0015:30 I would like to call to order the sheno County School Board uh meeting uh and uh particular session will be the closed session uh do I have a recommendation for meeting in Clos session oh I'm so sorry um I recommend that the shanid DEA County School Board can be a Clos 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 22- 3711 A14 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 22-37 11182 in pursuant to the provisions of the Virginia code 22- 3711 a29 to discuss the award of a public contract involving the expenditure of
002public funds do we have a motion to that effect I move that the sheno County School Board convene a closed meeting under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act in order to discuss and consider several Personnel matters involving the assignment appointment promotion performance demotion salary discipline resignation under Virginia code 22- 3711 A14 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 22- 3711 A2 and pursuant to the provisions of one Virginia code 22- 3711 a29 to discuss the award of a public contract involving the expenditure of public funds including interviews of biders or offerers and discussion of the terms or scope of such contract or discussion and an open session would adversely affect the bargaining position or negotiating strategy
003of the public body thank you Mr gon for that motion a second second second by Mr Vance uh all those in favor please indicate by say I any opposed none uh we will meet in close session with the goal of returning here at 6: p.m. e e e I would like to uh reconvene uh the shano County school board meeting uh we had closed session now we're going to reconvene an open session at uh 6:13 uh and I would like to have a um motion to reconvene an open session I move to reconvene an open session thank you Mr gsha second second second from Mr Street all in favor please signify by saying I I I any opposed not opposed uh so let me um read uh the statement uh of our closed meeting certification
004the shenet O County School Board hereby certified if I by roll call vote that to the best of each member's knowledge only public existence matters lawfully Exempted from open meeting requirements by Virginia law were discussed in the closed meeting to which the certification resolution applies and only such public business matters as were identified in the motion convening the closed meeting were heard discussed or considered by the chido County School Board each member responds ISO certify when called chery Mr stre ISO certifi M car is so certifi Mr gell ISO certified Mr Vance ISO certifi Mr I so certifi Mr I so certified Thank You Cher we begin a new cycle of uh of our invocations beginning of the new year and from uh the first district that would be me and so um I'm going
005to ask you to join with me in an opening prayer father we do thank you for this time together we thank you for this great County and this wonderful country of ours we thank you especially for a wonderful teaching Ed educational environment that we have we thank you for the teachers in the front line but we also thank you for everybody else who contributes the the drivers the Food Service folks maintenance health care workers or nurses the um the service support specialist the central staff what a team what what a team that we have and we're so thankful for every every group that works together and with each other and uplifting one another we thank you Father for the ability to meet in a free country and to discuss these things we pray for civility
006uh common sense and discernment as we make decisions based on what is right for our goal here which is the education academic achievement and whole uh person health of our students in this County we pray that you uh that your spirit be with us and among us this evening as we discuss these things and we pray in Jesus name amen please join me in our pledge to the flag I pledge Alle 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 I have a um motion to approve the agenda as it has been presented to us I move to approve the agenda as presented thank you Mr gacha second second second Mr Rickard thank you
007all those in favor of approving the agenda as it has been presented please sign signifi by saying I I I any opposed Noone thank you and we're moving on to recognitions um Madam superintendent thank you the shanida County Chamber of Commerce in collaboration with the school division coordinated the student leadership shanida County program to encourage students to develop and Implement their leadership skills in their schools and Community the student leadership program aims to give young people the knowledge tools and context to create successful leaders and instill and nurture a sense of civic responsibility this program offers a forum for our Young Learners to express their goals and to export shenoa County's government businesses and Community um at tonight's meeting students who completed the student leadership shanida County program this past summer will discuss the variety
008of experiences they've had in the program and I would like to introduce Miss Sharon Baron jelly who is the director of the Chamber of cols thank you very much Dr Shephard and I'm going to turn it over to our facilitator for this year being our fourth um collaboration with the school system for the student leadership program Mr F all right I'm Kyle kokonut I'm an English teacher at stall Jackson um this year I had the opportunity to be a facilitator for our student leadership um week and so uh the week for our students I think it's a eight-month program for the adults uh they kind of boil it down to a week for uh Rising Juniors and seniors um and so for that week for us we went um a couple different places we went
009to uh had a day for um the healthare in our County we did local uh businesses uh we did some local agriculture um got a chance to go see uh some of our local government and talk to those people in our local government and had a week where we introduced students to to uh multiple aspects of our County uh I will say for me personally I've grown up in Shor County my whole life and during that week got to see a lot of things I didn't even know went on in our County so uh I think it's really impactful for our high school students to be able to see that early uh I wish I had gotten to see some of that earlier myself um and the leadership they'll be able to take with that
010is um I think going to serve our County very well um by learning that stuff early on so I would like to go and turn it over over to these ladies um hi my name is Anna Bible I was a student at the leadership program this summer um it was really impactful to see what all the people in the community do I didn't know most of it myself and it was also beneficial because all three campuses and even homeschool students get to come together and we get to collaborate and learn different leadership tactics throughout the whole week um we explored many different places like he just said like healthcare government and a lot of it took a lot of critical thinking that I wasn't necessarily wanting to get into during my summer but it was
011overall a great experience and to see all the hard work and dedication each member of the community puts into their either their business or their job is very amazing um I'm Addison sylvus I was also a student at the leadership program that we had over the summer um it was it was something it was definitely different um it was very nice to be able to get with everybody um from different campuses people that I didn't even know um and kind of learned about their life their background and what brought them to this program um not only does it like form different relationships throughout the kids that are in the program it also helps with like your thinking on your aspect of life and like what you deal with in every day and what somebody else
012could deal with in in every day because not like all everybody was in the program was all from different backgrounds and to me that's like something that I want to know about and so when we were we dat a nonprofits and that was something that really intrigued I think everybody that was in our group um but I will say our group was kind of quiet and I'm not very quiet me and an um so we did a lot of the talking we did a lot of the questions um we asked a lot of questions we answered a lot of questions um so it definitely helps if you have a vocal group doing it at one time um and I think I think the way that our school like got it out to our students it
013was like through flyers and our principal at the time actually kind of like tracked some different people down and like different teachers down to see what students they think would be beneficial to this program um and I think that really helped there were only there was no one from Stonewall or no one from strawsburg no it was Stonewall nobody got there from Stonewall but um it was really cool to have home school students that you wouldn't really think that would be there um be there so yeah it was very it was very awesome we loved it I don't think there was a single bad thing anybody said about it yeah we'd like to thank the school board for allowing us to do it during the summer and also the chamber um like Addison said um
014bringing everyone together was great and we would encourage other people to take it it's a week long in the summer and I know most kids won't want to spend their summer but it's a great opportunity just to prepare yourself better for the future and see what everyone in the community does the chamber um you the micone the the chamber started the student leader the leadership program eight years ago and that first class came back and said we really need to take this program to the students so emulating is as coach said uh over an eight month with adults we are cramming in in one week for students so it's a lot and I love when we hear the the parents say that they what did you do they come home and they're exhausted as as
015we are keeping up with them but just to see the change this happens to be one of the best programs we have that the chamber coordinates and we can only do it with the collaboration and the support from um Dr Shephard and the school system and Dr hegard many of them have been leadership graduates themselves so seeing the students and the quality of students we have this has been our fourth class it is just wonderful they come in on Monday which they share during the summer um not happy at all to be there we start early each day of the week and by Tuesday Wednesday they're taking charge and really excited and and and it is it's amazing for those who have born and raised here the amount of information that they're seeing behind the
016scenes that takes place in running our County and we hope the whole the whole point of our leadership not only the adult and students is is to um raise our our future leaders and and have them come and raise the families here and start a business here so it's very important program we love it we hope you all will continue to support it and we get as many um get to meet as many quality students as we have in the past four years it was a wonderful group and these folks are going to go far and we expect them to go far here in our County so thank you again I have a question how many students do you get every summer we've had 12 we've averaged 12 yes this was the first year the
017first very first year there was not representation from strawsburg and then last year was the first time we at St representation from Stonewall but it is a uh application process it's open and we take up to 10 for each um campus and Rising Juniors and seniors okay we may Li limit the we started pull we pulled back on the groups it's hard to take them in when we go to a Bowman and go to Mercury paper to have a large a large group plus it gives them a better opportunity to get to know each other in smaller groups too good when are those applications accepted we will be submit I need to get those to uh Mr Dr he Gardner U next week they will go out to the system throughout the system and um
018they are due March 1st thank you for doing that thank you thank you we we love it our the business Community loves it that's great thank you all thank you thank you thank you great job girls thank you that's our only recog that is it all right we had um schedule uh two different um sections here for a public comment one was to be dedicated to um public input on the budget specifically and so we had that uh scheduled separately but uh as of this moment we have had no speaker sign up for public input on budget unless there is somebody wants to speak to that topic uh we will move to the next uh public uh input on um other agenda or non-ag agenda items and I have uh two names uh from people
019have signed up here is that correct we do have two for pre-budget you're good you're good okay okay so um so for again this is for um agenda and non-agenda agenda items and the the first uh speaker is in wine King thank you good evening members of the school board Dr Shephard and citizens of shando County on October 10th 2024 present to the members of the board images of structural conditions and building concerns of Sandy Hoke Elementary since that meeting some of those concerns have received the attention of the Virginia Department of Labor and Industry Virginia occupational safety and health local news shendo County Public School Employees and concerned parents in our community due to the negative attention action has been taken to begin the process of addressing necessary repairs however what may be even
020the more concerning issue is that all of these things presented in that October meeting were already known by the central office the majority of the items presented have dated back several months and even years my question to the central office is where was the concern and commitment to address these issues before now I inquired at a previous board meeting if rrmm Architects pulled the maintenance records and request when Gathering data to calculate the school's facilities comption score I believe the members of the board and parents of our students deserve to receive an answer to that question and furthermore how much money was paid for the assessments by rrmm and future thing in the 61 slide presentation given by Dr Shephard and rrmm on August 19th 2024 titled the shendo County Public Schools facility condition assessments
