Rowan-Salisbury Board of Education
April 27, 2009
Minutes
The Rowan-Salisbury Board of Education met on April 27, 2009 at the Long Street Administrative Office
with the following members present: Dr. Jim Emerson, Mrs. W. Jean Kennedy, Mrs. Linda Freeze, Mrs.
Patty Williams, and Ms. Karen Carpenter, Mrs. Kay Wright Norman and Mr. Bryce Beard. Also present
were Dr. Judy Grissom, Mr. Gene Miller, Dr. Walter Hart, Dr. Becky Smith, Mrs. Delores Morris, attorney
Don Sayers and Mrs. Bonnie Holder, Clerk to the Board.
Call to Order / Roll Call
Dr. Emerson called the meeting to order at 5:00 p.m.
Adopt Agenda
Ms. Carpenter requested that Discussion Item #10 be moved up on the agenda to #2. With the Board’s
agreement, the agenda was revised. Ms. Carpenter moved to adopt the agenda as amended. Mrs.
Freeze seconded. (7:0)
Pledge of Allegiance/Meditation
Mrs. Norman officiated the Pledge of Allegiance and Mrs. Williams had an opening meditation and prayer.
Celebrations
Congratulations to the following staff and students of the Rowan-Salisbury School System for the
following accomplishments:
RSS employees may be nominated to receive the “Customer Service Award,” which recognizes
employees for achieving excellent customer service.
Anyone may nominate a RSS employee for this honor. Forms are located on our website.
Employees nominated for the month of April are:
1. Deb Houpe – Webmaster, Technology
2. Doris Hamm – Faith Elementary
3. Traci Bost – Shive Elementary
4. Mary Beth Corbett – Shive Elementary
5. Kristen Hodges – North Rowan Elementary
6. Susan Heaggans – Coordinator Beginning Teachers
7. Patsy Wilson – Horizons Unlimited
8. Patty Overcash – PTA District President
9. Dr. Sarah Hensley – Director of Elementary Education
10. Chris Williams – Landis Elementary
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11. Mary Ryan – Finance Department
12. Suzanne Prevette – Finance Department
13. Bob Pearsall – Maintenance Department
14. Tommy Knox – Corriher-Lipe Middle
15. Cynthia Trexler – China Grove Middle
16. Suzy Lambert – China Grove Middle
NC DPI for attaining the NC State Board of Education Recognition of Achievement in Financial
Resource Management for FY 2007-2008 has recognized Tara Trexler.
West Rowan High School History Teacher Steve Suther has been named the National Winner of the
National Society DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution) Outstanding Teacher of the Year for
the American History contest.
Communication to the Board
Ms. Karen Miller – Curriculum Coach at SRHS. Ms. Miller spoke about the Graduation Project that is now
a part of high school graduation requirements. She was in favor of continuing with the project even
though the state has halted the project requirement until the 2010 school year. She urged the Board to
make a decision promptly.
Mrs. Emily Rivers – a mother of two students in the school system. She was concerned with the
parent/teacher relationship at Knox. She feels there is a gap in the communication at Knox Middle and
Salisbury High. Mrs. Rivers said she felt that the lack of communication should be addressed.
Miss Ebony Rivers – a senior at Salisbury High School. She spoke on the progress at Knox Middle School.
Her sister attends Knox. Miss Rivers said she has seen many improvements at Knox when she visits the
school.
Miss Robin Rivers – a 7th grade student at Knox Middle School. Miss Rivers spoke on the improvements
at Knox this year. She said she realizes that it will take a while for the students to adjust to the changes,
but there have been large improvements.
Mrs. Angela Vaughn – a parent of a student at Knox Middle School. Mrs. Vaughn said this year her child
is getting what she needs to get at Knox. She said that previously Knox was not welcoming, but now
parents feel welcomed.
Mr. Rudy Joshua – a staff member at Knox Middle. Mr. Joshua applauded the previous persons who
spoke this evening, and wanted to say he has also seen the positive changes that have been taking place
at Knox Middle.
Mrs. Diana Conway – a parent of a daughter at Knox Middle. Mrs. Conway spoke in support of Mr. Brian
Moragne El.
Superintendent Comments/Board
Mrs. Grissom publicly thanked the custodians in our school system. She announced that the spring
inspection was the best overall since the program began in 1999.
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Dr. Emerson informed the Board members that he had met with the Mayor of Salisbury and the County
Commissioner Chairman last week. He said they are interested in beginning a program with us to help
our students in reading.
Ms. Carpenter asked if an update could be given on the commissioner supply money. Mrs. Trexler said
that the deadline was this past Friday, and the schools are sending in their balances at this time.
