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2021-09-03 Special Meeting NEW HANOVER COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS BOOK 35 SPECIAL MEETING, SEPTEMBER 3, 2021 PAGE 193 ASSEMBLY The New Hanover County Board of Commissioners met for a Joint Special Meeting with the New Hanover County Board of Education on Friday, September 3, 2021, at 9:30 a.m. at the New Hanover County Board of th Education Center, 1805 South 13 Street, Wilmington, North Carolina. County Commissioners present: Chair Julia Olson-Boseman; Vice-Chair Deb Hays; Commissioner Jonathan Barfield, Jr.; Commissioner Bill Rivenbark; and Commissioner Rob Zapple. School Board members present: Chair Stefanie Adams; Vice-Chair Nelson Beaulieu; Members Stephanie Kraybill; Hugh McManus; Stephanie Walker; and Pete Wildeboer. School Board members absent: Member Judy Justice th Other attendees: Chief District Court Judge – 5 Judicial District J.H. Corpening, II; New Hanover and Pender District Attorney Ben David; Sheriff Ed McMahon; City of Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo; County Manager Chris Coudriet; Interim City Manager Tony Caudle; Chief Deputy Sheriff Ken Sarvis; City of Wilmington Assistant Police Chief David Oyler; New Hanover County Schools Superintendent Dr. Charles Foust; County Attorney Wanda M. Copley; Clerk to the Board of Commissioners Kymberleigh G. Crowell; and Administrative Assistant Crystal Buie. Chair Olson-Boseman and Chair Stefanie Adams called their respective Boards to order for the Special Meeting reporting that the purpose of the meeting is to discuss how to ensure safety at the New Hanover County Schools facilities. APPROVAL OF AGENDA New Hanover County Schools (NHCS) Board of Education (BOE) Chair Adams asked for a motion to approve the agenda as presented. Motion by the Board of Education: Vice-Chair Beaulieu MOVED, SECONDED by Member Wildeboer to approve the agenda as presented. Upon vote, the MOTION PASSED 6 TO 0. MOMENT OF APPRECIATION Chair Olson-Boseman thanked everyone for attending and for partners from across the County coming together to help find solutions to ensure an incident like what occurred on Monday never happens again. Guns and weapons must be kept out of schools, and the County is committed to helping law enforcement and the school district with the resources needed to ensure that happens. However, she knows and understands that it is not just as simple as preventing guns from entering the schools. There is more to this conversation, like the violence in the community, which is playing out on school grounds. More must be done to strengthen violence prevention resources and education, as well as mental health support and crisis intervention, for the students. More must be done community-wide to combat what is being seen and experienced. She is appreciative for all the attendees so there are different perspectives, tactics, and ideas brought to the table. She believes everyone has the same goal, and this conversation will lead to actions being taken to ensure the schools are as safe as possible, children and school staff are provided with the resources and help they need, and that a life-altering incident like the one at New Hanover High School (NHHS) does not happen again. BOE Chair Adams thanked the County Commissioners for scheduling the meeting to share information and increase collaboration between the County and the school district. Additionally, she thanked Mayor Saffo for joining the discussion. The collective ability of all to coordinate and communicate was put to the test on Monday when a conflict between two students escalated to become a shooting at NHHS. She thanked the first responders, including the New Hanover County Sheriff's Office (NHCSO) and the Wilmington Police Department (WPD). Law enforcement responded quickly to protect the safety of students and staff and investigated the incident. NHHS’ staff members protected students and followed their school safety plans, evacuating children safely to Williston Middle School and the International School at Gregory. New Hanover County agencies and employees also supported students and staff. New Hanover County Health Department and Trillium Health Resources were quick to provide support to students impacted by the trauma of the morning. The school district is thankful for the community partners, including St. Paul's Episcopal Church, which cared for the special needs students until students could be reunified with their parents and guardians. The NHCS crisis team, school counselors, social workers and other staff members performed admirably and were supported by central office staff. They have continued to support students, staff, and families throughout this week, and will continue to do so. In many ways, the County came together to wrap support around NHHS in a time of need, and she believes every member of the BOE is grateful. After every crisis, there is an opportunity to reflect and analyze what did and did not work, look for gaps that need to be filled, what additional steps can be taken to prevent violence in the schools, and how can families be engaged in conflict resolution to make schools and communities safer. The school district has already taken steps to address gaps in communication with parents. However, she believes more can be done, such as better coordination and communication with law enforcement. She also wants to work with County leaders on a comprehensive plan to keep schools safe. A truly comprehensive plan requires more than one solution, more than one tool. All have heard from many people in the community and are grateful for their feedback and engagement in the discussion. Today, the stakeholders at the table, have an opportunity to discuss lessons learned, ask questions, and share ideas for solutions and next steps. Homework and research need to be done to develop a well thought out plan to prevent violence on NHCS’ campuses. Their approach was also to enlist the participation of parents and partners. BOE Chair Adams concluded her comments stating that she appreciates everyone’s support, the opportunity to meet as a collaborative group focused on student safety and looks forward to working with the group. NEW HANOVER COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS BOOK 35 SPECIAL MEETING, SEPTEMBER 3, 2021 PAGE 194 LESSONS LEARNED BOE Chair Adams stated the next portion of the meeting will begin with Sheriff McMahon of the NHCSO as the incident happened four days ago and there is still a lot to unpack. Again, this opportunity to meet and share strategies, share ideas, and reflect on what has gone on is a first step. She then asked Sheriff McMahon to start off with some of the lessons learned to this point. Sheriff McMahon thanked the law enforcement partners and the support of WPD to support the School Resource Officers (SROs) and anything that is needed. On that Monday morning, when he got the call, he headed straight to NHHS and within a few minutes was inside the school at the principal's office. He wants to make sure the community knows how proud he is of the men and women of law enforcement. The first SRO, which happened to be a deputy, because they also had WPD there, was there within 30 seconds as he was right around the corner. Within those 30 seconds he was able to start administering first aid to the victim. The law enforcement that he saw, their professionalism, and how many were there and well-coordinated made him proud, but what he also saw were the teachers. He was with the principal, and he believes assistant principal Cannon, and any teacher he saw were walking students out calmly, keeping everyone as calm as possible, and taking care of the children. It was well organized chaos if you want to call it that. Since then, law enforcement presence has been increased. As BOE Chair Adams stated earlier, this is not something that only one of us can fix, it is everyone working together