021and triplet Technical Center none of the images photographed reflected the extent of some of the structural issues in our elementary schools also when I emailed the central office about capacity issues especially with the annex removal I was me with replies that formulas were used to calculate the uses usage of our space and we had room for growth I challenged the accuracy of those findings especially when they were conducted while no students or staff were in the building I given you images of how Sandy Hook is attempting to function at its current capacity which is full it has been stated that our school has not yet reached its capacity however I would like to raise an important question when determining capacity did you consider the unique needs of students with disabilities as outline in their individual
022educational programs and 504 plans or was this evaluation based solely on the number of students in the building assuming a one- siiz fits-all model of Education the problem with this traditional approach is that it fails fails to account for the accommodations that many of our students require accommodations that are often necessitate additional space and resources for example there's a teacher in our building who when administering tests must utilize up to five separate rooms to fulfill the accommodations detailed in her students plans these accommodations are not optional they are ferally mandated to ensure Equitable access to education but their implementation one king your your time is up I'll finish the sentence and I hope somebody follow but their implementation places a significant strain on the fiscal space available in our school can I assume that you're
023a crystal Hower holler holler we'll get it right ready additionally some of our students with disabil are given instructional Services daily in makeshift hallway classrooms while other students can frequently be seen being tested or receiving daily remediation for reading math and tutoring in hallways and even the cafeteria these are not conducive learning environments especially for students who already face significant challenges prior to this Academic Year our teachers working with students with disabilities each at their own individual classrooms providing them with the dedicated space necessary to implement their students I APS effective ly however this year three instructors are sharing a single room the individuals with disabilities Education Act idea is a legal document that requires schools to provide specific services for our students with disabilities many of the services outlined in our students IEPs in
024504 plans such as small group instruction onetoone support and read alloud testing require dedicated space in quiet environments these legal requirements are becoming next to Impossible to implement because of a lack of adequate space in our building the extensive work that our professional teaching staff invests into these educational experiences of our students is also negatively impacted when testing and assessments have to be done in distracting areas like our hallways our current student test scores may not accurately reflect their abilities simply because of the inappropriate spaces being used to measure their skills if nothing is done to address the capacity issues at the elementary level I believe the majority of our teaching staff would agree that the learning achievement gap between students who need specialized instruction and those who do not will naturally increase elementary schools
025are the foundation of our public school student population it's here that the eligibility for special education services speech language reading math behavioral and mental health needs are identified and supported all of these interventions have the ability to positively impact the trajectory of a student's educational success and their future contributions as a productive system will the school budget for scps in 2025 2026 be a proactive statement that supports the future needs of our students or will it continue on the current path of reacting to the emergencies of past neglect the cost of construction and expansion are only going to increase in the years ahead and this county has already waited over 30 years to address these issues that's all thank you let's the um the last speaker who signed up is there anybody who has not
026signed up that would U like to take the floor if not we will move on uh do I have a motion to approve the F the following consent agenda items I move to approve the consent agenda as presented thank you Mr Guta is there a second second thank you Mr Rickard so there have been a motion and a second to um approve the consent agenda all those in favor please signify by saying I I opposed none opposed we are now moving into the instructional agenda portion 4.1 and uh Dr Shepard you're going to give us a report on status of weekday religious education I'm actually going to turn it over to the weekday religious education board well this is just part of the board D Shepherd Mr Barlo and Schoolboard members thank you for giving
027us time to speak about shingo County weekday religious education and to bring an update on exciting news for the next chapter for our instructional opportunities I'd like to introduce those who were able to come out Steve Jennings and Kathy Rivers our executive director Pastor George Bowers Pastor David Howard and Pastor Dale Bennett and I am Pastor Katie gosin and as you know we had a long tradition in shendo County until 1990 when a lawsuit brought the chapter to a close little could have we imagined that there would be a coming time during the pandemic that discussion to a resurrection we once again to take hold in February of 2021 an invitation was sent out by a group of Brethren pastors to all the churches of the county and became the answer to so many of
028our prayers how often does God use times of Crisis to draw his people together in Isaiah 40 or Isaiah 43 puts it forget the former thing do not dwell on the past see I am doing new things now in the springs up do you not perceive it I am making a way in the wilderness and in the streams and in the way lands now just a short four years ago the work of w began with Brethren and Presbyterian Lutheran and United Church of Christ Baptists non- denominational and more to do God's work together petitions and support were provided to you the school board from 27 churches and over 1,000 individuals and so we are thankful that in January of 2022 the school board voted to allow W to return with a vote of 5 to
029one seeds began to take root as we started with a four-week class on St Patrick's Day of 2022 that taught about the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ our students our classes have been able to receive students from the three elementary schools beginning with those first 21 fourth graders we welcomed in 2022 2023 Academic Year we had two grades with 35 students on the three campuses and then last year the program grew to over 100 students on the three campuses with children from second third and fourth grades go God has truly directed and guided our work together as a community we're grateful for the support you've been able to provide from your support to the many churches and individuals who have stepped forward from the Yellow Barn Redemption Hill Church of the Nazarene here in
030Woodstock and strawberg Presbyterian providing us meeting space to ball clubs selling us their buses from businesses sponsoring our fundraisers to the most important gift of all God raising up a wonderful faithful staff of teachers AIDS and bus drivers W has been blessed beyond measure and so here we are tonight and it is with great joy that we announce the addition of the fifth grades starting in March starting February 25th 25th and after meeting with Dr Shephard and Miss Proctor on December the 20th we were pleased that plans were put in place for w to begin providing fifth grade classes and they will start our days on each campus with the earliest sessions so Tuesday Ashby Lee Wednesday ww Robinson and Thursday Sandy Hook our class classes will be provided second third fourth and fifth grade
031so it's our pleasure to introduce to you our new executive director who started in August we' have been blessed to have Kathy Rivers as the director for shinoa County weekday religious education starting with this Academic School Year good evening I'm excited to give you a an update about the weekday religious education program um we also call it Bible break because it gives homeschooled and public school kids a a time a break during their school week to praise God learn about God and um know that they are truly loved by God and our community I'm happy to say that we have 153 students currently enrolled in W this week this this year excuse me um and this is across the three campuses um we as as they told you um we work with second third and
032fourth graders our largest classes have 25 students and our smallest classes have 12 every class has a teacher and a teacher's aid and our teachers combined have 40 Years of teaching experience so they're really great in the classroom they're so enthusiastic and they really love the kids Britney aders is our teacher for Sandy Hook and WW Robinson and um Kathy Reiner is teaches the Ashby Lee students Britney is also the teachers's aid for Kathy's classes and I'm the a for Britney's classes the teachers at each school um are responsible for dismissing the students to go down to the office and then the aid then picks up the kids um in the ERS of the schools um I just want to say that they've been doing a great job this year um you know remembering to
033send the kids down and we've had a really large increase in attendance this year because of that um the teachers Aid is also responsible for taking attendance before leaving the school keeping the kids safe on the bus and helping the class it's a 5 minute bus ride to each of the locations and um so we end up having about 30 minutes of actual class time the the the actual time from the time we leave get the kids and bring them back it's 45 minutes each grade has a different curriculum and um during that 30 minutes what we do is we pray we focus on a Bible story and we do an activity from um a workbook or other craft things like that the kids are also learning American Sign Language to praise songs so it's
034really fun to see the kids they um get so involved in um making the motions and very excited about their songs in the blink of an eye it seems like we have to get back to the school and what we really want these students to know is that they are valued and they're loved not just by the community but by God am we also want them to know that God is only a prayer way that no matter matter what situation they find themselves he's always available anytime any place and for all of their lives and as Pastor K said um we're adding the fifth grade classes effective February 25th this year and um the fifth grade class at each campus will be from 8:15 to 9:00 a.m. we had a single donor donate enough money
035for the entire year of fifth grade classes so that was extremely generous and our whole community supports Us in so many ways and we're so grateful for that the theme of the fifth grade this year will be faith in action the teachings of Jesus there'll be an emphasis on navigating the Bible and learning how the Bible applies to their lives if anyone listening here today had knows a child they'd like to sign up just go to bible.org and fill out a permission form we'd love to have more children in our program and I just want to thank um Dr Shephard um and the school board and this community for your support well it's always a little bit dangerous to offer a microphone to a preacher much less a couple of them U but thank you
036for the opportunity to be able to share a little bit this evening um about 50 over 50 years ago now I started my education in this building um not far from where we're meeting right now actually in the first seven years were here in this building and part of those I had we across the parking lot in what was the old a building from when it was in high school years before that Miss Lambert um was my teacher and I still remember she taught us where to find the book of Psalms in the Bible just open it to the middle and so um I'm very thankful for that foundation and then four years ago uh was back in this building to pitch we um along with some of the other folks that are with us
037here this evening and you were asking some very good questions and I was worried we weren't going to know all the answers and I'm thankful you didn't ask some of the questions we were worried about um but uh you know God has led the way and we've discovered many of those answers and he's good about that as we step forward in faith he shows the way um we're thankful as cat Pastor Katie mentioned for our executive director um Miss Kathy the Bible George Washington said no Nation can rightly be governed without God in the Bible and um I think that's true not only for Nations but certainly also uh even for homes and for counties as well and so very thankful we would emphasize again this does not replace the church it does not replace
038Christian education in the home it supplements it compliments what is going on there and we're thankful to be able to do that we had graduations at each of the different campuses um this past spring we're looking forward to doing that again this coming spring and celebrating those children that are finishing their time in wre so God's at work he's always at work and we're thankful for his work in W um you know seeds I think that started out one of the comments at the very beginning about seeds that are planted and many times sometimes seeds take a while to germinate and then grow and then produce fruit and so some of the fruit from w we won't see in our lifetimes but it will come thank you for your support for your cooperation and for
