SCPS School Board Meeting 04/10/2025

001All right. The gavl is hiding on here. All right. I would like to call to order the Sheno County School Board meeting for April 10th, 2025. This particular session will be the close session and it is 4:31. Um, so Dr. Shepard, you have a recommendation for or close session? I do. Thank you. I recommend that Shannidoa County School Board convene a close session 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 under Virginia code 2.2-3711A14 2-3711A14 and to discuss the award of a public contract involving the expenditure of public funds including interviews of bidderers or offerers and discussion of the terms or scope of such contract where discussion in an open session would adversely affect the

002bargaining position or negotiating strategy of the public body under Virginia code 2.2-3711 2-3711829 and to consult with legal counsel regarding specific legal matters requiring the provision of legal advice by such council to discuss the audit of special education funds for fiscal year 21 and 22 in the Virginia state conference NAACP at all versus county school board of Shannidoa County case under Virginia code 2.2-3711A88 2-3711A88 and to discuss scholastic records involving the discussion or consideration of admission or disciplinary matters concerning any student of any state school system under Virginia code 2.2-3711A2. Thank you, Dr. Shepard. Do I have a motion to that effect? I move that the Shannidoa County School Board convene a closed meeting under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act in in order to discuss and consider several personnel matters involving the assignment, appointment,

003promotion, performance, the motion, salary, discipline, or resignation under Virginia code 2.2-3711 2-3711 A14 and to discuss the award of a public contract involving the expenditure of public funds including interviews of biders or offers and discussion of the terms of scope of such contract where discussion and an open session would adversely affect the bargaining position or negotiating strategy of the public body under Virginia code 2.2-3711A29 2-3711A29 and to dis and to consult with legal counsel regarding specific legal matters requiring the provision of legal advice by such council to discuss the audit of special education funds for fiscal year 21 and fiscal year 22 and the Virginia state conference NAACP versus county school board of Shannondoa County case under Virginia Freedom under Virginia code 2.2-3711A8 2-3711A88 and to discuss scholastic records involving the discussion or consideration of

004admission or disciplinary matters involving students any disciplinary matters concerning any student of any state school system under Virginia code 2.2-3711 A2. Thank you Mr. Gochaw. A second second. Thank you for that. Any discussion? If not, all in favor of getting in close session, please signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? Okay, we will reconvene in close session. 619. Uh, and do I have a motion to reconvene in open session? Move to reconvene in open session. I give a scraw second. Second. Second, Mr. Rickard. Um, all those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. I. Any opposed? Not opposed. I would like to read the following statement. The Shannidoa County School Board hereby certifies by roll call vote that the best to the best of each member's knowledge. Only public business matters lawfully exempted from

005the open meeting requirements by Virginia law were discussed in the closed meeting to which this certification resolution applies. and only such public matters, business matters as were identified in the motion convening the closed meeting were heard, discussed, or considered by the Shannidoa County School Board. Each member responds ISO certify when called. Uh, Cheryl, would you call the role? Mr. Street, ISO certify. Miss Carlinia, I so certify. Mr. Gutshaw, I so certify. Mr. B, I so certify. Mr. Ricker, I so certify. Mr. Bar, I so certify. Uh the invocation and the pledge uh will be led uh by Mr. Tom Street. Please bow our heads. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this opportunity for us to come together. Lord, we continue to ask and pray that you first please protect our school system to be able

006to protect and everything from especially our students, our staff, everyone involved. Lord, we continue to ask to keep us safe. Lord, we ask that you give us the ability as leaders because we are obligated and we are responsible for our actions to be able to act under a good Christian faith. That we take your lending hand to be able to walk in your will, in your way, to do our job, to be messengers from you, to lead by example. In the Lord's name we pray. Amen. Amen. I pledge allegiance 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. Uh, do we have a motion to approve the agenda as presented? I move to approve the agenda

007as presented. A second. Second. Thank you, Mr. Rickert. And Mr. Gild made the motion. Um, is there any discussion? If not, those in favor of um approving the agenda as it has been presented, please signify by saying I. I. Any passes unanimously. And uh now we're ready for recognitions. Dr. Shepard. Thank you. I would like to introduce Miss Melissa Folultz um to come in come up and recognize her athletes. Thank you very much. It's always an honor to come before you to um recognize our student athletes um who perform very well at the state level. Um at this time, I'm going to actually turn this over to Mr. Matt Heisermanman, our athletic director, to do the recognitions. Mr. chairman, members of the school board, Dr. Shepard, uh thank you for giving us the opportunity this

008evening to recognize two of our outstanding student athletes at Strawsburg High School. Um Hudson, you and him come up, please. Our first athlete is junior wrestler Hudson Conrad. Hudson finished the 2025 wrestling season with a perfect 34-0 record. 33 of those wins being by pin and one by Techfall. uh meaning Hudson did not have a match all season long went the full length of three periods. He is now a back-to-back VHSL individual state champion. Last year winning at the 215 pound weight class and this year at the 285 lb weight class and just recently competed in the National High School Coaches Association wrestling nationals in Virginia Beach and finished sixth place in the junior class at 285 pounds. Our second athlete with us this evening is sophomore swimmer Emily Davis. Emily finished the 2025 swim

009season by winning two individual titles in the BHSL class 1 and two state championships in Richmond. Emily won the 200yard individual medley with a time of 2 minutes and 12.25 seconds and also won the 100yard butter butterfly defending her state championship from last year with a time of 57.8 seconds. With winning two state titles this year and one last year, she is now a three-time state champion in swimming and holds Strawsburg Strawsburg High School's only three state championships in swimming in school history. Again, thank you for allowing us to recognize our two winner VHSL state champions this evening. [Applause] One, two, three. So, April is autism awareness month and this evening we have Miss Jones, Heather Jones, who's the president of the special education advisory committee who will present information on autism. Good evening, members

010of the school board. Dr. Shepard, parents, educators, and community members. My name is Heather Jones and I am the special education advisory committee chair and a parent with autis child with autism and ADHD. This is my final presentation um to the board after serving 10 years with SEAK. Um so I want to thank you today for the opportunity to speak about the topic. This is very close to my heart as well as our community which is autism awareness. April is Autism Awareness Month, a time to shine a light on autism, to celebrate neurodeiversity, and to reflect on how we can build a more inclusive, understanding environment for all students. Autism is not a one-sizefits-all diagnosis. It exists on a spectrum, and so do the experiences, strengths, and challenges of individuals with autism. I stand before

011you today as a proud advocate for individuals on the autism spectrum and a member as a member of the community that recognizes the strength found in our differences. Our schools are not just centers of academic learning but also communities where diversity is celebrated and where every student deserves the chance to succeed regardless of the challenges they may face. In our schools, this means recognizing that every student with autism is unique. Some may be non-verbal while others are gifted speakers. Some may need sensory accommodations or social support, but all of them deserve the same things: respect, opportunity, and the chance to thrive. Autism is a neurodedevelopmental condition that now affects 1 in 36 individuals nationwide. While the manifestations of autism can differ from one person to another, common traits include unique ways of processing information, varying

012sensitivities to sensory input, and distinctive communication styles. It's important as educators and community members to understand that autism is not a deficit, but rather a different way of experiencing and interacting with the world. Autism is the first step towards inclusion. And that awareness should happen today. When we educate ourselves and our communities about autism, we break down barriers of misunderstanding and prejudice. This un misunderstanding leads to an environment where students may feel unvalued, misunderstood, and unsupported. But inclusion education is not merely a policy. It's a commitment. It's a pledge to provide all students with access to the curriculum and opportunities they need to thrive academically, socially, and emotionally. By creating inclusive classrooms, we nurture not only academic success, but also empathy, respect, and collaboration among students. We have the power to shape a learning environment

013where students with autism feel safe, seen, and supported not just academically, but socially and emotionally. That begins with professional development, accessible resources, and an inclusive curriculum and a genuine commitment to understand and acceptance. But inclusion is not just about policies. It's about culture. It's about making sure our students learn empathy alongside math and acceptance along reading. It's about creating schools where differences are not just tolerated, but they're valued. I want to provide you with four strategic strategies for supportive environments. The first being professional development. Continuous training for educators is critical. It allows teachers to gain insights into the diverse needs of students with autism and to implement effective individual strategies in their classrooms. The second is the individualized education plan, otherwise known as the IEP. These plans are essential tools that help tailor educational experiences

014to each child's unique needs. They ensure that all students, including those on the autism spectrum, receive the necessary support to flourish. Third, sensory f friendly spaces. Simple modifications in the classroom such as unique quiet spaces or sensory tools can have a significant impact on a student's ability to learn and feel secure. And the fourth, peer awareness programs. Educating students about autism fosters an environment of empathy and acceptance. When peers understand differences, they're more likely to offer support and form meaningful connections with one another. Supporting students with autism is not solely the responsibility of the schools. It requires a unified effort from parents, health care professionals, community organizations, and of course, the students themselves. By working together, we can build a network of support that extends beyond the classroom and enriches the entire community. In closing,

015I urge the school board and our community leaders to continue advocating for policies and practices that embrace diversity and foster inclusion. Let us commit to a future where every student is provided with resources, understanding, and the respect they deserve. Let's create an environment where each child can shine in their unique way. I ask that we continue to work towards a district where every student, regardless of their ability, is welcomed and empowered to succeed. Let's make our school's model of compassion and an awareness not just this month, but all year round. Thank you for your time, your commitment, and your continued efforts to build a community where every voice is heard, every difference is celebrated, and every student is given the opportunity to succeed. Thank you. Heather, we thank you for your commitment and thanks for

