SCPS School Board Meeting 12/11/2025

001to call tonight's meeting to order of the Shando County School Board, December 11, 2025. [snorts] Before we get started, uh, one obvious note, Chairman Barlo is not here at the moment. He's currently, uh, the school board representative for a legal matter, so we hope that he'll be joining us as soon as possible. And with that out of the way, um, Dr. Mr. Shepard, can I get a recommendation for close session? >> Certainly. I recommend the school board of Shannidoa County convene a closed meeting under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act in order to discuss and consider several personnel matters involving the assignment, appointment, promotion, performance, demotion, salary, discipline, or resignation of several employees of the Shannidoa County Public Schools under Virginia Code 2.2-3711A14. 3711A14 and to have a briefing by staff members or consultants pertaining

002to actual or probable litigation where such consultation or briefing and open meeting would adversely affect the negotiating or litigating posture of Shannidoa County Public Schools under Virginia Code 2.2-3711A7. >> Thank you. Is there a motion to that effect? I move that the Shannidor County School Board convene a closed meeting under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act in order to discuss and consider several personnel matters involving the assignment, appointment, promotion, performance, demotion, salary, discipline, or resignation of several employees of Shannon County Public Schools under Virginia Code 2.23711 2 3711 parenthesis A1 and4 and to have a briefing by staff members or consultants pertaining to actual or probable litigation where such consultation or briefing and open meeting would adversely affect the negotiation and of uh or litigating posture to Shannonville County Public Schools under Virginia Code 2.23711

003parenthesis A and 7. >> Thank you Mr. Vance. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Have a second from Miss Carenio. All those in favor of entering close session, please signify by saying I. >> I. >> Any opposed? All right. The motion to enter close session passes by five nothing vote and we hope to be back by 6 o' Again, I just want to let you know we appreciate your patience. Um, we were talking about things that are extremely important. We weren't packing their talking about Christmas presents or things. So, uh, we appreciate your patience and apologize for that, but, uh, believe me, it was it was important. So, I I know you'll understand. Um, I'd like to, um, reconvene in open session. Um, so, uh, can I have a motion to do exactly that?

004>> I move to reconvene in open session. >> Thank you, Mr. Kaw. Second. >> Second, Mr. Rickard. All in favor, please say I. >> I. Any eyes have it? All right, let me uh read the following statement about our closed meeting and its certification. The Shannidoa County School Board hereby certifies by roll call vote that to the best of each member's knowledge. Only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements by Virginia law were discussed in the closed meeting to which this certification resolution applies. All such public business matters as were identified in the motion convenient to close meeting were heard, discussed or considered by the Shannondoa County School Board. Each member responds as of certified when called. Sher, would you call the role please? >> Mr. I so certify >> Miss Caria. >>

005I so certify >> Mr. Baw. >> I so certify >> Mr. Bay. >> I so certify. >> Mr. Rickard. >> I so certify. >> Mr. Garlet. >> I so certify. Uh this evening um Mr. Rickert is going to uh bring the invocation. I guess you're going to pray, right? And then uh lead us in the pledge of allegiance. >> Yes, sir. I'd like to invite my pastor from my my church forward to give the invocation. I face you all the [laughter] >> whatever's comfortable for you. >> Let's pray. Heavenly Father, in the mighty and matchless name of Jesus, we come to you tonight and we thank you for this opportunity to invite you into these affairs. I ask you, Father, that you would give us eyes to see and ears to hear your counsel concerning

006everything. We pray, Lord, that you would give us eyes to see and ears to hear the counsel of the adversary. Reveal any hidden agendas. Keep our minds and our hearts on the right thing, the kids, the teachers, and the staff. We ask you Lord that you would lead us, guide us and direct us in all that we do and say here tonight so that when we leave this place we will say to God be the glory. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. >> Amen. >> [clears throat] >> Pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. We have uh the [clears throat] agenda items u as of last week. So uh we should be

007uh familiar. Do I have a motion to um approve the agenda as it has been developed? >> Move to approve the agenda as presented. >> Thank you Mr. Rickard for that. Um and a second please >> Second by Mr. Carinio. Uh all in favor please indicate by saying I. >> I. >> Any opposed? None opposed. Thank you. And now the fun of the evening recognitions. >> It's my favorite time of the school board meeting. So Miss Barrett, would you like to come forward and talk about your athletic trainer? Uh, ladies and gentlemen of the board, I would like to thank you for having us here tonight and recognizing the success of both students and staff. Tonight, um, I'd like to introduce to you Miss McKenzie Enterline, our athletic trainer. Um, she has been recognized as

008the 2026 VATA's Veto Pelloo Secondary School's athletic trainer of the year. So in the entire state, she is the chosen recipient. Um great accomplishment. She's being honored and recognized for her service and contribution to the profession of athletic training. Um and Central, we're so fortunate to have her as athletic trainer and she's always going above and beyond for students. Um at Central, there is many students here tonight to support her as well as students um collegiately. They come um and work with her throughout the entire year. Um so she has a lot of knowledge and we are very grateful. We're very proud of her. Um and without a doubt she deserves this honor and um our athletic director um Carrie Keys is going to speak as well. >> Just a few things that makes her

009special to me. um my first year as AD and two occasions already this season, one in football and one during basketball, we've had student athletes have their kneecap completely popped out and hanging on the side of their leg and she just without any issues at all. Just got them fixed up really quickly. Um never panicked um and did a tremendous job. Um so we see that type of thing every day. Uh but what really makes her special um is how she builds relationships uh with our student athletes. We probably have a dozen of our student athletes back here to uh to support her as well. But anytime you go by her office, they're in there. She does her um athletic trainer club. Um and it's just a lot of participation with that. So truly, I

010think that's what makes her special. Um and she deserves this um tremendously. >> Absolutely. >> Thank you. [applause] MR. Ke [clears throat] Mr. Stonewall Jackson High School. He has a few recognitions this evening. [clears throat] >> Good evening board, Chairman Barlo, Dr. Shepard. Also, I want to uh thank Chairman Barlo and uh Mr. Gutel for your service over the years and support um from the Southern campus. It's been tremendous and we appreciate all of that. Um, tonight I have the pleasure um of introducing um some of our FFA students in the forestry contest that they competed in at the um state fair and one of our FFA um adviserss, Mr. Dylan Dawson, will speak a little bit more to that. >> Hello. Thank you all for having us here tonight. Uh it is my pleasure

011to introduce these fine young men over here. I'm going to start off with our senior right here, Mr. Darren Kibler. Uh he's my right-hand man in FFA. Uh he was so good at state fair last year and did the won the tractors operators that this year he decided to go and win the small engine. So I'm very proud of him and wish him nothing but the best in his future endeavors. Uh over here in the orange we have our forestry field day team. Uh we have Kade Belellier, we have Penn Walkinson, Justin Green, and Luke Eastep. They finished third overall in the state this year. And of course your field day competition which includes water accuracy, log throw, log throw, twoman saw or the cross cut saw and the bow saw. So we put them

012on a strict dietary and weightlifting regimen so that next year we're going to bring home first place. That's the goal. So we got third this year. We're going to get first next year. So thank you all for having us. >> Thank you. [applause] CONGRATULATIONS. >> [clears throat] >> You're welcome. [laughter] >> We have multiple. >> All right. Next, I have the opportunity to introduce our boys cross country team. Um, they meddle at the they finished third in the state um race this year and we also have Marcus Bully who was a medalist for the first time in a long time and I have coach Clanahan here um to speak a little bit more on their successes this year. Goals. You guys set goals for us as educators and coaches. While these young men set a

013goal a year ago, they placed fifth. This year they placed third, but not only did they place goals uh for that, they've set a goal to finish um at least medal or place in every meet they um attended and they did that. They meddled or won. They were uh district champions. They were um regional champions and finished third at the state meet. Um and they had medalist in every single invitational they went to and that is something they are brothers and I and could not be prouder but the biggest thing I want to talk about is they are students first their overall GPA combined is a three 3.7 combined there's 20ome young men standing there and you take their average GPA together it's a 3.7 >> and that it is an outstanding and I couldn't