and looking at ways to get better. What has been helpful to law enforcement has been the students and parents being very engaged in providing information. That is good and it is going to take those that are in there, the students, the teachers who already do that, the parents, etc. to provide any information they have so that law enforcement can better look at it. That is the best way. It is just like what you hear law enforcement talk about in the community when there are crimes. If the community talks to them and gives the information, then law enforcement can solve those crimes. If the community, which are the students and the parents, provide information, the crimes can be stopped, and law enforcement can be more proactive rather than reactive. What he would ask is that after every critical incident there is a deep dive into seeing how they can be better. They have emergency plans in place, and they practice, but nothing ever replaces the real thing. This was a horrible incident, something that they prayed would never happen, but it did. He would ask that the boards allow law enforcement to work with the superintendent's office and coordinate through the county manager's office to allow them to do a deep dive to see how they can get better because there is always room for improvement. It is very fresh; they have not had the chance to really dig deep into it. However, his biggest takeaway from being out there was the professionalism of the principal, all the school staff, and all law enforcement. BOE Chair Adams asked Superintendent Dr. Foust to share reflections from the school side. Superintendent Dr. Foust stated that several of the lessons been learned just from this incident is how quickly communication is and needs to be rolled out when in a situation such as this. The NHCS staff knew that the community was wanting it. They were amid planning how it would look from the psychological side and making sure that the principal was able to stand up and share. Everyone wants to hear the principal, and there was the need to ensure he okay and able to state what needs to happen, because it is still an event that is still under investigation. Staff was turning over things to the law enforcement, assisting them in making sure that they had blueprints, whatever they needed, in addition to making sure that students were safe. The biggest concern during the event was the location of the students. Approximately 1,500 students were divided up into three categories, the auditorium, the gym, and a third location, and it was a crisis moment. Getting everyone safely out of that building into those spots, having students sign in as they were coming so that staff can make sure when a parent calls or parent comes, they could release that student to that parent. It did take place, but not in a place as if they would come to an office. A teacher may have not been with her child or her class, because during that moment there were different kids in different classes. The goal was to get students into a safe place. There may have been students that were in the hallway when teachers pulled them into their classroom to go into that lockdown mode. When it came time for checking the roll and a parent having to wait for their child, staff had to radio to locate the student. It must be understood everyone's emotions were heightened and it was not quiet, it was chaotic. However, the goal and what he and staff are most pleased with is that everyone was in a safe place. He does not know how many officers were onsite as there were state troopers, UNC-Wilmington police, WPD, NHCSO deputies, the sheriff, the SWAT team, teachers were there as well, and everyone was in place. It just was not pretty. He thinks that is one of the things that they go back and look at it, he does not know how to clean that up because the goal was to get them to a safe spot. He compared it to triage of, “Okay, these kids are safe here so, who do we have in this room.” Then they have to listen for the parent and make sure that the parents know where to go to pick up the students. He knows there will be a question asked as to why everyone was moved from one place to the next, and he will let law enforcement speak on that. Although school staff knew this, another lesson learned is to let everyone know that the principal is in charge. However, in a situation when there is law enforcement needed, law enforcement becomes the superior in that role. Once law enforcement arrives, they are no longer in charge at that point and as such it is not the role of a principal, or his role as superintendent, to say when it is safe to move. He thinks those are things that must be communicated to everyone so that it is understood that they were not told to move students until it was safe for them to move. When it was safe to move, they moved, and law enforcement moved everyone that needed to be. Every building has what is called a secondary safe place. There are sometimes multiple places that they use, and they do not actually pronounce those locations out to the public because it is part of the safety plan. He thinks it needs to be shared more that there are safety protocols in place, but the public cannot be told what the safety protocols are. As a point of clarification to everyone that may have some apprehension, the breezeway is open, but a person cannot get in the building because it is locked. Even if a person were to walk up the breezeway, they cannot get in that building. That is a safety measure and there is a safety protocol for how and when it opens. That is something that everyone must know and those are things from the communication side that they need to make sure that parents and community members know that the buildings are securely always locked except when staff opens them. There was communication when parents were emailing that they had not heard, and he really does NEW HANOVER COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS BOOK 35 SPECIAL MEETING, SEPTEMBER 3, 2021 PAGE 195 understand that wholeheartedly. He then explained how the press conference was held. He expressed appreciation for the support on the mental health side. The NHCS team did not have to ask the County for help, the County just stepped in and helped, and provided a hotline which is still available for individuals. The County helped with communications to get the information out. Those are things where lessons were learned, a command post did have to be done because both organizations were working in tandem. The next day, work was being done with staff on what it will look like when kids come back in that building, etc. Parents were upset because they did not know how safe the school was going to be, and although there were additional officers, they could not say how many as that would violate safety protocols. There is a need to help people understand and for more transparency. However, regarding safety issues, staff cannot communicate crystal clear what is on a piece of paper because that is a violation of the safety protocols. It has been a daily thing where someone from NHCS administration has been at NHHS to support and work with the team. More meetings have to be setup and they must figure out what else is needed in the NHHS building moving forward. Sitting down with the NHCSO and the County to discuss things they have learned from the situation, because right now it is still a live investigation. NHCS staff is doing its part and doing its investigation, the NHCSO is doing its investigation and then everyone must put it all together. There has not been the opportunity to sit down to discuss what was done, seen, etc. It is still safety and law enforcement surpassed expectation of what safety looks like in a building. Those are only some of the lessons learned and he has a whole list of other things that they need to work with. BOE Chair Adams thanked Sheriff McMahon and Superintendent Dr. Foust for their