016coming in and giving us your reports. So, thank you. That is it for recognitions this afternoon, this evening. All right. Uh we have um come to the portion where we have public uh and staff comments on agenda and non-aggenda items. Uh and so I'm going to read a uh description of how we do that. The Shannondo County Public School Board welcomes public comment from Shenol County residents, parents, or guardians as well as from current students and employees of Shannondoa County Public Schools. Schoolboard members do not respond to public comments during the meeting or hearing. Each speaker may speak uh for up to three minutes. The board general allows 30 minutes for public comments. Uh we can go beyond if we need to uh on agenda and non-aggenda items at the beginning of the meeting. Uh

017if there are large numbers of speakers, we won't have that problem. So uh and we'll be able to hear everybody uh with good focus and time here. So um all comment all comment should address a matter related to Shenova County Public Schools. Complaints regarding division of bise should be directed to the school principal or an appropriate school division official. The school board expects that each speaker will be courteous modeling for our students how one can respectfully disagree with others views. Speakers will address their comments of the entire school board and not to one individual board member to the superintendent to a staff member nor to the audience. Speakers will not engage in personal attacks. Uh speakers have uh signed up here this evening um on the document provided by the clerk uh indic indication that

018they are they are speaking in their roles as stakeholders of our community. Um and speakers will be called in the order in which they've signed up. Uh speakers have u any written comments to the school board. Eight copies should be provided to the schoolboard clerk and those will be distributed to the members of the school board. Uh and um the first name is it Thomas is it Faulk Linda Thomas Tom. Okay. Sorry for my ship. Yeah. Uh, good evening and thank you for hearing me today. Um, I'm here to speak about policy INB which you're seeking to amend and I support those amendments with regards to whom transgender children can come to for help. I would like you to add teachers to that list as well. Um, I'd also ask you to repeal the earlier

019changes to IMB which prohibits the teaching about gender in our schools. As the previous speaker, Heather mentioned about autism, including and inclusion and diversity are good things. And these are students that need our help and we need to do everything that we can do to help them find their place in the world. So, please don't make their lives more difficult, but support them. Thank you. Thank you. Am I driving? [Music] Sounds like it's working now. Good evening, Dr. Shepard. Um members of the school board, um I stand before you tonight as um little bit of a concerned parent. Um we are often dealing with controversial issues um that and hot button topics here over the last few years that I've been coming to the schoolboard meetings and um something that has really jumped out at

020me is um that we spend a lot of time in public debating those, speaking about them. Um and it seems to overshadow many of the other things that are going on in Shannondoa County Public Schools. Um one big part is a lot of the improvements and achievements that we that have been made under this this board and um and you know the the two years before that. Um so I'd like to see a little more concentration and focus on that. Um, and we're at a very kind of at a crossroads here. We have a lot of um, senior staff and and very important cogs in the wheels that make um, or in the gears that make the wheels of Shannidoa County Public Schools turn. So, um I would like to see little less controversy and

021distractions for um HR, the senior administration to to find qualified candidates to fill these uh positions. And um these controversial topics that keep coming up although important um I think uh since I think really in the bottom line of it most of all most if not all of you sitting up here agree in the end um to expedite it and move through these things as quickly and as fluidly as possible so we could make it easier on the staff and even yourselves to concentrate on things that are important to the public. Um so and how you deal with that in in debates discussions you know publicly is very important um as we're all watching. So uh during Mr. Street's um uh discussions there and and invocation in the beginning he said set an example. So

022you guys have a very unique um and important responsibility. You set the example for the parents, the teachers, and and all the way down and the community. And everything, every decision you make, and every action you take as an SCPS board member affects the community around you. It it it goes out and ripples out into the community. So, I think um you know, setting a positive example is important to everyone, especially the kids who are looking up to all of you. So, thank you for all you do. um you know and um but you know let's uh let's try to concentrate on moving towards more positive and important things. Thank you. Thank you Stephen Hisha. Good evening school board members. Dr. Shephard Chairman Barlo Steve Hushman is my name. I live district 2 out in

023the Kikville area. Weekly weekday religious education uh finished up their school year today. Uh and um I would like to personally thank uh this school board for supporting Weed Day religious education as you have continued to do. They finished up the school year with 167 students participating uh which is in classes two through second through fifth grades. There is excellent support throughout the county and the community uh for this program held uh in the school systems. And a recent uh verification of that was the uh concert that was held just the other week out at Antioch. and it was right at a soldout crowd. There was a lot of contributions made to the effort and it was very much worthwhile and we're uh I know I am looking forward to seeing the continued growth of

024the program as it start into the next school season as they learn about our savior that um uh his name is Jesus Christ. Thank you very much. Thank you. Um those are all the uh folks who have signed up. Is there anybody who would like to take the opportunity to speak? If not, uh we'll move on. Uh and uh we will consider the um approval of the con of uh the consent agenda. Um do I have a motion to approve the f the listed uh consent agenda items? I move to approve the consent agenda as it is presented. Thank you, Mr. Gotcha. A second. Second. Uh before we vote on on um approving the consent agenda, I wanted to point out to school board members of 3.10. Uh which I think is a pretty pretty

025big deal. Uh title six compliance certification. And I've asked the superintendent if she would give us a little background on on this this item. Certainly. Thank you. US Department of Education through the Virginia Department of Education has directed school divisions to sign a certification letter titled reminder of legal obligations undertaken in exchange for receiving federal financial assistance in request for certification under title 6 and S FFA versus Harvard. By signing this certification, divisions acknowledge they have reviewed the letter and will comply with title six of the civil rights act of 1964. So the key points of the certification is the first is legal compliance. It reaffirms the division's obligation to prohibit discrimination based on race, color, or national origin in all areas including admissions, hiring and student programming. Number two, equal treatment emphasizes that racebased

026discrimination, direct or indirect, is not permitted, supporting a fair and inclusive educational environment. Number three, promotes a safe and inclusive environment. Highlights the need to prevent racial stereotyping, segregation, any and any discriminatory practices that could harm students. And number four, federal funding risk. Failure to comply with title six may result in the loss of federal fund financial assistance. In summary, signing the document is not only a legal oper obligation but aligns with title six mandate and addresses concerns that some DEI programs may lead to preferential treatment. Thank you Dr. Shepard. And the reason I wanted to highlight that this evening is uh it is um it was per guidance from the US department of education came down very quickly made its way through uh the uh the uh Richmond uh educational uh department of educ

027excuse me the BDOE and has come to us for quick uh signature a quick suspense date anyway I think I think it's due tomorrow actually. So, it's come to us very quickly and um so the superintendent and I has every intention of signing and returning that and I wanted the school board to uh to be cognizant of that as as we vote as we can. I would like to see us uh kind of uh endorse that concept as well that has come from uh that has come from the department of education. So I just I just felt the the little explanation from the secret superintendent was in order. So point of information, are we going to be voting on this in the action item or it's it No, this is included in the consent agenda.

028Okay. Okay. Yeah. So so a v vote for the consent agenda basically is a vote for it. Yes. Okay. That's a good question. Thank you. I appreciate it. All right. So the the motion has been made and seconded. Uh is there any further discussion? Is is that title six compliance certificate um part of the recent administration DEI? Yes. Okay. I just wanted to make sure I was clear on that. Yeah. Thank you. All right. Um any further discussion? All right. So again, we are voting on the entire package for the approval of the consent agenda. Um, all those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? None. I'll let the record indicate that that was a majority vote. Not a majority unanimous, excuse me. And uh we're now moving on to the um

029instructional agenda. Let's see. Mr. Hazel is making his way up here. So, I know we're going to be talking about math textbooks, right? Yes, sir. Among other things. Go for it. Mr. Chairman, members of the board, Dr. Shepard, thank you for giving Maggie Gabello and myself uh the opportunity to share with you our adoption process. We are currently in the math adoption process. Maggie is our math uh curriculum specialist. She does a wonderful job in our division. She has led this uh endeavor from kindergarten to 12th grade through all of her subjects. We just got new math standards. Um along with those math standards, uh there was a list of textbooks that were released and that release was a little bit later than normal. Normally we normally we started in the fall. This time we

030started after January pretty much. So the process was a little bit more compact than what we're used to, but we were able to make it through our timeline. As you can see on the board, we have our current adoption that we have now. We look at all those state approved materials, identify the ones that meet our needs, um along with the state needs and the CIP consortion needs. We develop a timeline. We do rubrics for our teachers and for the community that want to review it. We get feedback and then we make our final recommendations, which will be tonight. Tonight, we're going to be recommending sixth grade through high school, our K5 curriculum. They're still reviewing and they'll be coming to you next. We'll bring it to you next month. Miss Gel, Dr. Shepard, schoolboard

031members, nice to meet you. Um, so our first stop on the textbook adoption process is looking at the state approved list. Uh, first round was given to us in February. It had a very limited number of textbooks that were approved at the state level. The second round came out at the end of March. So, this has been a very quick turnaround. As Mr. Hensley stated, the only materials that we have reviewed are approved materials from the BDOE because of the new bill requiring us to use highly qualified instructional materials. Our timeline, as Mr. Hensley said, has been approved by our lo our administrative team. It did have to be adjusted quite a bit as the state kept changing deadlines and updating us throughout the school year. Uh we did involve all administrators in this process