014be prouder of them being students first and that if they have to miss it's because of academics first they are students first and then they are athletes but we will take them anywhere and they are already goal set for next year but gentlemen I'm very proud of you coach Martin where are you at coach Martin's over there he's uh Daniel stepped up. Uh Daniel had to be on paternity leave our first month. So we have a new addition to our family, a little girl, [laughter] but uh Marcus Bolley was our uh team leader. Marcus is hiding back there, but uh he did he is our first uh gentleman to hit the podium since 1991. So it's been a long dry run for us, but we will take it and keep running with it. and and

015why I'm standing up here. Rams Glenbar is was tough on us back in um November. And I'm going to say this, give them heck on Saturday. I was being a very light gent lady lady, but give the one hard heck for us. Don't let them be like, "Let's go. [applause] stand up. >> We can see [clears throat] it. [clears throat] >> Thank you, Mr. Lennox. >> [snorts] >> Miss Fols from Strawsburg High School. [clears throat] Whatever you want, Mr. Fischer, you're in charge. Chairman Barlo, Dr. Shepard, members of the board. It's always a pleasure to come before you to recognize um our students at Strawlesburg High School and their accomplishments as well as our coaches and adviserss. I'd first like to um call Mr. Brian Fischer, FFA adviser and agriculture teacher to the podium to

016recognize um an outstanding team that we have here at Strawsburg High School. >> Thank you. Good evening, Dr. Shepard, Mr. Chairman, members of the board. We came to recognize three of our soil judging teams uh from Charlesburg High School. Uh on Tuesday, November 4th, we traveled to Broadway High School to compete in the Virginia Soils and Land Judging Contest. For this contest, students must determine soil factors such as texture, color, permeability, calculate slope, and erosion. Once they've made these determinations, they have to evaluate what the land is best suited for, such as septic tanks, building foundations, or agricultural use. Each member must evaluate four soil pits and and field designations. All three scores um from the team u make up the total score and then students can place individually and overall as a team. Before

017I talk about the kids, I'd like to recognize Mr. Steven White. Mr. White, will you stand up? Mr. White has helped me for the past four years um coaching the soils team. Uh without his uh knowledge and hard work, we're we these kids wouldn't be where they were. uh we've gone from having state winners to now we've been national winners and placing uh individually nationally and and you'll see here in a second uh win three state winning teams this year. So we really appreciate all the work that Mr. White does for this school and these students. So for the junior FFA team, we only had one student that could make it tonight. Um but they placed first in the junior contest out of seven teams. Um McKenzie Wymer, she's not here. She placed she was

018third high individual. Allison Moxley was second high individual and Sierra Stinger who is also not here. She's at basketball game. She was high individual overall. [snorts] So on my right the 4H team they placed first overall and they get to compete. They will move on to the national contest in Oklahoma in May. Uh Carson Stern was fourth high individual. Dalton Morris third high individual. William Welch, second high individual. And then Gavin Top Gun Glenn, it was a high individual. And then the last we've got on this side is our FFA, senior FFA team who also placed first um and qualified for the national contest. Gatlin Stroen, the tallest one there. He was 12th high individual. Mia was seventh high individual. Piper was second high individual. and Olivia um she was high individual overall. So I

019I do want to thank you all for your support as well as Miss Folultz. Um she's a tremendous support at our school and she's she's the reason that we get to do all this stuff and work with these great kids and um put them in hopefully put them in agricultural careers eventually. So thank you very much. [applause] Miss Hopkins from Triplet Tech. >> Dr. Shepard, I actually have a few more recognitions if you don't mind. >> Not at all. >> [laughter] >> At this time, I would like to call our head coach of cross country, Miss Britney Cover, to come forward to recognize our girls cross country team as well as um a boy, a young man who um finished in the top of uh the cross country meet at the states as well. >>

020Hello. Good evening. Um tonight I'm here to present the top seven athletes from the Strawsburg High School girls varsity cross country team. Um many of our athletes are extending their talents into winter sports teams and so they could not be here tonight because they are either practicing or they are playing basketball right now. Um so for the girls cross country team um I have Pip I do have Piper Dinger. Um Emily Guerell, Hannah Logan, Addison Jones, Kyra Gordon, Emily Ham, and Bailey Walker as well as one of the members of our boys varsity cross country team, Connor Nicholson, who is also playing basketball tonight. This year the girls varsity cross country team were the Shannidoa County Champions full run district runner up and placed third in the region 2B meet. We actually tied with Fort

021Defiance and had to go to our sixth runner uh to go to tiebreaker which doesn't happen quite as often as you would think. Uh this qualified the team for the VHSL class 2 championship meet on November 8th where the team placed fifth overall. Sophomore Piper Dinger uh was Shannidoa County female runner of the year will run district female runner of the year. Uh region 2B female runner up and placed sixth place overall at the VHSL class 2 state championship, earning her all state recognition. For the boys varsity cross country team, freshman Connor Nicholson received all bull run district recognition, placing eighth at the bull run district meet, all region 2B recognition, placing fifth at the region 2B meet, which also placed him in the top individual runners advancing to the VHSL class 2 state championship.

022There he placed 12th overall, making him a state medal list. And that's my team. THANKS, [applause] Thank you. At this time, I would like to recognize our competition cheer team. Um, our competition cheer team finished as the Bullr Run district and the region 2B champions. Um, they also finished as in third place at the 2025 VHSL class one and class 2 state competition. Um, finishing with district uh first team district, we have Mackenzie Jenkins. She was also the Bull Run District cheerleader of the year. McKenzie. Uh, also receiving first team district honors, Elizabeth Celock and Elizabeth Kadel. Receiving second team all district honors, Al Alexis Bevvens, Olivia Fischer, and Alyssa Lman. And then finishing with all region cheer recognition, first team McKenzie Jenkins. Again, she was the region 2B cheerleader of the year. Um, [snorts]

023Elizabeth Seelock was first team and Olivia Fiser and receiving second team all region cheer recognition, Alexis Bevvens, Elizabeth Kadel, and Alyssa Lambman. And they we are still waiting for our off state recognition. I'd like to recognize head coach Beth Machesny and assistant coaches Alison Varley and Marissa Varley. And they're just going to recognize the cheer members that we have with us this evening because not all could be with us. Okay, so we have Olivia Fischer, Mackenzie Jenkins, Alyssa Landman, Elizabeth Kadel, Riley Robinson, and Gabby Reinhardt. >> Congratulations, GIRLS. [applause] >> [clears throat] >> Thank you, Miss Holtz. >> Thank you. And now, Miss Hopkins from Triple Tech. >> Clearing up the house. >> Good evening, Dr. Shepard and the members of the school board. I'm proud to share that triple tech students competed in the

024Skills USA state fair championship on September 30th just outside of Richmond. And several of our students achieved outstanding results in their respective trade areas. In carpentry, represented by Dean Schlick and Noah Barnett, both students demonstrated exceptional craftsmanship, attention to detail, and problem solving skills to build a gorgeous stool that we all had to fight over to take home. actually um their success also reflects the guidance and the expertise of their instructor Mr. Philip Gman [clears throat] uh unfortunately our auto body teacher and student couldn't be here but um Jaden Pangle received first place in his competition um in collision repair and refinishing industry and his preparation and growth have been supported by his instructor Mr. program. And we do have Darren Kibler with us just racking up the awards. Um he participated in the electrical

025construction wiring competition which is a highly demanding event requiring accuracy, safety knowledge and advanced electrical wiring competencies and his achievement highlights the instruction and support of Mr. Davin Stevens who wasn't able to be with us. So, um I was able to go with the students um to the Skills USA competition and I really do feel like I was the real winner because on the way home I got to drive a van full of HVAC boys and the number of times I heard 67 is too high to count. So, um it was actually a really cool experience to watch, um a lot of our students get to demonstrate what they've been practicing all semester, um and all year. Um and we really swept a ton of categories. This is just a small representation, but we brought