comments and opened the floor for questions and discussion. Mayor Saffo stated that he thinks what was witnessed on Monday was something that he never thought would happen in New Hanover County, but it did. Columbine changed SROs in high schools, Sandy Hook changed SROs in elementary schools, and this is a day of reckoning for this community and the school system. There are a lot of parents concerned about the safety of their kids. Unfortunately, like it or not, younger, and younger kids have access to firearms, 15 and 14 year old kids. Law enforcement is wrestling with it, and it is scary. There is no mechanism of conflict resolution anymore on the school grounds where people would get in fights in the old days where they would resolve their issues with fights, which has been going on since people went to school. Now sometimes it is resolved with the handguns, and it was luck that a life was not lost on Monday. He would hope that NHCS and the County look at safety protocols for the kids that are going to school. There are a lot of parents that are concerned right now, and they want to support the school, but are afraid to send their kids to school because they do not know what might happen. What is happening outside of the school grounds today is as important as what is happening inside that school. What is being seen today is 24-hour a day bullying, particularly cyberbullying because social media has changed the landscape of how kids interact with each other. If we have information where that is seen or heard the next steps can be how the community can interact with the kids before they get into school or before they have an altercation. He knows that Judge Corpening has Teen Court where kids who have been involved in an incident at school, instead of getting suspended, come together and talk about their differences, they sign an agreement, and everything is usually okay. He thinks that has been a highly successful program and he would like to see more of that concept used to resolve some of these differences. How information is disseminated through maybe the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) early on as to where kids would go if there were an active shooter or an incident in high school, he thinks is important. Parents just want to know where their kids are, where they can go pick them up, and how long is it going to take. Having that fluid communication with the public and with the parents is tantamount because a lot of parents just did not know. He thanked all the staff for the work they did to reunify parents and their kids, but he believes that better communication with the PTA and with parents would go a long way. As to the principals, assistant principals, and SROs, they may know about some of the kids and some of the issues that they may be dealing with daily. If they know that there may be an incident or a potential incident, how can an intervention be done before it gets to this point and if it does, how do they then get separated. If it does then how can the community make certain that what might happen outside of the school that comes into the school does not erupt into this kind of a situation where a kid that may have been bullied ends up taking matters into their own hands. He was at NHHS on Monday and felt that law enforcement did phenomenal with the response time and how many were there. He thanked them again and stated that the city will be there for anything that they can do. District Attorney David stated that ultimately, school violence is community violence which has crossed the invisible barrier to come onto a campus. Many of the solutions that he knows will be proposed today are quick to implement and need to happen urgently. Others require a long term strategy. All need to be thinking not either or, but yes and, because these kids are worth it. He began his career as a prosecutor here on April 21, 1999, which is better known as the day after the Columbine tragedy. In the immediate aftermath of the Newtown tragedy, in February 2013, as the district attorney in concert with many at this table, he convened the Safer Schools Task Force, a summit on school safety. He asked Judge Corpening to chair that task force and it has done incredible work. He is here to deliver their report to the chairs because he hopes that the group will build on that great work. The task force, even during the pandemic, has still been meeting on a quarterly basis. What must be recognized is that the violence that law enforcement and court officials see is seen daily. That is not something that everyone around this table, everyone in the audience, everyone who is in the sound of his voice sees every day. The reality must be confronted by all that there are two worlds, where a zip code can define a person’s reality, where violence is a foreign concept to some and ever present for others, where there is great wealth pushed up against abject poverty. Those realities collide when school is back in session. Too frequently, he has seen that today's victim is tomorrow's defendant. He has come to learn that public safety is inextricably bound up with public health. The best way to fight crime is by building community. He hopes what is done moving forward from the terrible event of four days ago is taken and built upon; that the community will come closer together, understand this is about all children, and understand that the real solution to preventing school violence is to address community violence. NEW HANOVER COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS BOOK 35 SPECIAL MEETING, SEPTEMBER 3, 2021 PAGE 196 Commissioner Barfield stated when the Safer Schools Task Force was put together after Sandy Hook an update was provided in 2018 to make sure the County, school district, and law enforcement were working together to make sure that things like this would not happen. If they did, there was a plan in place. These groups have not been sitting back on their heels, they have been very proactive in increasing the number of SROs and mental health providers in the schools and providing whatever support is needed to make sure that this public school system has the resources needed to adequately talk to the children. He and several others at the table today attended NHHS and have walked its halls. One of his daughters was a student at UNC Charlotte when there was a mass gun violence incident on that campus and there was a lockdown that took place. Seeing her being rocked by that tragedy gives him a great insight into what parents are dealing with. To him it is important to look at the root cause of violence in this community. Several years ago, Mayor Saffo formed the Blue Ribbon Commission on the Prevention of Youth Violence looking at the northside of Wilmington, as the fact is that is where most youth violence is taking place in this community and resources were deployed in that area. Many people, including himself, District Attorney David, Judge Faison, and other elected officials and community leaders focused on how to reduce violence on the northside. He feels it has been successful, putting the right resources in place, developing a summer jobs program to give boys and girls access to seeing what it would be like to work in a normal environment, make a paycheck, etc. The group also brought in NourishNC to make sure that boys and girls have adequate nutrition at home, especially on evenings and weekends. For him, those are some of the root causes to what happened this past week. It has been said that this young man had been bullied, that he knew something was going to happen that day. It is important that all listen and make sure that they are paying attention to the warning signs. It is important to listen and not have implicit bias play into how each person that comes into a school is treated when they have an issue. As a parent, he has had the same issue with his kids in the public school system when they had