By JONAH LOSSIAH
One Feather Reporter
CHEROKEE, N.C. – The Cherokee Central Schools (CCS) Board of Education hosted several guests at their meeting on Monday, April 3.
One of these was foreshadowed at the Board’s previous meeting, and that was new Tribal Council CPA David Forester. He was invited in to discuss the potential of investments towards the CCS Reserve Fund. First, he wished to clarify what the ultimate goal of the Board was.
Chairperson Jennifer Thompson explained that they know this is long-term vision, but the goal is to be self-sufficient. The hope is that CCS will be able to handle whatever happens down the line and won’t need to be as reliant on the Tribe for funding.
Forester explained that it would be difficult and take a significant effort. He explained what that kind of fund would look like. He said that they in order to fully rely on the fund as a budget they would need an annual 8 percent return on an account that holds around $500 million. The CCS Reserve Fund currently sits at about 3 percent of that ultimate number.
The Board and Forester agreed that a lesser goal was necessary for now, but that they would continue to work together to set goals. The next step for that partnership is to find the best way to make annual deposits to that account, and where that money is best to come from.
CCS Technology Director Carmen Davis also attended the meeting on Monday. She was there to update the Board on the protocol of IT at the school. She explained the Child Internet Protection Act to the Board and said that attending this meeting was part of the necessary aspects of policy. She was done with her discussion after about five minutes.
The final guest to the meeting was Donna Robertson, Cherokee Elementary School Assistant Principal. She and one of the Elementary School teachers were there to celebrate the Lexile growth of students at Cherokee Elementary School. Robertson said that CCS was recognized multiple times during the Bureau of Indian Education Leadership Conference that was hosted in March. The School Board applauded the pair and encouraged them to continue promoting academic excellence.
The rest of the agenda saw the Board debate a handful of topics. The first was whether to grant a staff member an FMLA extension, which passed. The next issue involved a student waiver request. A move to deny the waiver did not pass, and a motion to grant then waiver passed immediately following with votes being 3-2. Big Y Rep. Tara Reed-Cooper was not present at this meeting, but the Board still maintained a quorum to vote.
Several items on the agenda involved updated job descriptions, and couple of those included members of staff shifting to a new position. Due to this involving discussion of personnel, the Board opted to wait until their next meeting when they would have their third-party attorney present. Birdtown Rep. Melanie Lambert suggested that the Board could discuss these issues and stated that the Board had gone into closed sessions without their attorney before. After a short debate, the Board maintained the decision to wait.
Spring break was another major priority of discussion. Reed-Cooper, knowing she would be unable to attend, asked that the Board have a conversation about the possibility to feeding children in need over spring break. They discussed installing something similar to what CCS did during the COVID-19 pandemic, where people would come pick up food and some meals would be delivered.
The Board went over several options but did not make any absolute decisions. They discussed all the problems involved with installing such a program. For starters, CCS spring break was slated for the following week, starting on April 10. They knew that would be too quick of turnaround. There was also staffing and funding issues that would take some time to figure out. The Board agreed that they want to do whatever they can to take care of their students, and that they find the most reasonable options given the limitations.
Big Cove Rep. Berdie Toineeta brought forth a concern from a community member also involving spring break. She said that the person they spoke to was concerned about students missing too many days of school to play in the NAYO tournament in New York. NAYO was scheduled for that week of school, and so students would be missing multiple days of school right before spring break. The requester had asked if spring could be moved to accommodate NAYO. The timing of the events was again too soon to do anything about it this year, but the Board said they would consider it moving forward.
This also sparked a second question around NAYO. Several Board members were curious if NAYO was considered ‘cultural’, and therefore students would be granted excused absences. The Board was not entirely certain of the current policy but seemed interested in allowing for that change if needed. The Board members said they would address the matter once they looked up that particular part of the policy. No amendments were made during the meeting.
The Board unanimously passed the consent agenda after amending it to remove two items for further discussion. The amended consent agenda put forth the following:
- Elijah Littlejohn is approved as a Substitute Teacher for Cherokee Central School.
- Morgan Riddle is approved as the Elementary Teacher for Cherokee Elementary School.
- Hannah Lunsford is approved as the Elementary Teacher for Cherokee Elementary School.
- Jocelyn Flake is approved as the Elementary Teacher for Cherokee Elementary School.
- Denise Lacey is approved as the Elementary Teacher for Cherokee Elementary School.
The Monday, April 3 meeting of the CCS Board of Education was called to order at 4:45 p.m. with Chairperson Jennifer Thompson; Co-Vice Chair Melanie Lambert; Secretary Kristina Hyatt; Board members Berdie Toineeta and Regina Ledford Rosario; Tribal Council Rep. T.W. Saunooke; Interim Superintendent Beverley Payne; HR Director Jo Ray; and Administrative Assistant Diane Driver all in attendance. Co-Vice Chair Tara Reed-Cooper was absent for the meeting.
The next meeting of the CCS Board of Education is set for Monday, April 17 at 4:45 p.m. Meetings are being held in the Administrative Offices at Cherokee Central Schools. These meetings are open to the public unless there is a call for an executive session.