026home a lot of awards. And so Triplette Tech is a program and a school to be feared at competitions because we really we uh sweep those categories. So we're very proud of them. [applause] And finally, I would like to recognize the service of two school board members who will be going off the board here December 31st. Um, Mr. Kataw and Mr. Miss Barlo, Mr. Gutshaws uh was a school board member from January 1st um 2022 through December 31st, 2025. He will be working with us in a different capacity as a board of supervisor. So congratulations with that. And he was school board vice chairman from January 2nd, 2024th through December 31st, 2025. And then Mr. Dennis Barlo. Um, thank you for your service and we're looking forward to your participating in um the the school

027community as a volunteer um for the next many years. Uh he uh served on the school board also from January 1st of 2022 through December 31st of 2025. He was a school board vice chair from January 3rd, 2022 to December 31st, 2023. and then the schoolboard chair from December uh from January 2nd, 2024 through December 31st, 2025. So, thank you both for your service and we have a small gift as a token of our appreciation [applause] speech. >> [laughter] >> It's a Robert's rules book. [laughter] >> Thank you. >> Get your picture with >> Would you guys like a photo? >> Where's the picture person? [clears throat] >> [laughter] >> between two roses >> commercial. Really? >> Is that the first time? >> I think so. >> Yeah. >> I assume that um you as

028I will have something to say during schoolboard member comments. So the >> Yes. >> Crowd will even be smaller at that point. >> Yeah. >> Hang in there, Cub. [laughter] >> Your only hope. >> I'm told that u we don't have any speakers who signed up yet. Is that correct? Wow. I thought you were going to say one, but you give me a thumbs up. [laughter] >> Thank you. >> I'll have to read that long. This Never mind. >> That's good. >> But those are the good recognitions. >> I mean, those those kids are amazing. As with the uh agenda items, there have been a number of consent items that uh have been made available to us. And uh wonder if we can get a motion to approve those consent agenda items. >> Move to

029approve the consent agenda items as presented. >> Thank you, Mr. Ricker. Second. >> Second. [clears throat] >> Second by Mr. Carinio. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. >> I. >> Any opposed? None opposed. And so we're moving into the instructional agenda. And um Jen, I was looking for you. There you are. Okay, good. >> I saw that timer pop up. Does that mean I only have three minutes? [laughter] >> We'll give you six. Okay. Uh, good evening, Chairman Barlo, board members, Dr. Shepard. Um, this evening we have a video that we would like to share with you. As we've been, um, working through this semester, we've been trying to highlight some of our schools and the work that they've been doing. Um, if you remember a couple months ago, uh, Miss Stone

030came and presented about some of the work that she's doing at Ashby Lee. And so today, we would like to highlight some of the work that Dr. Nunan is doing at North Fork. Um this initiative started out with the thought process that we would be able to use some of the highlights and some of the leadership that Dr. Nunan has been working on uh as a resource for some of our other administrators in the division or any new administrators that might be coming down the pike. Um but as we started on this journey with uh Dr. afternoon in um we realized real quickly that um there was a lot to highlight and so it ended up turning into three videos but this evening we have the first video that we would like to share with

031you and it really does coincide with the efforts that we are making in the instructional department um with the tiers of support that we're offering to our schools and the things that she's doing. Um Dr. Nan has worked over the last several years on visible learning. She's gotten several more grants over the years and has really put a lot of effort and work into it with her staff and she's to be commended for all of that work. Uh she did come this evening so that uh if you have any questions we can um ask her after the video. But I think that we're ready to watch the video now. That's why at North Fork Middle School in Chandela County, Virginia. [music] So thinking back to the journey of when I first came here as principal

032to where we've been now, it has been it has been a long journey because this is going on year eight of being principal at Northport. Wherever you start out, you're not stuck there, right? It's about putting it putting the work in, having the drive to see it grow slowly but steadily because I've told people I've seen conferences and gone to conferences with these turnout these principles that are like turnaround principles turnout schools and they come to to school and you know it's it's school improvement in a year you know it's a turnaround school that's not me I am methodical and analytical and I can't I'm not quick like that it'd be nice if I was but I knew it was going to be a journey but that to me is the fun and the joy

033of it and to know that you as long because you're making progress and sometimes there are setbacks but you don't have to go from point A to point Z. You can go from point A to point C to point F and keep going in the right direction. So we are generals and we're our mission is to be a fivestar general. And the way that we kind of tell the story around that is that there are three main stars in the middle that represent general pride, general drive, and general voice. And when we think about uh you know generals in the army is how we relate those things that they have pride over their troops. They have pride of each other that they keep things looking nice and tidy and that's how we want in our

034school. We want to be taking care of each other, taking care of ourselves and taking care of our building. Generals are obviously motivated and driven. General drive is about having that [laughter] academic motivation and persistence and perseverance. And generals are leaders and they use their voice. And general voice is all about using your own voice to make a positive difference in the community. And then the two stars on the end are supposed to represent self- selected characteristics that you want to work on or you want to better yourself in. And we've had those those three uh general drive, pride, and voice for years. But when we started to work towards becoming a visible learning school, in one of our workshops, we were working as a staff to develop learning dispositions for our school. So these

035are going to be agreed upon attitudes or behaviors that all learners in the school that we wanted to promote and cultivate. and we worked with staff and sorted through a whole bunch and did the gallery walk, put stars on which ones that we liked best. And then from there we worked with the instructional leadership team and kind of started to narrow it down and what match with what we were already doing and and it in the end result came up with we actually originally started with five dispositions. But as we started to think about it and work through it we narrowed those five down to three that tied back to general pride, drive and voice. So our attitudes are or behaviors about learning these dispositions are cooperation, working together to towards a common goal, which

036ties back to general pride, perseverance, we keep going even when it's tough or difficult, which ties back to general drive, and taking ownership of your of your learning, being in charge of your own learning journey, which ties back to general voice. I think the number one ultimate way that you get It is by modeling every day day in and day out. You you are constantly modeling the things that you say or the things that you say that you want to see. Um and that is extremely important. uh but I think it is very important to get the mind of the staff and another way to do that is to have those teacher leaders that that see the vision, believe in the vision and can be the ones to also kind of rally the troops because

037we we want to have credibilities as leaders and of course that's necessary but there's a level of credibility that I can ever have because I'm not day in and day out in the classroom 90 minutes three course a day a day that a teacher leader who truly believes in their vision has that credibility and then could help gather that buy in but it can't stop there I've always believed that it's like why do we post learning intentions and why do we communicate those to our students because it shouldn't be a secret from them like what we how success should look like for them shouldn't be a secret. So the vision and the mission also shouldn't be a secret from them. So they should be just as much a part of what we're building and what

038we talk about on a daily basis. Which is why we have positive referrals that reinforce general pride, drive, and voice. Which is why we have stance that have cooperation, perseverance, and taking ownership that when we notice the thing, which is why when we do walkthroughs, we're asking them about uh their learning intention six. We're asking them about learning dispositions because it's a vision for everybody. Not just for community members, not just for the division and the teachers, but ultimately we're all here for the students anyway. So our mission is their mission and our vision is their vision. >> [music] >> At the heart of this learning is really that we get our learners to a level where where we as teachers are seeing learning through the eyes of our students and our students are seeing

039themselves. elves as their own teachers and able to teach others. There is a ton that goes with and into visible learning. But what we've really focused on um for visible learning for for our school, we emphasize three characteristics that visible learners know what, why, and how they're learning. They know what their learning intentions are and they know their success criteria that they're using their success criteria to monitor their own progress. So they can they can talk about this is where I'm at in relation to the success criteria. These are what my next steps are. And then that they can also use the success criteria to seek feedback. So if I'm stuck right here, is it because I just haven't progressed enough or is it because u I've hit a barrier and I can go to

040the teacher and ask for spec specific feedback. And then lastly, that they can be their own teachers and teach others where they have ultimate ownership of their own learning journey to the point where they can take it to the next level. >> [music] >> Everything that we do throughout the year, every faculty meeting, every uh impact snapshot, which is a little instructional newsletter that I send out every Sunday, every walk through instructional rounds, which is completely teacher led and facilitated, all of those tie back to those core things that we're working towards and we want to and grade level meetings, planning meetings every week. Those conversations are coming coming back up so that it's not just here, this is it, and here's compliance and go and write it on your board and you have your