challenges. Even as a commissioner he had people who pushed back and pushed up based on what he would perceive as a bias of some sort. It is important that to take the blinders off and look at each individual as just that. It is often said when you see one county you see one county and when you see one kid you see one kid until you understand what the root cause is with them. He does not know why the young man brought the gun on campus. He knows that gun violence is not the way to solve any problem. He wants to understand that and what makes someone want to bring a gun on campus believing that is the only way someone can defend themselves to survive. Also, there is a need to know that the adults are listening to the signs. He is proud that some of the right resources have been and continue to be put together and that there has been cooperation with the school system. Many have called out for metal detectors in the schools, and he does not know how that will work. The NHCS high schools are incredibly open campuses and when looking at schools throughout our country, most schools that have metal detectors also have an enclosed fence around the campus and are locked with only a few points of entry. He would like to know how that is done as he does not know how that would be made to happen. Chair Adams stated that was a good point and asked Judge Corpening to share some of the data and programming that he knows about this community. She feels that would be a good starting point to be able to discuss some tangible outcomes and next steps outside of this meeting. Judge Corpening stated that started this morning serving coffee at NHHS to spend time with teachers, administrators, trying to share coffee, a smile, and a good word. They are an incredibly resilient group. His hat is off to them and all who were involved in this tragedy, but the worst news is this happens in this community every week. This happens in this community sometimes almost every day. He is dealing with 15, 16, 17 years old kids on a weekly basis, who feel like they have to carry a gun for their protection. Students whose idea of conflict resolution is, “I know you're going to shoot me, so I'm going to shoot you first.” He listened to a 15 year old talk about how he felt like he had to shoot 10 rounds in two and a half seconds out of his upstairs window because if he did not do it, then somebody in his family might get hurt. He has watched the dust in the air at Breaktime Billiards where two rival gangs were involved in a shootout and the dust was from all the bullets going through the walls. The youngest involved is 15, the oldest is 22. What we have here is an epidemic of community violence and in fact, his friend Judge Steve Teske in Clayton County, Georgia that he spoke with several times this week, calls it pandemic violence because it was not happening on this scale before the pandemic. Kids have lost the protective factor of schools, social workers know how important protective factors are, and school is the most important protective factor in the lives of children. They lost that in the pandemic world and when you lose the big protective factor, risk factors ramp up. Youth violence has skyrocketed in this community. A way must be found to address that community violence or nothing else that is done matters. He urged the group to be research driven. The Safer Schools Task Force did research and starting after Sandy Hook it did research on what works and what does not. For example, metal detectors would not have stopped, what happened on Monday. It might have changed the location on campus but would not have stopped it. The research on metal detectors is that they do not work in preventing school violence like this. Chair Adams asked that Judge Corpening expand on his comments about metal detectors. Judge Corpening stated that metal detectors have been used around the country off and on in places such as Philadelphia. He was speaking with a professor at the UNC School of Government this week and when he started talking about what was happening in Wilmington, she started talking about her high school in Los Angeles that became a prison. Kids felt like they were in jail with barbed wire, razor wire, and metal detectors. The research shows that does not help. Larry Bonney, a retired FBI agent, helped work with the team on the Safer Schools Task Force. He was a behavior analyst with the FBI and investigated major school shootings dating back to Texas Tower in his career and had a chance to interview some surviving school shooters. Mr. Bonney told task force members that until they take care of what is inside the building, they are not going to make school safe. What is inside the building are the kids and the kids are in the community so a way must be found to take care of them and intervene with that, because otherwise efforts will fall short. Everyone must come together and find a way to address community violence. This community was doing okay and about a year ago WPD Chief Williams made him aware that there he would start seeing a lot of kids being arrested. That it was coming, it was happening, and a shift was seen. It has been awful. There are some NEW HANOVER COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS BOOK 35 SPECIAL MEETING, SEPTEMBER 3, 2021 PAGE 197 intervention strategies out there. As part of what the governing boards do, he would urge them to look at the research on safety, but also look at the research across the country about what is out there for intervention. There are three programs in the presentation, but he is only going to speak on one because it is homegrown in Durham, NC, based on a program out of Chicago. It is where a group that is housed within the health department are community members hired and trained to be violence interrupters. They identify a conflict in the community and try to resolve that conflict to interrupt the violence so that it does not escalate into gunplay. They are trained mediators and work on connecting folks to employment and any other resources that they may need to change their lives. What he does not know is how much it costs, but Durham felt like it was worth the investment. It is called Bull City United. What is being dealt with is a public health issue and he would urge the group to have Public Health Director David Howard as part of the meetings. This is about public health and about saving the lives of kids and families in this community, because when this violence is playing out, it is affecting lots of people. There must be an intervention and the program he will provide an overview of is a way of intervening:  Addressing Violence as a Public Health Issue – David Johnson, Bull City United Supervisor:  Bull City United is part Durham County Public Health, focused on violence prevention and intervention  Cure Violence Model:  Detect and interrupt potentially violent conflicts: prevent retaliations; mediate ongoing conflicts; and keep conflicts ‘cool’  Identify and treat highest risk: access highest risk individuals; change behaviors; and help obtain needed social services  Mobilize the community to change norms: respond to every shooting; spread positive norms  Team Structure:  Supervisor: David Johnson  Violence Interrupters: Matthew Harrington, Dwight Bagley, and Charles Johnson  Outreach Workers: Convellus Parker, Keshia Gray, and Carlos McCledon  Program area selected based on data:  Targeting Our Focus:  Examining the data in 2015:  Census tract 1400: 0.0191 violent crimes per person (highest in the city of Durham)  Census tract 1301: 0.0177 violent crimes per person (2nd highest in the city of Durham)  Responding to violence in Target Areas:  Mediations, January – April 2021:  233 conflict mediations, involving 581 individuals:  45% due to personal altercations  19% gang disputes NEW HANOVER COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS BOOK 35 SPECIAL MEETING, SEPTEMBER 3, 2021 PAGE 198  9% conflicts over theft/robbery  10% conflicts over narcotics  7% domestic violence  9% other  61% of the mediations involved conflicts that were likely or very likely to result in a shooting  80% of the mediations successfully resolved the conflict at least temporarily or as long as certain conditions were met  Participants:  43 individuals included as case load, January – April 2021  Multiple risk factors, making high potential for involvement in violence:  Gang involvement  Prior Criminal History  Involved in street activity highly associated with violence  Carries a firearm  Someone close to participant (family member or gang/group/clique/crew/etc. member) was a recent victim of a shooting  Individual was shot within last 90 days  Recently released from prison; underlying offense was a violent crime Judge Corpening noted that NC Department of Public Safety - Adult Correction and Juvenile Justice Deputy Secretary Bill Lassiter is willing to help make the connection to Bull City United to learn more about what they are doing, why they are doing it, their data, etc. The cost also needs to be known, but it has been successful in Durham.  