Cassie Mount, representing Dare Early College, told the board the school has developed mission and vision statements and selected the ‘‘Mariners’’ mascot to reflect resilience and career pathways. Mount described student screening: untimed reading and math screeners at the beginning, middle and end of the year and a 30‑minute daily intervention block (called office hours) to support students who need extra help.

Commissioners praised the school team and asked about measures to track and remedy reading and math shortfalls; Mount said assessment screeners are already in use and that teachers are implementing targeted interventions.

Later in the meeting, Chief Financial Officer Matt explained a budget amendment tied to the early college that ‘‘creates the budget based on the final amortization table’’ now that county debt had been issued. Matt clarified that the early college debt-service payments are covered by the county’s restricted capital fund (sales-tax revenue streams noted in the transcript as article 40 and article 42 sales tax) and by lottery funds; he said the amendment does not draw on general operating funds.

A member of the public had asked whether the county was waiting on state funds to offset a $976,996 budget amendment; Matt and other county speakers confirmed the debt is funded through restricted sales-tax capital sources and is not contingent on a state budget appropriation.

The board unanimously adopted the budget amendments that included the early college debt-service accounting and related restorations for debris removal and disaster recovery funds.