041learning intention and success criteria. Good job. Great. Like every week we will pull a random student from every teacher's classroom and we'll ask them questions about their learning. So the teach so it's not evaluative of what the teacher is doing but it's giving us information and data and saying this is what when we ask our students what are you learning today in class this is what we're saying when we ask them how could you use your success criteria to uh to help you in your learning this is what they're saying and so the teachers are getting this information individually but then every week I compile a spreadsheet without teacher names that that shows is how we have how students have responded with those that summarizes what our strengths are, what our weaknesses are, and kind

042of what the game plan's going to be. And then when we're meeting at grade level planning meetings, we're also going back to that and saying, so what's the next step? What are you thinking? What are you thinking? And that's how it becomes that's how it lives. It lives every day, all year. Um it's just like how we we spiral in the classroom. I say, you know, I swallow every day, every minute of every day. [music] I I sometimes have to step back and and number one remind myself of the progress that we made. And I have this image in my head of this of this chart that we've used um for several years now showing every single year. every single year over the last seven years, we have made um steady progress in our comparative

043student achievement gains. And and so while yes, there are going to be setbacks um and that's okay and that's okay. But as long as we are as we are reflecting on those and also we don't get too down on ourselves where we get in a hole. And one of our things we we've talked about now for a couple years is one of my favorite phrases. We talk about how we need to get the students to trip over their success. We need to get them to see frequent and small wins so that they can build on that. Which what we're really talking about is mastery experiences. And as a leader, it's my job to make sure that that I am making visible the mastery experiences that I'm seeing in the teachers and that we're seeing across

044the board and that we're seeing the students so that we can use those to fuel us forward even when sometimes we were faced with setbacks. Okay. So simple steps for new leaders who are really wanting to d to dive into instruction would be um don't do too much all at once. Like when we started with visible visible learning, we started with step one. We want our students our goal is that actually step one was we will be able to effectively write a learning intention and success criteria. We spent a year on that. So just just take it step by step and keep the data and keep following the data and don't move forward until you've mastered and you're ready and you continue then spiraling. But you can't do too much at once. You've got to

045you've got to narrow it down and then capitalize on those successes and build over time. If I could talk to Avery seven years ago, I would tell her I would tell her that the confidence is going to come because I had a really bad bad case of imposter syndrome from starting out. I was only an assistant principal for two years and I didn't intend it just the opportunity came and I wanted to take on the challenge but I so many times felt like I wasn't good enough felt like I wasn't qualified um felt like you know should I even am I even have the capability to do this I would have told that amarine back then keep your head held high and and dig in and build the credibility with the people because that doesn't

046come overnight. It is going to be a journey and it is going to take time but you can do it girl. You can do it [clears throat] just day after day. >> Oh thank you. [music] >> [clears throat] >> I would also be remiss if I did not say that all of the credit for that video goes to Miss Heingguardner and to u Mr. uh Sher. They worked very hard on that video uh with Amarie and her staff and they did a lot of hard work on that. Any questions? >> Go ahead. >> I just got a comment. I was blessed. She worked at the northern end when my kids were in school. Dr. Nan, you're knocking it out of the park. Keep up the great work. Last year I was invited to their eighth

047grade graduation and to see the academic data of those kids that were moving on to Stonewall Jackson was unreal. Um and on my way out of the school I made it a point to stop and talk to some of the staff and the message was the same from every person I spoke to. They feel highly supported. She does a great job. There were new teachers there that came to us from other teaching facilities that had heard what a great job she was doing and they wanted to come to that school because of the culture and the atmosphere. You're doing a great job. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> I was kind of triggered by this. I It was a It says something about me. I found that kind of exciting, so I didn't mean it

048that way. But it's the um I think what's really cool is I've been thinking lately about how we can transition more from just wrote so type stuff into something that's more everybody or at least not everybody but a lot of conservative type educators are interested in increasing and improving critical thinking skills. Well, you can't make that in one leap. And the more we have just simple Socratic dialogue with the students and measure and then after a while it'll be a two-step discussion and then a three then you're on the road to that kind of critical thinking because you're actually like an athlete you're training it and I I think that's really neat. So um I think there's a there's a lot of gold to be mined at the end of that tunnel. I really think

049there is. And so even though it does seem pedantic to just to kind of have those s simple questions, I do think that that interchange with the students as long as it doesn't get to be cookbookish or forced or whatever uh is is really a pathway to to coming up with good critical thinking skills and better learning. So So thanks. That was really exciting. Really was. So thank you. appreciate it. >> Anybody else? >> I'm just going to go along and Dr. New along with what Mr. Rickard said. Uh I'm going to say the same thing. Um I appreciate everything you do, everything you're doing down there and the atmosphere like you said. Um I really do appreciate it. You're doing a great job. Keep up the great work. I should if I can just

050add on a little bit just in case you're not here towards the end because I wanted to talk about this a little bit later on but I did want to commend you on u we did have the what's this called the um school performance and support framework and I know you guys um um placed top when it came to u performing in chronic absenteeism which is a great um achievement and I you know kudos to you guys and the work that you're And obviously the kids want to come so that's that's always good. So congratulations. >> Thank you [clears throat] >> J. Mr. Chairman. over here, I guess. Hello. Can y'all hear me? >> Mr. Chairman, members of the board, Dr. Shepard, it's my pleasure tonight to share a brief overview of our comprehensive long

051range plan. We do this um consistently every year to monitor. This plan was developed and implemented back in 19 or in 2022 and will run through 2027. So, obviously, we are going to be coming together to create a new plan moving forward. So within the next year we will be collecting a committee together which will be uh representative of some of the board members too to create a new plan. You'll notice in your document, I'm not going to go through the entire document with everyone here, but this plan was developed um the basis of it gives the administration within the division, the school board members, uh the school, uh the mission, vision, and beliefs of the school. And then it gives a brief overview of the curriculum from elementary, middle school, and then special needs,

052whether it's disabilities or whether it's students that u need remedial uh skills cover. It also has our literacy plan, an overview of our literacy plan in it. And then the schoolboard goals, which I have a slide of, and this is what the plan is really made out of. So out of the five areas, the academic achievement and growth, positive school climate and culture, family engagement and community connections, recruit, support, retain enthusiastic professionals, and then lastly, highly qual um high quality and adequate facilities and learning environments. So when we go to look at that we have to understand when we look at data data has context. So it could be the uh sampling size of it. So obviously if you and we get into some of it like you'll look and you'll see that you'll say

053well why did certain things happen and grow so much and there's always a story behind data. So just keep that in mind. On the first slide goal one the academic achievement. For the most part, we are remaining consistent. Um, academically, we're doing very well um within our region, and you'll hear about that later coming up at some point of how we are doing well within our division with other divisions. The things that we look at in academic achievement is the graduation rate, college readiness, uh, accreditation report, and then obviously the achievement in the core areas. One thing that you'll notice on the college readiness, you'll see the SAT college readiness benchmark for reading and writing. You'll notice a drop there in that, but one thing that we know is that we have less students taking

054that prep test now than what we have in the past because not all colleges required. So, the sampling size is not the same either and it you don't always get all of your students taking it. The second one was goal two is the positive school climate and culture. You'll see this bases around discipline attendance and climate surveys that we do. Something important to look at if you look at discipline and that's a perfect example where we talk about numbers change. If you look back to co where it was very low and then it started climbing from 22 to 24 25 you say oh wow they have a lot more discipline issues there. There must be a lot more things going on. Well that comes in contact context. We have made it very clear with our

055principles, worked with principles, be very thorough with our discipline and making sure that we're documenting everything. So that number looks different because of some practices that we've put in place and things that we're doing because we have an emphasis on discipline, too, because we want to have good behaviors. Um, if you see DNA, that just means that we do DNY a we don't have that data yet. Uh, it's not available. It hasn't been posted. But you can see across the board, we're maintaining or doing better. Goal three, family engagement, community connections. You can see that we had 134 uh community outreaches this year, past year, which is really great. That was up from the previous year. It went down a little bit. So, our schools work hard with that. And we also have Kevin back