Impact on Participants:  91% connected to employment  57% of participants employed  100% received services to change behaviors  79% showed gun related behavior change Judge Corpening concluded the presentation stating that he thinks it is worth looking at the Bull City United model. There are other resources such as a hospital based intervention program in Virginia and the Gabby Giffords Center in Texas. However, this is what he could find over the past three days. BOE Chair Adams thanked Judge Corpening for the information. Vice-Chair Hays stated that she is a parent and a member of this community and thanked Judge Corpening for his service. She fully supports him, this community, and the programs that are needed in this community. She asked if she was correct in hearing him say that schools were the protective environment, that children need to be in school, face to face, not remote. Judge Corpening responded that was correct and he has spoken with BOE Chair Adams and the superintendent about it. At the start of the pandemic, he did not have any kids confined in New Hanover County. Not one. Now he thinks he has about dozen or more confined because of them shooting at people. The pandemic has taken a toll in so many ways and it has taken a toll on our youth. He is grateful that kids are back in school, in person for so many reasons, but this is one. Vice-Chair Hays thanked him for his remarks because she knows there has been some requests for remote learning. BOE Vice-Chair Beaulieu stated that while Judge Corpening was speaking he kept thinking about September th 11 and how security measures at the airports were before that day and then after. What he has heard today is everyone agrees there are some wonderful things being done so there is no need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to violence in this community and in the schools. However, the pandemic has changed everything with regards to children and school is the anchor for the lives of the children. This uptick is correlated with the prolonged closure, and he thinks what needs to be done is look at ways not to reinvent the wheel. It is a long term problem. He knows Commissioner Barfield has been doing work in the northside community to address these issues, there is also the Safer Schools Task Force, but he thinks those really need to be looked at in how to expand and build them up in a way that we are not prepared to do yet. He hopes by the end of the meeting everyone at the table is prepared to do what needs to be done, because he thinks it is an epidemic of violence, and there is a need to be prepared for it and fix it. BOE member Kraybill stated she wants to expand on that a bit because she wants to ask Judge Corpening what some of the comparisons are that he has seen with the work that was done with the Blue Ribbon Commission NEW HANOVER COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS BOOK 35 SPECIAL MEETING, SEPTEMBER 3, 2021 PAGE 199 (BRC). It was started in 2008. Plans were put together and the BRC was on course, and it was at a time when gang violence was at its height, which is why it was developed. She thought Durham was used as one of the models because Durham recognized they had low performing schools, and it just so happened they had violence. NHC and NHCS were looking at violence and it just so happened its lowest performing schools were in the data. It looks like there are a lot of similarities between the Durham school system and the NHCS system. Then there was the Safer Schools Task Force after Sandy Hook. There is a lot of groundwork that is set, and it is a priority to not reinvent the wheel. NHCS has some good programs and if the Bull City United program looks like some of its elements can be added to what is already in place, perhaps only refreshers are needed instead of full retraining. She asked Judge Corpening if there was anything that jumped out at him. Judge Corpening responded that obviously the good work needs to continue as there are many steps that everyone has taken together with leadership by the County and NHCS to support the students in the building to make things better for them. He thinks that remains at the heart of school safety and as the district continues to build the student support services staff that is incredibly important. The training that all have done on social and emotional learning during the pandemic, the pivot that was done to deliver that to staff was so incredible, because they are much more trauma focused now and identifying those warning signs is so important. Building those trusted relationships in the building so that when there is text chatter about “Billy's got a gun,” then somebody is going to that trusted adult in the building and saying, “Billy’s got a gun.” One of the things learned from Larry Bonney is that the school shooters felt like they did not have anybody they could talk to in the building, but there were also kids that knew in advance about virtually every single school shooting but did not have a trusted adult they felt they could talk to. He thinks building on that is important, but it is important to think about the bigger picture. There is a need to get out in the community and address community violence. BOE member Kraybill stated the school system does have workgroups that are in place. There is the crisis management team that the director of safety supervises and manages, which is an inner agency organization. The County emergency management director also has a representative on there. Also, there is the school health advisory team, which one of their goals is social, emotional learning and mental health services. That is also an interagency group that is in place that everyone can look at, review those goals, and merge them together. There is a good foundation, they need to be merged so everyone is not operating in silos, but more of a Venn diagram to see what the overlaps and each group does their steps, but all come together in the middle to lower crime and protect students. Chair Olson-Boseman thanked everyone for coming to the meeting, especially her fellow County Commissioners. The County Commissioners came to the meeting to take action and consider this an absolute healthcare crisis and an emergency in this community. She took a lot of opposition for selling the hospital, but she did it to help this community get better healthcare; however, there is also money that the County can access when there is a crisis in this community. Kids are being shot at school; this is a crisis. They are being shot in the street; it is a crisis. She would like to make a motion allows the county manager to access part, not all, only part of the $350 million that is aside to address this crisis that is in this community. She does not want to know the