Agenda - 06-21-2022; 8-a - Minutes

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17 1 for their students in classrooms and even extracurricular activities, often without extra 2 compensation. She said many teachers commit years of their time to cultivating minds of 3 students despite being inadequately compensated. She said it would be unfortunate for Orange 4 County to lose these dedicated teachers. She asked the Board to put education at the top of 5 their priorities for current students, teachers, and school systems, as well as those who choose 6 Orange County as their home. She said schools and teachers are nurturing the minds of the 7 future contributors of this county, state, country, and world. She said educators pour their hearts 8 into what they do and that should be reflected in the budget. 9 Michael Kang said he is a sophomore at East Chapel Hill High School. He asked the 10 Board to fully fund the CHCCS budget. He shared his experience in Spanish class this year. He 11 said at the beginning of the year, half of his classroom peers wanted to become fluent in 12 Spanish and over half wanted to continue their education in SP Spanish the next year. He said 13 his Spanish teacher left during the second week of second quarter, so much of the work for the 14 semester was completion based with few evaluations, and was much easier than he had heard 15 from upperclassmen. By the beginning of the third quarter, only 3 people in the class wanted to 16 continue their education in AP Spanish and no one in the class indicated they were fluent 17 enough to live in a Spanish speaking classroom. He said thankfully a teacher transitioned to his 18 class in the fourth quarter. He said 3 out of 5 Spanish teachers have left this year and all 19 Spanish 1 and 2 courses were transitioned to remote learning and they have had 8 teachers so 20 far. He said this isn't just the Spanish classes that are experiencing a lack of teachers and 21 turnover. He said he would be better prepared for future Spanish learning if he had a consistent 22 teacher all year. He said securing better teachers means support for the county to the Orange 23 County academic community, and full investment is needed to keep the quality of schools so 24 students don't limit their dreams. 25 Jason Kary said he has been a resident of Orange County for 18 years. He said he 26 supports all of the educators in the room and the pay increases they are advocating for. He said 27 he had to take his daughter out of middle school because her panic attacks were preventing her 28 from learning. He said the issue is far deeper than teacher compensation and the whole system 29 needs to be looked at. He encouraged the Board not to approve the 2022-23 budget due to the 30 broadband plan. He said he lives off of Redgate Rd. and his neighborhood has been left off the 31 NorthState service map. He said the companies are reporting that his neighborhood has 32 broadband options, but there is only one option and it is only 4 MBPS. He said NorthState told 33 his neighborhood they were not part of the contract with Orange County. He said he believes his 34 neighborhood of 14 households will have to pay around $62,000 as a whole for NorthState to 35 run fiber to their area, based on the fact the County's $40 million contract covers 9,000 36 households. He asked the Board not to approve the budget and to help him and his 37 neighborhood get the broadband they need. 38 Whitney Robinson said she has a 1st grader at Northside Elementary. She said this is 39 her first child in the public school system and he started during the pandemic. She said she is 40 on the School Improvement Team at Northside and it has been eye opening. She said it's hard 41 to fill vacancies even just for maternity leave. She said she feels the effects of burnout even in 42 higher education, including emotional burdens, student needs, and having to do catch up. She 43 said she knows a lot of first grade teachers who are trying to do catch up for students who 44 started kindergarten during the remote learning year. She said seeing the budget on the school 45 improvement team is eye-opening because teachers don't make much money. She said the 46 budget is strategic and lean and is focused on creating positions that can best care for student 47 needs. She said she sees the challenges teachers are facing and understands why they 48 wouldn't continue doing this work. She said she understands how organizations can get into a 49 death spiral when there is continued understaffing and asking people to do more. She said it's 50 about investing now vs. letting things spiral into a greater crisis later. She said it was great to 51 see the budget presentation, but if you average out the proposed per pupil increase