January 18, 2024
board meeting summary..."don't say LGBTQ+"...Exceptional Children Services...School Improvement Plans...school bond issue in November
The January 18, 2024, board meeting ran long (we adjourned at about 11:45pm), and adjustments were made on-the-fly to the agenda.
The first Discussion and Action item was the "Parents' Bill of Rights" .
The development of board policies to comply with Session Law 2023-106, more commonly referred to as the Parents’ Bill of Rights, also referred to by many as Senate Bill 49, or SB 49, originally began in November 2023.
In order to completely address the requirements in the law, the board considered revisions to eight policies. The reason we addressed eight policies is that most of the parental rights mandated in the law were already in our board policies. They simply required revisions – some brief, some a little lengthy, but nothing controversial.
Policy Code: 1300 Governing Principle - Parental Involvement
Policy Code: 1310/4002
1. 1310/4002 Parent Involvement -initial version
2. 1310-4002 Parent Involvement Markup after Nov Policy Committee
(Option 1 - includes pronouns and gender identity language with caveats)
3. CHCCS Draft Policy 1310 With Two Provisions Removed -
(Option 2 - omits pronouns and gender identity)
Policy Code: 3210 Inspection and Objection to Instructional Materials
Policy Code: 3540 Comprehensive Health Education Program
Policy Code: 4335 Criminal Behavior
Policy Code: 4720 Surveys of Students
Policy Code: 6120 Student Health Services
Policy Code: 7300 Staff Responsibilities and Ethics
First draft policies were originally brought to the full board on Nov 2, 2023. The board returned them to the Policy Committee to consider additional changes, essentially to Policy 1310 Parental Involvement. Our Policy Committee met on November 21, 2023, to consider additional changes, and sent the full board three drafts for further consideration. The first draft was the same draft originally presented on Nov 2, 2023. There were three new board members tonight who were not involved in the November 2, 2023, discussion. In addition to the original, the Policy Committee sent forward two additional drafts for full-board consideration (see above, Options 1&2.)
The full board discussion began with the Chair directing the board to first consider Option 2 which omitted developing policies related to parental notification of pronoun use and the prohibition of instruction about gender identity, sexual activity, and sexuality in grades K-4. After an honest and heartfelt discussion of these items, the board voted unanimously to accept the Option 2 version of revisions to Policy Code 1310/4002 Parent Involvement. The board also unanimously adopted the revisions to the other seven related policies listed above.
NOTE: The result of approving the policy revisions in Option 2 is the basis for the recent media stories about CHCCS refusing to comply with the so-called Parents’ Rights law.
Next up was an Exceptional Children (EC) Update.
Paraphrased from the Abstract:
Historical Context: In June 2023, the EC District Leadership Team presented to the BOE and CHCCS community the EC District Organizational Structure that went into effect July 1, 2023. The purpose of this restructuring was driven by the need to strengthen the district’s focus on the core functions of EC programming - compliance and specially designed instruction. This priority was validated by the 2018 EC Comprehensive Review and 2023 Instructional Audit. Additionally, the new structure was created to:
● Improve communication and level of support for school staff through streamlined service delivery
● Clearly define oversight of staff and program areas
● Increase cross-departmental collaboration with general education to enhance and elevate instructional programming for students with disabilities
● Ensure compliance with local procedures, state policy, and federal laws
● Provide high-quality, consistent professional development and coaching for staff
● Address long-standing teacher and Program Facilitator vacancies
As all of the rationales for change are important, the long-standing under-performance of students who receive EC services is what drives the change the most, coupled with the need to place more services directly in the classroom to teach children. Throughout the remainder of the 2023-2024 school year, the EC district administration will continue to focus on strengthening professional learning for EC staff and administrators in an effort to equip staff with the skills and expertise to be effective case managers and to ensure that high-quality instruction is driven by the development of effective standards-aligned IEPs. During the months of May and June 2023, Dr. Banks and Superintendent Hamlett, along with other EC district leaders, provided a total of three EC staff sessions and four focus group meetings to help District Administration better understand the needs of school staff and to inform the work ahead. During the focus sessions, current job descriptions of school-based staff (which were not changed as a result of district restructuring) were also reviewed to clarify with staff the roles and professional responsibilities of school-based EC educators. The key points and areas of need shared by school-based staff through these focus groups and other small group meetings were as follows:
● ECAC staff reported they did not have standing professional learning meetings and were not provided planning and lunch periods
● ECAC staff desire more support with the Adaptive Curriculum through instructional coaching
● Better Coordination with EC Child Find
● Protected workday time for handling clerical/paperwork
● Clearer process on how to file and transfer paperwork
● Support with making sure school-based administration attend all IEP meetings
● More professional training in facilitating meetings
● General Ed needs more education about IDEA
