Johnston County
Board
of Education report from August 11 meeting |
 |
All board members were present:
Chairman Todd Sutton, Teresa Grant, Ronald Johnson, Terri Sessoms,
Peggy Smith, Mike Wooten, and Tracie Zukowski (via Zoom hookup)
Board members express frustrations over
online learning time and face-mask rules
   Teresa Grant, Peggy Smith, and Terri Sessoms (pictured top to bottom) wore masks throughout Tuesday's session. Other board members and the superintendent did not (Traci Zukowski took part in the meeting remotely). |
Teresa Grant brought up the face-mask issue after the board watched a video showing how bus drivers are being instructed to handle boarding students. A child wearing a mask is directed to the back of the bus while a child without a mask is ordered to sit near the front. (Drivers will have masks to offer children who don't have them.)
"Are masks mandatory or not?" asked Ms. Grant, referring to state requirements that students shall wear masks at all times inside school buildings and on the buses.
"Don't make the rule follow the exception," chimed in Peggy Smith, agreeing with Ms. Grant that the mask-wearing rule should be strictly enforced.
"This is not a political football. This is a virus," declared Terri Sessoms.
Ronald Johnson defended the protocol allowing drivers to seat mask-less children near the front of the bus. "We can't expect them to keep their masks on like they're soldiers," he said.
Dolores Gill, the school system's chief of operations and communication, said her team would revisit the mask protocol. "I'm happy to go back and look at this again," she said.
SHORT-CHANGING STUDENTS?
Ms. Smith was especially adamant in questioning plans for online learning that appear to limit "face time" for teachers delivering lessons to students.
"We're selling our students short," she declared. "I don't see how a curriculum can be taught in the amount of time on this schedule."
Ms. Grant and Ms. Sessoms agreed.
Deputy Superintendent Paula Coates defended the schedule, which she said is a suggested framework that most school principals are modifying to fit their particular school's student population. "The principals are going to ensure that they get a high-quality education," she declared.
Even so, Ms. Smith stuck to her guns, predicting that parents are going to send their children elsewhere "because they've lost faith in the system." Johnston County can't afford to lose a large number of its public-school students and the state funding that's based on total enrollment, Ms. Smith warned.
Superintendent Eric Bracy added his voice to the conversation by urging parents concerned about the new instructional arrangements to contact their school's principal and teachers to work things out.
Board members were relieved to learn Tuesday that teachers may record live classroom presentations for online learning later so long as students aren't shown in the videos.
Visit the Virtual Program section of school system's website with links to sample weekly instructional schedules for all grade levels>
A HEADS-UP ON SHIFTING STUDENTS AND TEACHERS
Brian Vetrano, the system's director of human resources, told the board about problems facing his staff in assigning teachers to the elementary schools that will begin receiving students in shifts starting September 8.
Because those schools will have a mixture of students returning to campus and students remaining at home for remote learning all the time, it's going to be tricky matching up teachers with multiple groups of students, especially since a number of teachers have requested assignment to full-time remote instruction, he said.
"To resolve these challenges it's going to take money (for additional teachers) and it's going to take moving people around," said Mr. Vetrano, referring to the likelihood of temporarily assigning some students and teachers to other schools to comply with state rules limiting numbers in each classroom.
Mr. Johnson made a suggestion that other board members embraced: Identify all of the school system's employees who are certified to teach elementary grades yet currently hold jobs outside the classroom. Ask some of them to fill in temporarily as teachers, he said.
The need for more teachers is made greater by a shortage of applicants for positions presently vacant, noted Mr. Vetrano, who said Johnston County currently has about 160 teacher vacancies. Further complicating that situation are older teachers choosing to retire early because of the coronavirus situation, and former teachers reluctant to come back to fill in because of the pandemic, he said.
3,000 WiFi HOTSPOT DEVICES PURCHASED
The board spent $1,286,340 from federal and state coronavirus-relief grants to purchase 3,000 WiFi hotspot devices from Verizon to be placed throughout the county where Internet service to households with students is weak. The cost includes $480,343 for the devices plus $805,997 for a year's worth of service. A survey taken in June determined that about 10% of Johnston's households have unreliable Internet connections or no Internet service at all. Internet access is essential for remote learning at home, which will be required of all students when the 2020-21 school year begins next week.
GOOGLE ONLINE LEARNING PROGRAM PURCHASED
At a cost of $100,800 for one year, the board approved purchase of the Google Suite Enterprise Enterprise for Education online program to be accessed by all of Johnston's students and teachers. Features of the software include the ability to record live teaching sessions as well as advanced security and "enhanced resources for students to effectively complete research & reports," according to a staff memo attached to the board's agenda for Tuesday's meeting.
GAGGLE AND LIGHTSPEED CONTRACTS RENEWED
The board renewed two contracts related to the school system's Internet services. For an annual payment of $193,537, Gaggle Student Safety will provide monitoring of e-mail and Google apps as well as archiving all of the system's e-mail records in accordance with state regulations. For an annual payment of $157,080 a service named Lightspeed will provide filtering and blocking capabilities that protect students "from online content that is harmful, obscene, and pornographic." It also includes a classroom filtering and management tool for teachers.
SCHOOLS TO ADVERTISE FOR AN IN-HOUSE ATTORNEY
Ms. Smith reported that the board's Legal Services Committee that she chairs has instructed the school system to advertise for a full-time staff attorney and to solicit bids from law firms on providing supplemental legal assistance on contract. That's a change from recent arrangements under which the system contracted with two attorneys on an hourly basis: Jimmy Lawrence of Smithfield and Ken Soo of the Raleigh law firm of Tharrington Smith (Mr. Lawrence gave up his contract earlier this year, leaving Mr. Soo with all the legal duties since then.) Ms. Smith said her committee will seek assistance from the N.C. School Boards Association as well as law schools in advertising for both the full-time staff attorney and the contracted service. Those solicitations may be ready to go out next week, she noted.
DISTRICT ELECTION PROPOSAL PUT ON HOLD
Ms. Smith also reported that the board's ad hoc committee studying future election of school-board members by districts has decided to put the process on hold because of all the work now going on regarding the re-opening of school in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
NEW CLAYTON-AREA SCHOOL DISTRICTS PROPOSED
The board received proposed new districts for both elementary schools and middle schools in the Clayton area from consultants associated with N.C. State University's Operations and Research Laboratory (OREd) and Numerix, a partner agency. The revised districts are prompted by the construction of a new elementary school on Lynch Road east of Flowers Crossroads that's scheduled to open a year from now. The new middle-school districts are being worked into the changes in an effort to disperse more evenly the student populations at Archer Lodge Middle, Clayton Middle, and Riverwood Middle. The new elementary districts will affect Corinth-Holders, Cooper, East Clayton, River Dell, Riverwood, and Selma Elementary plus the new Lynch Road school yet to be named. The public is being asked to comment on the first draft of the new district between now and next month's board meeting, when a second draft will be presented. The schedule calls for final approval of the changes at the board's October meeting.
View Tuesday's presentation including the proposed attendance boundaries>
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