032and teachers. Everyone was turning in a rubric giving us their opinion on what we felt what they felt would be our best choice. We did dive in deeply with rubrics into multiple choices and we did build a consensus um from our 6th through 12th grade teachers. We um got a list from our principles as to what our teachers were looking for in a new curriculum. What were their uh top needs and wants in this new uh set of standards that we have and how that's changed. The rigor has greatly increased in our new math standards. And so needing a textbook that matches that new level of rigor is of utmost importance. So we combined both our staff needs and our state expectations that are very very explicit. We did use the rubric. We had both

033a rubric for the public comment and we had a rubric for our teachers to use. We had multiple presentations from different vendors. Uh teachers were also given a Q&A document where they could submit questions to me and I would get answers from our um textbook companies. Rubrics were made available as well as the textbooks and online loginins at all of our high schools and middle schools. Teachers reported that our evaluation process was very rigorous and deep. uh they appreciated all the different aspects we looked through both how they reflected digitally what physical components they came with what support materials what um student demographics they helped support whether that be sped eel or our gate students as well uh it was pretty much a unanimous consensus from our secondary level 6 through 12 they all felt

034that this um recommendation was the best recommendation for Shannondoa County we did not receive any feed feedback from our community on our secondary textbook. And our final piece is our recommendation and that would be a recommendation of the company math space. Um these were specifically written for Virginia. They're not a national edition that has been edited to fit Virginia's needs. These are specific for Virginia and for the 2023 SOS. So it will be a complete set from sixth grade to algebra 2. um which allows that connection between middle school and high school. Are there any questions? I would assume we're getting enough to distribute to each student 6th through 12th. We are our feedback from the staff was that they wanted classroom sets. However, with all the new advancements with the new curriculums, the complete

035textbook is available online digitally. So every student will have access to it at any given time. Thank you. I have a question. Um so since we are adopting um in Virginia more rigorous standards, um how are students uh fair with that? I mean is this something that they're being able to adapt to or is there some catching up to do? Um there's a little catching up to do but that's going to be across the state. Um our students are meeting the needs. our teachers are revamping our curriculum to fit it. This will just be kind of the capstone piece that will really help them have all the supports they need to meet those new standards. That's a great question and I have a little followup to it which is so the students but how about

036the teachers? The teachers feel that this was I mean we heard coming out of the box it might have been a little bit too aggressive a lot of changes during the year. Have they taken to that uh or feel like maybe we bit off a little bit too much? What do you think of the the new standards a teacher response to the to the new to the new standard rigorous standards? So the one thing we have great teachers um and they work very hard. One thing we do is we do benchmark testing uh through the CIP consortium which has already included uh those standards into it. So we're starting to see when we're doing it and actually they're fairing like the consortium is about 70 division 72 divisions and we're performing very well within those

03772 divisions that we compare ourselves with with that curriculum. So we do have a little bit of feedback moving forward right now. We met with middle school principles this morning and we're looking at some of that data. So we're excited about what our teachers have done. Would I say it's a challenge? Absolutely. It's it's new curriculum. It's a new way of teaching uh to the students and there's always a learning curve to that but our teachers always step up and do a great job. Thank you. All right. Thank you. So that was the only uh issue under instructional agenda. Now we're going to move into um informational agenda and Kaitlyn's coming. So I think we're uh going to hear about the audit results. So, good evening, Mr. Chair and members of the board. I'd like

038to introduce Miss Marissa Helmet, who's here from Robinson Farmer Cox, to talk to us about the fiscal year 24 audit. Good evening. My name is Marissa Helmet. I'm the audit manager in charge of the Shanner County School Board fiscal audit. Um I work under James Kelly who's the partner in charge. Is there a way? So today I would like to talk about um our auditor's opinion. Uh give some financial highlights including the statement of revenue expenditures and change in fund balance. Uh look at some budgetary analysis. Uh look at some statistical information. Talk a little bit about our compliance testing and then at the end we'll have questions time for questions. Um so our audit objective is the expression of opinions as to whether your basic financial statements are fairly presented in all material respects

039in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles also known as GAAP. Uh we report on internal control in accordance with government government auditing standards. Notice here we do not express an opinion on internal control. Um so in this report we would identify if we had material weaknesses or significant deficiencies but again we do not issue an opinion. Um and then we also report on internal control related to major programs in compliance with the uniform guidance. Um and this is your federal programs. Um and this is at a county level as a whole. So in our opinion based on our audit and the report of others, the financial statements refer to above percent barely in all material respects the respective financial position of um and the school board is included in the discreetly presented component unit aspects

040um for the county of Shannondoa, Virginia as of June 30th, 2024. Um this is the highest assurance that our profession allows us to give that the financial statements are materially correct in in accordance with GAP. So here you'll see the statement of revenue expenditures and change in fund balance. Um this is similar to an income statement for for-profit companies for total revenues for FY24 ended with at about 94 million. Um and total expenditures were again very close 94.5 million um with a total loss of 315,000 not including other financing sources. Um so after you add in other financing sources which are leases and subscriptionbased liabilities um you ended a net change in fund balance of 103,860. Uh so a couple things to note. So the school operating fund column that's operating um all school operating

041accounts are in that column. School cafeteria fund and then student act student activity funds are in the last column. Um so all of them combined get to the total governmental funds. Here's a snip of the state level um revenue and the total the line items for each of those. Um, let me see if I say it's okay. Uh, the state level funding was down. No, it was up a by about $8 million this year. Um, and then local government revenue was down. Um, and the places that we saw increases in state revenue were about 18.5 million line of basic aid. that went up about a million and a half. Um supplemental in lie of state tax of sales tax went also went up about 800,000. Uh another column or another line item that I'd like

042to talk about a little bit is the school construction line. Um so about little le little more than halfway down um about $2 million. This money was received last year um in FY23 but not spent until FY24. So there it's recognized in FY24. Um it's called deferred revenue until you guys spend it. Uh on the flip side, the all in Virginia money um that you can see in the final budget of 2.1 million was received in FY24 but not spent. So we record that as deferred revenue um until it is spent. So total state revenue is right under $50 million for the year. On the federal government side, total federal government revenue was about 8.2 million. This is pretty consistent with the prior year. Um, some lines have increased as ESSER continues to decrease and

043you guys have spent out your CARES ESSER money on the expenditure side. Um, so actual total school opera operating expenditures were right at 87.87 million for that year which were under budget by about 10.7 million. operating fund revenues over the last five years. Um so again, you'll see here where total revenues were up about 3 and a.5 million. Um and that change is mostly in state level funding with an increase of about 6.7 million um and then a decrease in local government revenue. Total expenditures were also up um about $5 million. Uh and here you can see how the has changed over the years. Um you know we saw a big increase in from 21 to 22 but after and then another larger increase between 2020 2023 and 2024. As far as our compliance testing,

044uh we do state compliance testing over uh procurement, um so purchasing, uh we do it over BRS retirement, uh and some other state required compliance that were required to look at um and we had no non-compliance or other matters to report. We also had no significant deficiencies or material weaknesses on the single audit um federal programs audited side. Uh this year we looked at special education cluster and then corona virus state and local fiscal recovery funds as a whole county. Um so the school board had a portion of ARPA funds in that but the majority of it was um at the county level but we look at both and there was no compliance through on either of those programs. And then if anybody has any questions. Sounds like kudos are in order to Miss Campbell.

045Yeah, absolutely. Good news. Thank you. Yeah, thank you. Informational agenda item 5.2. um request to reortion and reserve fiscal 2024 fund balance. Kayen, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. You just heard Miss Helmick's report on the audit. She did mention that our local revenues were down. What that resulted in is because the state of Virginia does not allow us to maintain a fund balance, we return to the county each year a portion of revenues. According to the audit, which we did for attached a umam or a sample from the discreetly component unit, we returned a little over $9 million to the county at the end of 2024. In addition to that, Miss Helmick spoke about the deferred revenue, which was largely allin that was about 1.7 million, leaving the end result for fund balance that

046could be reappropriated to the school division 10.7 million. You all took action earlier this year and already reappropriated $822,000 of that revenue for CIP projects. And what that leaves with us is a little under 3.5 million related to special budgets which we are asking for your consideration tonight in reappropriating and then 6,472,93 in operating budget surplus revenue that could be requested as fund balance reappropriation to the board supervisors. It is recommended from the superintendent and staff that that be considered for a CIP reserve moving forward. I'm happy to take any questions. Is there any way to earmark that or we just give we just hoping for it? It's all owned by the board of supervisors at this point. It would take their action. Thank you, Kayla. appreciate it. Thank you. Board did ask for um

047information on um the current situation with elementary school uh this the status there and also on career and technical education. And so uh the next two items have to do with uh those reports. So u Jennifer, thank you. You're all here ready to roll. Yes. Good evening, Chairman Barlo, board members, Dr. Shepard. Make sure this is on. Okay. So this evening I'm going to be talking to you about um if we were to consider building another elementary school. So to begin with um we want to talk about the fact that this is not a criticism or anything against the schools um and their dedicated staffs that work there. They work with over almost 2,000 students between Sandy Hook and WW Robinson and they do an amazing job every day managing that many students. So, here's