056here that does a lot of things, too, and make sure it gets out to the community. Also, you'll notice that there's two gray areas. That's when they we don't give this uh survey every year. It skips. So that's the reason for the split in the data. And then our preschool was remaining consistent and we have a little bit more number of preschoolers [clears throat] last year on the waiting list than previous year. Recruiting teachers and retaining our professionals. You'll see that we do surveys and staff reports and we do exit um surveys. So or reports. So, Linda Hodgeges will meet with uh teachers as they leave and ask them why are you leaving? If you notice, there is a huge increase in the uh retirement and you can see that within even our schoolboard office

057staff that there was a lot of people that retired out of the schoolboard office staff. So, you can see where that's went up, but for the most part, we've remained consistent. And then the last one is the high quality and adequate facilities. our utilation utilization percentage is still around 80%. Um, so our buildings are that's that's a lot of utilization. Our buildings when you get to 80, that means pretty much when you walk in, we're using all of our spaces. And then you can see it's the student teacher ratios. They have not been reported yet, but it's kind of deceiving when you put the student teacher ratios. This is straight off the uh state website. So if you walk into our classrooms, you walk into a K7 classroom, there's not going to be just 11

058kids sitting in a classroom. That takes some other staff members that are that are on staff two that combines into that number. And that's what drives that number lower. So it's a little deceiving when you look at that because when you go into classrooms, there's very few classrooms that have 11 in them or 14. Other than that, I'd be happy to answer any questions. I know it's a brief overview, but it's just a followup. This is what we call lag data. It's data that happens afterwards that we look at and [clears throat] we take into context we move forward. Jennifer and her staff, they look at a lot of data that is in time that as they move throughout the year too, but they also look at data also that are lag data. Is there

059any questions? >> Thank you. All right. Umformational [clears throat] agenda. Uh Dr. Shepard, um we are we going to discuss the library books purchase list or >> just [cough and clears throat] um the um regulation IIP-R um establishes procedures for the selection of library books. The um library book lists were placed on the website on Wednesday, November the 19th. They are presented for information at tonight's meeting and will be requested for approval on the consent agenda at the January 8th, 2026 meeting. >> And I appreciate these being posted so that people can actually get in there and take a look. And so even if they decide to take no action, they know it's there. They can go look for it and search it out. So, thank you for posting to us. >> You're welcome. >>

060Now, we had uh two uh two topics brought up by Mrs. Carennio. Now, Dr. Shepard, um are you going to give us any background or should I just go to Gloria and have her talk about what what her her concept is in these? >> Mr. Pleo, it would be great. >> Okay. So, uh first of all, Gloria, let's take a segment. So, 5.2 2 is the uh the 20 250th anniversary of America. So why don't you tell us what uh what you're contemplating? >> Thank you, Denn. Um, so yes, this is a resolution that we um have um that that I went ahead and introduced uh for action in January um because I wanted to see if we can go ahead and have this done the beginning of the year because the idea is, you

061know, we're going to be celebrating the 250th anniversary of our country this next year. And uh we wanted to make sure that we uh invited a lot, you know, all our teachers and our students to have more programming. um that will hopefully will be um informing the students about our history. We want our kids to be proud of our history, to know our history, and um this is going to be the perfect year. I know there's going to be a lot of things going on all around the nation, and we want to be a part of that. So, we want to encourage our teachers to come up with uh creative ways that we can actually um celebrate this while at the same time teaching our our students. So, one of the things that we had

062um uh thought about was also having like a week um that we can um make celebrations um for this. I think we we did put one in the early morning towards the end. Did we choose that or no? >> No, you and I chatted about it the other day and I think it was going to be close to the last >> to the last minute. Yeah. So, um so we'll be talking about that I guess in in January. Um, so I mean we do want the teachers to have throughout the year to have activities and and maybe read books, um, learn songs, all that kind of stuff, but also have, uh, a designated time towards the end of the year, hopefully a time that is not going to, um, be uh, getting in the way

063of the testings or anything like that that we can actually celebrate as a district and have more activities. So that'll be for vote in January. And I I should say also at this point it's a resolution because it's going to be very uh specific towards the 250th anniversary, but we're also going to be looking I hope um throughout the next year um to do a few more things that I'll talk about during our board member comments. >> Any questions or discussion for Gloria on that topic? I'd like to um I think it's a great idea. I'd like to um suggest that a resolution kind of is kind of not very actionoriented. You know, they get lost sometimes. Um but um what I I I think that the board should think of ideas that could be

064part of this uh if you will a celebration package because I do think um it would be a shame those of us lived through um the by some type. It was it was pretty powerful stuff and I'd like to see that uh that our school system uh really kind of focuses on that and with various kind of celebratory things. So, I'm sure not just Gloria, but others on the on the board um could probably work with a superintendent and coming up with various activities that would be kind of planned down the road. So, I I think it would be really good to see that one come to fruition. Um and then the second one is 5.3. Uh and it's I think it most has to do with Chromebooks, does it not? So turn it over

065to you. >> Yeah. So uh this is a resolution um of Shendo County School Board encouraging balanced instruction through reduced screen um use. And at this point is this is a resolution where we're already working um and I don't know how that would look in the future if this is going to be policy or this is something that we just work uh together with the superintendent. But the idea here is um we have a lot of data uh regarding how bad electronic and digital use has been for education. Not just in our district but all around the nation not only in terms of what the kids are learning or not learning rather um but also in terms of the mental health and and all the the different aspects of it that have just adversely affected

066our children um all over the nation. So the idea here was to have this resolution um it's going to be in in part is including the Chromebooks but overall just to reduce the excessive screen time. We already did the the cell phone B which um has been incredibly um successful in terms of helping our students and we hear from the students our mental health task force and how grateful they are for that. uh and I know other schools are also adopting that but now the idea is coming of even the Chromebooks especially for elementary school uh but I would even suggest middle school um this is something that uh few other a lot of schools are talking about school districts not enough of them are still acting I think everybody's kind of waiting to see

067who's going to act first [clears throat] uh I know some schools uh I did use uh Burke County uh from North Carolina uh I used some of their ideas when I drafted this resolution because they've already banned the Chromebooks. Now, they did it mostly for cost issues. They thought it was becoming cost prohibited and it just wasn't worth it. But they also use a lot of the um data that we have uh showing how it is affecting the learning or of our students. So, that's what this resolution is about. We'll be voting on it in January hopefully. And then my idea was that from here we're going to be working on specifically, you know, how if we're gonna be looking at this getting rid of Chromebooks for elementary school, how is that going to look?

068How are we going to face it out? You know, is it going to be yearby year? Is it going to be all at once? Are we going to go to the middle schools and, you know, are we going to have computer labs the way we used to have it? Uh so that the students are still learning about um you know, how to use computers for the SOS and all that. Uh I'm not very concerned. I know children know about electronics more than we do. I mean, you can give a two-year-old a phone and they probably know how to use it better than I do. So, um, so I think it is in this day and age, the students really know how to use the electronic part of it. It's the pen and pens, the the

069pen and paper part of it. Um, writing out uh knowing how to write things out, even cursive, you know, this is part of that. uh reading reading actual books as opposed to just having a computer read the book to them. So these are all skills that I'm hoping we can build on because once we build that in in terms of the elementary and middle school, it's we're going to see that in high school. We're going to see how much better they're going to do in high school as well and and for the rest of their lives as well. So, um, so I'm hoping that our members will consider this and that from here we'll be able to go into actual policy and, um, and changes to our system. Anybody has any questions, >> comments? >>

