ms. Duncan, seconded by Col. Totten, the Board unanimously approved the agenda as amended.

 

I. Call to Order Chairwoman Russell

II. Closed Sessiona. Attorney/Client Discussion: 143-318.11(a)(3) Board Members b. Personnel: 143-318-11(a)(6)

c. Approval of February 11, 2008 Closed Minutes

III. Pledge of Allegiance Board Members

IV. Invocation & Welcome of Visitors Dr. David Bryant

V. Public Comments Chairwoman Russell

VI. Adoption of the Agenda Chairwoman Russell

VII. Approval of Open Session Minutes from February 11, 2008 Board Members

VIII. Board of Education Sharing and Superintendent’s Comments Dr. David Bryant Board MembersIX. Food Service Meal Pricing Debra Dixon-Doss Educator Solutions Susan J. Little X. Possible Funding Assistance for Northwood Addition/Renovation Connie Arnold, Northwood Boosters Club

XI. OR/Ed Presentation Jeff Tsai, Mike Miller NC State University

XII. Discussion: 2008-09 Budget Susan J. Little

XIII. Policy 9210 Amendment Approval: First Reading Board Members Policy 7100 Structure Change Approval: First Reading

XIV. Fundraisers Board Members

XV. 2008 – 09 DRAFT School Calendar Dr. Tina S. Hester

XVI. Personnel Agenda Dr. Tina S. Hester

XVII. Adjournment Chairwoman Russell

 

Approval of Open Session Minutes from February 11, 2008

There were no changes requested.

On a motion by Vice-Chairman Clark, seconded by Ms. Duncan, the Board voted unanimously to approve the February 11, 2008 minutes as presented.

Board of Education Sharing and Superintendent’s Report

Dr. Bryant: A couple of weeks ago, I had a visit from Diane Brooks who is president of the PTA Thrift Shop who gave me a report on the efforts for the past year. I have included a copy in your folder entitled “Chatham PTA Thrift Shop, Distribution Report, Year End 6/30/2007. In that report she listed the money that was distributed to each school over the last year. The total donated was over $425,000, divided among the schools and a total of more than 44,000 hours donated in time by parents, students and teachers. Average school distributions were $11,358. The Thrift Shops provide a very positive and generous support for our schools and as your interim superintendent; I wanted to take this opportunity to thank Mrs. Brooks and the many volunteers who man the Thrift Shops on behalf of our students and their teachers. Chatham County Schools was well represented at the Junior Beta Club Convention. One hundred and nine students from Bonlee, Bennett, Chatham Middle, Chatham Central, Silk Hope and JS Waters attended. Bennett placed second in the state in the group talent, craft, speech, and photography competitions. Silk Hope School placed first in the living literature competition. First place winners will be eligible to compete in the National Junior Beta Club convention that will be held in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

The State Board of Education received the Annual Dropout Event Report for School Year 200607 during its meeting on February 7. The dropout rate in Chatham County Schools had decreased for the past three years, but rose from 3.73 percent in 2005-06 to 4.64 percent in 2006-07. Chatham County Schools has multiple initiatives in place that help in addressing the dropout rate. Among them are: North Carolina Virtual Public School; Learn and Earn Online; NovaNet; AVID; Staff teams; Mid-year promotion of students and Invite Back Letters.

Mark your calendar. It is approaching time for the Chatham Educational Foundation’s Sixteenth Annual Educational Golf Classic to be held on March 31st at Governor’s Club. This year’s event will cost each golfer $150. You should receive additional information soon. On Friday, February 22, eleven students from Chatham County Schools competed in the Region V Science Fair. Eleven Piedmont counties including Chatham comprise the Region V area. The regional science fair was held at SciWorks in Winston-Salem. All participants received a certificate of recognition.

 

Food Service Meal Pricing

Susan Little presented an Executive Summary of the Child Nutrition Budget as well as recommendations for future practice. Ms. Little emphasized that results of this overview are not just from one single event or one single person. Debra Dixon-Doss from Education Solutions presented an overview and analysis of the Child Nutrition Budget.

 

Susan Little presented the updated numbers as of December 2007. The presentation given by Debra-Dixon Doss only reflected numbers up to November 2007. Our net cash reserve was down to $626,049.18, which is only 1.2 operating months. In our profit and loss report, we had a loss as of 12/31/07 of $484,475.01. Our labor revenue percentage is at 62.61% and our food and supply percentage is at 50.09%. Per Ms. Little, these numbers are very different from the numbers given in November because we have gained more information through more thorough record collecting in that time period.

