Wake County Board of Education approves lawsuit against Juul

The decision, approved without dissent by the Wake County Board of Education, follows a $40 million settlement between the Juul Labs and the State of North Carolina last month. That settlement was the first out of several state lawsuits active against the company.

So the board would not be out money if the lawsuit is unsuccessful.

The district will retain Ward Black Law in Greensboro; Schochor, Federico and Staton, P.A., of Baltimore; and Walkup, Melodia, Kelly & Schoenberger of San Francisco working with Baron & Budd of Washington, D.C.

Board Member Chris Heagarty called the lawsuit a “real action” that would have a more sustainable impact than small actions the district has taken so far.

“While we make progress, it’s tough going up against something that big,” Heagarty said.

Heagarty said the top complaint he’s heard from high school parents since he was started serving on the board in 2018, is vaping in schools.

One cartridge of JUUL contains far higher amounts of nicotine than a cigarette. Nicotine is the addictive substance in cigarettes. The CDC contends nicotine can harm adolescent brain development.

New instructional assistants in the Wake County Public School System will get up to a $1,200 signing bonus.

The bonus is part of an effort to hire more instructional assistants, which the district is particularly short on as the school year approaches. The district has a more than 11% vacancy rate.

Board members expressed frustration Tuesday that instructional assistants are underpaid already and that the bonus would benefit only new hires.

Instructional assistants, also known as paraeducators, help teachers with classroom management and serve and play a supportive role in ensuring students’ special education needs are met.

On a 10-month contract, a beginning, noncertified instructional assistant would earn $20,450.80 in a year.

“To get to $15 an hour as an instructional assistant, you have to work for Wake County for 20 years,” board member Karen Carter emphasized Tuesday. Carter voted in favor, asking district staff to come up with a plan to increase their pay.

“I’m hoping this will help fill those positions and look forward to see those pay increases,” Carter said.

Board Member Jim Martin said he doesn’t normally favor bonuses as a means of solving a recruitment issue but noted the low pay of instructional assistants before he ultimately voted in favor of the bonus.

“I do recognize that we have a critical ned and that it is a tool to address that need.”

On Tuesday, the district reported a 97% fill rate for classroom positions but highlighted some shortages, including instructional assistants.

The district has hired more than 80% of teachers needed for virtual academy at the elementary and middle schools levels but needs to hire a few dozen more, including as many as 30 for new teaching positions created for virtual academy. The district is hosting a virtual information session Wednesday night for prospective teachers.

The Wake County Board of Education approved Tuesday the district’s new mental health improvement plan, outlining the district’s goals for increasing mental health services, training and awareness in schools and the community.

The Wake County Public School System intends to have wellness and self-care events and suicide awareness training for more employees “as needed,” according to the plan approved without dissent Tuesday.

Session Law 2020-7 requires mental health plans of all public school districts and public charter schools. Those plans must include a suicide risk referral protocol and a mental health training program, among other things.

On Tuesday, some community members urged the board to include the federal Youth Risk Behavior Survey in school mental health planning.

The survey, which not all students may complete, measures , among other things, students who have engaged in certain activities, such as substance abuse or sex, or who have been victims of assault.

The board did not adopt a plan that included that survey, though members briefly discussed how to improve it.

Board member Heather Scott suggested the district direct more students to mental health resources through advertising, such as posters in bathrooms.

The Wake County Board of Education has approved a new memorandum of understanding with three towns for staffing school resource officers at district schools.

The agreements run through June 30. They’re with Apex for four officers, Cary for five officers and Garner for five officers.

The officer positions aren’t new, but the district signs new agreements each year and recently updated the agreement to more specifically spell out when school-resource officers should intervene in student conduct issues.

Much of the opposition to the district’s school resource officer program sought an end to the program entirely, rather than a modified agreement.

Critics contend school resource officer programs reflect racial bias in the criminal justice system and school discipline practices.

In recent years, the proportion of juvenile crimes tied to schools has dropped, although Black students are still disproportionately represented among those referrals.

The Southern Coalition for Social Justice issued a report earlier this year on racial equity across North Carolina and each of its 115 traditional public school districts. The group found that 29.9% of the state’s juvenile delinquency referrals originated from school incidents last year, although schools were remote-only learning for part of the year. It was about 16.8% in Wake County. But in Wake County, Black students were 7.3 times more likely to receive a short-term suspension as white students, compared to 3.9 times as likely statewide.

The Wake County Public School System 75 school resource officers, including at least one school-resource officer at every high school.

The program costs nearly $12.5 million annually, with most of that paid by the municipalities in which the schools are located. The municipalities contribute about $11.3 million, and the school district contributes $1.1 million, with most of that coming from state discretionary funds.