Board approves 2025‑26 proposed budget, AIG and digital learning plans, career curriculum purchase, HVAC work and multiple student trips; appoints new board‑era

The Davidson County Board of Education took a string of approvals and administrative actions on May 5, 2025, including a new board appointment and districtwide plans and purchases.

The board appointed Tricia Garner to fill a vacant seat and administered the oath of office during the public meeting. The board then approved several staff proposals and operational requests during a meeting that included public comment and routine consent items.

Advanced learning (AIG) plan District AIG coordinator Pam Cutshaw presented the proposed Advanced Learning Plan for 2025–2028. Cutshaw said the plan documents identification pathways, differentiated programming, and professional development for academically and intellectually gifted students; it reported 2,183 identified AIG students, or 12.49% of district enrollment, and listed $1,078,883 in state AIG funds with about 90% allocated for personnel. The board voted to approve the plan and the district will submit it to the state for review. "This plan ensures equity, rigorous, and student‑responsive gifted education," Cutshaw said.

District digital learning plan Sue Tobin, the district’s Director of Instructional Technology and Media, presented the district’s first digital learning plan, outlining five strands: leadership and vision; human capacity; curriculum, instruction and assessment; data privacy and cybersecurity; and technology infrastructure and devices. Key proposals include expanding instructional‑technology staffing, creating an AI/dashboard for instructional monitoring, a sustainability plan for device refresh, and a proposed local digital‑literacy CEU requirement for staff. The board approved the plan to move into implementation.

High‑school career exploration platform (iCEV) The board approved a $52,000 purchase of the iCEV high‑school career exploration platform (ICEV Multimedia LLC), funded by the state CTE modernization grant (PRC 23). The district said the platform offers over 200 courses across 16 career clusters, 18 industry certifications, reporting features and can operate as a stand‑alone learning management system. Administrators said the district will monitor usage and certification outcomes; board members asked staff to provide follow‑up detail about licensing limits and seat allocations.

2025–26 proposed budget Finance staff (Ms. Crawford) presented a proposed 2025–26 budget built on estimated state and local allotments. Key planning assumptions included a 4% salary increase, a 2% retirement increase, an increase in employer health insurance contributions (presented as an increase from about $8,095 to $9,000 per employee), and a certified‑staff supplement change from 6.125% to 6.75% (presented as an additional compensation cost in the hundreds of thousands of dollars). The district reported an ADM (average daily membership) of 17,732 for state planning allotments and noted that federal ESSER funding has ended. Ms. Crawford noted that Davidson County’s per‑pupil expenditure ranking on DPI reports placed the district near the bottom of North Carolina districts (115 of 115 in the cited DPI table). The board voted to approve the budget resolution to forward to the county commissioners and to return for final approval later in June.

Student‑travel and extracurricular approvals The board approved multiple student travel and summer camp requests (various high schools) including: East Davidson SkillsUSA national conference (Atlanta, two students), East Davidson volleyball and cheer camps (N.C. State), Ledford High School wrestling camp (Brevard HS) and men’s soccer camp (UNCG), Oak Grove cheer and wrestling camps (N.C. State and Gardner‑Webb), and other school camps. Several coaches and program staff described security, chaperone and dorm arrangements during their presentations.

HVAC project at North Davidson High School The North Davidson Athletic Booster Club agreed to fund an initial portion of an HVAC installation to add cooling to the commons area, weight room and ultimately the gym. The district’s project bid for full gym/commons/weight‑room work totaled about $1.15 million; the boosters asked to pay an initial $68,300 portion to start the commons/weight‑room tie‑in. The board approved accepting booster funds and moving forward with the work.

Other items and next steps Board members and administrators thanked presenting staff and community members. Staff said follow‑up materials requested by board members (for example, detailed ICEV licensing and student‑seat counts) would be provided in the board bulletin. Several agenda items that required routine board approval—including the AIG plan, digital learning plan, the ICEV purchase and the proposed budget—were approved by voice vote without recorded roll‑call tallies in the transcript.

Appointments and oaths Tricia Garner took the oath of office during the meeting after a motion to appoint her passed. Board members welcomed Garner and described the appointment as unanimous.

No recorded votes failed during the meeting. Several items discussed during the meeting drew public comment (notably the North Davidson agriculture staffing concern described separately in this report).