039your help with WR s County if you have any questions we'll be happy to try to answer just want to remind you it was at the banquet in strawsburg when I asked you I said why aren't you all doing fifth grade I want applaud all of yall for following your calling God is good thank you for what you do yeah thank you and one of our our issues was was funding and and actually the wholesome butcher from Wholesome foods came through and we're uh very supportive and we're very thankful for that partnership I also saw how you auctioned off those cakes and realized you could still sell that cake for another you guys are great at doing that you brought that one to jump in and say real quick um I was thinking back while
040you were talking about 2022 U chairman Barlo and I had just gotten here and I know that was something that we heard a lot about before we got here in the community was that there was a lot of support for this and getting it back in into movement um I recall it started pretty slow at first around 15 to 20 students um but I think you know my rationale was I'm sure chairman Barlo shares this is if you can make positive impact for one kid especially with all the evil and difficulties going on in the world right now as we all see um it's a good thing so I'm appreciate everyone for what you are doing um long term I think this is going to be really good and we'll continue to see it grow
041so thank you for your work thank you for your support then and now I'd also like to uh while you there I saw yall breaking for the back but you I'm a little bit of a Preacher too but anyway um so I just wanted to make you guys know that uh something you already know which is our staff has been so incredibly good at linking and working with with with you guys and it would be very I've worked in lots of secular schools and universities in my life and U it's not always easy to get the the the secular teachers and administrators to to to work with you guys and it's been really heartening to watch that Synergy occur so thanks thanks to both groups well and I will add to your comment that this
042year when the staff presented us with a schedule where all one day at one school another school as opposed to trying to get our teachers and staff all over the county it was a an answer to prayer and a gift beyond belief and has really changed the uh the feeling and the and the motivation and all for our staff so thank you they they've been tremendous thank you guys so much thank you um hold on [Laughter] getting out of that quick I I really appreciate everything that you all do and I really I I highly support um we and and so I really want to thank you and appreciate um I have two questions if I'm allowed to ask I'm just kind of curious how much are you allowed to say how much it cost
043to fund this annual uh year yeah our our budget for this year um is going to come in at about 125 5,000 for the year um to be able to support our teachers our a bus drivers materials and maintenance and all of that how much 10 what 125,000 oh wow I'm wasn't expecting that high yeah we weren't either but we want to honor our staff we do you know our staff has been fantastic okay um the other thing and maybe you'll have an answer 30 minutes doesn't sound like a long time is that the most they can get is that because it lines up with classes or something yeah the release time is actually about 45 to 50 by the time they're released and then brought back and so part of that is transportation time
044yeah I get that but there 45 minutes it does align with the specials um music art PE those types of things yes I guess there's no way to squeeze in another five or 10 minutes okay I'm trying but thank you yes okay all right thank you very much thank you thank you yes we're going to move into our informational agenda and um topic um of the town of sturg uh receiving a grant to expand the Strasburg uh River Walk is here and there we're going to talk about some options for that and so uh Dr Shephard he'll take it from there y so I start and then I will um introduce um our town of strawsburg friends who are here to um help explain anything any questions that you may have but the town of
045strawsburg has received a grant to expand the river the strawsburg river walk with a goal of enhancing access to the shinida river the grant will fund the entire cost of the project which includes extending the River Walk Beyond um schellsburg high school and adding a parking area and boat ramp at the opposite side of South Holiday Street from salburg High School um So currently if you will look at this map um you will see there are two options um on the board agenda item there are really three um but I will go through those really quickly and then um ask our our friends from the town of strawsburg to come up um and add anything that I have missed but the um option one would extend the Riverwalk that one is in red um to
046um the the boat launch and then to the proposed parking area there on the left if you're looking at the map but um that that option one would um wind its way around um the track in the football stadium at um at strawsburg high school um it would give the visitors of the football games um access to the bleachers um away bleachers a little easier than they currently have because currently I think they walk around the track if I'm correct option two which I believe um most of the board members favor is um the red there on the right and then it goes into yellow across the bottom so it kind of goes right along the um the river and then to where they want to add the boat launch in the proposed parking area
047um so option three is not detailed on here but that could be just to add the proposed part paring area which is um land that shinida County Public Schools owns and then add the boat launch there um on the other side of holiday South Holiday Street so if Miss Melanie shite and Miss Melissa vley would come up they can answer any questions that that you would have thank you guys for having us so real quick just to option one option two the reason option one became an option was because we met with coach heiserman and down at the bottom here on the yellow one it runs a l wrong with practice field so that's why it came up and when Matt was talking the way that so it ends up there at the track that's
048where the current Riverwalk ends now he was the one that suggested around there and coming down to give access to the bleachers for the opposing field because it's just a grassy area and it's really hard for people to access it right now question how much the um practice field does that take you know terms of yards or so Matt and them said that they practice up to like the tree line is where we wanted to go is my understanding it was going to be like 8 to 10 feet that it would take from that from the tree line up into the practice field and I think one of the concerns about weaving the um the Riverwalk in the campus is that there would be students on campus during the school day and and that was
049that was the big concern um about yeah we're not for you know anything that's going to do with school safety like that's not our our goal it ends currently right now it ends in the student parking lot right there so it comes into school property oh it does already it does yes um and had it not been for Matt suggesting it because you said people are because of the way strawber is laid out it's a little different from all the other campuses so sometimes people are already down there walking on school property but just keep in mind they're walking away from the school in the parking lot they're not a lot of times the kids are walking that track during the day that was my only alarm when Dr Shephard and I discussed it that's
050why I was big with option two there's no reason to have people that close to the track during the school day um yeah I don't like that either and in all my years of my kids playing sports for stollberg I've never heard a visiting team complain about going to the bleachers over there I talks a little bit about um option three I mean or let me just say which one from your standpoint makes more sense so option two was the one that was presented Matt's the one that because they didn't want to lose part of that practice field and I understand that I get it Charlesburg girls so football's a big thing I get it and there's options we talked about our Engineers maybe making it just a grassy patch there to try and help
051keep the practice field so we don't take away from on it he was also concerned with when they are practicing if people are out trying to walk on the River Walk and they're out like tackling and then they just Collide or something like that option three is what she was talking about is if you will tell us no you can't do it at all and it ends where it does up there at the parking lot which would be with a little white thing it would end there there would be no connection and this over here is behind the old middle school that goes down to the river it would still put the boat ramp and the parking area in there that's my idea for you guys not ideal okay that's I just wondering if he
052was you know scenario you would we would still be able to get access to the river that's what part of the grant for the Department of Forestry is is getting people into the river that's their whole goal being a resident of the town I like what you're doing I like option two option three I don't think does anything for us I think they proposed option three as a worst case scenario if if we weren't going to agree to option one or option two the school board wouldn't agree to option one or option two then because it still does put it on school property so I'm just making sure like it is on school property and one thing we also talked about too uh I have a colleague that works at James James County and down
053by Williamsburg they have signs that they put like you're not allowed on that part of the river wall during school hours because they have a that goes through school property as well but they have those that are available I'll pass this down so they can so the intent is to um have this as information this evening with the intent to um for it to be on the February 13th action agenda okay thank you thank you thank you very much appreciate you guys have any questions just let me know thank you the next informational item is on policy 2bp Library material selection uh Dr Shepard you going to lead us into that one yes I will so when policy um ibp Library material selection was approved at the December 14th 2024 2023 school board meeting the
054school board included a one-year sunset provision for the policy um this past December members of the school board conducted an informal review of policy IP by visiting the libraries of each school to assess its implementation and Effectiveness on the scheduled review dates two school board members visited each campus spending approximately 45 minutes in each Library the visits uh provided an opportunity to learn how the policy was was working and to gather feedback the meetings were hosted by The Librarians and school administrators and central office office staff was there discussion centered on the guidance provided in policy ibp and its implementation a key question guiding the conversations is the policy effective and how can it be improved school board members also posed additional questions to Librarians to better understand the policy's impact the board members who
055participated in the visits Consolidated the feedback and took summary which um I believe will be presented at this evening's meeting and um the library material selection policy will be presented for approval at the February 13th school board meeting I didn't time that very well uh thank you Dr Shephard I'd like to give a a little synopsis of what happened as a result of the uh Library visitations that occurred uh first of all I want to give a a shout out uh to the um to uh school board members of Kyle gut Shaw and uh for Larry Vance uh for comprising uh two-thirds of this team of which I was a third and we did visitations to the libraries um 13 through 20th of uh December as a runup to the winter Hol winter holidays and
056um and I have passed out a position paper uh to the Schoolboard members and and to the clerks which you have now which is a u which is a report on the findings and the conclusions of that team uh each team I met uh were only two school board members at a time meeting with other members of um staff the central staff the administrators of the school and the Librarians and uh it was um trying not to characterize it as much as just give you the the the objective uh discussion points but I can't do that because it was such a positive experience for those of us involved and it was hard not to be excited about the synergies that were in play uh it was clear that the Librarians as professionals uh were uh
057passionate uh dedicated uh Librarians who are literally on fire about their job uh it was also equally evident that uh uh doctors um Shephard and hind Gardner were also invested enough to be at all the meetings uh that the uh administrators of the schools were there and um certainly not not not least um we had um uh Chad Hensley and um Jennifer Proctor who were at at the at one of the two was at all of our meetings so at a time just the week before Christmas to get everybody together uh in such a positive spirit was uh actually um quite delightful to me and kind of let LED off the me the Christmas season in the right Spirit um the the reason for the visits is that we did have a one-year suspense State
058on our policy it was a very complex policy we weren't sure it was going to work because so many levels the ones I've just mentioned were involved and uh weren't sure that that policy was going to be able to stand the test of of time with that level of complexity but indeed it did and everybody seemed to be excited about about what um what had happened um I'm not going to go over the discussion points here with the um with the school board um but I I want you to to take these uh and we will be discussing these probably at the work session with the idea of promulgating the and extending the policy into next year and into indefinitely uh and there is one but I will read the one major recommendation uh which