trade secrets and does not expect to know, but what she expects for the sheriff, judge, county manager, police chief, and the superintendent work together behind the scenes to figure this out and produce solutions to keep not only keep kids safe at school, but to make sure they are safe in the streets. This is a community epidemic and so she would like for the county manager to have access to those funds to address this problem and to investigate the Bull City United program. MOTION: Chair Olson-Boseman MOVED, SECONDED by Commissioner Rivenbark to allow the county manager to utilize a portion of the $350 million in County funds that has been established through the sale of New Hanover Regional Medical Center for the purpose of addressing a community crisis and emergency and to investigate the Bull City United program. Chair Olson-Boseman asked for any further discussion from the Board. Commissioner Barfield stated regarding comments about the BRC, the Voyage Youth Council also has in place some of the components being discussed. There are community outreach advocates that are somewhat the boots on the ground that will go into homes to work with families to help them transition from point A to point B. There is a need to recognize that there are already some of these organizations in the community that can help aid in this conversation and there should be collaboration with them. It would be great to expand the Voyage Youth Council from the northside across New Hanover County and provide a summer jobs program that gives boys and girls exposure to greater things that will hopefully give them the desire to go to college and be able to provide for themselves and their family. Commissioner Zapple stated that he thinks what has been heard today is that the increase of law enforcement is not sustainable. As much as it worked in the immediate need, the schools cannot be flooded with law enforcement. The data shows that metal detectors do not work. Remote learning, which he knows all have heard a lot about, to send kids home to make them safe, just increases the isolation. He thinks what has been heard today is clear evidence on what does not work. What he also heard Judge Corpening say is that the initiative with Bull City United has a lot of very promising things that are needed here in this community. He fully supports the motion. Something needs to be done to try and address this problem within the community and certainly within the schools, because the schools must be a safe environment for learning. Vice-Chair Hays stated she wants to clarify that the Board wants to give the county manager the authority to access those funds because the Board wants to ensure the safety of the students, parents, teachers, staff, NEW HANOVER COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS BOOK 35 SPECIAL MEETING, SEPTEMBER 3, 2021 PAGE 200 volunteers in all the schools, and in this community. This is an epidemic and there is a need to ensure the safety of all the citizens and everyone needs to work together. Hearing no further discussion, Chair Olson-Boseman asked for direction from the Board. Upon vote, the MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY. BOE Chair Adams stated that what the Board of Commissioners has done and approved is going to give this community the opportunity to begin to solve this problem. On behalf of the BOE, she thanked the Board and further stated that no parents, community members, no one wants the kids or staff to ever go through this. She also looks forward to the county manager and superintendent working together to collect research and data to bring forward opportunities to implement into the schools. The BOE is behind them and supports the options that they feel are best for the schools and community. District Attorney David thanked the Board for its action stating that it is the right thing to do. He asked that the thin blue line not be forgotten about in the funding. Crime and education have always been inversely related. Two out of three people in the County jail are high school dropouts. Keeping them in school is everything. It was mentioned the work that many around the table have done for years. As to the Youth Enrichment Zone, the members did not pick that place, it picked them. Crime mapping was done where to look not at only reported crime, but unreported crime. Due to ShotSpotter data, gunshots in the City were able to be counted and the highest area of crime was located. It was reduced by 28% over the next three years by increasing graduation rates by the same number. There is no question that what Judge Corpening has said is a best practice that can be imported here. There are more moving vans coming from Durham to than vice versa. We are not saying we are trying to be Durham. What is being said is if something works, we should be doing it. There are private groups already doing this type of intervention. It needs to have the transparency and trust and most importantly, the data of government behind it. When talking about crime mapping, do not forget resource mapping. He urged whatever group is put together to turn to Cape Fear Collective (CFC), the nonprofit that was started at Live Oak Bank. The work that CFC has been doing for two and a half years, and the data it has been tracking for 30 different points of health that tie right into public safety. He believes that information provides the best model moving forward to spend some of the money being discussed to focus on prevention, being proactive and not reactive. He is glad that this moment is here, even though it took a tragic series of events to bring everyone together. BOE member Walker stated she has heard a lot of good discussion today, she appreciates all that everyone is doing, and understands there are a lot of components to this. However, one item that was brought up and is a community issue is poverty. She has not heard any discussion on early education. She knows there are a few people that understand the importance of education, but it begins early. Her hope is that some of the funds will go towards early education of kids, focusing on parts of the community that need the resources and the schools around it that need the resources. When the school redistricting occurred about 10 years ago, the district model changed and created hyper-segregated socioeconomically schools that were in high poverty areas. It all leads to test scores, etc. When one is on the ground there, they have to get into the community, and have to see where we can start early. The discussion is about preventative measures, and that is all important, but she believes early education and going into the communities to provide support from the bottom up that may result in there not being some of the issues. Superintendent Dr. Foust stated that he knows parents want answers, particularly the parents of NHHS students. The district is planning a parent meeting to have a conversation with them. Work is currently being done to find a large enough space due to COVID to have what may be multiple meetings by the end of next week. BOE Chair Adams asked if there any other steps or any other actions the school district is taking that can be shared at this point. Superintendent Dr. Foust responded that meetings are occurring and if there are individual parents and they are coming to the school, the principal and the administration are more than happy to sit down and have a conversation with individual parents at this time. The desire is to engage with that school community and have honest conversations on the needs. Steps are being taken to reach out to the PTA to help get the word out and they will also be asked to be a bit more present in the schools and finding out what help they need. Efforts are also going to be made to reach out to individuals. One of the things that helped in some of the schools where he worked in Houston, even though it has not been discussed