DATE:August 4, 2008PRESENT:Barbara Owens

DATE:August 4, 2008PRESENT:Barbara Owens

Mary Grace Bright

Jill Camnitz

Betsy Leech

Roy Peaden Marcy Romary Sidney Scott

Dick Tolmie

TIME:7:00 P.M.DelanoWilson

PLACE:PittCountyOfficeBuildingABSENT:Michael Dixon Ralph Love, Sr.

Billy Peaden

Chair Barbara Owens called the Board of Education to order in regular session at 7:00 P.M. Ms. Mary Grace Bright led the group in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Chair Barbara Owens offered the Agenda with two personnel corrections for consideration. Mr. Dick Tolmie, second by Mr. Jill Camnitz, made motion for approval. Motion carried unanimously.

Under Public Expression, Mr. Calvin Henderson with the NAACP, who has been an advocate for people of color since 1909, stated Pitt County Schools had used a double standard in situations of race and felt the Human Resources Department was not effectively addressing and investigating issues and complaints presented to them by employees. He stated three letters had been sent to the Board Chair and Superintendent in the last two weeks, with a list of several Pitt County Schools’ employees, parents and students from three schools in which they have received complaints during the investigation. Mr. Henderson stated the NAACP was concerned about the children and educators of PittCounty. He felt the highest standards possible and high moral values should be in place at all times, and that Pitt County Schools’ staff should set examples as this would be the “greatest teacher of all”.

For the Spotlight on Teaching and Learning, Superintendent Beverly Reep presented a brief summary of the Administrative Retreat taking place August 6-8, 2008 for all Principals, Assistant Principals, and Central Office Administrators. Wednesday morning will involve team building activities with Wednesday afternoon discussions of items of order in getting back to school – uniforms, choice schools, transportation/bus routes, and student transfers. Thursday’s topics will focus on fine tuning classroom observations, monitoring instruction and giving constructive feedback to improve student achievement. The Department of Public Instruction has put a new Principal Evaluation Instrument in place for which all our principals and central office staff have been trained. At 4:00 p.m. Thursday at St. James United Methodist Church, the Board of Education members will also be present for the second annual Goal Setting Session for the 2008-09 School Year will be discussed. Everyone will be divided into groups for individual discussion regarding goals from the 2007-08 school year, and revisions or additions, which may need to be made. A total group discussion will follow the individual group sessions to set new or revised goals for the 2008-2009 school year. Friday, August 08, 2008, a Tech Fest will be held at South Central High School with 400 staff signed up to attend. A special thanks to Mr. Tim Decresie and the Technology Staff for their hard work in preparing for this meeting.

Chair Owens asked for approval of the Consent Items with two adjustments in personnel being made. Upon motion by Mr. Dick Tolmie, and second by Ms. Mary Grace Bright, the Minutes from the Board Meeting held June 23, 2008 and Personnel Report for August 2008 were unanimously approved. Ms. Jill Camnitz moved, second by Ms. Marcy Romary, that the 2008-09 Pitt County Schools Fee schedule be approved. There was unanimous approval of the Board. Mr. Dick Tolmie moved, second by Ms. Marcy Romary, that the School Treasurers and Depositories be approved. The Board approved unanimously.

Next under New Business, Assistant Superintendent of Finance Michael Cowin gave a brief highlight of the Final 2008-09 State Budget. (See attached document.) Mr. Cowin stated a true picture could not be presented until the first twenty days of school were completed and the first payroll had been run using the State Allotments and Local Revenue approved for the 2008-09 school year. He will present more information to the Board when available.

Ms. Jill Camnitz asked about the final allotment for transportation and did it improve from what was first issued? Mr. Cowin stated the Joint Committee did allot more funding in this area than was previously stated, and he felt the communication to our legislative representatives from many sources expressing their concerns in regard to the fuel situation really helped. He also stated that DPI is not going to hold allotments to schools as earlier mentioned. The State has asked everyone to be very careful in monitoring transportation costs.

Mr. Cowin reported there was a cut in ABC funding provided to school districts for the 2008-09 school year. These cuts are felt by schools across the State, not just Pitt County.

Mr. Sidney Scott asked what was Pitt County Schools doing with the surplus money when we anticipated teacher salaries were going to be increased approximately 7% in the proposed budget, and were only increased approximately 3% after the final State Budget was approved? He asked could the three TAG teaching positions cut in the schools North of the River be added back to the staff in these schools? Dr. Reep asked that everyone remember we asked for approximately $3.4 million dollars from the County Commissioners, but received approximately $1.4 million dollars in local funding. This difference in funding has meant cuts in positions, travel, field trips, etc.