070I just want to thank you for heading that up. The number of parents that reach out on a regular basis and are concerned about how much their kids on Chromebooks as opposed to teacher student interaction is amazing. Um, great thoughts. I like it. Thank you. >> Well, think and actually and I forgot also to mention there's also the problem of the privacy concerns um that we have with the Chromebooks and all that. Um, so it's not just the learning and the mental health, but we also have a lot of privacy concerns with with regards to how these companies are data harvesting, you know, our kids data. Um, and also the fact that our kids, going back to how good they are with using computers, they can get over these firewalls that we have all the

071time. And we know they're watching things they probably shouldn't be watching. Not all of them, but I'm just saying some of them can. Um, and doing stuff that they shouldn't be. So, I I just don't think it has they have a place in elementary school for sure. >> Anybody else on that one? I um [snorts] I I have a feeling that probably would be u something that um be at least regulatory >> uh and perhaps even worthy policy. So I would encourage anybody on the board to be thinking about wither Chromebooks over the next month or so so we have at least an set of alternatives we think are are viable. So all right so there are some we're going to move into a action items. So the the first one in 6.1 is um

072to approve the personal actions that were um I guess brief before I came into the close session this evening. So um uh is there a uh a motion to approve the personnel list as it was presented to the five of you? >> I move to uh approve the personnel list as it was presented. >> Thank you, Mr. Mr. Rickard. A second. >> Second. Mr. Carinio. All in favor of approving the personnel list, please signify by saying I. >> I. >> Any opposed? None opposed. [clears throat] Um the revised program of studies for high school. Um is there any discussion? Now, I um [snorts] I went through and looked at these and and saw that. So, I I I wasn't uh I was recovering, I guess, the last meeting when this was when this was discussed.

073So, um is is there any discussion on this be before we consider to uh to uh accept a motion on approving these revisions for the high school program? you all saw and like what you saw and you're ready to roll. Okay. In that case, I'm ready to entertain a motion. >> I move to approve the revisions for the high school program of studies as presented. >> Thank you, Mr. Recorder. A second. >> Second by Mr. Street. Um any discussion? Discussion. Uh those in favor, please signify by saying I. >> I. >> Opposed? not none opposed. So it passes and uh the final action item is request to increase the uh fiscal year 2026 special budget. >> I move to approve the request to increase the fiscal year 2026 special budget as presented. >> Thank you

074Mr. Rick for that motion. Second. >> Second by Mr. Carinio. Any discussion? Those in favor of uh approving the request to increase the budget, please signify by saying I. >> I. >> Any opposed? None opposed. >> Dr. Shepard, any reports? >> Thank you. This week we were informed by um of our 2025 2026 accreditation and accountability and all of our high schools are fully or all of our schools are fully accredited. Um, all three of our high schools have been named distinguished. All three of [clears throat] our middle schools are on track. One [cough] elementary school is off track and two elementary schools are need support. of the three high schools that um of our three high schools that are named distinguished um all three of them are in the top 10% of schools in

075Virginia with Strawsburg High School ranking 20th out of 1,840 schools. So they're in the top 1%. >> Stonewall Jackson is 41st out of 1,840 schools. So they're in the top 2 and a half% and then Central High School is 168th and that so they're in the top 10% and we're so so across the division we're very proud of our teachers and our students and our parents um for this great achievement. [clears throat] So um we couldn't do it without our students and our staff. >> Maybe I should say take a placer to court tomorrow and hold that up. >> I'd like to get something across anyway. So, um, also good luck to Strawsburg football team, um, as they travel to Salem on Saturday to play Glenbar, um, at 11:30 in the class 2 state championship.

076I hope to see you there. Also, congratulations to Triplette criminal justice student Sophia Dodson, on placing first in the recent skills US uh, a competition held at Mount Jackson rescue and fire. Sophia beat out 15 other competitors in the traffic stop scenario and will now advance to the state competition. State competition. Um I have enjoyed the um performances over the last couple of weeks. Uh December is always a busy time for our music departments and this year is no different. Um they've been participating in the tree lighting ceremonies, parades, and hosting concerts in their schools. [clears throat] And we've had some amazing performances. And guess what? There's still another week of performances next week. So, hope to see you there. Uh Triplet Tech had a career fair and with 46 businesses, many of them local

077in attendance at the crew building in Mount Jackson. It was a great opportunity for our triplet students to talk directly to business professionals and also for our business professionals to get to know our students. So great um great exciting opportunity for triplet. [clears throat] We also have 24 students who are going to compete in the um district uh the county spelling bee fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth graders. So looking forward to that January the 23rd. And then also um Mr. Street, Chairman Barlo, Assistant Superintendent Chad Hensley um honored Mr. Dorman and they finally um hung the Dorman's corner plaque which was hung in the Stonewall Jackson High School um hallway to commemorate um Principal Mike Dorman. So that was great. And there were several staff members present um for that commemoration. And then we also

078had a great discussion with our elected officials in November and talked about the needs of the school divisions. Paige County, Clark County, Rockingham County, and Shannidoa County were all represented. And then um last but not least, I would like to wish everyone a very happy holiday season which is coming up. And I hope everyone's able to enjoy the holiday and find time to relax and rejuvenate with family and friends. happy to answer any questions. >> Not surprisingly, I don't hear any. >> Thank you. [clears throat and cough] >> Thank you. >> Uh, school board member comments. Who wants to kick off? >> I have something. >> And I wrote it down, so I want to make sure I don't I didn't get it wrong. But um as we've been talking today, we've uh just received

079what Dr. was just talking about, which is a school performance and support framework um from uh the Virginia Department of Education. And this is a report uh that is based on the so results, but also a lot of other criteria such as absenteeism, readiness, um college enrollment, employment, military enlistment among others. And the results were nothing short of amazing. um as two of our high schools, Strawburg High School received the top school by total points and Small Jackson um high school followed closely in fifth place. And um this is particularly remarkable because when we consider who we're competing against in our region so our region um is region four and it pretty much includes all of Northern Virginia. So it includes Fairfax County, Lden, Arlington, Frederick counties. I mean everybody um around is is in

080that category. Um and for the middle school, Pier Pier Muenberg um middle school was also recognized for being at the top for growth in math and North um middle school was uh for success against chronic absentism like I just said. [snorts] Um, but I wanted to talk about this and I didn't want to steal the thunder um because I know the school is going to be talking about this, but I didn't want to have to wait until January to do this um because too often a lot of people um get distracted by the big issues that um that people are talking about or the media is covering and um you know those are issues that generate a lot more media attention than some of the other stuff that we're doing here and most specifically that

081what you guys are doing here uh in the school board and Um this is a fantastic um accomplishment. I specifically wanted to congratulate um Mrs. Folultz, Mrs. Folz before he left u for her and her staff at Strawburg High School for this amazing amazing achievement. And uh if you think about it, they're even ahead. They're number one. Um number two is Churchill Road. No, sorry, I had the wrong one. Um number two is Lur High High School. And then number three is Thomas Jefferson High for science and technology. Number four is Clark County High. And number five is Stone Jackson. I mean Thomas Jefferson High School is is has been number one for years nationwide. I mean this is one of the best schools in the nation and Strawsburg actually uh was ahead of them.

