DATE:September 18, 2006PRESENT:Michael Dixon, Chair

DATE:September 18, 2006PRESENT:Michael Dixon, Chair

Mary Grace Bright

Barbara Owens

Billy Peaden

Roy Peaden

TIME:7:30 P.M.Marcy Romary

Sidney Scott

Dick Tolmie

DelanoWilson

PLACE:PittCountyOfficeBuildingABSENT:Jill Camnitz

Betsy Leech

Ralph Love, Sr.

Chairman Michael Dixon called to order the Board of Education in regular session.

Ms. Mary Grace Bright led the group in the Pledge of Allegiance.

The Chairman recognized Ms. Jennifer White, reporter with The Daily Reflector, for her accurate and comprehensive coverage of the Board of Education and its activities in recent years. The Chairman advised that as Ms. White was assuming a new job, he thought it was important to thank her for her outstanding work. Ms. White was presented with a framed Certificate of Excellence and a gift bag of Pitt County Schools’ memorabilia.

The Chair offered an opportunity for adjustments to the agenda. Upon motion by Mr. Dick Tolmie and second by Mr. Delano Wilson, the Board voted unanimously to approve the agenda.

An opportunity for Public Expression was provided. Ms. Ellen Walston, Child Safety Coordinator at PittCountyMemorialHospital for the Eastern Carolina Injury Prevention Program, addressed the Board regarding the International Walk to School to be held at E. B. Aycock on October 4, 2006. She advised that E. B. Aycock would join 37 other countries as well as 3 million children and parents around the world to celebrate the benefits of walking. In addition to other reasons, she said the event promotes physical activity, safety, and environmental awareness. She invited all Board members to attend and participate.

The Chair offered the Consent Agenda for consideration, which included minutes of meetings held on August 7 and August 21, the Personnel Report for the month of September, and the appointment of Mr. Robert Sonnenberg as the Point of Contact for Title IX. An adjustment was made to the minutes to correct the name of Pastor James Corbin to Corbett. Upon motion by Mr. Sidney Scott and second by Ms. Mary Grace Bright, the Board unanimously approved the Consent Agenda as provided.

Mr. Aaron Beaulieu offered information on the proposal to approve the purchase of property for new school sites. He indicated that prior to the meeting of the Board of Education, the Board of County Commissioners had approved the “Agreement to Purchase” the Speight Property and approved taking an “Option to Purchase” on the Crawford site. Those, he said, were the two sites approved by the Facilities Committee and brought to the full Board for consensus. Of these two sites, he said, the Speight property was the parcel identified on which the most immediate elementary school would be constructed and the second site was an additional site to have ready in the South Central Attendance Area.

Mr. Dick Tolmie motioned that the Board approve the “Agreement to Purchase” on the Speight property and the “Option to Purchase” on the Crawford property as presented in the materials. The motion received a second from Ms. Barbara Owens. In discussion, a question was raised as to whether the options for the southwest by-pass would impact either piece of property. Mr. Jimmy Hite responded that the Crawford site was skirted by one of the options for the by-pass but that there was language in the option that would protect the Board should the Department of Transportation (DOT) decide to choose that option. Mr. Hite reviewed maps with the Board to illustrate the small impact that would be anticipated should this option be chosen. He confirmed that even if this occurred, the Board would still be able to situate a school on the site. Also addressed was the possible impact of drainage and noise should the by-pass be constructed that close to a school and the steps the Board would want to take to ensure that the DOT was diligent in the grading to handle any run-off in that area. Upon voting, the motion to approve the “Agreement to Purchase” on the Speight property and the “Option to Purchase” on the Crawford property as presented in the materials, was unanimously approved.

Back to School reports were provided by staff members. Dr. Mary Williamson reported that the opening of school for the 2006-07 school year was very smooth with over 22,000 students beginning their studies on August 28th. She advised that her staff was engaged in many activities over the summer months including supplying and equipping HopeMiddle School and its media center. On August 24th, she said, many parents and students visited their schools during the Open House, which were well attended and all went very smoothly.

Freshmen Orientations were held at all six high schools, and Dr. Williamson explained how each school handled those events.