048some recap on the capacity. And I believe you all should have um the worksheets that were done on the capacity. Do you guys have those? Okay. So, you have those for your that you can look at to see how they got to these percentages. But as you can see, Sandy Hook is at 96.62% capacity and WW Robinson is at 90.24% capacity. So, if we were to build another elementary school, of course, we could bring those capacity numbers down. And let's just say we took about 300 students from Sandy Hook and 300 students from WW Robinson. That could bring those capacity numbers down to about 62 and 64% um for each one of those schools. Uh which would be a big change for them. It would also um and I I may hit on this again

049later, but it would also then afford us the ability to have some space within those schools for growth. Um you know, as in Strawsburg, we know there's a lot of growth happening. It would give us space if we need to add more classrooms like we've had to do over the last couple years because of incoming students, then we have the space to actually be able to do that. Um, so want to also remind you that we do still have those deferred maintenances that are still there for Sandy Hook and WW Robinson. So even if we were to build a new school, those two schools still have some renovations that need to happen um as we've heard um from different various stakeholders. Um and so you can see the amounts that are still there. But if

050we were to build a new school, let's say, um, Sandy Hook, then would have room to be able to move students around within that building while we're doing some renovations to that current building. So, for example, if we wanted to do work in the fourth and fifth grade hallway, we would have places we could move those students and wouldn't have to bring in maybe trailers or move them to a different location while we were doing that work. Uh, so also then just want to talk about the instructional enhancements. I'm not sure how much you all um are aware about how we conduct our elementary schools, but each one of our elementary schools has what we call um related arts um block. They all call it something different, but it's library art, music, technology, and PE.

051And so depending on the size of the school, it really depends on how often they're able to get those extra classes, library, art, music, or technology. So, as you can see from this slide, Sandy Hook gets that uh gets those once every seven days. And in WW Robinson, they get those once every 8 days. And so, in a year, they only get 25 days of art, 22 days of at Sammy Hook, and 22 days at WW Robinson. In comparison to one of our to our smaller school, which is Ashley Lee, uh where they are able to get it in every six days, and so then that increases it to 30 days a year. Um, so that would be an enhancement that we would be able to offer our students at our two largest schools in

052the division, Sandy Hook and WW Robinson. Uh, the other thing to talk about is spaces. And I know you all have heard these things um, but we just want to impress upon you again that we do have uh, classroom spaces that are being shared. So for example, at Sandy Hook, we have our reading specialists, our sped teachers, our counselors sharing rooms. In fact, in one of our rooms, we have four teachers in one space. And actually, that is a picture of the space at Sandy Hook where we have four teachers um sharing their space. And I think they do a really great job at maximizing that space. You can see on one side they have the teachers desk and then on the other side they have desks for students. But you can see there's not

053a lot of room in there either. Um so our teachers are making the best of the situation they have. Um but of course space would always be helpful for them to have their own spaces. And at WW Robinson we have the same situation where we have reading specialists there is e teachers and sped teachers sharing and they have up to three teachers in one space. And not included on the slide but just to also let you know for reference though Ashb also has classrooms where teachers are sharing and they have three teachers also in one classroom at that school as well. Um, so not something that's new to the elementary for teachers to have to share spaces, but in in comparison, our middle and high school teachers, I'm not sure that we have any teachers

054at those levels that are having to share spaces. Maybe couples fed teachers at the high school. Um, okay. Next, we have meeting spaces. So, at the elementary level, we have all kinds of times when we need to meet with students. Whether it's for conferences with parents, whether it's for outside counselors to come in and meet with our students because we do have outside counselors that come in, whether it's testing one-on-one or we also have tutors at the elementary and sometimes they need to be able to have a space to go work with students. And then also um for our teachers to work collaboratively together. So with our title one money, we are able to offer our teachers opportunities to have substitutes so they can get together and work collaboratively on content. And so when that

055happens, there's limited spaces where they're able to go and work together um as a team. And so meeting spaces is always an issue at the elementary level. Um especially at Sandy Hook and WW Robinson. Uh lunches, we start our lunches at the elementary level at 10:45. And so if we were to have smaller schools, of course, we would be able to have lunches a little later in the day. Um 10:45 is pretty early. I believe kindergarten across the board, if memory serves me correctly, is where we have all of our students starting their day or their lunch period. Um we do offer a snack in the afternoon, which helps. But I don't know about you, but 10:45 is pretty early to have or have lunch. So anyways, uh then also safety. Safety of course is

056always at the forefront of our minds and so reducing the student numbers at Sandy Hook and WW Robinson would definitely enhance the oversight and safety and create a more manageable learning space for all of our um students at those two schools. It also would simplify our evacuation procedures. I don't know if you've ever witnessed ev evacuation at WW Robinson, but uh a thousand students come out of that school and go into what I would call the soccer field there at across from WW Robinson and it's a pretty big uh deal to have that and we have to stop traffic and everything. Um and then reducing the number of students can also improve supervision areas like cafeteria and recess. And so if you were to ask our administrators, where are kids getting into mischief? The two

057places they'll tell you, cafeteria, recess, and bathroom. And then of course, um, enhanced teaching conditions for our teachers. Uh, smaller schools can allow for better collaboration between our teachers. As you can see in this picture, that's actually some of our teachers, and they're sitting at student desks to collaborate, um, because we don't have spaces for them to go. So, they're getting to sit on little tiny chairs sometimes. Uh, and then it also allows for better oversight by our in administrators. Um, when there's a smaller school, they're able to get into those classrooms better. There's just less students um and less teachers, you know, versus at Ashby Lee where they have five teachers on a on a grade level versus at Robinson where we have seven and eight. That's a lot more. Um, and then of

058course enhancing the culture and the climate. In a smaller school, it's much easier to enhance with our students. Uh I was an administrator at Ashb Lee and moved to WW Robinson and I can tell you when I was at Ashb Lee I was able to tell you every kid's name. Um it was much more difficult moving to a class to a school of a thousand students to be able to identify every student's name. We work on it but you can also um parents will also say to me all the time you don't know how much it means to my child that the administrator knows my child. Um, so that connection that we make with students and staff in a smaller school is a lot easier than in a school that's very large. And of course,

059the thing that we all love to talk about is traffic. So, if we were to build another school, we could also minimize some of the traffic going into Sandy Hook and WW Robinson. Um, at Sandy Hook, we have one in one way in and one way out. And if any of you have been there during that time, it could be quite a feat. Um, but there's over 1,800 students all going in and out the same way. Um, and there's no separation. You know, when our schools were built, they didn't think about at that time creating a separation between buses and cars because when those schools were built, most everybody rode the bus to school and they didn't need separate um like lanes for that. And then the same thing at WW Robinson where we have

060all three schools going in um basically the same way in and same way out and no car separation. So the traffic improvement would be a big plus. And so in summary, it would help with improved school experience for our students, improved learning and working spaces, enhanced safety measures, more efficient traffic, um improved use of our time for a shortened lunch, recess, and specials would happen more often. And then um we're also primed to absorb future enrollment as as our county continues to grow and it gives us our administrators the opportunity to have places to move students as we add in more classrooms. Um, one other thing that I would like to add is that if you visit other counties um, across the state, across the nation, you will find uh, the model most of the

061time is that we have smaller elementaryaries that feed into larger middle schools that feed into larger high schools. And we kind of with this campus model have the opposite. Our largest schools in our division are WW Robinson and Sandy Hook. If you go to most other divisions, their largest schools are their high schools. And so small children need a lot more attention than high school students. And so it's harder to do that in a school with a thousand kids or 800 kids. So any questions? Yes. The slide that you had the specials on. Yes. For each school, you had mentioned PE, but it was not on the slide. I just want to make sure. So we do PE every other day. It wouldn't necessarily increase the number of pees. So the kids are getting more

062PE than they are getting now. Yes. It would increase the art, music, technology, and library time for them. PE's every other day. Just wanted to clarify. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. All right. Thank you. And Todd is just chomping at the bits to get up here and tell us. So we're going to duke it out later. Good job. Thank you, T. Come on and tell us about career in technical education. Good evening, Chairman Barlo, members of the board, Dr. Shepard. It is my pleasure to talk to you about current technical education and what triplet tech could be. Um, so as we kind of go through here a little bit talking where we are currently and some of the struggles that we've had and and where we are. Uh, last year we had to turn away

063a total of 74 students. uh 86 total kids did not get into their first choice of program there. Triplet, we were able to recoup and recapture 12 of those kids by putting them in some other program. Today they had some interest in that doesn't include the numerous and multiple phone calls uh that we get from private schools or homeschool students that want to attend triplet. Uh we do have more homeschool and more private school students than we've had in a long time in our health sciences classes and some of our other programs where there isn't as much demand. So we've been able to incorporate more students but still um still had to turn away quite a few. Going back another year uh to 23 24 there was 55 students that could not get into triplet

064uh because of demand and where we were. And a lot of that is just so that we're aware there's some regulations that come from OSHA that we have to go by that that cl that caps our classes at 20 students or the amount of workstations that we have. So, and we'll talk a little bit more as we get down further into that as we go through. We've started the scheduling process for this year and that actually that as of now it's actually nine programs that have to interview. That's this changes daily. Um, so we're up to nine programs that are at their capacity right now. Um, and so what happens is we have 37 kids that are interested in electricity. I have 15 booths. So I only have 15 students that I can put in