059was seem to be Universal which is that instead of uh having the selection materials cycle occur in a semiannual basis it would be on a monthly or or every two-month basis uh so that the word would work would be more evenly um distributed through the year but the basic concept of having all the stakeholder groups involved in this process to make it more transparent to the county and to our parents uh and our community members uh was um I think a arousing uh success and uh I haven't mentioned the um the advisory Council composed of the parents and community members who uh played a large large role in this so any one of those organizations um uh could have could have just gum this up and instead everything flowed wonderfully well so um my hats
060off to each of those groups I'm GNA if you don't mind I'm going to take a moment to ask um my two partners here uh if they would just give me a a sense of a sense of what they saw and felt because not all three of us were not at any one meeting together we split it up so that we purposely were only two of us at each particular um meeting and um so Kyle we'll start with you and then work our way down to Larry yeah I think it was a good experience we gained a lot of good insight into the Librarians thing we learned things that we probably didn't know beforehand um like chairman Barlo just mentioned the big theme was that the Librarians felt that they needed um to be able
061to get their book requests in more frequently which is understandable um only having it every six months or so can be difficult so that's something that we're going to be taking into consideration and I think every single librarian mentioned that exact thing so um good to get that information and just hearing about what they do on a daily basis and some of their insights on how the policy Works what they like about and what they don't I think was helpful for us and uh that will that information will allow us to move forward with improving what we already have in place and putting something in place long term uh that can positively impact our community along with the Librarians too so we want to make sure that we're parents are involved with these kind of
062decisions and know what's going on and and we want to be fair to our staff as well I was delighted to have the opportunity to visit the northern campus uh Mr gut Shaw and the southern campus chairman Barlo and uh it was a unique experience and aside from the uh summary which the uh chairman has pres presented to you I'd like to take a couple of minutes and add my thanks to the Librarians for their Hospitality their sense of professionalism uh how they welcomed us and one other thing I would add um it was uh as the chairman noted very close to winter break am I right and sometimes kids get a little surge of energy but uh things were in order in the campuses that I visited and I'd really like to uh to
063commend the Librarians the six that I met um I didn't visit the central campus that was left up to the other two folks here I'd also like to commend The Librarians for the um I guess the word would be their Ambiance in the library it's so attractive um well organized inviting and the other thing that struck me in my discussions with the Librarians the six that I met is that they were demand driven what the teachers wanted what the kids wanted what they wanted but operating within the confines of the of the library policy so my commendations to the six Librarians that I met and I hopefully uh all of you will have access to the U position paper policy review that's that's been compiled thank you they appreciate that uh to wrap up um
064I will say uh we um we as a board I don't think should make the decision as to how frequent these these U the cycle should be conducted and we're going to toss that back your way Dr Shepard for you to U work with your staff and and specially Librarians and find out what what you tell us is the best uh operational cycle and then whatever that is we'll we we'll be I think as a group we'll be very happy to put that in there but these uh in in the policy but some of these discussion items I was particularly um happy to hear that the that the Librarians are as concerned as we are with the balance of things in the library and that they're trying to achieve that kind of balance we're talking
065politically we're talking about sociological we were talking about fiction non-fiction and very very aware of that of that balance and I think the uh the one thing that I want to stress going forward is that I'm so proud of this uh division for its academic progress over the last year and um setting a high bar for raising expectations and greater academic achievement and I I think we need to include the libraries in that group as well because that's the if you will the free market of reading and ideas uh and if students can be challenged upward there in terms of expectations of reading and and interests uh that will just build um a greater sense of uh growth and and invite the kind of intellectual uh and emotional growth that we want from our from
066our students so um I I want to endorse what um Mr Vance has said that and that the uh the nurturing aspect and the the the demand driven nature of the Librarians U also encompasses this uh desire and need to increase our um the educational um awareness and level of the students who who visit them so so anyway uh the um I'm inviting the the Schoolboard members to take a close look at this and then we'll act on we'll probably have no you madam superintendent will have a a recommendation very soon for the for the timeline and then we can include that in our um in the school school um motion to to move ahead and accept the uh the policy so certainly all right thank you so much the next uh informational item is
067um on school board Norms Dr Shepard you're up again thank you at the December 9th school board meeting we um A draft copy of the school board Norms was presented and um asked if anyone had any um additions or recommendations for changes on the school board Norms I have heard None So at the um February 13th meeting there will be a recommendation for approval of the school board have question point of interest um I do have some recommendations for this I just wasn't sure exactly how we're doing this um so I wasn't sure when we're discussing this or when we are making our recommendations for this um is that something that we're doing now today or um or how exactly are we dealing with this so if I remember correctly it's been a month ago
068but um I asked for any um changes to the Norms to be sent to me before winter break and um or by January 2nd I don't remember um and so that's you know and I was going to incorporate them in the draft however if we need more time to do that I'm happy to incorporate changes into the draft before the next um the next meeting okay iess I guess my question was I mean is this something that we're going to do as a policy that we do amendments here or is this something um that we're doing kind of close session to send it to you and then I mean what if um what I recommend goes against what's already in here I guess that that's what I'm asking are you just going to do like
069a separate draft and we're just going to have to discuss each draft I just don't understand yeah I I don't know I would have to see your changes before I I could have a recommendation but I'm happy to um to look at that and but my recommendation would likely be that um we have a Pres present um present it for approval and if there are two versions then there would be a version A and A version B and we can work from those two okay very similar to probably how we did the gender identity policy okay because I I guess the question is because there's several issues here that we're talking about that have absolutely nothing to do with one another I mean one would be with the agenda setting meeting and when we as
070members are allowed to um bring things up for the agenda and then the other ones I see it has to do with a closed session and whether we can have devices and not so um so it's two completely different issues um so I wasn't sure if we're going to be discussing one first then the other um second or how exactly um I just thought I assumed that it was going to be like a policy that we were just going to be able to do the Amendments and kind of discuss it as members here um in front of everybody that's so that's fine I'll defer theair yeah so um we've been we've been having discusses discussions about Schoolboard Norms um throughout the year and there is um there's ambivalence because um it is a very flexible
071document and yet at the same time is a very um it's a very uh user friendly document uh and so I don't think anybody's really suggested any specific line in line outs as of yet but I think I think we're open to that as we're we're looking taking a look at at the uh at the Norms because it's our our Norms to change or to maintain so um I think uh and again is is is there is there time allotted on the work session for us to do that because we but but but but nobody has yet made any changes with the exception of superintendent who who has U who has added this one com this one concept of of eliminating electron devices in the Clos session why why is the superintendent making recommendations on
072our board Norms th this this is something that was discussed maybe a couple months ago about whether we wanted to do this it's been here for two months there has been no discussion we can certainly have discussion about it I think us as a board should be writing our own board Norms this thing about electronic devices I mean we're all adults here uh I believe in transparency number one number two I have a son that still plays sports for strawsburg and when I'm here and he's playing I'm looking for score updates for my wife and stuff like that I don't see why or if Miss carinia wants to have her laptop in there and she wants to research something quickly um to me we should be able to police ourselves and hold ourselves to the
073level that we should be at we're conducting ourselves in Clos session well I I think I think your point is your overall point is exactly right the Schoolboard norms for us us to decide and so we can make them as specific we can make them as general as you want the question has been um as Mrs carinia just alluded to there are aspects of it that have caused confusion this year uh specifically in one case about about how agenda items are brought forward now if so if we want to uh if we want to um change those that this is the opportunity to get word in and it can me any number of things and we can take them one by one or we could take various versions of them and then just decide as
074a board what we're what we're going to go with so this is ours to decide as as you suggest uh but there have been there have been U comments from various qu ERS about the fact that since it's not a tight document as such that it it becomes one of interpretation sometimes and that often causes heartburn right and I know I have brought up some of these issues already um so the question is because I do have um I I agree with Mr rord um with regards to the uh electronic devices you know if we're having consultation with an attorney I would like to have my um computer so I can actually look up this statutes or the case La that they're actually bringing up um there's another question about the confidentiality of the uh
075what's said in the uh close session and I want to make sure that when we say that we say the confidentiality as mandated by law because not everything that is said there is necessarily confidential so that's we need to kind of U make sure that when we say that we're not infringing on anybody's uh First Amendment rights um but most importantly I'm more concerned about the deadlines for the um agenda setting because we've had this conversation before whereas historically and I've talked to a lot of people who've been coming to these meetings for many years um we've had the opportunity to present cases um or or policy the Thursday before the meeting just seven days before the meeting and then at the November meeting I was told no no no we have to do it
076at the agenda setting meeting um which I understand that we have an agenda setting meeting that is perfectly fine we should have a meeting where you guys can sit down and say we're going to discuss budget in this one we're going to discuss um Personnel in this one you know whatever you want to do just kind of have a major scheme but the the law is very clear it says that board members are allowed to bring in policy up until the point where that agenda is actually made public and agenda is made public on Friday so I would say that by Thursday or Friday um would be the time that we have as a deadline now I know there's some concerned that um that we're going to have too many things on the agenda well
077if that's the case and there's other ways that we can address that we can decide that every time a policy or an issue is going to be brought up maybe it has two members sponsor that you'll have a sponsor and you have a co-sponsor um so there's a lot of things I want to talk about this and I just wasn't sure if I assumed I guess originally that we were going to be talking about this at the organizational meeting um I guess that was my fault I just didn't understand um I still not very clear what's going on um so the question is do we discuss this as an issue you know as an action item next time and bring in our amendments or do we have a separate work session just to work on
078this because the way I see it there's several issues that we're going to have to discuss and maybe get some legal opinions on that as well I I think there's nothing wrong with having a uh a discussion on the concept of the Schoolboard Norms at a at a work session I think it can inform the uh emotion or motions that we want to bring forward about or various options about which ones should be or will be brought forward uh to be discussed there there is a there is a a a point here that we have to understand that the Norms are exactly what they're called they're normative ways of doing things what we in the Army would call Doctrine it's kind of an expected way of doing things but there's flexibility I think uh we