The Educational Programs and Services staff, she explained, assisted in the notification of parents for schools with No Child Left Behind sanctions who were in Title I School Improvement. The final count of students whose parents opted for school choice was 60 and she added that the district would be offering supplemental services at several schools as well. Indicating that Board members were well aware of the problem, she emphasized that classroom space was an issue. She shared that many teachers were already traveling to classrooms to teach their content areas and that some principals were looking at the possibility of team teaching in order to meet class size requirements. Although the ideal is to accommodate teachers in appropriate classroom spaces, she said that the district’s principals were being creative in dealing with those issues that go along with a rapidly growing school district.

Schools, she reported, have embraced the RESPECT theme for this year. She said that schools not only had begun to “expect” proper discipline, but that they had begun to teach the concepts related to respect everyday. She shared examples of how schools, such as Sadie Saulter and Pactolus, had used creative ways to focus students’ attention on respect using skits during opening year assemblies. She said that these schools and others were highlighting and recognizing students who exhibit proper respect and noted that Farmville Central plans to recognize “random acts of kindness” throughout the school year.

Staff, she explained, had begun meeting with schools to discuss their School Improvement Plans and to review the progress made toward their three-year School Improvement Goals. Concluding her report, Dr. Williamson said that overall it had been the best opening ever and that she and her staff were looking forward to the best school year ever.

Mr. Aaron Beaulieu began his report by advising that Ernesto, the tropical storm that blew in the first week of school, had caused some concerns, but had caused flooding only at one school. He said that he was pleased that previous work done had limited flooding to this one school and added the problem was caused predominantly by a town problem.

Mr. Beaulieu reported that Facility Services had worked hard over the summer and had completed five to six pages of projects at schools including HVAC, painting, plumbing, electrical, etc. This, he said, was in addition to successfully opening Hope Middle School, moving 19 mobile units from one campus to another, fully painting four schools and refinishing all gym floors.

In the Finance area, he said he was pleased to report positively this year on the work done by our State Legislators for Public School funding. He said thanks should be expressed to these folks for their work accomplished to do away with the discretionary cuts, increase low-wealth funding, provide the best salary raises for both classified and certified employees in over six years, and provide an additional allotment for disadvantaged students. Additionally, he pointed out that although not at the level requested, the CountyCommissioners had provided funding to school district this year at the second highest increase outside of the years covered by the Education Compact. He said the school system stood in good shape going into this school year.

Mr. Beaulieu commented on the retirements this year of Ms. Donna Ware in Child Nutrition and Ms. Alice Keene in CommunitySchools and Recreation. He said smooth transitions had been implemented in these two program areas with the employment of Sharon Kinion in Child Nutrition and the passing of the torch to Rita Roy in CommunitySchools and Recreation. In regard to the Child Nutrition Department, Mr. Beaulieu commented on the thousands of Free and Reduced Lunch applications processed, as well as the work done to equip the new HopeMiddle School cafeteria and employ new cafeteria staff. Rita Roy, he said, stepped right in to the Community Schools and Recreation Department role of Director continuing programs started by Ms. Keene including the Summer Enrichment Program, serving thousands of kids during the summer months, and the extension of the Before and After School Program which provides day care services for children.

In regard to the Transportation Department, Mr. Beaulieu stated that minus a few glitches this department had been very successful in routing 200 bus routes for over 11,000 students. Since the beginning of the school year, he said, four buses had been added and that continuous monitoring was being done to keep an eye on ridership numbers at least through the 20th day. He added that a full transportation report would be provided at a point after the 20th day to compare ridership numbers and lengths of bus routes this year to last year’s data.

Mr. Beaulieu advised that staff had been working diligently on the Wintergreen campus, where just under 1500 students were being served this year. He said there had been a number of concerns including traffic management on County Home Road with the mass of numbers going and coming at opening and dismissal times. Mr. Beaulieu stated that he, Jesse Hinton, and Joey Weathington were making daily visits and sometimes twice-daily visits to help out with the concerns. He noted that 210 students had been added to the campus since last year, with 200 of those students being at the primary school. Not anywhere else in the County, he said, did the district have 750 primary children on one campus. Parents of these children, he reported, want very much to have their children personally delivered to school or on very short bus routes. To illustrate this point, he advised that on one day early in the school year, Wintergreen Primary had 492 parents deliver their children to the school with 247 who walked their children to the classrooms. The congestion caused by this traffic, he reported, was backing up traffic on County Home Road, sometimes as far back as the Windsor turn off. The good news, he said, was that school district personnel was very much on top of the issue and that revised bus routes would be published the next week with updated stop times. He explained that overall in his areas, operations had gone very smoothly for the beginning of the school year with the only few glitches being with the traffic concerns at Wintergreen.