065there. That's that lack of size that we have. So those kids need to go somewhere. So, as we as they go through and they we find out, hey, uh you're not going to get into electricity. Is there another program that you want to get into? Well, yeah, I'm really interested in collision repair. Well, then collision repair fills up. They're also governed by having 20 students or workstations. So, then they have to interview. So, then the process just kind of continues throughout the month of April. Uh so, we're doing the first round of interviews this week. Uh electricity is going out to do interviews. Cosmetology is going out to do interviews. Next week we'll do more with auto tech, HVAC, uh so on and so forth as we go through the month of April as we

066kind of go through. So all the programs that you see that had to interview last year, those nine programs, all of them are interviewing except collision repair right now. Uh and the ninth program that's not on that list that's interviewing will be EMT. Um EMT's got some different ratios there. They have 6 to1 ratios with our practicals. Um and so that obviously that creates a lot of uh resources that are needed. So we cap that class at 16 students um as we work with Shendo County Fire and Rescue on that. The other program to note and we'll talk more about this as we go through this presentation is nurse aid is capped at 10 to1 ratios uh and that is governed by the board of nursing. So we can only have 10 students when we

067go to clinicals uh with one instructor. So it some of the ratios are a little bit different in career and technical education and happy to kind of talk through those if you have questions about that. So, we always want to know kind of what do our students want to do, where what programs would they be interested in if we could offer them if we had the space to do that. And and as we kind of go through, uh, I've always kind of compared this to a three-legged stool, right? Do we have student interest? Do we have high demand? Do we have demand of jobs and within our community? And then, do we have the infrastructure? Do we have the capacity to add these these things? So, and if you don't have any one of those

068legs, you fall down. So we did a survey in the fall of 2024. So pretty relevant data uh in grades 6 through 11 had 1100 students that reply to that. Uh and so we'll kind of march through this a little bit. When we do this survey I always include the current programs that we have cuz we want to make sure the classes that we're offering are the relevant ones. The ones that our kids still want to take. So what you see in green are our current programs. Uh we'll start off with construction. So out of those students, 457 of those students said yes, I'm interested in construction trades. And then you break it down. Carpentry 65, so on and so forth. You can see that's the picture of a house that we're building there behind

069triplet. Uh it is out in the green space. It's actually a lot further along than that picture was about 2 weeks ago. The scaffolding is down, drywall went up, inspections have been doing. So we're really we're really excited about that project. Uh the other day when we were out there, it was a total it looked like a construction crew. Hback was out there, carpentry was there, electricity was out there. You know, you had 40 kids out there hustling, bustling, putting things together. really neat project. We do that in the backyard, right? It's in an unsecured area. It's out there by the by the solar panels. It's one of the few places that we have that we can build a house. 3bedroom, two bath, 1300 foot house. So, we talk about highway space, electrical needs, flexible

070outdoor spaces. That's going to be a common theme as we march through this. So again, just kind of recapping 20 students is a cap for a lot of these or however many workstations that we have going on with aviation, right? So we wanted to see where we are with aviation. We're doing a private public partnership with us. So 130 students wanted to become pilots. Uh so as we kind of go through, we have eight students that have signed up for that class for next year. As we continue to go through the the programs and sign up, I'd imagine we're probably going to be in that right around 10 students in the first year of that. Drones is on there 62. Again, kind of keeping an eye towards the future of that. Hey, there's probably enough

071student interest where we could start a drone program. That's in a high demand field. That credential that we could offer there, that's one of the few places that takes a traditional classroom space, but I got to have outdoor space in order. We got to fly drones um for that to happen. aviation mechanic fell down on the list. So obviously there's not a whole lot of interest there even though that's a high demand field. Little recap of talking a little bit about where we are with aviation and thank you for your support of that. It's a one-year program. So they would take aviation pilot training one first semester, two second semester. Uh the goal would be that they would leave with their FAA written private pilots exam. So they would be halfway through to their private

072pilot license. Uh they would have to on their own accord get their stick time, their flying time. that would be done on their own. Um, but that's kind of where we would go. It is in a high demand, high growth area. So, that is a big topic in career and technical education right now. So, where are the jobs and do you have the programs that match? Um, and it's kind of interesting, you know, we're sandwiched between two regional airports. Uh, Lay Airport is one of the fastest growing that's around. Dallas airport is also very close. So, kids can get their private license, work up through the ranks, live here, go to work in other places, but live here and work here all at the same time. Those are two of the simulators that we're looking

073at purchasing with some of the money there. Those are FF FAA approved. So the students that get some simulated time on that, it actually would count towards their log hours. I think we can do 5 hours total of log time with that. But that's five less hours that they actually have to do when they're in a plane. So health science is by far the largest uh group that our students say, "Yes, I'm interested." So 500 kids um there that want health sciences and the things that we offer and you can again in green is what we currently offer. Medical billing and coding is new this year. Uh what I can tell you is I already have eight students signed up for that class next year. So students will have the opportunity to take our introduction

074to health and medical sciences class uh first semester and then they can sign up and take medical billing and coding second semester. So I fully anticipate that class being 12 students in that 12 range before it's all said and done. in red um are some of the programs that I think we should look at if we had the room to expand. Uh so medical lab again in a huge high demand area. Imaging continues to be in a high demand area. Mental health careers, kids want to be social workers. They want to be um counselors. There's things that we want to be. And so on the right hand side, we get all of our data from CTE Trailblazers that shows, hey, here's high demand, high growth. And that is for the Shannido Valley, right? That's not

075that's not the Commonwealth Virginia. that is locally um up and down that 81 care corridor. So where can they get jobs? Um I think the thing that I would say with those particular programs where you talk about medical lab and radiology imaging like those are we have classroom space that I could probably put those but it's a lab space that I would struggle that's going to be a dedicated space that we would need for to do medical lab right it's a med it's a dedicated space to do imaging uh for students to do that I mean we can't pick up and move you know x-ray machines we can't pick up and move you know uh readers that we would do those things with. So while we may have classroom space to do that a little

076bit, not a whole lot um in our health sciences area, it's the lab piece that is needed there. Athletic training is something that we have offered in the past and I think we are working on a plan at triplet to kind of bring that back and maybe do some things in that not this coming school year but the year after that. So that's why that's not in red. Um we're going to we're working on a plan that we will then uh pitch to Mr. Hensley and Dr. Shepard here in the in the near future when we talk about the program of study in the fall. technology courses, 85 students. This is by far our lowest category of students that we have. We have more students that typically want to do things with their hands. They

077want to build things. Um they want to get their hands dirty. At the same token, there's tremendous demand for these jobs. There's tremendous wage opportunities for these jobs. They're remote jobs. I think we have to do a better job of marketing to our students, letting them know what is out there, um because I think they'll follow that. So, we're working on some things, working with a new instructor that we have at Triplet um to do that. The one that is a new piece for us, the machine learning, the AI piece of 28 students is something that we I think we have some interest in our kids. Can they do the programming, the algorithms that are behind that? Again, high demand jobs that have great growth opportunities for us. Traditional classroom spaces, ROC, when I put

078the survey out, there was some interest um from our school board, from our superintendent, hey, do we have interest in our kids that want to do ROTC? And I think we do, right? Uh this is an a place that we where we think we could expand. Um we could do that at triplet. It's a traditional classroom space, but again it's a lot of outdoor space. Um it's a lot of storage space. They have a lot of materials that they have with that. Just want to talk a little bit about the JRT JOTC versus the NDCC. JRTC is done through the military, but they only have so many programs that they can sponsor. So there is a long list wait list for that program. So, one has to be retired before they can sponsor another one.

079And the reality is the the difference between the two programs is funding sources. JR2C is a split funding model where the NDCC is a totally locally funded model. So, if this is something that we wanted to pursue, Dr. Sher said, "Hey, Todd, we want to do RTC." I can't turn that around tomorrow, right? I've got to go through the applications. I have to get it approved. It's a multi-step piece that we have to do um for that to happen. But again, we have student interests that want to do that and you can see what services, what branches they would uh that they're interested in the most. Transportation, this is one of my favorite sectors to talk about because it is so very well balanced um for what we have. So, auto body 63, auto tech

08033, diesel mechanics 55, welding 53, heavy equipment lags a little bit with 36. I put CDL in there because we've had a lot of interest from our kids on that. There's some interesting rules with that where you can you have to be 18 before you can even sit with that, but you can be in the classroom portion before that. It's getting your learner's permit. So, is there some timing things that we could do? Just again wanted to see where our interest was with our students. I think the neat thing about this and we were able to do this when we added HVAC 2 years ago is we were able to add students to triplet. We didn't rob from other construction trades programs. And so when I think when I look at this programs here and

081I look at diesel technology and I look at welding, I see the same opportunity. We wouldn't be robbing from auto body or auto techch to start new programs. What we would be doing is truly growing triplet and adding high demand jobs that are that needed locally. The things with these programs and some of the other ones, they are high base space. They're high electrical space. They need water. They need air, right? They need a lot of things that are struggling right now that that we can't have a triple. Even our current auto tech labs and auto body labs aren't don't they don't have the things that modern labs do. So, as we look at what we have and where we're going, the need for high space, heavy electrical, heavy water, heavy air is a need