Consideration of the Consent Agenda
Financial Summary for March 2009
March Budget Amendments
BOE Minutes of 3/23/09 and Work Session Minutes of 4/13/09
**Mrs. Norman moved to approve the Consent Agenda as presented. Ms. Carpenter seconded.
Unanimously approved. (7:0)
Discussion Items
April Field Trip Requests
Dr. Emerson noted that SHS had requested a field trip where the students would miss four days of
school.
**Mr. Beard moved the approval of the field trip of Salisbury High as submitted. Mrs. Carpenter
seconded. Unanimously approved. (7:0)
Review of Policy 5-7, Distribution of Non-School Material, Revisions
Ms. Carpenter asked that Policy 5-7 be visited in order that some outside organizations would be able to
reach out to our students who could benefit from their services.
Ms. Carpenter said she took the Chapel-Hill/Carboro policy and adapted it to Rowan-Salisbury Schools.
She reviewed the draft policy for the Board noting that she did have Mr. Sayers review the draft for legal
ramifications. Mr. Sayers recommended that we not allow schools to have a limited public forum.
**Ms. Carpenter moved to approve amended Policy 5-7 on first reading. Mrs. Williams seconded.
Dr. Emerson asked if it would be a problem for the State Employees to put material in teacher boxes.
Mr. Sayers said that all financial institutions would have to be authorized to do so.
Ms. Carpenter called for the question. Unanimously approved. (7:0)
Dr. Emerson asked the Board to consent to move Item #5 to be heard immediately heard since the
principal and students had joined the meeting. The Board members agreed.
I-pod Project at North Rowan High School
Mr. Bass, several teachers and students were present to demonstrate to the Board some of the things
that are happening with the new Ipod project.
Mrs. Wittich, a freshman English teacher in the freshman academy at NRHS, introduced the students who
then matched up with BOE members to explain the programs they can use on the Ipod.
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Mr. Hardin spoke about Dr. Grissom first announcing something unique and engaging to the student at
NRHS. He said research shows that when you show ways to engage the students, learning goes up and
drop out rates go down.
Mr. Hardin said that they are going to expand this program over the years, and that the Board will see
more and more learning happening.
Mr. Bass thanked the Board for allowing them to have the Ipod program at NRHS. Dr. Emerson said he
thought that the program is a wonderful event going on at NRHS, and he hopes that this will help to
keep students engaged and in school.
Mrs. Morris noted that Natalie Wittich is a graduate of NRHS and is doing a wonderful job with the Ipod
project.
Dr. Grissom stated that the plan is to extend the program to the 10th grade next year as well as the 9th
grade.
High School Transfer Assessment from the OR/Ed Report
Dr. Hart and Mrs. Patricia Lentz were recognized to present the status of student transfers. Dr. Hart
noted that the information first received from Or/Ed indicated that there were 620 students attending
other schools other than in the districts of their domiciles. He advised that not all 620 are transfer
students, and there are a number of reasons why students are assigned to a school outside their home
attendance zone, i. e. special education programs that are only at one school, homeless children,
students at Henderson and those students enrolled in Early College. He said after all of the numbers
were taken into account, there are really 240 traditional student transfers, and almost exactly 50% are
employee transfers.
Dr. Hart detailed the report for the Board.
Mrs. Norman asked about the other students in the schools. Mrs. Lentz said that the report only
identified the 620 students that were pointed out.
Dr. Emerson asked if the 39 that were reported as mis-enrolled would be tracked down. Mrs. Lentz said
that when attendance counselors went out and began to identify those students that appeared to be
enrolled in the wrong school, they left that list of names with the principal of those schools. Dr. Grissom
suggested that Mrs. Lentz would probably like to know what the Board wanted to do with those 39
students. Dr. Emerson said the students needed to be told that they are attending in the wrong district.
Mrs. Lentz said the students could do an emergency transfer at this point.
Ms. Carpenter said that would be a huge amount of paperwork, and that most of these cases would be
appealed. Mrs. Williams said she did not believe any good could come out of changing these students
this year. The Board agreed.
Ms. Carpenter said she thought that one of the purposes to looking at this transfer data was in
connection with the bigger picture of redistricting, and if there had been a tremendous number of
transfers out of NRHS that should go back there. She questioned the number of transfers out of NRHS,
and that the 37 students that have transferred out of NRHS were not going to make a difference in 1A or
2A.
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Mrs. Norman said she wants our system to be more consistent. She said the 37 students represent to
her another teacher and a half. Ms. Carpenter said since the report did not show that our high schools
were equitable, is the Board going to redistrict to make the schools more equitable?
