*This article has been updated with additional information about the timeline for the legislative letter vote and policies around short-term suspensions.
Board member Tim Merrick was absent from the meeting — and member Judy Justice voted against approving the legislative letter because she did not want the priority to be beginning teacher support as they have recently received higher bumps compared to veteran teachers from the legislature. Justice added that she didn’t see the letter until the evening of the meeting and didn’t have time to review it.
Board member Josie Barnhart, who leads the board's legislative committee, told WHQR that board chair Melissa Mason had emailed the letter before the meeting so members could review it. She added that the letter wasn’t posted for the public until that evening but alerted board chair Melissa Mason that it needed to be there.
While records show that Justice was emailed the letter the day before the meeting, on January 6 at 11:08 a.m., she maintains it didn’t get to her and says that no emails were found sent from Mason. Justice told WHQR that the district’s IT department confirmed she did not receive it for some reason but is working out the issue.
Merrick said he was left off the legislative letter email as a mistake but said he was mainly concerned about how items are brought forth to the board for a vote. He said he’d like the public to know what votes are coming at the agenda review and the regular meeting. Technically, this wasn’t listed for public viewing until the evening of the vote.
Justice also said she wants to follow Policy 2335 on posting public materials 48 hours before the start of a meeting.
Barnhart added that NHCS has adopted “a [sic] unanimously legislative agenda (after getting input from staff and board members), and one item on it was stagnant pay for [teachers in] years 15 to 25.”
Within the letter, NHCS cited the North Carolina Department of Commerce's median inflation rate as 3.8%, but the last budget increase was only 3%. The statement reads in part, “As the cost of living continues to rise, our educators should not bear the brunt of economic challenges.”
Barnhart said this letter was similar to the ones 12 other school districts are sending to the legislature. According to her, those include Granville, Lee, Wake, Onslow, Craven, and Catawba counties.
While this letter asks for a minimum of 5% — the state education board voted in 2023 for a 10% raise for all public school teachers. Further, a recent report from the Education Law Center, covered by WUNC, shows North Carolina ranked 48th in funding levels for public education, which includes an analysis of educator pay. The state also ranked 49th “in state and local funding for education as a proportion of the state’s gross domestic product.”
Interim superintendent Dr. Christopher Barnes said he would write his own letter to the legislature to ensure that locally- and federally-funded positions also receive the minimum 5% increase. Otherwise, that would put additional pressure on the district’s budget. Typically, the state would only fund the increase for state-funded positions, meaning they would look to the county commission or the other parts of the budget to give the raise to all their employees.
Barnes told WHQR his priority is to advocate for a change in the teacher allotment formula, in which the legislature outlines how many teachers the schools get and how much they will be funded for those positions. He has repeatedly said in public meetings that this formula has not changed in a decade.
Further, he said, “Where is the addressing the need for renewing Master’s pay for experienced teachers? This is not just an increase in the bottom [beginning teachers]; the problem is solved. The entire schedule needs to be overhauled.”
However, Barnes reiterated that he “approves and endorses every opportunity to provide a quality wage for all employees.”
Future of Arabic offering at Ashley High
The board also unanimously approved next year’s curriculum guide, except for adding an Arabic course at Ashley High School. This motion came from member Pat Bradford after she heard a public comment dissuading the board from adopting the class. The comment came from Katie Gates, the parent who pushed the board to remove Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You from the district’s classrooms.
Gates said both state and local literacy rates were not up to standard and that the focus should be on teaching the English language and Western Classics. She said this would fit within the nation’s ‘America First’ agenda.
The board agreed to hear more about the course before offering it. Barnes said that this was a student-led request and that high schools have to fulfill two years of a foreign language requirement, but added he would get more information for the board.
Board member David Perry asked how many students were interested in the class; Justice commented that Arabic is a widely used language and that learning any foreign language helps with mathematical and other academic skills. However, she agreed to pull the course discussion to a later date so that other members could get their questions answered.