079need to where we find that there is confusion make it specific just realizing then when it gets specific then that shuts down some some aspects of of flexibility also want to really didn't want to get into this but the um there are reasons why there are gestation period for some of these things to be discussed some of it has to do with just the public being aware of what's Happening some of it is so that we can talk each other and and do some some research about what needs to be done and to get information from the staff and others about about what it is so we have a full a full explanation of what it is that we're trying to to to investigate here so uh there are reasons why there are what there
080are suggested in the Norms there are levels of of U of approaching and deciding these issues so I'm all for it let's have the discussion let's come up with any line in line outs that we think should be made for the for the board norms and I I I suggest that we kick it off at uh at a work session I'm not sure if we have a a session yet I mean a time we can do that we're heading right into the middle middle beginning of budgets this season and and we have a lot to do but um I think we might be better off there than coming up with nine different versions of we what we think are the especially since we've had two months when people have been invited to make and we
081have no input well like I said I mean I have talked about this and I thought that we were going to have it was just like everything else and even the agenda setting meeting is just things are not very clear for some of us or either that or the goal post keeps changing and and it's very hard to understand what's going on what I would suggest is um because nobody is is arguing with your point I understand how de station appears I understand we're doing it a certain way that nobody's actually arguing with that um the question is you know what are the rules so that we all understand um what our expectations are and what we should be doing um however these are board Norms that actually are going to be um ruling us
082not necessarily the public so my suggestion is um I do think that we should be doing this in a work session where anybody's um invited to come over and listen to us but that way we don't have to waste your time um talking about this um board Norms um at a public hearing but that's just my opinion I I I didn't know understand that so are you saying you you do I would rather I would rather talk about all this and all the issues that we have with the board Norms at a work session not a public um hearing well the work session is public but as I said they're welcome to come because it is public but that way we're not taken away from these other issues we just make it a work session
083to talk specifically about this issues absolutely so would you like me to take that as an agenda item to add um for the next work session sure good I'll talk to the superintendent see if we can work that out the final informational agenda item uh has to do with the U increase of the special uh budget uh and so here comes Miss Campbell thank you Mr chairman and good evening members of the board Dr Shephard um the agenda item before you this evening just requests the increase in appropriation for your consideration on the special budget as is normal every year the videoe does give us our final allocations after the year has started which does require changes in our Appropriations the net change based on our title fund allocations is an increase of$ 14,653 197
084we are not requesting any action this evening we will be asking for that action at the next scheduled business meeting in February I'm happy to answer any questions thank you thank you appreciate it all right we are into action items uh the first is um dealing with the Personnel decisions that we've been briefed on uh and so the superintendent has recommended Personnel actions on the list that we have we have reviewed uh do we have a motion to approve the Personnel list as it has been presented to us I move to approve the Personnel list as present thank you Mr Street for that motion second second for Mr Rickard all those in favor please signify by saying I I any opposed no thank you um 6 point 6.2 um at the October 10th uh 2024
085Schoolboard meeting Schoolboard member requested to amend sections 3 D4 and 3 D5 a policy gbab jfab privacy dignity and respect for all students and parents in shendo County Public Schools um is there a motion uh related to that uh proposition I move to approve policy uh dbab JF Hab uh privacy dignity and respect for all students um and parents in shimo County Public School school as per Senate with the removal of sections 3. D point4 and 3. D5 section 16 I mean 3. D6 will be renumbered as section 3. D4 thank you Mrs Carino is there a second I'll second thank you Mr Ricker uh discussion so Mr car read off um so the reason I had actually um recommended this is because um when we first passed this uh policy back in sometime the
086spring um I think a lot of the board members have relied on um some muchat faulty uh legal advice U saying that we should have uh this section in our policy however um and actually it's very timely because just today uh there was a nationwide decision that uh actually renders that section illegal so um rather than keeps something that is that could potentially open us up for additional litigation um I think it is appropriate that we go ahead and eliminate that section and um that way uh make sure that we clear any potential loophole for somebody trying to um uh sue us under that section that we have kept in that policy and I'd be rather I mean I'd be happy to answer um any questions that people have um a lot of that has
087to do with First Amendment um and that's what the uh Nationwide decision of state of Tennesse versus Migel Cardona um has actually stated that uh expanding the meaning of the UN basis of the sex to include gender identity turns feral line on its head um it also said that the court remains persuaded that the final rule offends the First Amendment for the reasons explains in this prior memorandum opinions and orders and we've had several cases I I know we've been talking about this for so long um and I know some people may have um already kind of Forgotten but I passed out several um opinions and several articles that we've had um over the past a few month of several schools uh here in Virginia we've had two we've had one in West Point Virginia
088we had one in Harrisonburg Virginia we recently have one in Ohio as well where schools are having to settle sometimes half a million dollars lawsuits because they had um policies according to what we um having the policy right now so I recommend that we eliminate it and by that in that way be um u in accordance to the law as we have it as of today if these amendments that are proposed or approved this evening are we abolishing the U parental consent portion of the U where a parent May uh specify a uh a change in their identity so right now as it stands uh a parent can still go according to our uh policy through all the Hoops that we had put before and if they can change the students's identity then they can
089do that what they can do right now is write a note and say from now on everybody in the school has to call my girl a boy um and and that is what this is eliminating if you look at the policy uh right now as it stands um and I'll direct you right now if I get a second to find it um I can tell you exactly what we're talking about the um we still have parental rights in the policy um I think I believe it's a paragraph after that after the one that we're eliminating and that's the one that still deals with the um paral rights and I think it's expressly it expresses it it says right in there no policy guidance training or other written material issued by senoa County Public Schools May
090encourage or instruct teachers to conceal material information about a student from a student's parent including information related to gender having a spouse that works for our our school system um it it concerns us very often uh we ran into this years ago with with with a set of twins that came up with our daughter and all of a sudden one of them wanted to change identities and expected School staff to go along with it makes it quite difficult when you see a child come up through the school system all the way to high school and then all of a sudden want to change and of course other teachers have schooled have uh sued school districts and one where they were compelled to have to parti participate in that um so I think this amendment runs
091counter to uh Virginia code um section 12401 a parent has a fundamental right to make decisions regarding the upbringing Education and Care of parents child thank but what you have is you don't have a right to tell um all the teachers that they have to um you know to have to adopt something um and that's what all these cases have been about that we can't tell the teacher uh that they have to call use a pronoun that goes against the um the national birth and that's what we have um from y right now that that's what we had um however this particular decision our attorney general Mi is we are actually a party to the original Law um so that's why I had said before that we should have change it that's when I first
092uh introduced this now we have this decision that makes it a national decision so it's going to Trump um everything else that we have right now the parent still has parental rights the parent still has the right to do whatever they want um within the law uh what this is affecting is what we're telling our teachers um that they have to do or not do and that's where we're having a conflict with the the um First Amendment um as you know the first amendment is going to Trump everything else so the Constitution is going to be able to Trump all this decision it doesn't matter what the the code says in terms of this so um so that's what we have right now and that's what the court said today when they actually granted the
093national Nationwide decision it was originally an injunction what they've done right now is they granted the summary judgment um so when you grant a summary judgement that that's pretty big um and um and like I said it enjoins all the other um courts Nationwide it is a First Amendment um argument it is a First Amendment argument but the First Amendment denies a prescription of speech and it seems like we're prescribing to our employees what they may or may not say no what we're saying is that we're not going to force them to do so right now if you have a stu a parent who says sus sweet Joe and their teachers want to call Susie by Joe they can do that what you can't do is have every other teacher have to say oh yeah
094she really is a Joe that that's that's a difference you can't make a teacher participate in a family's decision to make a girl a boy or a boy a girl you cannot violate the the teachers First Amendment right to speech or the First Amendment right to religion the freedom of religion and so let's let's establish some ground rules here as we continue so um we want to hear from everybody in turn uh please be recognized uh first so that we can um now I low a little attitude here because you asked us some questions we had some q&as and that's been good uh but i' I'd like to um to make sure that each each other person has a chance to speak and then we'll we we'll go back so uh we've heard from uh
095Mr carono and then Mr Vance and bickard um Mr Guta do you have anything to add pass for now pass Mr Street nothing right now okay um I I I have something that I'd like to say uh and then and then we'll go we'll go around again um the um it's kind of confusing the way it's been put I think but um when we dealt with the what what we what we called the transgender policy back in January February we were dealing with the U with the what what's called the yonan transgender policy model and that was uh sent out as a as a document uh with uh which uh Ag mayaras and and Governor yunan had developed um at the time we passed it as a group we had strengthened it somewhat uh we
096had taken that uh that policy and we added to it a couple of uh protections that uh I think in the as we were developing things it became known as kind of U and maybe I've got this wrong you guys will clarify it uh the rickord version is that correct it was something I know that you Gloria and Mike had been working on and those prot uh we added uh which were protections against um the te teachers specifically well why don't I just read them um notwithstanding any other provision is policies chanov County's Public Schools shall not compel discipline retaliate against or otherwise disadvantage any student teacher staff member or other person to address or refer to any students using pronoun pronouns or other words inconsistent with the students actual biological sex or is reflected
097by the official record no person including any student teacher staff member may be disciplined retaliated against otherwise disadvantage for his or her refusal to participate in school sponsored activities uh or events Andor the teaching of principles related to sexual Andor gender identity now those protections um essentially took the yunan model and if you will uh in the terms of the day made it more comprehensive stronger um at the time and I believe still today uh that version is probably the strongest version of the um of the uh transgender I'm Loosely calling it The transgender policy uh in the state of Virginia the the exception might be the county of Hanover which has come up with a a different way of taking a look at this which is kind of creative uh but uh but they