Mr. Cowin stated money was balanced in other areas that were needed, i.e. utilities were going to increase 11%. If the State had increased teacher salaries by 7%, it was stated that additional cuts would have had to be made. A final budget is still not available as the actual costs of salaries, benefits, etc. would not be known until the first twenty days of school have passed.

Ms. Mary Grace Bright mentioned that better use of facility utilities should be reminders to principals and faculty.

Mr. Roy Peaden mentioned that summer school programs should be assessed for possible budget cost savings.

The second item under New Business was the No Child Left Behind Schools with Sanctions/School of Choice update for the 2008-09 school year. Associate Superintendent of Instructional Services Worth Forbes stated five Pitt County Schools made Appropriate Yearly Progress (AYP) based on math test scores only; reading scores will not be sent until November. Schools who were not sanctioned have to have at least two schools of choice to select from, and parents have to be notified before school starts. Mr. Forbes stated approximately 8000 letters had been mailed to parents regarding School of Choice information. Transportation is provided for these students. If a school makes AYP in November once the reading scores are in, then parents have to furnish transportation to the school of choice if the student stays at that school. Mr. Forbes stated that all schools in our system in grades 3-8 except for two made growth. This means that Pitt County Schools succeeded in doing what the State asked us to do. Sixteen of these same schools made high growth. In this respect, the schools continuing to meet growth will eventually catch up to the target score we have to meet with AYP. Mr. Forbes stated that the principals and teachers need to go in and look at the sub-groups of individual students that did not meet AYP, target the students and provide differentiation in the classroom. He stated there is a new county-wide School Improvement Team consisting of Ms. Marsha McLawhorn, Ms. Sylvia Mizzelle, and himself who will go out and meet with the principals asking them to provide evidence of changes. The School Improvement Plans have been revamped being more specific; adding benchmark testing in week 12 and week 24 to assess the students and find out where weaknesses are. The idea is to refine the processes, assess the results and continue to move forward. Associate Superintendent Forbes stated there was always “darkness before the dawn”, and dawn was coming. Mr. Forbes also explained that some of the schools could offer Supplemental Educational Services (SES) where vendors come in and offer tutoring to the students, but DPI had not given approval for this pilot program at this time.

Mr. Sidney Scott asked about the recent 25-school comparison which came out in the media and Pitt County Schools was last on the list. He asked didn’t all counties use the same standards, and Dr. Reep answered “yes, and stated it was not acceptable that Pitt County Schools be last on the list. She also asked that this not be the sole measure of the work being done in this district as it clearly did not reflect the hard work being done by our teachers. She also stated that the accountability was needed and gave an explanation of the different methods used in measuring progress in our schools.

Superintendent Beverly Reep commented that we are judged on two measures of accountability. In North Carolina, we are one of two states in the country that have been piloting a growth model for the Federal government asking is it more effective to measure growth than to measure proficiency? The Federal measure is a proficiency measure. The growth model looks at every student in the district and gives a predictor score for each student. If the individual student meets that growth, then the school makes growth. The State believes in this method so much they give teachers cash if their classrooms make growth. High growth is above this predicted growth. 27 of the 34 schools made expected growth, which happened because people are working hard and progress is being made. Dr. Reep stated the 25-district comparison in which Pitt County scored last is not a clear apples to apples measure of schools or school districts. No Child Left Behind is a Federal measure and does not measure growth. It states you must meet 77% proficiency in any sub-group that your school has. 40 students have to be present in a sub-group to be measured in proficiency, which some schools don’t have. All sub-groups have to be proficient for a school to make AYP.

Dr. Reep made the following statement regarding academic achievement and proficiency:

In our 3-8 schools, we have seen academic achievement increase in math steadily in our subgroups for the last three years. Of the 118 subgroups in grades 3-8 math achievement, 72 of those subgroups increased their proficiency in a year to make it you had to go from 65.2% to 77%. Obviously there is room for improvement. We feel that urgency asthese are our children and we want them to be successful.

We will continue to refine our strategies, use our data to drive our decisions, work diligently to meet individual student needs and engage them in a diverse and challenging curriculum. This work is complex. It is challenging and it is engineered through our teachers. They are committed, hard working professionals who care deeply for the children of this community. While these test scores are important and we need the accountability measures, we cannot lose sight of the amazing investment of the staff of this school district in the students of this community. A friend and colleague made this statement to me last week. “If the acts of love and compassion by our staff were put into volumes, all of the libraries in our system could not contain them”.