Love Our Children community advocates keep petitioning the board
While Gates got an immediate response to her public comment request, those members of Love Our Children (LOC), an educational advocacy group, did not get an official response from the dais from the board or the superintendent.
However, Barnes told WHQR that he told LOC at the meeting that he would be happy to meet with them again.
About 20 speakers showed up to last night’s call. Half of them were members of LOC. They’ve been advocating for many months for the district to change one of its policies (4351) to require administrators to call a parent or guardian before suspending a K-2 student. In prior policy committee meetings, administrators have said they attempt to contact someone before the decision but can’t always because of quickly evolving situations. The policy does say currently that these students can be suspended if they are engaging in assault or threats, have possession of drugs or alcohol, or have a weapon on campus.
Barnes said that at 16 of the district's 25 elementary schools, there were no out-of-school suspensions for K-2 students this school year. At the other nine elementary schools, there were 19 students in grades K-2 who received out-of-school suspensions.
In response to LOC's calls to require a call home before a suspension is issued, Barnes said, “Discipline is the continuum of a process with a child, their family, the teachers in the school, [...] I don't want a suspension ever to surprise a parent, but I also think our principals need to be equipped to ensure safety in their building for students and staff.”
He added that parents can also appeal the decision of a suspension with the board. However, they cannot typically appeal a short-term suspension but a long-term one, which is longer than ten consecutive days.
“If a parent of a K-2 student is unhappy with the discipline their child has received, there's a grievance policy. All those things are in place, and I think we also have to address the overall need for safety for all the students,” Barnes said.
Several LOC speakers also highlighted that the district said that since they faced cuts to Central Office staff, they could not produce monthly suspension reports for K-2 students. However, if the district tracks the numbers — and they are — that would constitute a public record.
State law says that governments do not have to produce reports or make a record, but if they keep a spreadsheet or an accounting of the suspension numbers, they would have to share it. Anonymized numbers would be shared — not names of the individual students.
However, the district contends that the numbers are so low — the 19 students referenced by Barnes — that those students could be identifiable. Barnes also said that producing monthly data specific to individual schools would also risk identifying students who had been suspended. Barnes said if the numbers were higher, they could be released, but didn't specify how much higher (by number or percentage) they would have to be to permit that.
[Editor's note: Public school districts are required by state law to report annual school-specific data on disciplinary actions. The law doesn't discuss any minimum threshold for annual reports; for example, for the 2022-2023 school year Bradly Creek Elementary had one reported short-term suspension.]
In other concerns over transparency, public commenters like Kristina Mercier and Leslie Posey noted the lag in wait times for public record requests. There are 43 open requests — one as far back as May 2024.
LifeVac approval gets sent back to the policy committee
The board also decided to send the ongoing discussion of the LifeVac devices, a tool used to save a child from choking, donated by those in the public, back to the policy committee meeting on January 21. Board attorneys said they would present on the legality of these devices in the schools.
The discussion ensued after board member Perry asked about the status of LifeVac.
The board voted to approve these devices for use in July, but at a later meeting, Barnes said he’d like to consult with the attorneys about whether the devices conflict with staff's medical training to do the Heimlich maneuver first. Board member Pete Wildeboer noted that he thought Good Samaritan laws would protect staff from liability.
Barnes told WHQR that the county health department has not endorsed the use of the devices, but it will take a policy change to determine whether they can be used in schools.
“Our [policy] says follow the health department's guidance. There needs to be policy language developed to include its usage because it currently does not,” he said.
Chris Sutton, one of the leading advocates for getting them into schools, was upset by the decision. He started working on procuring the devices when he read a WECT article about a teacher saving a student’s life when they were choking.
Sutton said no official vote was taken at the agenda review meeting in October to send the discussion back to the policy committee. Barnes said he had the agreement of the board to take these extra steps to take it back to the committee.
Sutton reiterated to WHQR in an email that the board has already approved these devices and took issue with the fact that they’ve been paid for (Sutton said he raised close to $13,000 for them).
Barnes said he is following the timeline the board gave him in October, and there hasn’t been a policy meeting since then. He said they will take up the issue again on January 21.