082So I have a little trepidation because at the same time I'm afraid that more people are going to start blooming here not just for the beautiful views but for our great schools. But regardless, we're going to still going to congratulate him. And um also want to congratulate um Stumble Jackson. And I know Mr. Lance is not the principal, but I think we need to give um Mr. Dorman um the respect here because even though he's retired, it was under his leadership that a lot of this um came to to be. So um also I want to talk a little more about the resolutions. I already kind of said what they were about, but I did want to add um to what Mr. Barlo was saying because I I am looking to see if we can

083actually also have uh a more patriotic uh curriculum in our schools and what that would look like um from K through 12, even in elementary school, even if it's just teaching our kids basic songs that unfortunately too many kids nowadays don't know anymore. Um you know, picture America the Beautiful, you know, obviously our anthem. Um, make it fun and have it as part of not just the 250th anniversary, but also have it as part of a curriculum that we can have um to show our kids, you know, teach them about our history um and why they need to be proud of our country. And um finally, I wanted to uh wish everybody a very merry Christmas and uh um and a happy new year. I'm looking forward to the next year and hopefully that we

084can actually work on a lot of this stuff. I want to wish uh Mr. Barlo and Mr. Got Show good luck. Thank you for being here and good luck. I guess we're going to be seeing you across the table uh next year. >> But um hopefully now that you know how things are going here, you'll be able to help us out a little bit. >> Thank you, Gloria. >> Next. >> Well, let me just follow up on that. Um, we all know that leadership is a foundation built on planks. Planks. And this is not a definitive list, but planks such as vision, vision, integrity, reason, judgment, gentle of speech, wealth of mind, and invoking a wellused poetic license constant to purpose. And Shandro County has certainly been blessed, Mr. chairman by your presence as a

085member and as as chairman. It's been a blessing for me personally and I've been here 14 months and I've learned so much and Shannidoa County thanks you for your service for and for your leadership and God bless you. >> Thank you very much. >> Further Mr. Gutshaw soon to be known as Mr. supervisor. You'll soon be serving on the board of supervisors for at least the next four years. And being a student of government, well, I might as well give away my age since Kennedy Nixon, whatever year that was. Um, a few words of advice. Dance. [snorts] Dance with who br you. Swing with who swung you. Life's not a 40yard dash. In the long run, you'll have more fun if you dance with the one who br you to the bash. Translation, which all

086of us in this room know, but there might be some folks still listening in Cyberland. So stay tuned folks at home. Kyle, stay loyal and true to the people who put you there, to the [snorts] principles that helped you to get elected. Do not abandon your roots and your good judgment. Do not forsake commitment for some quick but fleeting opportunity. [snorts] It will only result in the la loss of loyalty of the people who voted for you. They are your base. Good luck, Mr. Gutshaw and have a successful first term. >> Thank you. >> Mike, go ahead. Um, first of all, I want to thank you both for serving on the board. Congratulations, Kyle, on moving on to the board of supervisors. Um when Brandy wrote me into running for school board and told me,

087"Oh, it's only one meeting a month." That that was a uh big [clears throat] fallacy. But uh you guys having served for four years. Thank you for your time and your commitment. I've I've come to respect how much time is involved in [cough] the board. [clears throat] Um and I pray God blesses you both in your future endeavors. Um, tagging on to what Gloria was saying about Strawsburg High School. I did not realize that we beat out Thomas Jefferson. Um, not going to give away my age, but I graduated Fairfax County's public schools many years ago, [clears throat] and Thomas Jefferson was always revered. Um, they always had a long waiting list of kids trying to get into that school. So for a little little county like ours beating them out, that's a pretty big

088accomplishment. Pretty huge accomplishment. So kudos to Mrs. Folultz and her staff. Um, other than that, I would like to wish all our staff and all of our students and families a merry Christmas and a happy new year. Thank you to all our staff and everything you guys do. I hope you find some time to relax and rejuvenate over the two week break. Um, it's all I've got. Thank you, Kyle. Thank you, Dennis. >> Thank you, Mike. >> Tom. >> Yes, sir. Mr. Chairman, [clears throat] I guess first of all, uh, well, Mr. Bowman, another quiet mic for you. >> Very good. >> Yes. Isn't that great? >> Merry Christmas. [laughter] All >> guess he appreciates the gift there, huh? >> Yeah. >> Thank you there, Coach Cage for holding in. Uh I'm going to tell

089Mr. Steve Heisman you uh you filled in and held the fort there for uh staying here. Thank you. Um congratulations to the three high schools um for the conf accomplishes there academically. Uh great job. Congratulations to the Stonewall Jackson. We heard earlier to Stonewall Jackson cross country team by coach Clanahan uh for what they've accomplished and that is pretty neat. The the average team GPA was a 3.7. >> Mhm. >> That's pretty neat. Good job. Um and [clears throat] of course moving on to sports as you can see uh uh it might be a little difficult but I wore purple. [laughter] So hey uh good luck to Strawsburg Saturday. I kind of I guess I kind of in my mind I'm thinking of a the movie Under Siege. I think it kind of was that

090statement was well that gone. If you can't beat him then you might as well join him. So hopefully the car will start Saturday and we'll head south. Looking forward to that. So anyway, good luck. Uh and and hopefully you can come back with a big trophy. Um moving on. Thank you Kyle, Mr. Dutch for everything you've done, your uh service and time and along with what uh Mr. Rickard's statement there. It's uh a lot of lot of time people don't understand. So uh thank you so much for your service and looking forward to communicating with you in the future >> when you're on the other level. [clears throat] So anyway, thank you uh Colonel Barlo. Um, I I kind of going along with what Mr. LV says there. It's been a an honor um a

091great opportunity um to work with you to sit back and watch and and take everything in and uh and how you speak and your views and and and we thank you for your everything you've done not only here for Sheno County but your country and [clears throat] uh so I definitely want to thank you for the time that you've served the time what you've done for this count this school system and and uh your interest and and um and I still still looking forward to I know I I've been telling you, but I'm still looking forward to that opportunity. I want to sit down. I want to hear your your life experience. It sounds very neat and and I'm I'm sure we need some substitute teachers. >> Mhm. >> Okay. >> Yes. I wouldn't mind.

092[laughter] >> But anyway, thank you very much, Colonel Barler. appreciate everything you've done and and outstanding job and your service and leadership. >> Thank you, Tom. >> Um along with that, I guess after the first year, we'll welcome two members, Mrs. Pence and Mr. Shy. So, looking forward to working with you two and uh the interest that's the interest that you've all shown in the past and so I know it's going to be a pleasure working with you all in in uh in the future. Um, want to thank the whole staff uh here [clears throat] and not here for everything you do and uh for the consumer accomplishments of the Sheno County Public Schools and along with that I just want to wish everybody a merry Christmas and I know it's been a inflation so

093there's don't no need to go above $30 for my Christmas gift. >> Okay. All right. >> Thank you. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Um, of course, tonight's one of the rare nights where I've had a cold. I think this is the second meeting out of about a hundred where I haven't felt all that great. But, um, [snorts] obviously [clears throat] tonight is the final night and, uh, I'm trying not to get emotional. >> [snorts] [snorts] >> I don't typically uh write down. Give me a second. Sorry. >> I hate to throw things out of sequence, but would you hate to go or All right, >> let's go ahead. >> So, yeah, [clears throat] it's been a it's been a long four years because I expected to work hard. I didn't expect to work this hard. Uh,

094but it was u for me it's been like running or writing which is uh I really hate to do those things but I love having done them. And so, uh, the call to do those are, uh, those three things, especially the school board has been really, um, edifying to me and staying close to the kids. I haven't stayed as close as I'd like to because I didn't realize how much stuff we'd be doing at the uh, at the staff level and so forth. I should have should have figured that out. Uh, nevertheless, we're we're close to that young vibrant thing we call youth in America. is so good to see. When I came in, I think uh one of the first things I said was that uh I've noticed a lot of academic measures going

095down and that our school board at the time didn't seem to be concerned. And I said I wanted to be on here long enough to help turn the ship around. And I thought that sounded pretty um what's the word? egotistical. I didn't say I wanted to turn the ship around, but I did want to see the ship turned around. And after a couple years, we started to achieve results. I don't mean we, I mean we uh saw results. I one of my uh many detractors called me up and say, "Now Barlo, I don't want you taking credit for any of this." And I say I said thank you for telling me that but uh no you don't have to worry about that this isn't my doing but it but it is in a way we

096all know that um you know um the Bible says you know where there is no vision people perish and if we don't have that uh vision then we do indeed as a people perish and we're not too far away from that. So, uh, I'm proud that, uh, I think the ship has has turned. So, I won't say anything more about what I've done other than to say I I'm proud of, uh, what this organization, Shendo County Public Schools, has done, and, uh, I'm I'm honored to have been part of it. Um, I want to uh call out a few people that have been especially u important in uh in my efforts here. One is the cohort I came in with uh with uh Brandy uh and with Kyle. Um the u Brand, if you're out

