Pender County Board of Education approves amended agenda; hears updates on budget, calendar, policies and major purchases

The Pender County Board of Education’s Committee of the Whole approved the meeting agenda after a motion to remove agenda item 6.2, which concerned aligning pre-K with the elementary proposal. The board heard detailed reports on district finances and procurement, multiple policy revisions recommended for the March 11 consent agenda, draft calendars for the 2026–27 school year, a strategic-plan update and the district’s summer-learning program and partner camps.

The vote to amend and approve the agenda — “approve the agenda with the elimination of item 6.2, alignment of pre k to elementary proposal” — was made on the floor and approved by voice vote. The board then proceeded to briefings and discussion items, with no other final actions taken on policy or procurement items at that meeting.

Why it matters: The meeting covered several items that will return to the board for formal action, including requests to spend county-allocated funds on Chromebooks, a Microsoft licensing renewal, a server-cluster refresh, and multiple policy items that affect graduation credits, credit recovery and athletic eligibility. The calendar discussion included a superintendent recommendation to increase instructional days and shift work days to reduce semester imbalance — changes that, if adopted, would affect students, staff and community schedules districtwide.

Finance and budget highlights Miss Nowen, presenting the financial report, said the district is roughly 58% expended for the year and showed a PRC (program) balance at about 58.94% expended. She reported a discrepancy in reported kilowatt-hour figures between prior-year and current-year records and said staff will work with the vendor and accounts payable to resolve whether data was omitted or misfiled during a vendor change and re-upload process. “Sometimes it could be a technical issue,” she told the board.

Nowen said the state Department of Public Instruction changed financial software on its side and that transition has required local offices and vendors to rerun or revalidate transactions multiple times: “DPI changed the financial software on their side, which has really turned them upside down.” She said the district is working with the vendor Link to stabilize reporting and will return corrected figures when the issues are resolved.

On special revenue items, Nowen said a budget amendment is in the packet tied to a Head Start modular brand the district expects to receive; staff will budget those funds as the project begins. Board members had no further questions on the attorney-expense line.

Policies, dress-code survey and strategic plan Several policies were presented as recommended to move from second read to the March 11 consent agenda. The items included policy 3400 (credit recovery additions tied to state policy), 3400R, policy 3420 (career development plans required for promotion and new credit-recovery requirements), 3420R (removing English as a promotion requirement while retaining it as a graduation requirement), 3460 (graduation credit requirements) and 3621 (athletic eligibility revisions tied to credit-recovery changes). Staff recommended moving the items to consent with no substantive changes since the first read.

Staff also briefed the board on a two-track survey process for dress code revisions. The staff professional-attire survey had increased responses (presenter cited about 418 responses collected on Feb. 17 and one additional response since then) and staff recommended closing that survey; the student dress-code survey remains open to gather additional input. Presenters cautioned that items labeled “proposed solutions” in the packet reflect survey respondents’ suggestions and are not staff recommendations unless otherwise stated.

Strategic-plan leads reported progress on a plan framed around four priorities: high-quality staff, infrastructure for growth, academic excellence, and culture and belonging. Staff said they will provide vetted strategies and goals to the board for review by March 11, with public posting and a community review period to follow.

Calendar proposal and instructional-day data Superintendent Andre Breedlove led a lengthy discussion of the proposed 2026–27 calendar changes and why staff recommend increasing instructional days for elementary and middle grades. Breedlove said the district has seen long-term shifts in semester balance and cited historical testing and proficiency comparisons to argue for more instructional time in lower grades. “As superintendent, I have to look at all of our district, not just 1 group here or 1 group there,” Breedlove said, urging a calendar that increases instructional days and spaces work days to give teachers time for grading and parent conferences.

Staff summarized community and school-level feedback: priorities included minimizing disruption to high-school exam schedules, balancing instructional days between semesters, and scattering work days during the year rather than concentrating them only before or after school. The district expects to present draft calendars to the board on March 11, then circulate them to the community and return to the board in April for an adoption vote.

Instructional services and summer learning Staff presented the summer-learning plan required by the state of North Carolina. Remediation and retesting for students who did not pass EOGs or EOCs was scheduled immediately after the school year (May 27–June 4 at traditional schools); third-grade read-to-achieve sessions were scheduled for June 9–20; and high-school credit recovery will run June 9–20 via a virtual platform with teacher support through the Apex platform and in-building computer-lab access for students lacking devices or internet. Staff said some camps and partner programs will run at district schools, including Boys & Girls Club at South Topsail and other community-provider camps; a final district camp calendar will be shared when arrangements are finalized.

Operations, technology and K–8 construction Operations staff briefed the board on several procurement items that will return for formal action. Highlights: - Chromebook refresh: Pender County government authorized funding to purchase up to 2,000 student Chromebooks; the county allocated up to $700,000 for the purchase and bids are under evaluation. - Microsoft licensing: staff recommended a three-year Microsoft licensing renewal with a fiscal impact of $60,868.82 to be paid from state funds. - Data center/server refresh: current servers are six years old; staff proposed using $250,000 in state funds for a unified server-cluster refresh and said bids are pending. - K–8 design-build change orders and pay application: staff provided a package of multiple change orders (funding largely from the design-build allowance and some owner-contingency credits) and noted several scope clarifications, credits in landscaping, and a structural header revision above the gym. A recent pay application arrived without contractor or architect signatures; staff said they had not approved it and will review it with the project manager. Staff stated a pay-application amount in the packet (read aloud during the meeting) and indicated they will return it to the county finance office upon approval.

No final procurement approvals were taken at the Committee of the Whole; items will return on a future meeting agenda for action.

Votes at a glance - Agenda amendment: motion to approve the agenda with removal of item 6.2 (alignment of pre-K to the elementary proposal). Mover: Mister McPherson (motion made on the floor); second: not specified on the record. Outcome: approved by voice vote (ayes recorded).

Next steps and closing Most items presented were recommendations to move to the March 11 consent or action agendas or to return to the board after staff follow-up and public review. Staff promised to resolve billing and data issues with the energy reports and to circulate draft calendars and the finalized summer camp calendar before the next action meeting. The Committee adjourned following a motion to close the meeting.