098have a a pretty strong one as well and it has a parallel track uh that has to do with u as Athletics which is which is another important topic on this uh involved here nevertheless uh I I took particular uh particular uh pride in the fact that we passed what I think was a very uh conservative uh policy which still allowed for parents to uh exercise their rights uh through the naming their children and what their children should should be called and named and um and if if the records reflect that through some official change that they've made then then we respect that we may think is wrong headed uh but we but we don't have the right to CH to change that I'm um I'm concerned that if we go further and I see
099really no need to do it because uh the schools that are being sued are schools that have failed to pass these bills or these policies and therefore are still in the process of uh disciplining uh teachers and so forth that is not happening in our school system in our school system um sorry to steal your line I'm going to do it Mr Man but if it ain't broke don't fix it I didn't say ain't it's used a lot so anyway um we've had a pretty good system a pretty good um policy this year and things have gone swimming L swimmingly last year and this year uh and I would not like to see us put at the cusp of um uh risk of having uh people now beginning litigation based on par parental rights that's
100really not the hill I want to die on uh is denying parental rights um I think we have protected our teachers to the utmost in terms of use of retaliation uh or any other disciplinary uh with the with the with the policy we passed I last month uh when uh Mrs Carino brought this up I I'll put a quote down let's good she said um that what she wants to do is basically clarify the policy and and I I think the policy is in really no real need of clarification I think it's pretty clear by itself but if we were to take out the two Provisions that wants to take out we indeed add ambiguity into it and that ambiguity could invite um adverse U attention to our and and who knows litigation to our
101to our policy which I believe has been solid so that's all I have and we can go around again I'll take turn um now have you read this decision um that came down today any of you today today uh yeah I mean it's basically the final rule on the other decision that I had actually brought before um so let's just take this um one by one what we're trying to do is we're trying to get rid of the not withstanding this rision of paragraphs 2 and three of this section sh County Public School Personnel shall refer to a student by a name other than one of the student official record or by pronouns other than the appropriate to the sex appearing on the students official record only if an eligible students or students parent has
102instructed chinor County public schools in writing that such other names or other forms can use so this is not about parental rights at all this is about what personnel it's it's telling School Personnel that they must use those pronouns now whether the other uh school district have passed this policy or not is completely irrelevant um what this what those decisions were based on were actually based on judicial opinions um including this one which like I said is not just now applicable to Virginia Which it has been all along since the injunction um the preliminary injunction was granted but it's now applicable to everybody whether you're here in New York in California so what this is saying okay what we're talking about has nothing to do with parental rights it has to do whether we are
103going to be able to force our Personnel to have to refer by using those um those pronouns and what the court was very clear on right now is said no you cannot do that the court remains persuaded that the final rule offend the First Amendment for the recent complain prior in the memorandum opinions and orders so I mean we can try to muddle the word the the water Seer and try to say oh this is about this or about that no this is has to do not with parental rights not with retaliation has to do with what we tell our Personnel our teachers our receptionists our libr anybody that they have to do what we're saying in this policy and the court is saying no you can not do that because it's a violation of
104their constitutional rights so in the end it's up to you uh I mean this board will vote on this um in a way yeah if we get sued um I know how it's going to end up because we have the opinion right here um so it was just a matter of trying to clarify it just making sure that um that everybody understands that our teacher that all our teachers are going to understand that they're not going to be forced to use this pronouns um and that's what this does that's what eliminating that section does um but in the end um sure just um um don't don't I would ask that it please not be turned into something that it is not um because this is actually very clear but in the end um yeah it'll
105be the decision of the board so you're saying that this upbringing Clause of the code of Virginia it has no legal effect based on this court case what I'm saying is that when it comes to this that the what the law that is actually going to dictate this is what just happened today what what the court actually decided and this is actually um we have another case that the Supreme Court has already spoken on U that is similar to this so I'm pretty sure this is going to continue and it's going to be the the the law of the the nation and that will be um um that's what this has to do now I don't remember what what was the code that you read it has to do with parental rights because again I'm
106saying this is not about parental rights this is about personnel and what we tell our teachers at the cannot do so it it's two different things and I would ask to please add you know let's the the four point uh the previous four the six that is not going to become the four is the one that talks about all that uh about the parent parental rights and the student records and all that kind of stuff this is about whether we force our teachers to have to use the pronouns or not and I do know in fact that there are teachers here um or or Personnel that are concerned about this because I have heard about it so so we can't just say that it may or may not happen most likely won't happen the whole
107point of us putting policy together is to say okay if this happens this is what the law is so that's well my what we have to remember is Virginia state law when it comes to the student record in the computer system it shows what they were born as my wife being an employee of shannona County and working in the office she has that access she's the receptionist she does kids coming to and from school every day um if you bring Susie to school and go hey I want Susie to be called Joe my wife's always known Susie as Susie it should be up to my wife whether she wants to participate in that or not knowing by looking at the official record that Susie was born a girl you can't force an employee to partake
108in somebody else's lifestyle um Tom Cheryl driving the school bus a student she's known for six years all of a sudden wants to be a male instead of a female should we make sh participate in that I mean that that is the cusp of this whole thing okay Mr G I just think when we pass things that we have to make sure that they're absolutely bulletproof and I don't know I mean I think what we have is good could it be improved probably somewhat but I think we do have some reason for concern with parts of this so that's kind of concerning to me um I mean everyone's kind of brought up some good points here we realized that we don't want staff members to be put in particular positions but at the same time
109um we also need to make sure we're you know following the law and not setting ourselves up for litigation and I mean we could think that we're going to win but this is what the law says I'm telling this is what the law says there's already teachers in Virginia that were awarded over a half million dollar because they didn't participate yeah there were schools that have not passed this policy completely school that that's not that's exactly no this we're talking about the laws here it doesn't really matter what a school says in terms of the policy that is absolutely right Mr Street school 575,000 for violating First Amendment rights of a teacher who refused to use transgender student proun okay so any of our staff listening right now you're not required to participate in this
110okay um I'll take the floor and uh I I I think you should remember the two protections that you put into this thing that made it stronger that obviate the very thing that you're talking about so the only thing in play now that's I'm going to finish I'm going to finish that was incorrect though you you guys did not put those those two Protections in there no we voted against it because of those Protections in there yes sir no yes these were the ones that had to do with retaliation and I yeah retaliation I did put retaliation this has nothing to do with retaliation that's something complet that's a different section of the no that's what you put that this with the protection so we added in here go back and look no we voted
111against it because of that well there it is it regardless how it got there it this says that there can be no compelling discipline retaliation against disadvantaged students teachers staff this is the protection this is the protection that was not accorded in Harrisonburg city and therefore when the school took action against those teachers the school system and the school board was sued successfully for $450,000 now the school's not have to pay it the insurance company or the taxpayers is going to have to pay for it that's unfortunate but we have we have something that protects our teachers from that plus it indicates that the name that is resp is expected to be used is one which is legally viable a name that has been if somebody wants to change a name and it's legally changed
112then it's legal and we go with it so I have a point of order I have a question for you since you just just said that so then what exactly do does it mean when he says no withstanding the provision of paragraphs 2 and three of this section um Personnel shall refer to a student by a name other than the one student an official record can you please explain that to me then yeah can you give me the the paragraph please the one that we're trying that we're talking about right now number four number four the very first sentence says not withstanding the provisions of paragraphs 2 and three of this section sheno County Police School Personnel shall refer to a student by a name other than one in the students official record only if
113an eligible student or students's parent has instructed sh County public schools in writing that such other name or pronouns be used but why do you think Personnel shall refer means well it has a subordinate clause which finishes the sentence no but it says no the main Clause is personal shall refer the personnel has to do this what's below it that's why I'm suggesting that we if we take out if we take out sections 3D 4 and 3d5 we're taking now out two sections of the of the yunan approved model that now are is going to cause internal conflict within the the within the um policy itself and as Mr Vance points out will'll put us at risk with with violating Virginia code that is incorrect and talking about four and five and let me just
114say something about the Y policies because I think we talked about this a lot um and and it's interesting actually because I just spoke to Governor ying a few weeks ago about this and this was supposed to be the very bare minimum when when he drafted those model policies that's what they're called Model policies uh they were meant to be the very minimum that they wanted other schools to do because they were hoping that maybe schools that had a more hybrid or a more split ideological um political IDE ideology in their boards will be more willing to actually cast that which in fact did not happen um but it was actually written in the policy the model policy that says that they would like for schools to actually be more um comprehensive in what they
115did which is what we did now this just just to make sure that we understand um this was written and when when Ying wrote this um what year and a half almost two years ago um what well before these legal opinions came up whether the legal opinions that we're talking about that was just um released today or the Supreme Court or even the ones that U Mr Rickard talked about in terms of the settlements so um so at the time at the time when they wrote that they did not have the legal precedent that we actually have right now and again I must um State the fact that Jason Miis our attorney general actually participated he was one of the attorney generals who participated in this lawsuit so we were already um under it under
116the injunction um the preliminary injunction but now there a summary judgment that it applies to everybody else uh again it we're talking about nothing to do with parental rights but we're talking about is what we are going to be telling our Personnel that they must do shall do shall same thing as must do so it's not saying Personnel may do this Personnel may want to do this um no it's saying Personnel shall do this and that's what we have right now um to me the the law is very clear the decision today is very clear um what it says and what we're trying to get rid of right now is very clear but again um if you have a different interpretation I would love to hear the u under you know the explanation Bas in
117law um of what how that means something else and what I'm reading well let me respond to the last point about yonan P passing the thing a year and a half ago or a year ago um several of us um five of us in the board attended the spma policy uh or the Empower uh presentation Symposium two weeks ago Governor yunan attended and spoke uh AG Miis attended and spoke um the uh two of the lawyers that we have depended on through spma Josh hler spoke and um Butler's first name was this his first name Benjamin the the but the the one from bedon all four all four of those people endorsed the yunan model at that we have passed and actually reinforced and none of them spoke against it or none of them spoke
