CARTHAGE – The Moore County Schools Board of Education met Monday, Aug. 12.
After a lengthy discussion, the board approved the Advanced Teaching Roles Partnership contract with Public Impact for the 2024-25 school year.
“We were very excited to share last year that we received the advanced teaching roles grant which is a multi-year grant with the purpose of building systems and structures in place for advanced teaching roles,” said Superintendent Tim Locklair. “These are roles in which our teachers would have the opportunity to stay in the classroom and continue to work and have an impact on a greater number of students, but also work with our less-veteran teachers to help grow them to have the same type of impact on students that our best have.”
Per Locklair, the money from the grant, which is limited in what it can be used on, will be used for partnering with a consultant, Public Impact, to help provide professional development intended to develop and grow that structure.
“The scope of their work is very narrow,” said Deputy Superintendent Mike Metcalf. “They are focused on helping us extend the reach of our most excellent teachers, trying to increase those teachers’ pay and also providing them with a growth and leadership pathway that might keep them in the classroom rather than moving into school administration. It also provides increased embedded success for our new teachers at the school level which we hope will help with recruitment and retention of new teachers.”
According to Metcalf, Public Impact assists with design, processes and procedures for recruitment and selection of candidates, budget support, evaluation design, outcome design, planning, methods for assessing the success of the program and the ultimate goal is building internal capacity in order to move past the need for the contract.
MCS previously partnered with Public Impact in the spring utilizing the multi-year grant funding and both Locklair and Metcalf expressed satisfaction with the partnership.
Concerns were raised by board member David Hensley though on Public Impact’s mission statements which focus heavily on DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion).
“Is this the correct company?,” Hensley said. “We have a choice in who to implement and last week I spoke about is this a good match between cultures and I would say, ‘No.’”
“I stand by my recommendation to approve Public Impact to provide this consulting and training for us here in Moore County Schools,” said Locklair in response. “As I stated at the work session, Public Impact works for us and their professional development that they’re doing with us and the planning and design work that they’re doing with us is at our direction and is building what I described as our opportunity culture for what we want to see the end result be for Moore County Schools, for our teachers and ultimately for our students as a recruitment and retention tool to grow our teachers, maintain our best and grow the new teachers that come in.”
While the rest of the board did echo Hensley’s concerns over the company’s apparent leanings and expressed their own stances against DEI, the majority felt that the trust in the oversight from the central office and the need to further support MCS teachers outweighed those concerns.
“I have the same reservations that you have and I agree with what [Hensley’s] saying to some extents, that on the surface, it looks like they could be bringing in things that we do not want,” said Vice Chair Shannon Davis, “However, I would venture to say that in the past six months that we’ve been working with them, if there was any red flags that would have come up, [Metcalf or Locklair] would have said something because they know what we’re looking for.”
Metcalf also clarified that in initial meetings with Public Impact, MCS clearly expressed how DEI is not acceptable within the school system and that Public Impact understood this and was okay with it.
The final vote count was five for the motion – Robert Levy, Shannon Davis, Stacey Caldwell, Philip Holmes, Ken Benway – and two against – David Hensley and Pauline Bruno.
The board also recognized five new school administrators that will be starting in their roles this school year: Bryonn Williams as the principal of Carthage Elementary, Jami Burr as the principal of Connect Academy, Renee Robbins as the principal of Robbins Elementary, Matt McLean as principal of West Pine Elementary and Jeremy Swofford as the principal of West Pine Middle.
The Moore County Schools Board of Education will next meet Sept. 9.