here, was working with the fire department staff. In Houston, the firemen worked 24 on, 24 off shifts. In their off time, the school district paid those persons to be hall monitors to be a part of the school setting. He would like to investigate doing that here. Those are examples of some of the things that will be discussed with parents about some of the people that they may see in their building daily. There was a parent patrol inside the buildings. Those are things that the school administration is going to want to train people on. There are also several other mechanisms, and the school district wants to push people to be able to say it, for students to say something, and as Judge Corpening was saying, just being comfortable in telling, and there are anonymous ways to get information to administrators and staff. Sheriff McMahon talked about Crime Stoppers and those mechanisms work. There is anonymity in some of that. The person will not be asked how they found out because if the person is telling them about it, the team is looking to solve it and fix it. It is asked that those protocols be used, and they are in the school district and the desire is for those conversations to happen. Those are going to be discussed with parents. He knows that parents have burning questions, they want to talk, and staff wants to talk with them. Again, there will meetings setup to meet with parents. Vice-Chair Hays expressed appreciation for Superintendent Dr. Foust’s comments because communication is the key. No one has all the answers right now but there is a need to communicate with each other. She also suggested the possibility of bringing student leadership into those conversations as well. Superintendent Dr. Foust agreed. Vice-Chair Hays further stated they know what is going on inside their respective schools better than anyone NEW HANOVER COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS BOOK 35 SPECIAL MEETING, SEPTEMBER 3, 2021 PAGE 201 and can be an invaluable resource. One thing she continues to hear from the students is that they are incredibly proud of NHHS, and they want to see it be the best that it can be. BOE member McManus stated there is a lot of power and experience in the room and he wished this meeting had happened earlier, but now is the perfect time. Judge Corpening comes with an unbelievable background of experience. He appreciates his effort to quickly offer another alternative. There are so many things that are in the school system and in the community that need to be addressed, leave nothing unturned. Most importantly, until there is resolution of some of the issues in the community, they will continue to come into the schools. During his time as a high school principal of a large high school, he took three guns off students. Fortunately, there was never a shooting. It is going to be difficult to prevent if it is in the community, and it is an answer. Hopefully, out of this discussion will come priorities. Prioritizing is important to collectively focus this energy from this constructive meeting towards those priorities. It is all for the students and that is why everyone is here. The most challenging and difficult thing to him when he was high school principal, which he believes most principals would agree with, is social media. There is a state law about bullying but when he would ask a student to go to the police the student would respond, “But it will be all over social media and I’ll be eaten alive” and his response was, “Yes, you will; I am not gonna lie to you.” What he would ask those in the judicial and law enforcement arenas is what can be done to get hold of those that are harassing, bullying, creating, and amplifying these issues as that is something that needs to be focused on. It will not go away. BOE member Wildeboer thanked everyone for attending and thinks it is an outstanding group. He thinks it will be wonderful for everyone to work together to help the students as that is the focus. He asked if any thought had been given to having an outside safety consultant look at the school campuses to identify problematic areas, starting with the high schools. When he was in another county, the school district had a safety team which provided an internal group to help the school district see its own problems. Superintendent Dr. Foust responded that thought has been given to that and there was some of that in the past. There is a need to review it again to see what has been updated and there will be conversations about it. Commissioner Barfield stated that back in 2015 Judge Corpening launched the school justice partnership, which was designed to reduce students’ behavior and ease the strain on the courts with incoming juveniles. There were 13 agencies that signed a document agreeing to work to make sure that kids were not being brought into the criminal justice system automatically but finding other ways to ease the strain on the court system. It was ratified back in 2018. He thinks when a kid is labeled it puts them on the wrong path to begin with. If they can be kept out of the courts and other ways found to deal with their misbehavior, it sets them on the right course. There has been a lot of conversation around the suspension of four, five, six, and seven year old kids and suspension rates need to be looked at. There is a need to return to the foundation/root of things, because if a kid is put on the wrong course at an early age, they may internally think they are not a good kid. However, if telling the kid and reinforcing that they are good will change their whole thought process and outcome. There is a need to try to use the right words and right words of affirmation to reinforce good behavior with young boys and girls. Oftentimes interacting with the court system, interacting with suspensions, only puts the person on the wrong path as opposed to the right path. Commissioner Zapple stated he would like to reinforce what Commissioner Barfield has said about pre-K education and getting to the youth early is something that the County Commissioners have supported. After this year’s efforts to double the number of pre-K classes, he hopes that accelerates and increases. He thinks he heard earlier in the discussion about re-examining the reunification emergency plan that is in place. While the current plan worked, he received many questions from the community about it and feels that taking another look at it will help to raise the confidence of many in the community. He asked about how the students are getting back and forth across Market Street because of the closure of the catwalk, what is the plan in place, and how it works. Superintendent Dr. Foust declined to answer the safety issue questions during the meeting and further stated he would be glad to speak with Commissioner Zapple after the meeting. BOE Vice-Chair Beaulieu stated that as a board, the BOE members had talked recently about adding a student member and were ready to go on that. He would like to re-emphasize the importance of a student voice. Given all that has been experienced this past week, it was important before, but he would really like to get that done as soon as possible. He also does not want this to be the only meeting and the group move on, do good things, and nobody talks about it. He would like for the group to meet again in the beginning of December to discuss the concrete steps that have been taken and are going to be taken moving forward to ensure that everybody is safe and secure in the community. BOE Chair Adams asked Superintendent Dr. Foust what a viable timeline for research, working with the school district’s partners, and to start devising some ideas to bring back as recommendations. Superintendent Dr. Foust responded that as soon the county manager, sheriffs, judge, etc. can get together he thinks December or prior to that is viable. The community would say December is too far out. He thinks the group will be working together