118against any sort of modifications that it needed required and that was two weeks ago now Jason marari spoke to our group as a Q&A session afterward these issues were not brought up and were not not discussed with him and so if he had dropped off the the the position that the state has out of Richmond to support this model policy it would have been mind-boggling that he wouldn't have mentioned that or it wouldn't come up as a as a topic of conversation I'm still speaking I'm still speaking minutes so um and I I am I am cautious about something that I hear was just passed today I need to hear more about something that just happened today that's going to have an impact on my vote I know that we came up with a policy
119that protects our teachers gives our parents the right to raise their children the way they see fit within bounds and within accordance of Law and thus far we have done a very adequate successful positive job with it that I do agree that it's those counties that have not pass this and which continue to prosecute teachers for using wrong pronouns uh and for taking a uh a u an attitude of not implementing some of these uh transgender policies who have who are being sued by teachers who have brought them but that is not the case in our County because we have a good policy um any final words well myy I'll do the closing remarks um Mr Mr M you actually talk about this who were there you weren't paying attention or but he actually talked
120about this and in addition to that anyone of us who has been following what he has been talking about when he gave out his opinion when he did all that we know that he's been talking about that um a lot of the attorneys including Mr hesler actually did say that he uh had preferred that these uh younging politics had G is that we're talking about right now so that is um um incorrect but more importantly uh again I want to make sure that we understand that this has nothing to do with parental rights and a parents right of how they want to ra kids has absolutely nothing to do with that just reading this should be enough to um to convince you of that this has to do with how we're going to protect our
121teachers and our staff um especially in light of um all the issues that we're having and they are coming here to CH nor County just because we haven't had a lawsuit doesn't mean that we're not going to have a lawsuit so I tend to be of the uh understanding that maybe we should be proactive in this kind of stuff um and um given that we do have the law and yes the Deion was granted today Nationwide but as I said at our meeting back in October or November we already had the injunction the preliminary injunction had already been um uh granted and we Virginia was actually party to that uh lawsuit so this is nothing new um you've had several months to look into that and um now we have it in front of us
122and again it's up to the board to decide whether you know the courts are right or the courts are wrong and whether we are in the end this is about whether we are going to be protecting our employees from something like this that that's that's the bottom line are we going to protect our employees or are we going to leave it unclear enough so that somebody can raise a lawsuit um when a employee decides not to be forced against their freedom of speech or freedom of religion to have to use those those uh pronouns so I'll just leave it at that I have a motion uh call for the question didn't she already make the motion no I me just a Clos remarks yeah no we we have a motion second would the sponsor of
123the U motion to accept this withdraw the motion to give us time to digest the case that came out today sure you would yeah I'm fine with that I mean or there's been too much discussion just to withdraw it okay I would postpone it right postpone it yeah I want to withdraw it I was just going to say it's been too much too it's been it's monopolized too much time just to pull it back so a motion which is incidental motion I remember right postpone till the next meeting action on this and it's amendable debatable on majority vote and that will pull it off the docket tonight I was actually curious about that anyway I mean Larry this is his first regular month on the board had you had enough time to review all this
124information not the case from today no okay I'm limited on my internet access where I spend the day at the farm as most of you know I like I'd just like to have time to see this case maybe see a brief on it um well I can I have a copy of the case um I can give it to miss jet but she wants to make copies for everybody it's uh the whole entire case is here so it's just um 14 15 pages so 15 so I'm for with that that's what people want to you know there's a question of whether this is legal or not legal and whether this is applicable to this um by all means I'm I'm fine with that um can talk about this again next month so um I don't
125know if it's appropriate for me to make a motion is it I would yeah let's I'd have someone else just I postpone whatever number this is till the next youy when you're postponing it it'll drop right back it's a very neat motion it'll drop right back onto the agenda again so you want me to make a motion Mr Parliament Teran that we postpone action on U item 6.2 that is my motion until until the following meeting yeah until me following meeting and then the chair will handle it asking for discussion and amendments that that'll be the needest cleanest way to delay it and all that he drops right back into the agenda again so clarification on the next meeting would that be the January 23rd of the February thir yeah that's ni question I was
126assuming and always number one Joe rules never assume nothing yes because it always bite you so whichever meeting you want to postpone it to you got date to it it would have to be the school board meeting for public comment correct I don't think it would be proper to do it during a work session and I think we probably need the month to digest what this particular uh I guess that's what what's in play is this particular hearing oh so um if we would like if you'd like to make the motion that it um be postponed you have I'm waiting for a second for the uh for the for the next regular meeting of the next regular meeting February 13th yes okay is there is there a second to that to that motion second second
127by Mr Street um I guess there's no discussion at this point right you asked for discussion but is there any discussion about why we shouldn't do it okay here we none I guess I guess we can I I guess we can vote so the motion before us is um that we take the uh item before us as um a decision item to be postponed until our next regular school school board meeting which is what date did you say it was Dr Shepard February 13th 13 February um all those in favor of um postponing this decision until February 13th at a regular school board meeting please signify by saying I I any opposed okay uh and so we will uh we received this particular um I'm sorry I don't know what to call it but hearing
128or is it is it a hearing is it a no it's a case actually by the United States District Court eastern district of Kentucky okay so I'll make this available to m j all right we're moving on to our next action agenda item help me out here this device I'm uh that's my connectivity 6.4 resolution on agent and Deputy agent for examining and approving payment of claimed wait we um I'm sorry 6.3 proposed policy on prescription of this information concerning gender identity in Shino County Public Schools and once again um Mrs careno um is the has submitted this item and so Mrs Carino you're on um yes I'm actually I think we're going to if we may I was going move to the dra policy um theb teaching about controversial issues as present Senate um
129Dr Shephard had actually made available to us um because that way it kind of nests um more eily into um the I guess the that's not the code what is that the manual the policy manual for sheno County um and this is just basically um I'll read it um it says that we're going to gender identity shall mean or refer to an individual's self-conception as a male female or blend of both or neither uh without limitation gender identity shall be interpreted to mean the teaching of more than two genders or the ability to identify as a gender other than one's actual biological sex at Birth sh County School shall not provide or allow any employee or third party to provide instruction guidance activities or programming regarding gender identity um to students enrolled in Pre kindergarten
130through 12th grade and um again this kind came about we actually saw this this a board there were some concerns um brought To Us by constituent that they thought that they may having a teacher who was teaching this um in the end it didn't I'm not really sure it didn't seem like there was something there but we figured that it'd be prudent to go ahead and be um um avoid this issue from coming up in in the in the future um with regards to again it's only regards to gender identity there any questions i' be happy to comments and let me just kind of clarify just to make sure that it was clear when I said this um the reason why we're doing the the policy INB is because Dr Shepard thought that this was
131um better to put under the teaching about controversial issues section that we already have so it just clarifies that one in particular as opposed to have it in different sections all right so I want to be clear that um we have several draft policies in front of us and the one that you are the one that Dr Shephard um provided to us a second one policy B um P policy INB teaching about controversial issues and then the two uh paragraphs that you have under gender identity fall at the U at the bottom of that existing policy in in the way you're presenting it is that correct that's correct okay do we need to read the entire policy even the parts that were already there Dr shepher you think we need to do you think we
132need okay okay so um Mr careno has given a rationale for uh for amend or not amending but uh expanding policy INB with the this information about gender identity and a um uh the um the policy regarding um not providing or allowing any employee or third party to provide instruction guidance activities or programming regarding gender identity to students enrolled in Pre kindergarten through 12th grade that's the way that's the way it finishes up so uh any other any comments from school board members just to be clear that's in that is under policy B mhm that's correct okay um are you ready for the question um pardon me but I'm I'm kind of lost in SE and z and x and all this stuff do we have a motion no I don't think you got a
133motion I thought we got a I made a motion because I think you made a motion that I said well can we make the motion okay well I made the motion then okay I move right yeah I said I move yeah okay all right now we need a second all right well miss caria which motion make yeah it was the B um I moved to adopt draft policy B yes yeah I me uh I moved to um adop policy BB teaching about controversial issues can you officially made the motion I just made a motion second thank you and um sorry so I'll go back to where we were so is there any discussion at this point with no discussion then um I think we're ready for a roll call vote Mr Street yes Miss careno
134yes Mr gut Shaw yes Mr Vance yes Mr Rickard yes and Mr Bary yes so let the rickord indicate it was a unanimous vote and is that the last of all AC 64 I can't find which is it 6.4 resolution on agent and Deputy agent for example approving payment of claims okay um there has been a u vacancy uh in uh in that uh slide uh Mr um Vance today has uh kindly uh offered himself up to perform that role uh I've uh indicated to the Schoolboard uh clerk that uh that he will take that slot and so um I'm happy to welcome LV into that that position to be working with Mr gut Shaw uh on those uh the budget items and uh approvals so um is there anything we further need to do
135on that do we have to I guess we have to vote on that as well correct okay so make a motion yeah second so do I have a motion to accept um Mr Vance as the uh so the motion will have to include me as the agent and Mr Vance as the deputy agent okay I move to a point Kyle gut Shaw as the agent and Larry as the deputy agent to examine and approve the school bills and payroll second okay thank thank you for that uh no discussion um who seconded okay so we we have a motion a second and U do you recommend a roll call Vote for This Mr stre yes M Caro yes Mr bsha yes Mr B yes Mr Rickard yes and Mr bar yes thank you for that um
136that takes us to the superintendent's monthly report thank you for the fifth straight month for the fifth straight month we saw improvement in our attendance rates year-over-year with an over overall attendance rate of 93.3 five% for the month of December which is a 1.5 increase over December of 2024 Dr mson at the strawsburg high school science department held the annual science fair before break and had an impressive of 33 entries which is an increase over the previous year each student or group proudly displayed and explained their projects to the judges who were impressed by their research and public speaking skills several of our FAA and fccl chapors participated in Reese across America event in December Rees Across America honors and remembers the brave men and women who have served our country by placing Rees on
137their graves to Express gratitude and ensure there sacrifices are never forgotten and then after a strong fall season several of our scps athletes were honored by the Northern Virginia Daily congratulations to stonell Jackson junior Aiden Springer on being named the golfer of the Year strawberg Junior Brady Knight on being named the football defensive player of the year strawsburg senior Taki coats on being named the co- football offensive player of the year and stonell Jackson sophomore Marcus fley on being named the cross cross country Runner of the Year I'll be happy to answer any questions one last comment I hope next week we are able to go to school every single day those all all okay good all right that takes us to um board member comments who would like to kick off I you m