097there somewhere, I I love her. I'll call it earthly Christianity. I mean, it's earthy. is very down to earth and uh I found that really uh a wonderful thing about her and she's one of those rare people that every time I talk talked to her I got smarter she she she made me smart about a lot of things and just by opening her right as a matter of fact I think she's the first person one of our very first meetings talked about the Chromebooks and it was like ah you know why she met here but she did and she uh She had a lot of a lot of lot of gumption and still has it I'm sure but thanks to her Kyle u came on board as you know this young sorry kid >> uh

098that didn't have any real life skills and maturity whatever and [laughter] right now um I look back and you've shown quite a bit more maturity than some of the others of us up here including myself uh calmness uh which should never be mistaken for indifference with this guy. It's not indifference. It's that he's contemplating, he's thinking, and he's he's working it out. He's logical and uh he's he is diplomatic and statesmanlike that way. I appreciate that about him. And as a wingman, he has really helped me quite a bit. He's not been overbearing, but just enough, hey, get back on track and do what you need to do, and this is happening. And I I I thank you for that. That was extremely helpful. met LV more recently. His wit, his wisdom, his succinctness, he

099carries a certain nobility which I think is uh apparent as soon as you see him. But he really likes to get eyes on >> [clears throat] >> um the target on things that are going on and his his eyes on hands-on approach is [snorts] a lot the way like the way Tom handles things too. and Tom um if I had to pick somebody's kind of the soul of the board. Tom has a lot of uh cache with our students and parents and gets involved with infrastructure and um just seems to have an antenna for things that are going on around the county that need uh that need in the school system that need attention. Uh and um we talk a lot on the phone, don't we? And I I appreciate those those discussions. So, that's

100good. Um, I'm really impressed with the central office staff and uh the senior staff is so good when I moved in and I I don't have to, you know, the top three. You guys know who you are, but why not? What the heck? You know, Dave and Chad and Jan, you you guys have been wonderful. What I've really enjoyed is the superintendent's selection of people to move up through the ranks because this central off staff has just gotten better over those years. And I I really appreciate that. The uh the school board clerks, Cheryl, everybody knows, is a national treasure. Ways she can get things done [snorts] administratively is a miracle. And uh Crystal is the kind that can give you one look with a little squeeze on the arm and you feel better about

101life. So thank you for being nurturing for somebody who who needs that. That would probably be me. But anyway, thank you guys. I really appreciate that. Um I think uh the call out to our future members is well done. I've gotten to know Whitney and Mike quite closely and um they're working almost as hard before in school board as when they're on the school board and that that that's quite a quite a uh I hate to say this but I think I think it's going to be an upgrade after we leave. >> Yeah, it might be. >> Yeah. Anyway, but a couple of you guys that that's really really great for that. So, um Mr. Bowman, you have kept us uh you said it right. you've kind of educated us in a very quiet way

102and it's been very effective and uh you're you're a gracious gentleman and I uh I think that approach works most places and it works here. So, thank you so much for what you've what you've brought to us. Um I don't have much more to say except this. Um it's tough situation where six of us are actually the employers of a superintendent and that [snorts] causes friction all across Virginia. And what I've seen is school boards at war with their superintendent and superintendents who are tyrants over their school boards. And what we have here is a marvelous ability to have this interreationship between superintendent and schoolboard members that really works. And I have to say I think the key to that is Dr. Shepard. her work ethic, the example that she shows, her positivity, her imagination,

103her communication skills, and she makes tough decisions. I mean, she doesn't duck them. And I can go on and on, but everybody in this room has seen examples of her real leadership. Um, and so while I would say we we you on the board need to maintain your oversight of that and never lose that uh coordination with a person of that special set of talents is is important and I think I'm pretty sure as I go around that the community understands that. So, uh, my hats off to you, uh, Madam Superintendent for superb job that you've done while I've been here. And I'm, um, I'm looking to see who I forgotten. I don't want to go back and do all that, but anyway. [snorts] Um, so you better get ready. Okay. [laughter] >> So, um,

104I just want to finish. I'm a great believer in the philosopher Kirkagard, and he is a great believer in irony. I think I should ironically close with actually uh saying that one of the things that Gloria said at the end I absolutely agree with which is that um a culture that does not teach its kids about its own importance and its own role in the world is a culture that's going to die. So if we do not inculcate the values of western civilization in our schools, shame on us. And if we're scratching our heads wonder why the kids have deserted us and are go searching for marks for answers, you know, we'll have ourselves to look at in the mirror. So I think including uh that kind of u you know early on whether it's

105folk songs or or minor stories or uh they need to have an idea of what American history, Western history really is so that the first time they hear somebody selling something as stupid as [clears throat] Marxism, uh they're not going to bite on it and they'll they'll [snorts] be harder for it. So I that's uh I wish you well and actually I do hope to stay involved. So when you when you need somebody do something come to think of it I'll be walking all next week in the court. So I'm not done yet. [laughter] >> I have your number. >> Okay. Okay. What about you? >> All right. So [clears throat] I don't usually write down notes but tonight I did just so I can stay on track here. Um, after being [clears throat] elected

106to the school board at 19 and taking office at 20, my goal from the beginning was to make a meaningful difference, and I hope I've been able to do that. [clears throat] I'm especially grateful to everyone in the school system who welcomed me and treated me with such respect from the very beginning. Coming in as a recent graduate with a unique perspective, it meant a lot to me that many of you were willing to work with me, listen to me, and take my ideas seriously. Your openness and support allow me to contribute in a meaningful way, and I will always appreciate that. Over these four years, we have faced challenges and celebrated rewarding moments together. We've worked to raise standards, restore a stronger focus on discipline across our schools, which was has fittingly been talked

107about a little bit tonight. Uh reinstate weekday religious education, adopt a library review, library book review policy. Um bring transparency and parental rights to the forefront, among other things. We've also raised pay and lowered insurance costs for our employees. Important steps in supporting those who serve our students every day. Each accomplishment reflects our shared commitment to strengthening Shannidoa County Public Schools. I want to acknowledge the people that I began this journey with in 2021. I was elected alongside Mr. Barlo and Miss Ruts. Bry's dedication during her time on the board was meaningful and I'm grateful for the service that we shared together. and Dennis, you have not only been our chairman, but a true partner in leadership. The guidance and friendship we built over these four years [clears throat] have meant a great deal to

108me, and I will always value the work that we've accomplished together. I also want to express my sincere appreciation to Dr. Shephard, [clears throat and snorts] it's been an honor, absolute honor to work with you. You've done a tremendous job leading our division and I'm grateful grateful for the professionalism, steadiness, and dedication you bring to every situation. Your calm, thoughtful, thoughtful leadership has helped guide this division through both challenges and successes. And as I've always respected the way that you keep students, families, students, or excuse me, students, family, staff, and our community at the center of every decision. I've learned a great deal working with you, and I'm grateful for the partnership that we've built over the last several years. [snorts] Special. It's [clears throat] a bad night to have a bad throat, too. Of

109course, [snorts] it's fitting, right? Special thank you to all of our schoolboard office staff, especially those in the room tonight. Um, obviously I've worked with most of you the closest and um, your support and professionalism have meant so much to me. [snorts] I truly appreciate everything you do both publicly and behind the scenes to keep our division moving forward. To everyone I've had the privilege of serving alongside those still here and those who have moved on, thank you. [snorts] your dedication, your perspectives, and your commitment to our students have made a lasting impact on me. [snorts] And to the community, thank you for giving me the honor of serving. I will carry the lessons and memories from this experience with me for the rest of my life. I wish the new board the very best

110as they move forward, and I'm confident that great things will continue to occur for our students and our community. As I move to the board of supervisors, I remain committed to supporting our schools in new ways. And I want to thank everyone in the room and involved uh for this remarkable chapter. >> Well said. Thank you, Kyle. Appreciate that. >> Do I hear a motion for adjournment? >> I move to adjourn. >> Thank you, Kyle. >> Second. >> I heard Tom. Tom's a second. All in favor, please say I. I. >> I. >> Moving the meeting is adjourned. Tell me the time. >> 8:13. He says he's okay. 8:13 meetings. [snorts]