Dr. Emerson said he understood what Ms. Carpenter was saying, but that she needed to put it in the
form of a motion.
Mrs. Kennedy said that she did not think we needed to look at moving students to NRHS, but to use
equitable distribution of students.
Mrs. Williams said she agreed that we needed to be consistent with our procedures, but she felt every
family would be bringing a cause before the Board that would need to be looked at. She stated this
because it is affecting her family personally. She said as a family who it has affected, we cannot
understand that circumstance until they have lived it.
Mrs. Kennedy said she also lived with redistricting, and she and her family accepted what the Board had
decided. Mrs. Kennedy said she feels that as professionals and parents we should believe in the public
school system. She added that our school system has the potential to be the best system in the world.
Dr. Emerson said there needed to be a decision if we are going make our schools more equitable by
redistricting.
Ms. Carpenter asked Mr. Miller what would be the next step toward the possibility of redistricting. She
suggested that we could request Or/Ed to make our schools more equitable, and it is very likely that
what they bring back to us would be cost prohibitive, such as transportation. However, don’t we need to
give them additional parameters to work with.
Dr. Grissom said the Board and administration needed to make decisions about the student transfer
policy. Dr. Grissom said Or/Ed will have to know what percentage of student transfers to work with.
Dr. Emerson said he would like to see that employees have the option of transferring their children to the
school where they are teaching, or that there would be a caveat that the student has to go where the
employee works, or where they live.
Mr. Beard said Or/Ed said it was going to be difficult for equitable distribution. Ms. Carpenter said Or/Ed
said it would be difficult to use some demographic information such as economic data.
Dr. Hart said that he had worked in another district where employees could transfer their students to the
schools served by their home address or work address. Mrs. Norman said she believed that was fair and
that it speaks volumes to what the Board should be expecting with a transfer from anyone.
**Mrs. Norman moved to change our transfer policy for our staff of RSS, so that their children are
eligible to transfer to the school in the district where they are employed. Mrs. Kennedy seconded.
Dr. Hart asked what the administration should do for those folks that have transfers already in place.
Ms. Carpenter requested to amend the motion that the full-time employees (employees who receive
benefits) may use their schools work address for purposes of their child’s transfer.
Dr. Hart said he believed that the wording that he was familiar with is that the employee would be
allowed to transfer their child into the school which serves their work address.
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He said Mrs. Lentz noted that you could have the possibility of having employees who would have other
reasons, other than Board approved reasons, that those transfers would be under the same scrutiny as if
they were a non-employee.
Mrs. Norman said that it needed to make clear in the motion that the employee requesting an automatic
transfer could use their work address.
**Ms. Carpenter clarified Mrs. Norman’s motion with her amendment would read, “Full-time employees
(defined as employees who receive benefits) may be allowed to transfer their child or children to the
school that serves their work address, if space is available.” Mrs. Kennedy seconded. Approved. (6:0)
Mrs. Williams opposed.
**Mrs. Norman moved to waive the second reading of the amendment to the Student Transfer Policy.
Mrs. Freeze seconded. Approved. (5:2)
Dr. Emerson clarified that Or/Ed should prepare a redistricting plan based on the current information,
that would make the high schools equitable. Mr. Miller said that NRHS was going to be looked at first,
and go to the other high schools
**Mr. Beard moved to make NRHS an open enrollment high school, forgo the athletic wait period, and
anyone that would like to go to NRHS could go to NRHS. Dr. Emerson seconded.
Mr. Beard said that this option worked at SHS in 2000.
Ms. Carpenter called for the question. Mrs. Norman said her problem of having a school with open
enrollment is that the Board needed to look at that over time to see if it is an effective tool. She doesn’t
feel we should be talking about one school verses another.
Motioned failed (4:2)
Dr. Hart asked about the employees who have been previously approved. Mr. Beard said they should be
grandfathered. The Board agreed.
Mr. Miller said he hoped to have a plan ready for the May meeting. Ms. Carpenter said she would like to
have it as soon as possible.
Graduation Project Graduation Project
Ms. McDuffie discussed the State Board’s decision to delay the project for one year. Ms. McDuffie said
the school system has things in place. She said the 11th graders are well on their way with their projects.
Dr. Harrison with DPI said that if we have the project already in place, we should continue it.
Ms. McDuffie said what they are seeing with the project is that everyone is learning. She said most
important is that students are actually working on topics they are interested in, and when children are
interested in what they are doing, the enthusiasm is there, the learning is there, and the students are
very positive.