Mr. Roy Peaden asked why transportation was offered to these students who lived across the county? Mr. Forbes stated several of the schools of choice have been in place since 2004-05 with students attending these schools, and it has to be continued until they move up to the next school. Ms. Sylvia Mizzelle, Federal Programs Director, stated there was Federal money set aside for travel to and from the Choice Schools as part of No Child Left Behind. Mr. Forbes stated there are roughly 300 students that have elected for choice since 2004-05. Ms. Jill Camnitz commented that that would mean Title I would have instructional funds taken off the top to be used for travel expenses. She also asked about really talking about what works with all the principals – Mr. Forbes said there would be on-going discussion, more interaction and sharing – principals being in the classrooms, monitoring instruction, high level questions, etc. Ms. Camnitz stated there was change happening at Bethel and we should celebrate this progress, as well as other schools in the district.

Under Old Business, Ms. Mary Grace Bright, Chair of the Policy Review Committee, brought three Second Reading Revised Policies/By-Laws before the Board. Ms. Bright motioned for approval regarding Enrollment of Students From Non-Public Schools (Policy 9.501) as there had been no feedback or request for changes since the First Reading. Second was made by Mr. Dick Tolmie with unanimous Board approval.

Ms. Bright motioned for approval of the Resident Students Enrollment Requirements (Policy 10.103) with changes from the First Reading where children with disabilities are now required to meet county domicile requirements to be entitled to admission to a school without payment of tuition unless they are “grandfathered” into the system... Following a brief discussion of children with disabilities and explanations by In-House Attorney Rob Sonnenberg, Mr. Dick Tolmie seconded the motion, followed by unanimous Board approval.

Ms. Mary Grace Bright motioned that Duties of Chair – By-Laws 1.106, second by Mr. Dick Tolmie, be approved as presented. There was unanimous Board approval.

Dr. Reep reported to the Board that DPI nor the State Attorney General had responded with a definitive answer regarding the Alternatives Limited, Inc. Drop-Back-In Program presented at the previous Board meeting after eight weeks of waiting. She stated there were complex issues and no further action was taken in this regard.

Superintendent Beverly Reep thanked the Facilities Department and custodians at J. H. Rose High School for their hard work in completing the damage done at Rose High as they are ready for the opening of school in two weeks.

She also complemented the Technology Department in deploying almost 4000 computer systems throughout the Pitt County School System this summer.

Mr. Sidney Scott wanted to know what we could do to bring Pitt County Schools back as a leader of other school systems in the East? He stated we need to look at our schools and other schools to see what the problems are.

Mr. Roy Peaden stated the maintenance folks and custodians had the schools looking good.

Ms. Mary Grace Bright stated she attended Summer School Graduation in which it was great to see these students receiving their diplomas. She commented that the relationship between students and staff was good. Also present were some of the principals from the home schools these students attended, and support for the students was apparent.

Ms. Bright also discussed the need for people reading the Uniform Policy to accurately answer questions that arise. She stated the new addition at Ayden Elementary looks really good. Ms. Bright commented that she appreciated Dr. Reep’s explanation of AYP and the understanding she received. She felt it was necessary to stand behind the staff as they had worked hard at helping students with testing.

Mr. Delano Wilson also stated Ayden Elementary’s addition was beautiful. He also mentioned the amazing work in renovation of the old Boys and Girls Club at Rose High into a gym. Mr. Wilson also thanked Dr. Reep for her explanation of AYP and the sub-group breakdown.

Ms. Jill Camnitz spoke of the money for teacher bonuses being cut by DPI and her disappointment of the cut in ABC funding for teachers after working hard to obtain growth status in schools. She also stated that the Federal government needed to look at growth for individual students and systems as a whole.

Ms. Betsy Leech stated NCLB’s goals were unrealistic. She stated that some of the students with disabilities goals were unattainable. Growth is important within their capabilities.

Mr. Dick Tolmie stated exceptional children could not reach NCLB goals in certain areas, and it would be interesting to see comparisons of non-disabled and disabled true testing.

Ms. Barbara Owens thanked Dr. Don Johnson for his attendance.

Ms. Mary Grace Bright moved that the Board go into Closed Session to: (1) consult with our attorney to consider and give instructions concerning a potential or actual claim, administrative procedure, or judicial action, and to consider and give instructions concerning a judicial action titled Ronda Everett, et al. v. Juvenile Female1, et. al. v. The Pitt County Board of Education, et. al. [N.C.G.S.§143-318.11(a)(3)]. Second was made by Ms. Jill Camnitz.

Closed session was held.

Upon returning to Open Session with no action to be taken, Ms. Mary Grace Bright, second by Mr. Dick Tolmie, made motion to adjourn the meeting. Motion carried unanimously.

Respectfully submitted,

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Ms. Barbara D. Owens, Chair

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Dr. Beverly B. Reep, Superintendent