082um for our programs currently and when we build, if we build um other programs to watch, right? I think manufacturing is a big sector that we need to look at. Um there's some stigma behind that with our students. We don't have a whole lot of interest. So how do we talk about CNC and robotics and some other things that have the appeal to students, but it's also in the manufacturing world. So there's a lot of jobs. There's a lot of growth. There's a lot of high industry that's coming around not only into Shando County, but around Shando County where these jobs are available. So why I don't think hey this isn't a program that I see in the next 2 3 years I do think it's something that we can work on as we look

083for expansion and what triplet could be we could add some CNC some manufacturing some of the MT1 certifications that would help meet this need that we have locally and can attract uh businesses to the area. So triplet restrictions just kind of in summary here in general classroom space is limited. So, when we add uh aviation next year, um that's going to take up all of my traditional classroom space. I have a little bit of space in the front for health sciences, but past that, I don't have any more room um there. It does create a little bit of a scheduling conflict with our home schools. So, if you know, Spanish 4 is offered in the afternoon, the only space that I have in the afternoon is to offer aviation. student is going to have to

084choose and that's part of it and we understand that but I don't have any flexibility of when I can offer because my other classroom spaces are being used at that time. It's also limited by function. So the high base space we've talked about the required electrical for new and current programs. So we've had issues in culinary before where we're trying to run a mixer and induction burner and all we do is blood breakers. Um if we wanted to start a welding program, do I have enough service coming in to do welding right now? I don't know the answer to that. It's going to be tight. I can tell you that. But I don't know the answer to that. The size in general, we talked about I only have, you know, I've got tremendous uh interest

085in electrical, but I only have space. I only have 15 booths in the classroom that I have. I only have room for 16 auto tech students. My carpenter classroom is 300 square ft. And I put 16 children in there in a tight little space. If you were to go into his shop today and we're building three sheds, we're using all of our space as best we can um with the students that we have and we love it. Um but man, some of the space is small. It's tight. Um and if we had a little bit bigger space, we could get more kids in there. Community interface, we've had a couple of times we host functions down there all the time. We do catering. We we let people come into our spaces. Um, we had an

086event this year where we had snow on the ground and we had somebody trying to get into the cemetery. We had 85 people there. It was a little bit of a crazy place because we just we didn't have the parking space. So, some of the interface, some of the things that we do um are a struggle. Career fair, we're getting ready to do that next Wednesday. Um, and we're starting to get nervous about space. I've got 60 businesses coming. I've got about 85 people coming. um they want to meet our kids, they want to hire our kids. We're gonna make it work. Um but space is very very limited and at some point we're going to have to look to move that off site to another space because we're just running out of room uh

087for what we have. Career preparation is currently done in a closet right now. Um we have an old custodial closet that we've turned into an office. Um so we, you know, when we have businesses come in, we're always looking, hey, is this space being used? Is that space being used? Because we're always looking for somewhere to meet with people. And then just schoolwide functions when I do my beginning of the year invitation, you know, hey, welcome to Triplet. It's standing room only in our cafeteria. Um, again, good problems to have, but there's no places for the kids to be. I mean, it is literally standing room only when we're there. Uh, parking is an issue. Uh, you know, we have neighbors um that aren't going anywhere in the cemetery. We have neighbors on the other

088side um that we share that are that are in our neighborhood. But, you know, when we one of the things that we're starting to look at is how many kids can drive versus how many kids need to be on a bus and can the bus hold all the kids that want to come to triplet or do we need to add another run? Um because again, that's where we are spacewise. And then kind of flipping over functionality, right? The appropriate classrooms are spread all over the place. So, if you've been to triplet, you know, I have construction trades in all parts of the building. They're not together where they can collaborate, where they can talk to each other, where we can share equipment. They're spread out throughout the building. So, one of the best things that

089we were that we were able to do is we moved all the health sciences together. Um, they're all up there in the front of the office when Governor Sto got moved over to Stonewall Jackson. They talk health sciences all the time. They talk to each other. They plan together. They work together. And it's just a natural thing. So, if we could put construction trades together, if we could put all the transportation guys together, if we could put public interface places next to a door where we could let them in and do different things, it's the availability to do that. Um, we've got bathrooms. Uh, we recently had to put in an ADA bathroom. That was from the civil rights office. We did that about 3 years ago. Um, but then that caused some cramping of

090some spaces in our other bathrooms. Our bathrooms are smaller in general. Um, sizewise, they're just they're smaller. Um, they're out some outdated spaces. Multiple crack windows throughout the building. Again, just looking at efficiencies and where we're trying to be with that. Recently, working with Mr. Ors, we've had some water come up towards our masonry classroom and water starting to come into the building. Not today when it's been raining. The other day when it wasn't raining and I was like, "Hey, Mr. Orts, this seems like a problem. We got to figure this out." Um, he was like, "Yes." And so, we're working through that right now. So, more to come on that. And then just in general the outdoor spaces. We some of you guys that were there at campus the other day. We built another

091um parking lot out back because we've gotten a lot of cars donated and we need to have those cars donated for auto tech and auto body and the things we do. But I've got I I had to move those that I had parking spaces for my staff and for my teachers. So I had to build a parking lot. Um so we were able to get a lot of that stuff donated. Um, but now I've got 38 cars um in this parking lot that I made that have been donated to us that we are working apart, taking them apart, putting them back together um that we're doing. So, the outdoor space that we do have for teaching and learning um is becoming smaller because we're using it for other things, but our compounds are full where

092we're putting where we're doing EMT work when they're back in the building next year, when we're doing building houses. spaces on the outdoors are are becoming, you know, sparse. So, in summary, we've got more students that that want to come to church than we have space for. Uh the classes that we're offering, they're the right classes are the ones that are in high wage, they're in high demand category with plenty of student interest. The ones that we would like to offer if we had the space, they're also in those same categories. And I think we hear that we hear this often. Triplet trained is it's a real thing, right? It's something that's important to creating Shane County's workforce demands both currently and in the future. Our kids are getting jobs. Um we talk about all

093the time and we celebrate I've got 26 students that are out co-oping right now. They're working um locally um both either in Shando County or neighboring counties. Um and I think one of the things here third uh the third party feedback piece we did some uh we did our Shendo scholars interviews the other day and one of the questions that we ask our kids and we normally don't look at the look at their results. We let our committees do that. One of the questions that we asked our kids that said, "If you were a principal for the day, what would you do differently?" And of course, we got some of the typical answers, hey, you need to renovate your bathrooms. Wish we had longer for lunch. But the overwhelming answer was, you need to expand

094triplet, more kids need to have advantages to come here and take advantage of the training that we're doing. Um, so I thought that was pretty powerful. One of the one of the committee members called us and said, "Hey, look at number 11. Look at the answers to that. You might want to tell your superintendent and your school board that." And I said, "Okay, I'm actually doing a presentation soon." Um, so I thought that was pretty powerful. And those are seniors that said, "Hey, my friends need to come here. They need to take advantage of of this place." Um, thank you for your continuous support of parent technical education and triplet tech. What questions can I answer? a pretty thorough uh presentation. I don't have any questions. Thanks, sir. Mr. Street, I know. I feel I

095feel it. Well, I don't I don't know what to say. I'm I'm saying the same thing I've said since day one. It's It's definitely a need. Um there's no doubt about it. I think everybody's on board. The community is definitely on board that, you know, we need to give it some attention. We need to, you know, you do a great job uh running it and providing us with the information is a great presentation. And so I I I don't I don't have answers. So, but um uh you know, to how we can we make it not right off the bat, I don't. But, um, but anyway, um, all I can say is you're doing a great job and I hear great things about it and and, uh, the, you know, ultimately I think what it

096comes down to is the school board and and the board of supervisors, we we need to figure something out. So, thanks, sir. I think that's uh the kind kind of the bottom I'm almost sorry we got two such great presentations because uh we were in a dilemma before and I think it's even worse now but at least we're we're a little bit more read in. So these are very very helpful to us both of them. Uh but it I think it just makes our job harder but uh that's what it's all about. So so thank you. We appreciate it very much. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Thank you. Great job Tom. Dr. Shepard, we're still um doing these monthly purchases for libraries, so tell us about it. We are mine my um update

097is not as nearly as exciting as the elementary and tech. So, so sorry, but policy IIBP, library material selection, requires that new library books go through a process to ensure the selection of library materials are of the highest quality, suitable for supporting educational goals and worthwhile for the limited amount of available and most appropriate for available resources and most appropriate for students. So attached to this agenda item are the March library books and the recommendation for um approval will be um at the May 8th meeting. And you will notice that the um February library books were on the consent agenda this evening for approval. So that is where we will put future um consent. the second time we hear library books the first time it'll always be on theformational agenda. So all right and then

0985.6 modify policy IMB teaching about controversial issues. Um we have talked about this we started talking about this at the January 9th meeting. The school board approved amendments to policy INB teaching about controversial issues. Following this approval, a school board member requested a vision to the policy that would allow um administrators, counselors, student support specialists, social workers, and psychologists to respond to student inquiries about gender or gender identity in an age appropriate, factual neutral manner. The original proposed revision referred to as draft one is attached for your reference. This draft was initially presented as anformational item at the schoolboard meeting on February the 13th. Discussion was scheduled for the February 24th work session, but was postponed to the March 24th work session. At the March 13th schoolboard meeting, the board agreed to discuss policy IND