● Better communication and a clear process for who to call for what
● More professional learning for staff and school leaders
● Need for a manual/guidance document
● Consideration of naming a Lead EC staff at each school with a stipend
● Clarification on EC and 504 eligibility process. During the months of June - July 2023, EC district administration used the data collected from the staff sessions and focus group meetings to establish four areas of focus to guide the work ahead:
Areas of Focus
● Specially Designed Instruction
● Policies and Procedure + Systems and Structures
● Building Our Professional Capacity
● Expanding Instructional Materials
Exceptional Children’s Department First Quarter Update:
During the first quarter of the 2023-2024 school year, the EC district administration spent the first 90 days actualizing the work identified under the four focus areas, tracking student progress, and collecting feedback regarding the implementation of the EC District Team Reorganization. The EC district administration has made notable progress in addressing areas of focus and noted reasonable improvement in student performance. Some milestones during the first semester include:
● The development and implementation of the Exceptional Children’s Process and Procedural Manual
● Trained 166 EC staff members and leaders on the EC Process and Procedure Manual
● EC chair positions were extended to elementary and middle schools
● EC district administration provided monthly professional learning sessions for school leaders
● Indicator 11 Quarter 2 quality check was 98% compliant
● Indicator 12 data increased from 92% compliant (reported BOY 2022) to 100% compliant (reported BOY 2023)
● mCLASS (K-3 Literacy Assessment) - Beginning of the year, SWD proficiency was up 6.6 percentage points compared to 2022-23, and Tier 3 (two grade levels below) decreased by 8.3 percentage points
● Beginning of Grade Reading Assessment (3rd grade), SWD proficiency increased by 9.4 percentage points over 2022-23.
● SWD Chronically Absent proportions decreased from 37.1% in 2022-23 (December) to 29.4% in 2023-24) Based on feedback and observation, the district administration is proposing some revisions to the current EC District Organizational Structure to support the clarity and oversight of itinerant positions and increase compliance support at the school level. EC Staffing Recruitment and Retention Efforts Recruiting and staffing for EC positions continue to be a significant challenge and area of focus. Our district currently has 15 school-based EC vacancies and 13 district-level EC vacancies. Several of our most effective hiring pipelines (TA 2 Teach, Student Teachers and Interns, Staff Referrals) have not been proven as effective for the purpose of EC hiring. One potential opportunity lies in our current EC Teacher Assistants, many of whom could qualify for a residency license if they choose to pursue it. Spring is also a heavy recruitment season, and CHCCS will be participating in 15 college/university fairs, the EC Regional Conference, and our own career fair.
Next up on the modified agenda was approval of School Improvement Plans (SIPs).
Paraphrased from the Abstract:
BACKGROUND: Each year, schools in North Carolina are required to update School Improvement Plans (SIPs). G.S. §115C-105.35 states annual performance goals shall:
● Focus on student performance in the basics of reading, mathematics, and communications skills in elementary and middle schools
● Focus on student performance in courses required for graduation and on other measures required by the State Board of Education in high schools
● Hold schools accountable for the educational growth of their students
Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools’ Board Policy 3430 outlines the development of the plan including that it must be data driven and include annual performance goals and specific instructional methods to meet those goals. The policy further states that the plan should identify ways to engage parents and provide professional development for staff.
During the 2023-2024 school year, 19 of the CHCCS schools utilized the state provided School Improvement Planning Platform - Indistar/NCSTAR (the UNC Hospital School continues to use the CHCCS template for SIPs due to the unique nature of their school). Principals and School Improvement Teams revised their plans this year aligned with the CHCCS Board Policy 3430. Goals were established using district and/or state and federally determined ESSA targets in the areas of Reading, Math, and English Language Acquisition. Additional required action steps included addressing discipline disproportionality, chronic absenteeism, duty free lunch for teachers, teacher planning and efforts to reduce paperwork for teachers. Goals are supported through Indicators and Action Steps.
School teams are expected to use the Racial Equity Decision Making Protocol (REDP) as part of the planning process and should continue to use the ten questions from the REDP to guide quarterly conversations and data reviews
After a Q&A with district leaders, the SIPs were approved.
The final item of the evening was a “Recommendation for Approval of the Purchase for the Replacement of K-1 iPads-Phase 2.”
This item was originally on the Consent Agenda, however, was moved to Discussion and Action.
Paraphrased from the Abstract:
BACKGROUND: The district has provided classroom sets of iPads for K-1 students since 2011 and Chromebooks for 2nd-5th grade students since 2014. Each K-5 student was assigned a device starting in 2020 (take home March 2020-August 2021, then in-school only August 2021-present). In 2023, the Board approved the first of a 2-phase student iPads refresh project where we purchased 700 iPads to distribute among 4 schools while redistributing the remaining usable devices across other schools and sets of 5 in our Pre-K classrooms.