Ms. Duncan inquired about our leftover process. Ms. Loretta Madren, Interim Child Nutrition Director, stated that the school cafeterias are using their leftovers, but there are certain criteria to make the food safe for the students for the next day. Ms. Duncan also inquired about the ‘offer v. serve’ policy. She is concerned about not automatically serving the vegetables and healthier types of foods just because the students don’t want it. Ms. Madren responded that per the cafeteria staff, if they do put the vegetables on the menu, the students have started choosing it on their own. The cafeteria managers are also trying to promote veggies and healthy food as well by putting up signs with catchy phrases letting the students know that it is good for them. Ms. Duncan inquired about locally grown food sources. Ms. Madren stated that we do work with the Department of Defense, which is NC grown produce. She stated another avenue for that are the commodities that we are allotted, which is approximately $167,000.00. She stated that when she first arrived here, quite a few of our commodities were not being utilized, which she has taken care of on the March menu. Ms. Russell announced that there is a community focus group that focuses directly on locally grown food sources. They will be presenting recommendations in the future to the Child Nutrition department. Anyone who is interested in that topic and would like to attend and help with the recommendations is welcome. Col. Totten inquired as to where the ½ million dollars will be coming from. Ms. Little responded from Child Nutrition Fund Balance.

A question from Gene Galin was, “What percentage of the ½ million dollars is due to shrinkage?

(i.e. waste, theft) Ms. Little responded that they do not have any past records to reflect the exact reasons. Chatham County Schools will do some work investigating that as well as begin to keep better cost inventory control records. Ms. Dixon-Doss responded that the Child Nutrition Funds are out of control basically because there were many items on the menu that were expensive. (i.e. If you put a lunch item on the menu that cost $2.00 to purchase, but we are only charging $1.50 for the lunch, that is a big cost difference.)

On a motion by Col. Totten with the correction of a typographical error on page 2, item 2 (add the word ‘to’ between ‘price’ and ‘$1.00’, seconded by Ms. Duncan, the Board voted unanimously to approve the recommendations presented as amended.

Chairwoman Russell wanted to remind the audience that there is a Community Focus Group that meets to discuss topics of interest in the county. They have met once and the turnout was not good, but they had seven individual focus groups come out of that meeting. One of those focuses on locally grown food sources as well as topics such as: teacher retention, raising test scores, and implementing a middle school football league. She stated that they are still trying to

fill up those focus groups and it anyone is interested, please contact her and she will email you a

list of the groups and the contact information.

 

Mike Miller presented the observations and proposed scenarios for district growth. In scenario #1, he stated the pros for this scenario would be no redistricting, but the cons for this scenario is that it does not address the under capacity issues at Horton. In scenario #2, the advantage is that it better addresses the long term residential growth trends that they are seeing in the northeastern part of Chatham County and it also addresses the imbalances that are seen in areas like Horton. The disadvantage of this scenario is that it is very complicated; it entails reconfiguration which in itself is complicated. Tied to scenario #2 is the request to address increased utilization of Horton Middle School.

Mr. Miller stated that in March or April of 2007, the lab presented several high school scenarios. Those scenarios did not include the renovations and expansions that are currently planned for Northwood and that have been completed for Jordan Matthews. Those scenarios used the old capacities, but they are now invalid due to the renovations and expansions of Northwood and Jordan Matthews.

Mr. Miller’s recommendation is land banking. He took us back to the ‘One Year By Growth Enrollment’ slide which shows the biggest growth is in the Jordan Matthews district area. Looking at those trends, he stated that the obvious recommendation is land banking for future elementary schools in northeast Chatham and western Chatham.

Mr. Miller responded to an audience member question regarding the necessity of building a new high school. He stated that with the expansions and renovations of Jordan Matthews and Northwood, his recommendation is that there is not an immediate need for a new high school.

Chairwoman Russell, in response to an audience member question, stated that the Board is going forward with their plans and time line to build a new high school.

2008 – 2009 Budget Discussion Susan Little led a discussion on the 2008 – 2009 Budget Proposal. She presented a proposed

2008-2009 Continuation Current Expense Budget, a proposed Salary Schedule and proposed Capital

Outlay Requests. Ms. Little will continue discussion of the 2008-2009 Budget over the next two

Board meetings and will bring a proposed budget for approval on March 17, 2008.

2008 – 2009 DRAFT School Calendar

Dr. Hester presented the Board with the 2008-09 Draft School Calendar. She stated this calendar reflected the work of two subcommittees. These committees comprised four participants from each school that consisted of an administrator, a teacher, a classified employee and a parent. The majority of the schools, 13 including Paul Braxton, chose the draft calendar presented to the Board. Four schools chose an alternative draft calendar. The rules that apply when creating a school calendar are: 180 student days; 215 calendar days; Begin by August 25th and End by June 10th; Same or equal number of Holidays that is required by the State; five required workdays, one at the beginning of the school year and at the completion of each grading period, two parent conferences. Dr. Hester stated that they have scheduled four early release days for staff development as well as two early release days for students in conjunction with winter break and the last day of school. The calendar also reflects the Board’s request for an optional teacher workday on Election Day. Dr. Hester stated that the draft calendar with any Board changes will be sent to schools and posted on the website to solicit feedback. The draft calendar will be brought back to the Board on March 17,

Personnel Agenda Assistant Principal Recommendation(s):

Guzman, Eliu Assistant Principal MA Educational Leadership Jordan-Matthews High School BA History Replacing George Davis

Nova Southeastern Univ., FSU, FL March 31, 2008 17 Years Experience
 

Adjournment:

With no further business, on a motion by Col. Totten the Board voted unanimously to adjourn at

9:55 p.m.

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Editor's note: accompanying images are available in the pdf version available on the Chatham Schools web site.