099at the March 24th work session and subsequently placed the policy on the April 10th meeting agenda as anformational item with a vote recommended for action on May 8th. However, due to a lack of quorum at the March 24th works, the work session was cancelled. So, tonight I'm presenting um policy IMB for information. The next opportunity for discussion will be at the work session on Monday, April the 28th, and a recommendation for approval is scheduled for the uh schoolboard meeting on Thursday, March uh May 8th, excuse me. So, a school board member um also drafted a second proposal that is also attached to this agenda item. It is draft two of policy INB. And then today we received a third draft which is also attached to this um agenda item and it is u draft 3

100policy IMB and it's also attached to this agenda item. So the next opportunity for discussion will be at the Monday April 28th meeting and um then for action on May the 8th. Want to uh to commend um Dr. Shepherd forgetting the last of those um submitted drafts policies there. Um we could look upon the fact that there's a proliferation of those as um as daunting. On the other hand, um I think everybody on the board is aware that they have been derived from uh collaborative work on the board and reflect their various different points of view clearly. uh and um the differences and how we can resolve them will be um what we'll be discussing at our work session later this month and then voting on in our regular schoolboard meeting in May. Moving into

101action items. Do I have a uh motion to approve the personnel list as it has been presented? I move to approve the personnel list as presented. Thank you, Mr. Ricker. Second. Thank you, Mr. Gutshaw. Uh all those in favor please indicate by saying I. I. Any opposed? So the personnel list uh has been approved unanimously. Second uh action item is uh Southwest food excellence uh food service contract renewal. Uh and do I have a um a motion for the renewal of the contract? I move to approve the renewal of the contract with Southwest Food Service Excellence for the 2025 2026 school year. I have a motion for Mr. Rickard. Is there a second? Second. Second. I heard Mrs. Carlinia. There's a second. Um any discussion? If not, those in favor of accepting or approving the

102renewal of the contract with Southwest Food Service, please signify by saying I. I. opposed. Once again, unanimous I get unanimous support for 6.2 6.3. Uh the uh schoolboard member alliance has offered um policy services designed for uh policy upgrades, reviews uh and um has costed those out at uh $2,900. We've had a chance to take a look at that uh policy services document and are aware of the schoolboard member alliance uh actions. Uh, do I have a motion to approve contracting with SPMA for these policy services? I move to approve contracting with schoolboard member alliance for policy services for an annual cost of $2,900. Thank you, Mr. Rickert. Second. Second. Second by Mrs. Carinio. Uh, all those in favor of approving the contract with the SPMA for policy services, please signify by saying I. I.

103Any opposed? None opposed. And the last action item is um the request to reappropriate fiscal year 2024 fund balance. Uh as we were um given some information earlier this evening. Uh do I have a uh a motion uh to approve the request to increase the 2025 special budget appropriation? I move to approve the request to increase the fiscal year 2025 special budget appropriation in the amount of 3,491 $491,223.78. Okay, I have a motion. Mr. Gaw second, Mr. Rickard. Um, any discussion? If that then uh those who are in favor of approving the request to increase that special budget appropriation, please signify by saying I. I opposed. None opposed. So superintendent, back to you for your monthly report. Thank you. First of all, I would like to express my deepest sympathy to the family of JJ

104Peterson. JJ passed away on March the 27th after a courageous battle with acute myoid leukemia. JJ was a great student and athlete and um he will live in the lives of the people that he knew well um and they will carry his spirit with with them. So, for the last seven for seven out of eight um months this school year, we saw an improvement in our attendance rate year-over-year with an overall attendance rate of 94.68% for the month of March, which is a nearly 1% increase over um over March of 20 uh 2024. We have enjoyed multiple weekends of excellent performances at Strawburg High School at all of our schools. Um, Strawburg High School kicked things off with their rendition of the musical Fiddler on the Roof. Central High School debuted the Adams Family musical

105and North put on their play Once Upon a Crime, the trial of Goldilocks. Um this weekend Peter Muenberg will um have their show Moana Jr. So looking forward to attending that this weekend. Also Stonewall Jackson High School once again hosted the Shannidoa County Special Olympics Unified Basketball Tournament and it was a great night. So many students, staff and community members came out to cheer on the teams and show their support for our students with disabilities. And let's see. I hope to see all of the schoolboard members next week at the staff recognition banquet where we where we will be honoring our teachers of the year, our new teacher of the year, our employee of the year, and the team of the year. At the banquet, we will be announcing the division's teacher of the year.

106So, looking forward to seeing you there. I think it's Wednesday. And then our fifth grade students at Ashley Lee Elementary School recently participated in the Kid Wind event at UVA, testing their design, presenting it in front of a panel of judges, and showing off their knowledge to a group um in a group quiz. The Wonder Woman women uh team took third place and earned an award for blade design and knowledge, while the Wendy's team earned uh the judges choice award. So congratulations to Ashfield Elementary School. Happy to answer any questions. No questions. Which takes us to school board member comments. Who wants to start off? Mike, go for it. Uh, first of all, I'd like to thank the staff at Strawber High School, Melissa Folks, Matt Heisermanman, the music department. um in putting together JJ's

107funeral. Um for such a sad time, they did a phenomenal job. Um if you knew JJ, I think he would have been happy with the the job that they did and what they put together. I believe it was good for his classmates. I believe it was good for his family. um just a phenomenal job. Kudos to them in such a hard time. Um in my 52 years of being on this earth, I don't think I've touched or made an impact in as many lives as JJ did. He was a phenomenal young man. Um so just a huge thank you to the staff at Strawsburg High School. Um next, Melody, you represent well. I like the purple tonight. Um, also I don't know how many of you all were able to go by and see, but

108um, we had the personnel committee meetings this past week at Central High School campus and Strawsburg High School campus. Um, I want to say thank you to Rich Shocky. He uh, he met with me, showed me quite a bit of nice equipment. They have a great studio set up at Central High School. Um, if any of you all did not get to see that, it you should make a point to go out there and see the equipment that's sitting there collecting dust. If only we could find somebody certified to teach an elective course on that campus. There's a lot of great equipment there that that I believe students would have a field day and learning to use and operate and having a class. Um, so if you get a chance, go out there and make

109a visit. Um, he's happy to show it to you. He did a great presentation. Um, it was all equipment that was bought with, uh, uh, funds and grants and now, like I said, it's just collecting dust. It'd be nice to see it used again. Uh, the other thing I would like to talk about is the, uh, situation at Sandy Hook. Um, I'd like for us as a board to act quickly and start looking at getting some trailers back on that site so that we're not in the same situation come August when we start the new school year. Um, I think it's unreasonable to ask for sped teachers to share a classroom with our most vulnerable students. Um, I was out there. I witnessed it. Um, you know, these are students that are easily distracted and

110you're asking four different classes of kids to all be instructed at the same time. Uh, Grant, when I was there, it was only two teachers giving instruction, but to hear them talk at the same time, being in the same classroom, it's not a big classroom at all. Um, if you get a chance, go out there and check it out. But if we could if we could move quickly on talks about putting trailers back out there this summer so it's ready for August, I'd like to look into pricing on that and see if we have the money and the budget to do that. Um, other than that, that's all I've got. Well, I guess I can go next. Um, I have a few just a couple things. Um uh as Mike said, we did have our

111personal committee uh meetings. We just concluded all those in all three campuses. And I want to thank every single one of the staff and the teachers who came down and participated. Um these sections have offered a great opportunity uh for us to see what's working or what's not working. Um it was actually very nice to see that a lot of the complaints that we had last year uh which was mostly in regards to the planning time um has been resolved and it has been resolved uh thanks to Dr. Shepard and her um team and the leadership um that they have um undertaken to change the calendar and actually provide those additional professional days and and planning time for them. So I'm very happy that we did that. Um it was also nice to uh every

112time we get a meeting like this I always ask um their opinions on the cell phone vans and so far all that we've gotten has been stellar. They're really happy about it. Um I think the only complaint we got in one of them was that they wish we had done it earlier um before the the start of the year. But overall they're all happy and I think um it's working out very very well. Uh the other thing was on April 2nd we had our mental health task force meeting. Um, in this one we had students from our more students from our middle and high schools um come over and share with us things that they um think are working or there are obstacles in in what we're looking in terms of their students well-being. Uh

113I mean that's what we're meeting about when we're talking about the mental health task force is what kind of things can we do to help our kids um be happier basically. And um it was really interesting to see that among all the tables that we had and we had six tables um peer support was was key uh for a lot of them. Um peer support and also involvement in school activities but school activity involvement actually a lot of it came from that peer support that the students were getting. So so that was really great to hear. Um the main obstacle that a lot of them saw with in terms of getting involved um has to do a force with transportation. Uh what kind of transportation do the kids have after school? Uh I'd like to

114say that we are working on those things. Uh we're working to see if more schools can have more of that student uh peer support. And also with the transportation, you know, we have that model right now from Stonewall Jackson where they're providing this um after school snacks for the kids who stay over uh for activities. So if we could do that at all our schools and maybe that's a way that the kids can just stay in the schools and not have the problem with the transportation. Uh one thing that was also very interesting uh from that mental health task force that the kids it's not something we asked them this is just something that they um volunteered was to see how many of them were influenced by their experiences with their home churches back at

115home um and young life. a lot of them were just really um happy and and they were more involved because they had that support with their churches and their student groups and um and it actually helped them here at school. So that's something to uh keep in consideration in terms of what the churches are doing um out in the community. It is appreciated. And related to that, um I did attend the um end of year celebration for Dolly Dolly Robinson at Antioch um uh church and it was a beautiful thing to to see. Um it was just great to see the kids were so excited. Um they obviously really love the program. They love their teachers and it was just very nice to see also the parents there with them celebrating with them um that