As we plan for the upcoming school year, there are several critical needs regarding student devices that need to be addressed. The iPads we will replace were purchased between 2017-2018, making them 6-7 years old with aging device batteries and are now approaching their end of support, where they will no longer be able to update to either the latest operating system or security settings, causing a greater risk of compatibility with critical district-approved apps working for instruction needs. Last year, the Board approved the purchase of 700 Generation 10 Student iPads in order to upgrade the portion of our student iPad inventory at Carrboro Elementary, Glenwood, FPGB, and Seawell Elementary, where device inventory of usable devices was shifted to other schools or for single-use purposes no longer requiring an iOS update to provide the newest Apple operating system and security settings. This year, we will replace the remaining schools’ (Ephesus, Estes Hills, McDougle Elementary, Morris Grove, Northside, Scroggs, Rashkis) iPads to ensure the iPad 10th generation model can remain the same as the previous purchase for easy district support and inventory swapping. Each iPad costs $506.95 + tax and will include a case, a 3-year warranty w/ no service fees, and a USB-C to 3.5mm headphone jack adapter.
After a brief Q&A with district administrators, the purchase request was approved.
And with that, we adjourned and went home!
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Q&A (Re: “Non-compliance” with the Parents’ Rights state law)
Q: There have been several news stories and media posts about the board refusing to comply with the Parents’ Rights law. One describes legislators planning to react by providing “consequences” when they soon reconvene the legislature. What does that mean for our district and students?
A: The Parents’ Rights bill was passed into law in August 2023 and school boards were required to develop and implement policies to address components of the law. Scroll up to the first meeting agenda topic for more specific background details. After several months of review and discussion, the board unanimously decided that two sections of the law were not supportive of our students’ welfare. Specifically, the requirements to automatically notify parents of pronoun or name changes, and the prohibition of instruction about gender identity, sexual activity, and sexuality in grades K-4, were rejected by the board.
Public comments at the January board meeting, and dozens of emails to us have been very supportive of placing student welfare first, rather than trying to develop a policy to implement a law that runs contrary to students’ need and best interests. Not all, of course, agree with that. So, what happens next? I’m honestly not certain, however, the board’s unanimous vote on Thursday night suggests that our students’ welfare remains our highest priority. I suspect the board will continue to support that priority as we move forward to resolve this situation. Stay tuned!
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Q&A: (Re: A large school bond issue approved?)
Q: I saw a tweet from Commissioner Jamezetta Bedford that the county commissioners approved a large school bond? This seems almost unbelievably positive. Give me some details.
A: This is a totally exciting development! The two school districts (CHCCS and OCS) have many school buildings that have outlived their usefulness. It costs more to keep them running than it does to simply replace them. Other buildings require major renovations to bring classroom spaces up to modern educational needs. State law requires county governments to provide and maintain school buildings. In years past, the state helped out by periodically (about every ten years) issuing large bonds to build new schools. This hasn’t happened in about 15 years or so.
Editorial Note: Public education in NC has historically been an important function of state government. I use the word “historically” because all that changed since the Republican party gained majority control of the state legislature 12 years ago. Since then, the General Assembly has essentially declared a war on public education. New laws have been passed every two years to destabilize public school funding. Perhaps in one of my future newsletters I’ll provide the receipts, but today’s topic is about local bonds.
So here is what happened just this week. Fortified with recommendations from an independent consultant’s report (an excellent report by the way), the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) began (January 16, 2024) reviewing specific recommendations and possible funding scenarios (basically $ amount of funds needed and resultant tax increase for citizens). We presented our recommendations to them at that meeting. Just yesterday (January 19) they continued discussion in their day-long retreat. The upshot of all this is that the BOCC “went big“ yesterday to move forward with what amounts to a $400 million ($300M + $100M “pay-go”) bond issuance to be put before the voters in November 2024. This funding will allow both school systems to address the capital building needs of facilities that are in the poorest condition. This means replacement of some schools - yes - tear down and rebuild - or renovation (tear down sections and rebuild).
I observed the commissioners’ discussions and debates in both meetings this week, and we presented our recommendations to them. Let me just say right here, they modeled cooperative government in action. Each of the seven commissioners asked thoughtful questions, raised disagreements, went back-and-forth, all in a respectful manner. At the end of the day, all seven made clear their commitment to the children of our county, regardless of the reality of the financial burden of tax increases or possible political costs to them individually. They of course did not all get what they wanted individually, but they agreed to allow the voters to decide if we want to “go big.” That’s all we could ask for. Let the voters decide. This is a major win for schools!!!
It isn’t a “done deal” yet. There are a few more legal hurdles to jump before this bond issue gets approved to be on the ballot in November, but I suspect it will move along smoothly. Thank you to all seven commissioners!!
See you all in about two weeks (The next school board meeting is February 1)