as soon as possible and there will be updates. He thinks the first update could be late September or early October, on where they are, what is being looked into, etc. Chair Olson-Boseman stated that as far as she is concerned when she hits the gavel their work begins if it has not already. BOE Chair Adams stated that the County Commissioners and BOE members have talked about doing quarterly meetings, but she really thinks the group around the table today should reconvene because it is a community issue. It is not one entity; it is every single person at the table as part of the solution and it is also the community on the outside. She would also like to see input obtained from the outside stakeholders and parents, such as the information from the parent forums that are going to be occurring. Again, she would really like to see this group come back together to continue the dialogue, as they continue to look at solutions. NEW HANOVER COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS BOOK 35 SPECIAL MEETING, SEPTEMBER 3, 2021 PAGE 202 Superintendent Dr. Foust stated he wants to be clear that the school district does not have any verification of bullying. The question will be asked of the school and that was not something administration was aware of from the principal's office. He just wants everyone to be clean on that because there is no indication they knew. He will be working with the principal to find out if there were not bullying measures in place that will be taken care of also. What he can say is that anyone who had been involved or was involved, they have no place in our school. That he will say, speaking from the superintendent’s seat. Those individuals will not be allowed back in the building and will be provided with some alternative measures that they will have to learn. But again, those students who were involved will not be back in the building. He wants this community and the students to understand that this is serious. He and the staff are going to work hard. He has talked before about how the turnaround work here is different, but this school district is running into some of the things that he has seen in other places where he has worked. A firm stance must be taken on what will and will not be allowed. Bullying is never going to be allowed. If someone is being bullied, there are safe places that one can go and that they can handle that. We may say social media has a presence, but the school staff also have due diligence as administrators and adults. There are ways that he can handle things or teachers can handle things that does not lead back to someone who has told. They know how to do that so he does not want anyone to think that they cannot tell anyone because they are going to be bullied or will be harassed even more. That is not true, and they can fix it. What he can say is when it comes to this incident, there should have never been an opportunity or never should there have been a gun on that campus. When someone is saying they only have a gun to lean on, there are so many adults, officers, and others on that campus that a person can talk to. To the parents he would say they have to come to the school; they must tell someone if their child is not feeling the way they need to feel because that is where all these people hear things like “How did we get here?” We got here because no one was telling anyone. He has to say that because he does not want people to think that the school was not being a safe haven for students. They have multiple mental health counselors, and now have additional counselors at the school. The individual had only been on the school grounds for two days. That is all, two days and they brought this to the campus in two days. So, when looking back to see who all were at fault, they are not blaming anyone. What they are saying is there are mechanisms in place for people to say a person is bothering them or this is bothering them, and no one knows what that person is talking to another person about. He has had students email him saying they want to talk with him. He reaches back out to them, and the students email him back. He is not sharing that information with individuals. He goes to the principals and says, “I need for this to be taken care of.” There are ways and students have his email address, so he knows if they can get to him without their friends knowing, it can be done. He does not want anyone at the table to sit around and say that nothing is being done. They can get to the safe spots when they need to, but it must be talked about. He does not want anyone to walk away from here and say that they are a playground filled with bullies as that is not true. Bullying does happen, he does not want to say that it does not, but what he wants them to say is that there are things in place to be proactive to handle those issues. Again, help staff help the community by saying that if that is happening, please reach out to him, a counselor, a teacher, a bus driver, as there are people that know how to get to the bottom of it. The person’s name does not have to be attached and school staff know how to handle that. BOE member Kraybill requested clarity on the funding that the county manager has been given access to and if it would be used for some of the agencies NHCS already partners with, such as Communities in Schools, the police department, the sheriff's department, and its elements program, any of the mental health providers that the school district has memorandums of understanding (MOUs) with, etc. Chair Olson-Boseman stated the school district is not getting funding from the $350 million. BOE member Kraybill responded she understood that but would like clarification on what it will be used for. County Manager Coudriet responded that what he understood the charge from the County Commissioners to be is to use the resources to address community violence, because what happened Monday is not a law enforcement problem or a school problem. It is a symptom of a community issue, that violence was chosen to solve problems. What will be done is to look at putting together a full range of strategies led conceptually by what Judge Corpening has identified to produce interventions that address violence. If that can be addressed it limits or ends the potential for the problem on a school campus, or in the perimeter of a school. He cannot say today how those dollars will be invested and he knows the County Commissioners well enough to know that they give staff the latitude to not look at this simply as a grant making operation. There will be no solving of any problems if they go out and give one agency $50,000 and another $150,000 unless there are a comprehensive set of solutions identified, which must be evidence based. He also wants to channel people smarter than him, such as Commissioner Barfield, the deputy county manager, the diversity and equity chief, etc. The script must be flipped as he is concerned that solutions are going to be brought from the top down. So, the script must be flipped and ask students, teachers, parents, what makes them feel comfortable and to ask the community that faces violence daily, what does it need to help change the contours and the direction in the community, etc. Certainly, the community must have the leadership, which has been offered, there is sound policy, but the script must be flipped. It cannot be a grant making operation and must be informed with strategies that solve the problem of community violence. Again, Monday was a symptom of a bigger problem. Hearing no further discussion, Chair Olson-Boseman and School Board Chair Adams thanked everyone for attending and adjourned the meeting at 11:00 a.m. Respectfully submitted, Kymberleigh G. Crowell Clerk to the Board Please note that the above minutes are not a verbatim record of the Special Meeting of the New Hanover County Board of Commissioners. The entire proceedings are available online at www.nhcgov.com.