**Mrs. Freeze moved that RSSS continue with requirement of the Graduation Project as a local decision
for the Class of 2010. Mrs. Kennedy seconded. Unanimously approved. (7:0)
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Revised EOG Test and Retest Schedule/Policy
Mr. Colby Cochran said that because the State Board of Education made 2009 policy revisions, our school
system had to make adjustments in the testing and re-testing calendar. He reviewed the new schedule.
Drop Out Prevention Efforts, Grade K-8
Dr. Becky Smith provided an update of the efforts that are currently in place from our schools to assist
students with their educational progress.
Dr. Smith said there was representation from elementary and middle schools, and the specialty groups.
She said that our system is very fortunate to have support from the parents and businesses in our
community. Dr. Smith said that the system is trying in multiple avenues and multiple ways to help our
students as they transition into high school.
Ms. Carpenter said she was interested in the summer reading program that the Salisbury City Council and
Ro. Co. Commissioners want, and if that is something we need. Dr. Grissom said that they discussed ways
to help our students with reading, not necessarily the summer reading program. Ms. Carpenter said she
just wants to make sure what they want to do fits in with our plan.
Revisions to the 2009-2010 Code of Conduct
Mr. Tim Smith said that they did start earlier this year, but there was not a lot of feedback from the schools
regarding the Code of Conduct. He said many revisions this year are related to statutes that have been
adopted.
Dr. Hart noted that attorneys Mr. Ken Soo and Mr. Don Sayers were aware of the changes being drafted.
Dr. Hart outlined the revisions being presented for approval.
Mrs. Freeze pointed out the sentence regarding, “Students may be transported by “a” school official”. She
felt that the policy should stress two employees should always transport students. Mr. Smith noted the
suggestion.
**Mrs. Norman moved to accept the COC revisions on first reading. Mrs. Carpenter seconded.
Unanimously approved. (7:0)
Security Camera Bids
Mr. Miller reviewed the bids and requested that C2 Contractors be awarded the project of $396,837.44.
The work would be. The only high school left is SRHS and ERHS, but they are under design at this time.
**Ms. Carpenter moved approval of the bid of C2 Contractors of NRHS. Mrs. Freeze seconded.
Unanimously approved. (7:0)
Gymnasium Bleacher Renovations
Mr. Miller reviewed the bleacher replacement project status of the high schools. He requested the Board
approve the low bid Charron Sports Services at a cost of $132,600, which includes fees, permits, etc.
**Ms. Carpenter moved approval of $132,600 for replacing bleachers at ERHS, SRHS and WRHS and WRMS
and Erwin. Unanimously approved. (7:0)
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Closed Session
Mrs. Kennedy made a motion to recess into Closed Session at 7:54 p.m. to consider personnel action that
involves an [officer] or [employee], or [prospective public officer or employee] of this board. [NC Gen.
Stat. #143-318.11(a)(6)]; to prevent disclosure of information that is privileged or confidential pursuant
to state or federal law [NC Gen. Stat. 143-318.11(a)(1) Mr. Beard seconded. Unanimously approved.
(7:0)
The Board took a five-minute break.
Report of Closed Session
**Mrs. Williams moved to approve the March Personnel report. Mrs. Freeze seconded. Unanimously
approved. (6:0)
**Mrs. Freeze moved to approve the recommendation of the principal contracts submitted by the
superintendent. Approved. (5:1) Mrs. Williams opposed.
Announcements
4/30 - IMPACT Academy Awards/5:00 p.m./Southeast Middle School
5/1
- TOY Breakfast/7:00 a.m./Holiday Inn
5/4
- Board of Co. Commissioners Mtg./4/00 p.m./J. Newton Cohen Bd. Rm.
5/6
- BOE Curriculum Sub-Committee Meeting/2:00 p.m./Long Street
5/6
- BT3's Banquet/6:00 p.m./Erwin Middle School
5/7
- BOE Finance Sub-Committee Meeting/3:00 p.m./Long Street
5/7
- High School Academic Achievement Banquet/6:00 p.m./The Event Center
5/14 - BOE Building & Grounds Sub-Committee Meeting/3:00 p.m./Ellis Street
5/14 - BOE Personnel Sub-Committee Meeting/4:30 p.m./Ellis Street
5/18 - BOE Regular Meeting/5:00 p.m./Long Street
5/25 - HOLIDAY
Adjournment
** Mrs. Freeze moved to adjourn at 9:15 p.m. Mrs. Kennedy seconded. Unanimously approved. (7:0)
Dr. Jim Emerson, Chairman
Dr. Judy S. Grissom, Ed. D., Secretary
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