School Board questions, alters plan to give DPS Foundation $1-million for housing
On the heels of tragic news of another DPS student losing their life to gun violence, the School Board opened last week's meeting grieving before carrying on with a nearly seven-hour long meeting.
On Wednesday February 8, two Hillside High students fell victim, one fatally, to gun violence during school hours on property adjacent to the school. Under a somber and reflective tone, the School Board held their previously scheduled Work Session the next day. Many who came to share public comment to the Board were overwhelmed by the recent events, publicly grieving over the loss of student life. Later reports identified the deceased student as a senior at Hillside; the second victim was just 15-years old and is expected to recover.
Fallout from resignation
The first order of business before the Board last Thursday was to vote to accept the resignation of Matt Sears, which remains an unreported local story. Since Mr. Sears acted as Vice Chair on the Board, a special vote among the remaining six Board members was required to name his successor. After Board Members Millicent Rogers and Alexandra Valladares made simultaneous nominations of Emily Chávez and Jovonia Lewis, respectively, Chair Bettina Umstead elected to determine which nomination would be voted on first by a coin flip. Ms. Chávez won the coin flip, but both nominees were locked in 3-3 ties in the first round of voting. With both nominees lacking a majority, Chair Umstead promptly called for the second round of voting, and, just 43 seconds after voting for Ms. Lewis in the first round, Chair Umstead switched her vote without explanation to give Ms. Chávez a 4-2 nod to assume the role of Vice Chair. The final vote tally, in the order voted, was Ms. Rogers, Ms. Chávez, Natalie Beyer and Chair Umstead with the four ayes to Ms. Valladares and Ms. Lewis with the two nays.
With the Vice Chair vacancy filled, the Board shifted their focus to the District 3 open seat, a large void left on what is to be a seven-member Board when Mr. Sears departed to take a position with the privately-run DPS Foundation. The Board finalized the application process to seek an appointee to fill the District 3 seat. Interested residents must reside within the District 3 Board of Education voting district and be eligible to vote in School Board elections. Application information can be found on the DPS website, and the application deadline is February 27 at 8am. The appointee will serve until June 2024, after which the seat will be filled by the winner of a special election for District 3 voters in the 2024 Primary Election.
DPS to ‘separate’ some funding to DPS Foundation
Following some questions from Ms. Lewis and Ms. Valladares to the Board Attorney regarding potential conflicts of interest regarding Mr. Sears acting in an official Board capacity without disclosing his job opportunity with the DPS Foundation, the Board heard the plan from DPS Administration on how the district intends to spend the $18-million gift to DPS from MacKenzie Scott, the former wife of Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos. Included in the original plan was $1.28-million to be sent to the privately-run DPS Foundation: $280,000 for thematic programming centered on student and staff mental health and $1-million for teacher workforce housing. Superintendent Dr. Pascal Mubenga described the $280,000 as a “deposit to show to our business partners that this [initiative] is something we really need for our students as well as our staff.” DPS Foundation has a fundraising goal of $3.5-million for this mental health initiative and has additionally partnered with Duke University. On the day of the Work Session meeting, DPS Foundation issued a press release confirming that Dr. Chris Soto, the former DPS District Social Emotional and Mental Health Coordinator, would be the new director of the exact initiative poised to receive $280,000 in DPS funding.
As for the $1-million for teacher workforce housing, the Superintendent reminded the Board that efforts had been made in the past by DPS to pursue teacher workforce housing. He went on to explain that having these one-time donated funds gives the district “flexible, unrestricted” funds to “put aside” for the purpose of teacher housing and promised to draft a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with DPS Foundation to bring before the DPS School Board for approval before any of the $1-million in funds would be transferred to the DPS Foundation. An MOU is not a contract and is not legally binding. Instead, it is a framework of agreements made between two parties and can be used to outline the function of a program. This is the first public discussion about DPS partnering with the DPS Foundation to pursue teacher workforce housing.
Vice Chair Chávez sought clarification of the $1-million proposal for teacher housing as it relates to the DPS Foundation, asking, “Is the proposal that [the DPS Foundation] are definitely our partner in this project or is it more a savings of that $1-million?” Dr. Mubenga answered that the $1-million will be for “saving purposes at this point” until a partner is identified, throwing into question if the DPS Foundation would be the guaranteed eventual recipient of the $1-million. He also mentioned that other community partners have been in discussion about teacher housing including Durham-based Self-Help Credit Union. Earlier Board comments in the meeting suggested that Mr. Sears was involved in meetings between Self-Help, DPS Board members and representatives from the DPS Foundation. It is unclear when exactly those discussions took place and which organization Mr. Sears represented in those meetings. Self-Help Credit Union has not responded to requests for comment about their discussions with DPS and/or the DPS Foundation.
Ms. Lewis pointed out that the DPS Foundation does not specialize in affordable housing and expressed an interest that DPS Administration pursue a Request for Proposals to publicly seek the “best opportunity to do this work,” noting that several affordable housing developers specialize in this work. She requested that the $1-million for teacher housing be separated from the DPS Foundation line item so that a partner could be identified later as opposed to pre-designating the DPS Foundation as the entity to work with. Ms. Lewis’s request was eventually brought forward as a motion to accept the Administration’s $18-million spending plan with a separation of the $1-million from the DPS Foundation line item. The motion passed unanimously.
Next steps for teacher housing?
DPS now has dedicated $1-million for teacher workforce housing to be used in a to-be-determined plan with a to-be-determined partner. Dr. Mubenga has committed to working on an MOU between DPS and the DPS Foundation to outline how the two entities could work together towards pursuing teacher workforce housing. That MOU will be brought before the Board for acceptance at a future meeting.
Additional Hillside High news
There is some extra weight and meaning this week to the Hillside High drama department’s production of the “State of Urgency,” a play written years ago by long-time Hillside drama instructor Wendell Tabb about gun violence. Shows are taking place this week for student audiences but open to the public this weekend for Friday, Saturday and Sunday showings. Tickets are available online in advance; shows are performed in the John H. Gattis-Wendell Tabb Theatre at Hillside High. Wendell Tabb and Durham County Sheriff Clarence Birkhead will be leading discussions on the issues raised following the performance.
Do you have a story lead or tip? Contact BCPI at BCPI.durham@gmail.com