Questions were asked about lottery money and if the district had received any yet. Also, a report for the Board was requested to show the number of buses with 0-20 students, 20-40 students, and over 40 students, etc.

Ms. Delilah Jackson reported on activities in the Human Resources Department. Hiring, she advised had been slowing down but she stated that the department was always busy with other jobs that relate to taking care of the human factor. She said there were currently 19 vacancies with only 10.5 of those being among the same ones as those reported at the previous meeting. Related to the rapid growth in the county, she explained, there were an additional 8.5 positions that now stood vacant. She reported that most of the more recent hirings were at the elementary level and she discussed the adjustments that were required at school sites due to differences in actual student numbers versus projections. Ms. Jackson explained that the department was continuing to work to fill the Title II federal positions, which are targeted to lower class sizes and provide additional services to students. Concluding her comments, Ms. Jackson stated that student numbers would continue to be monitored through the 20th day to determine if additional adjustments would be needed in positions at schools. She advised that following that time, the department would begin work on its retention and recruitment goals and would be visiting various colleges and universities to recruit new teachers.

The final Back to School report was provided by Dr. Reep. In regard to the comments offered about Title II positions, she clarified further that those positions are assigned to schools that are either in School Improvement or are borderline. Many of these schools, she said, are using these additional resources to decrease the class size and at other schools to provide supplementary services to students.

Dr. Reep reported that some positions were moved from Sadie Saulter because of low numbers there and some positions that had not yet been assigned have now been designated for schools where the numbers are higher and warrant those placements. After the 20th day, she explained, the staff would begin to look at Sadie Saulter to see how that additional space might best be used. In response to the rumors that Sadie Saulter would be closed, Dr. Reep emphasized how important it was to say to everyone that was not going to happen. She said that students are there, teachers are there, and the school year is underway. She said that we would use the time that we have this year to determine how we can better utilize the campus and hopefully have more students in that space for the upcoming school year.

Dr. Reep expressed appreciation to the staff, saying that across the district we allotted very conservatively this year. She stated that we purposely wanted to be in a position on the 10th day to add positions, rather than be over allotted and have to move folks. She said that she had been very proud of our folks who had waited patiently for word of additional allotments to come as the numbers had increased at their schools. Dr. Reep reiterated that we were allotting based on the state formula and that even where there was not space available for an additional teacher, principals were being offered the opportunity to look at team teaching situations or other ways to use those additional positions to help children. She added that we were in good shape with the district allotment and very much on the mark with our 22, 618 students.

She also commended the maintenance department staff for what they were able to accomplish this summer, saying that they are often our unsung heroes. She said the volume of work accomplished was nothing short of miraculous and we appreciated their outstanding work.

Dr. Reep emphasized that in regard to the comments about traffic and transportation problems that had been experienced on one campus, that it was important to note that there were concerns only on one campus and that in looking at the big picture, we had a very smooth opening. She pointed out that given all the routes that had changed and all the “what ifs” that had been studied, to have concerns isolated to one campus was very positive.

She advised that a change in procedure for van pick-ups had been communicated to day care centers by schools requiring all vans to have visible signage painted on or magnetically attached. This, she said, was to address safety, liability, and traffic congestion issues.

In closing her report, Dr. Reep observed that in a very focused fashion we had concentrated efforts to ensure that where students had been moved this year that we had a plan in place to ensure that the schools were prepared and that students and parents felt welcomed into their new environments. She said that staff at schools had worked to be sure that we had done all that we could do to make the transition as smooth as possible and that Central Office staff had been assigned at those schools to assist in what was a unified effort for the district. She expressed appreciation to all the staff for their hard work in making this transition a smooth one for children.

Under Superintendent comments, Dr. Reep recognized individuals in the audience in attendance as part of a doctoral program requirement at ECU. She commented that it was important for the Board to be aware of the number of staff who already work 24/7 and are, in addition, tackling those degree requirements.

Dr. Reep announced that the Board of Education and Superintendent’s Office are encouraging 100% membership in PTA this school year. She emphasized what it would mean to the schools and the PTAs if all of the school system employees joined PTA for $5.00. She said she had commitments from all Board members and that she was asking everyone to be good ambassadors for their PTA’s and to make this the year that the district has the largest PTA membership ever in the Pitt County Schools.