138um only got two things well three I guess um I like hearing about those Rams to Kai coats and Brady KN way to go guys excellent football season um people had been reaching out to me yesterday about this School data breach um are we aware of any breaches that affected our students or staff we are aware of data breaches we have been informed by our attorney that they are going to share information with us tomorrow that we will be able to share with our community thank you for that Dr shepher um also I I would like us this 10% attendance rule it's still been on my mind um I'd like to bring that forward for the board to discuss again maybe put some Clauses in there if the student has you know a c average
139but or a B AB average whatever I think we need to set a standard in there because back in our day of going to school our parents reached out to the teachers got our assignments we did them if we were sick um we stayed up to up to par on our studies to me sending a kid to school for extra 2 hours one day a week to make up a missed day because they unfortunately had strep throat or whatever um I think we need some standards there because if you've got a straight A student that is completely up to up to par on their studies and are not behind it's not benefiting us any and the Schoolboard office has told us that it doesn't equate to any kind of money from the state um to
140me I think we need to look at that again revisit that um cuz I really don't like the fact that we're we're penalizing kids and they're having to miss dances or whatever it may be because they unfortunately got sick and they were in the hospital for a few days or whatever I'd like to bring that forward again for us to talk about at our next meeting other than that at the clock I'm liking the time good job board members Happy New Year to our staff uh hopefully you enjoyed your third week off uh for Christmas break um hopefully you got some extra time to relax and uh enjoy it um other than that thank you Schoolboard office thank you Dr Shephard appreciate all that you do uh Madam superintendent with regard to school closing I've
141been asked to channel uh compliments to you on the fact that you call school off in many uh cases the night before and it certainly is a relief to the uh to the folks responsible for their for their kids and as I said to you uh I guess yesterday I know your phone is ringing off the hook boy that's an old expression ringing off the hook U the parents who are crying for school to start again um so um welcome back everyone and uh Happy New Year it's uh great to be back we have a lot of um ideas and things that we still have to work on thank you um for everyone who's here and uh for the staff and everything that you guys have been doing um as you guys know we had
142a a meeting last night um where we had our uh new chairman well new old chairman um uh and vice chair elected um it was a very very short meeting even shorter than this one um but it is CIS um I actually wish I had been able to call in by soon because I think it took me longer to drive from for Valley to and then back than than he was to actually have be in the meeting but uh but yeah it was it was an interesting me um meeting and um I uh we had the the Chairman's uh election I have actually won for that so it was a 4-2 vote that I lost um but one of the reasons that I wanted to run and um I talked about some of them so
143if you go look at the televis uh version you can see everything that I talked about but there were a few issues that I actually uh brought up that I wanted to see us work on um some of them I've been talking about before and uh the first one is the shter schools I think we have an opportunity a great opportunity here in shenoa County um to get some Charter Schools um Dr sheer and I have been talking about this uh for the last month or so and um after we went to the sbma convention they were talking about how there's a lot of funds um available both Statewide and also Nationwide uh for this charity school so I would definitely like to see um that and um also one of the things that I
144would like to see is um the leadership of this board looking to is getting more grants and money to come here to sh County um alternate methods of funding um because as we know we we don't have the budgets at L County and Fairfax and everybody else has so it would be great to start looking into that especially as we look at down the barrel at the elementary school um almost at capacity we have two of them that are almost at capacity right now and yet at the same time we want to look into the striplet so I was very happy to and one more thing I also wanted to um look into our board meetings um and that's one of the things that I want to talk at um hopefully with the um when
145we talk about the board Norms we can talk a little bit more about that to streamline the processes a little bit more so they're clean here to all this school board members um so I was very happy to hear uh that Mr Barlo came to me after the meeting yesterday and said that he thought that some of those points were really important to him as well um you know the Char School the getting money and all that so I really look forward um to see what Mr Barlo and Mr gell can help us with that um hopefully Mr gel's Finance um background will help us get some more money here to shanoa County so I wish you both the best of luck with that um I I know there's a very small window of time
146if we're trying to get this done before Yin leaves the office so we pretty much have to do that in the next um few weeks a few months so it's going to be busy but um I look forward to seeing what they have um they bring to us with regards to that um personally I can tell you that I'm going to continue uh getting involved and hopefully growing the mental health task force because I think we have some great opportunities there and we're now starting to get students also involved uh which opens our minds in terms of what's in what are they thinking about and what their worries are and we have some members who are looking into also getting grants U so that that would be really really helpful for us um in terms
147of the school board itself I Mr Ricker and I are going to be getting um to work very soon on the Personnel committee I'm hoping that maybe we can do the same thing we did last year and go through all the different campuses and listen to the staff and to the teachers and what their concerns are uh maybe see if some of the changes that we were able to implement this last year have held and uh the other one that I do want to work on a lot is on the curriculum and the instructional and what I'm talking about that is it's not just the politics of it what I would like to hear is what areas are we um could we improve in and sometimes it's not even necessarily the instruction itself but what
148skills are kids are or not learning I want to see how much they're really reading um how much are they writing are they taking notes you know that those kind of skills that they're going to need um so I'm even thinking I may even uh call for meetings with parents and at the school so we can hear their feedback and hear from you guys in the community what you think we're doing well or what you think we're not doing well what do we need to improve and um I I think this is the kind of approach that we need to uh take in order to um to improve our education because some of us you know those of us who are a little bit older uh were raised certain way and there were certain skills
149that that we had to learn and I know for a fact um just from my kids who you know one of them graduated just less than two years ago a lot of those skills are not being enforced and not just sh I want to make sure that people understand what I'm talking about that I'm talking Nationwide this is a trend that we've been seeing and a lot of it got worse since Co so um so that's one thing we definitely want to do and the other thing that I wanted to do as well is um get more parents involved uh one of the problems that we have right now is that parents are less and less involved every year and in fact we have a big problem that most of our of our schools don't
150even have ptas or the ptas that they have may have only two or three people and and we know that a lot of the things that happen in a school happen because of the parents U I can tell you in the past when I was involved in school some of those ptas were able to fund hbac systems for the schools or they were able to to buy all the smart boards for the for the teachers um so there's a lot of things that we need parents to get involved and I think since Co it's been a trend but since is gotten a lot worse so uh I want to anybody who wants to work with this um and and help me out I know that the School Division has been trying a lot of programs
151over the years and parents are just not coming so we need to figure out how we can get these parents involved again in their students lives and their students education so um that's it for me Tom anything uh yes sir um anyway I'd like to really um the students that Dr shepher pointed out as far as their compliments to the individuals and the sports uh congratulations to them again um but also a I know it didn't turn out the way they wanted it to um we all wanted it to but you know the strawsburg football team you really need to be proud of yourselves I'm very proud of you um for you know going to the state championships and even though that some of weren't there we're listening to the radio but very proud of
152you all for your season uh so you need to be proud of yourself and and good job for for being there um also thank you to um C Barlo uh Mr gut Shaw Mr Vance for the library um looking into the library books that takes a lot of time and um you know I would have never thought that that would be an issue in in the school system you know back when I was in Ash and they would read Stuart Little and Charlotte's Webb to us I never thought we would have to be uh be very concerned of the of uh what's in the shelves there in the library so thank you for that time um I agree with Mike uh the attendance policy does bother me a little bit even though attendance is very
153important I support it it is very important but um there has been some situations where I get I do believe there's certain situations where um it it maybe should be a little changes that uh Common Sense kind of plays a role also um anyway um that's all I have and also uh thank you to the staff and all the hard work that everybody does and the teachers The Faculty coaches and everybody thank you and um we're halfway through a year and and look forward to the rest of the rest of the school year that's all I have c bar thank you Tom yeah like others have pointed out U Miss Carino in particular you know we have a lot to do over the next year um I think if we can work as a board
154we can accomplish a lot of good things um you all bring up a good point with the attendance that's something that you know we can definitely look at like Mr Street said attendance is very important so we need to make sure we continue to prioritize that but at the same time we have to make sure that it makes sense and Common Sense prevails in this case um so hopefully we can as a board take a look at that as we look at other things moving moving forward and hopefully next week we can get the new semester started the uh the two things that uh uppermost of my mind right now are one is the um the fact that we're entering on the the budget season and uh We've looked at some major major issues that
155are confronting Us in terms of um Health and Wellness in our schools and uh remediation of of physical problems um plans for elementary schools in the future and the building or renovation of and upgrade of our uh CTE program uh all of those things have a lot to do with the budget and the budget is what one of things that we really are here to do and so I I hope we find time to concentrate on one of one of those things that are really in the Wheelhouse of what the responsibility of the school board is and take a look at those issues and and try to figure out how we're going to uh divide up limited resources to most efficiently um accomplish those those three not three goals but those three categories um in
156terms of um if you will political or some of the things that deal with the the transgender thing I I I I actually do think that we've turned a big corner I believe that the American public as well as sheno county has had enough of this foolish foolishness I just don't want us to overreact uh to it uh we've got it on the run and I think it's under control my concern is ma major concern is um still in the realm of Athletics and I believe that we need to work with either the other counties or associations that can help us um either impact the Virginia High School league or uh or um the educational system through Richmond so that we can U bring some common sense um back to uh keeping uh guys from
157participating in girls Sports to put it uh most succinctly so I I hope we uh I hope we're we as a board will take a look at U you know impact that we as a single School Board could have and kind of moving moving that one along so uh I want to reemphasize to us each of us to take the budget and uh competing uh budget requirements seriously um and take a look at them and uh and more uh culturally if you will take a look at our uh Sports policy for our young ladies and our young men so with that uh will ask for a move that we adjourn I move to adjourn just one thing ahead all of our staff that worked over the Christmas break at Sandy Hook Elementary School to straighten
158that up Danny or you and your guys hats off to you appreciate it thank you thank you for that Mike okay Mr G go for it I move to adjourn motion for adjournment second second second Mr Rickard all in favor please say I I we are adjourned at 8333 that was