116milestone of finishing this year. So I highly recommend it for uh all the parents who have you know and kids who have not tried it yet. I think we need to keep on spreading the word because you could see in in in the kids and again it goes back to what we were talking with the mental health task force how this involvements are really helping our kids do better not just in life but eventually in school. So I'm just going to leave it with that. So, thank you. I'd like to take a couple of minutes and address something that is uh perfectly obvious and it is so obvious that we often overlook it. And the subject of that is trust. It was Daniel Lamont. All of you know him, of course. He was the secretary

117of war in the second Grover Cleveland administration. Grover Cleveland served two non-consecutive terms. And for the life of me, I can't think who that other elected president was that was elected to a second well, it'll come to me later. Anyway, what Daniel Leavon had to say was this. Public office is a public trust and public education is a public trust. We sit here as a corporate body made up of six people and we make policies, approve practices, designate resources, approve personnel for leadership positions. The public holds us accountable. If we violate the trust, bye-bye. We're gone in four years. But we're not alone in that trust. I mean, these folks over here on my left flank and the right flank and the people who are not here and worked upstairs and and all the schools,

118they share in this trust. And the parents expect safe delivery of their students, uh, instruction, healthy meals, clean schools. The same bus that picks up my the same bus that picks up my uh neighbor who's a fourth grader and delivers him safely to school brings him home and dad is there and a sense of relief that uh the trust is there. So, I commend you for sharing in that trust and please accept uh this accolade of of the trust of public schools for all of our students and all of our employees and all of our buildings and and so forth. Thank you, LB. Appreciate that, Tom. Oh, gee, I don't know how I'm supposed to file that. Thank you. Um, now real quick, Mr. Bowman, it's a good night for you, isn't it? Yes. We're

119not done yet. It's not how you start, it's how you finish. Well, sorry. Sorry to jump the gun. You're finishing strong. Col must have something planned. Anyway, don't trip on me. Uh, as always, I want to thank everybody, the staff and everything for everybody does. Um, the efforts and everything. Um, real quick, um, just touching base. Uh, I did attend, you know, um, I want to heard it before tonight from Steve and and, um, Gloria. Uh, very great program. I was able to stop in one day with Kathy Riner giving class and it it's it's a great thing and and definitely support it. Um visit the you know piggybacking with Mike Rickert um Mike down there with Sandy Hook. Um you know got down there one day and saw this the issues and um you

120know we need to do something. We might not have the answer right now, but um but we need to do something there to help that situation out. Um no doubt. Um I want to thank uh Sheriff Carter, Sheriff's Department. Um had the opportunity to meet with them and and anyway, want to thank uh you know, the bottom line is it it I think um Sheriff Carter and Dr. Shepard, you know, work together. uh you know I understand like I was telling them you know our role is teaching and learning their role is protect the community and but you know I want to thank them for helping us out and working with us um with the sheriff's department. Other than that, um it's a this time of year, we all know the budget. Um uh you

121know, actually I uh I don't know what words I want to say, but you know, I have to commend Board of Supervisors, the stress that they're under. Um because they have, you know, they have to look at the whole picture. Um not just, you know, the one department, whether it's the the school system or the the fire and rescue, you know, trying to make everything work. And as we all know, there's only so many dollars, you know, um that they have. So anyway, um but that's all I have. Thank you. Thank you, Talent. I had a couple opportunities to be at Central, I guess, over the last few weeks. Mike talked about um we met with Rich Shocky, he's done a great job there for many years. um very unfortunate that we have all the

122technology and um broadcasting tools around there kind of just collecting dust, going to waste. So hopefully we can find someone moving forward at some point that would be qualified to teach um a course there to put that to to good use because I know he even spoke on it. There is a lot of interest from kids at the middle school level moving up to the high school level. So, um, thanks to him for that. Got to be at Central whenever it was a week or two ago when the new athletic director, um, Carrie Keys was there for the first time. Um, he's coming from East Rockingham. Really, I think a great hire for us. Um, I think he'll do a good job with the athletic program and, um, looking forward to seeing what he can

123do there. And uh just wishing all of the students and teachers good luck as we reach the end of the year with a lot of testing going on, trying to stay focused um before thinking about going to the beach and you know enjoying the time outside. So um good luck to everyone as we wind down the rest of the school year. Thank you. I have two short things and one that's going to take me a little longer. The the short thing is I do I think it's it's really terrific. I think that the feeling on on the board about Bible break and is very strong and the community is to be um congratulated for we talked about the the houses of faith in in our county and how they came together for this. I'm always

124proud of the fact that the board that Kyle and I came in on the I don't know if the first or second thing we did the first thing we did was probably get rid of the masks and the second thing was approve. We did one or two things right. we can, you know, at least downhill from there, right? Just at least a couple, you know. No. So, that that's good. Anyway, um so I I I really I do think that that's a good thing. I do have something of substance that I actually wanted to get started tonight. Uh and I promise I'll be as quick as I can. Um most of us on the board are aware of. Um Josh Hler, who is a um a real cracker jack lawyer. Pass those out. Glory. appreciate

125that. Um and he did a webinar in last month and he talked about uh some of the things that were happening uh in in terms of uh the transgender issue and and where we stand as school boards and you know what position we should take because there's a even on this board there's um you know how how aggressive are we at implementing the Trump agenda and and so forth and and so this is this was something that that he spoke too. And uh one thing that resonated with me when he spoke was he said the um did I give you pass down? I'm sorry. Um he said um the center of gravity here is u the v the Virginia high school league in that um the the Trump uh executive order 14201 on February 5th

126which is entitled keeping men out of women's sports um has been um accepted the by the BHSL but the problem is that they have no policy that is actually workable. Uh in other words, uh and working with SBMA asking of questions, um the executive director there has been in in contact with the BHSL and what they have done, they have accepted the um the Trump u executive order as a way ahead. uh and yet uh they haven't changed their on the ground tactics as to how they enforce this and uh they have actually the BHSL has come up with this concept whereby schools self-report when they have a a transgender student playing. Well, that's you know that's something that somebody could ignore and apparently there's no repercussions to doing that. uh and yet there's no

127way for anybody else to inquire about the students uh gender uh because that the BHL BHSL considers to be would be a uh FURO violation. So they're kind of in a position where they're doing nothing uh even though they're claiming to uh claiming to be uh in conssonant with u with the Trump executive order. What I have done is um I have um drafted a resolution. A resolution is a short duration nondirective opinion uh from the board if the board so chooses that would take a position on uh in this case and I'm not going to read it. I'll give you I'll put it there in front of you. uh on um taking a position that we would go to the VHSL and think that um and not think and suggest that they create a

128workable uh set of uh of ways to uh to enforce this executive order and not kind of trying to run out the clock with a with a um with a system that um isn't very responsive or very effective. And so um uh what I would what I would request the members do is this is it clearly says at the top uh top and back is a draft. Uh if um if you feel this is in order and want to pursue it, we can do so. Uh and um any changes, this is a rough draft. Uh any changes would be welcome. Uh and u I would further ask the superintendent if um we could um again if the the board corporately decides that uh this resolution would be acceptable or one like it uh that we

129would be able to put it on on the agenda for action. Um and um I also in contact with SPMA uh have um if if this resolution goes through that we would not only present it to the BHSL for recommendation but we also would ask SPMA and other divisions around the state to follow suit. So um since uh Josh Hetszler has uh identified this his words not mine as the center of gravity for where we are in this issue now I I think it might be in order for us to consider it. So I uh I distributed to the board members for their consideration uh and if it's something we want to follow up on corporately then we'll ask the superintendent if we'll include it in future on a future agenda. So uh Mr. Chairman,

130on on item four where it states uh with the stated policy of prohibiting males from participating in women's high school athletic events, isn't the u isn't there also some incidence of females participating in male sports? There is, which is another topic for maybe another day might be included in this resolution. I that's up to the board and if we want to if we want to insert it here that's fine with me but um I I wanted to keep it as as simple as possible based based on the you know the the the prime aspect of this of this uh of the policy that came down. Well I don't think there's any doubt that the way it's written is the prepundonderance of the incidents but there's also the reversal. Yeah. And again, we could I don't

131think this is Robert time and place, but we could talk about the rationale for why or if you know the converse that is u a girl participating in a boy sport and and there are rules and regulations that have to do with that as well. So we that that be up for up for discussion. Mike, did you want to say something? I'd just like to point out this was something I introduced last year when we were doing the model policies. Um I'm I thank you for putting this together. Um my faith in the VHSL diminished quite a bit when they did not come out. I mean it took them being scolded on social media and the internet before they before they followed the executive order. Um, and that being said, adding to what LV said,

132I think the main thing there is the girls that participate in boys sports are participating in a sport we don't offer for girls, right? And they're already at a disadvantage. So, um, that being said, thank you for doing this. Yeah. And and again, that discussion will, I hope, come up before we get there. I appreciate your input. Thank you. Okay. Um, with that having been said, um, I'm ready to entertain a motion for adjournment. Move to adjourn. Mr. Gutch was almost out of his chair. Second. Second by Mr. Carlinia. All in favor of adjournment, please signify by saying I. I. And the meeting is adjourned at 810. Man, we are knocking it out of the park. But don't eat him.