0016:30 and I'd like to uh call to order the uh December 12th 2024 shendell County Schoolboard meeting and I wonder if we have a recommendation for meeting in closed session thank you I recommend the shanida County Board 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 to motion salary dis or resignation of several employees of shinida County Public Schools under Virginia code 22- 3711 A14 and to discuss and consider several student matters involving the admission discipline or the disclosure of information contained in a Scholastic record of students in chinoa County Public Schools under Virginia code 22- 3711 A2 in pursuant to the provisions of Virginia code 22- 3711 a29 to discuss the award of a public
002contract invo involving the expenditure of public funds including interviews of biders or offerers in discussion of the terms or scope of such contract where discussion in Open Session would adversely affect the Barking position or negotiating strategy of the public body thank you Dr Shephard um is there a motion to that effect I move that the Shino County School Board convene a closed meeting on the Virginia Freedom of Information act in order to discuss and consider several Personnel matters involving the assignment appointment uh promotion performance demotion salary discipline or resignation of several employees of shinid County Public Schools under Virginia code 22- 3711 A14 and to discuss and consider several student matters involving the admission discipline or the disclosure of information contained in a Scholastic record of students in shinida County Public Schools Virginia code 22-
0033711 A2 and pursuant to the provisions of Virginia Code 22-37 11 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 where discussion in an open session would adversely affect the bargaining position or negotiating strategy of the public B thank you for that motion Mr Guta is there a second second okay heard Mr Rickard for a second um any discussion if not all in favor please signify by saying I I I any opposed none opposed we'll reconvene in close session and the O aim is to be back here about 7 o'clock e e e but uh sometimes we try to do too much we have to be a little bit more realistic got our
004time schedule in the future but thank you for being patient with us so um I would like to uh reconvene uh in Open Session uh do we have a a motion to that to that effect I move to reconvene an open session thank you Mr gsha for that motion any second second second from yeah Mr Carino uh all in favor please signify by saying I I any oppos no it passes unanimously so um we will indeed convene in Open Session um we need to uh certify um relative to our uh close session meeting so um read the following um certification sheno County School Board hereby certifies by roll call vote that the best of each member's knowledge only public business matters lawfully Exempted from open meeting requirements by Virginia law were discussed in the closed
005meeting to which this certification resolution applies and only such public ma business matters as were identified in the motion convening the closed meeting were heard discussed or considered by the sheno County School Board each member responds ISO certify when called and U Cheryl if you'd call the Mr stre IO certifi M Caro IO certify Mr bsha IO certify Mr Vance ISO certify Mr rer ISO certify and Mr bar ISO certify um again uh 60 so um certification has been approved um we're going to call on U Mr Ricker for invocation and lead to the pledge of the flag of allegiance to our flag I have invited Rob Westcoat the pastor of Mount Carmel Church in strawsburg to come and give them good evening board I'd like to thank this board and thank God for the
006opportunity to pray with you all before we start if we can bow our heads dear father God in the name of Jesus we thank you we thank you dear Lord for the opportunity to be here we're humbled to come before your throne tonight dear Lord father God I just thank you as you are in control of all minds and hearts and I pray that your peace be over all of them Father God I thank you that you're with this board you're with Father God everybody that is has anything to do with any part of the school system from the higher ups to the school teachers down to the students father God dear Lord I pray that your Holy Spirit reign supreme that you guide and guard hearts that their hearts are able to stay innocent
007father God God and their minds are clear I thank you that as we stay focused on you that You' removed the stumbling blocks from in front of our feet and I thank you dear Lord that you're even with the school bus drivers that deliver our kids safely to school and back dear Lord I just thank you for the rest of this school year that your Mighty h of protection be around it that you guard guide and keep at all times for we give you alone all the praise honor and glory in the mighty name of Jesus all of God's children say Amen thank you all stand for the Pledge of Allegiance please I pledge Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under
008God indivisible with liy and justice for all do I have a motion to approve the agenda as it has been presented to us I move to approve the agenda as presented thank you Mr cutshaw second second second by Mr Street all those in favor please signify by saying I I any opposed none opposed passes unanimously recognitions there are no recognitions tonight that's that's the first time I've ever heard from remember that but I have a feeling there'll be some next time around I bet we'll have twice as many as we had last month I'm glad you said didn't say twice as many as tonight so okay that's good all right all right we are teed up for public and staff comment on agenda items and non-agenda items always an interesting part of the evening and
009uh something that we look forward to so I need to uh set the stage for that the sheno County School Board welcomes public opinion or comment from sheno County residents parents or Guardians as well as from current students and employees of sheno County Public Schools school board members do not respond to public comments during the meeting or the hearing each speaker uh may speak up to 3 minutes the board generally allows up to 30 minutes for public comments um and um on the agenda and non agenda items at the beginning of the meeting if a a large number of speakers board May limit the time I don't think we'll do that so I think we can drive home with our 30 minutes all comments should address a matter related to shendo County Public Schools and
010complaints regarding division employees should be directed to the school principal or an appropriate School Division official School expects that each uh the school board expects that each speaker will be courteous modeling for our students how one can respectfully disagree with others views speakers will address their comments to the entire School Board not to one individual board member to the superintendent to a staff member nor to the audience speakers will not engage in personal attacks um so speakers have signed up here uh and uh I have this document provided by the clerk uh and she has ascertained that speakers are need stakeholders and have valid addresses and so I will call on the speakers to speak in the order in which they have signed up uh time allows we may allow others to speak but for
011now we will uh drive on with our uh sign in list so I have a um question already I a name of does Thomas fower mean anything but one one second but um so I don't have any information but um so so are you Linda yes okay so you're Linda I'm I'm sorry the name was down here twice and I thought it was two different people so come on out sure thank yeah thank you the proposed changes regarding transgender students are directly in violation of the belief statements the board says it promotes the first proposed change to the policy privacy dignity and respect for all students and parents in shannond County Public Schools would no longer longer allow parents to inform a school about the name and pronouns that are appropriate to their own children
012this flies in the face of belief statement that quote meaningful learning only occurs in the presence of meaningful relationships how can this relationship be meaningful to the student if the school won't even acknowledge that most fundamental aspect of personal identity how does this policy show respect for students it is a front to the Dignity of these students and shows not just a lack of respect but Act disrespect how can quote continuous growth and uh Improvement be expected for everyone if the second policy prohibits even the discussion of the issues that might be affecting some students you can be sure that merely pretending these students don't exist won't make them disappear it will guarantee they suffer it will have the exact opposite effect effect of what the school board says it wants to achieve these policies
013are also in violation of the code of Virginia Section 1-24 one which says specifically about the rights of parents a parent has a fundamental right to make decisions concerning the upbringing Education and Care of the parent child these policies clearly violate that statute there's only one reason for these policies that is to say to these students that they're not welcome here the very title of the policy prohibiting discussion having disinformation in the name says to the students we don't believe you we don't respect you we don't care about you these policies are disgraceful they're immoral the school board says it cares about the rights of parents and then denies these parents the rights to properly take care of their children and to ensure they are in a safe and healthy environment I urge you not
014to enact these policies today I welcome the opportunity to discuss this further with members of the board and to work to ensure that all students are respected and receive the best possible education enacting these policies sends exactly the wrong message to students I recommend that the board add one or more members from the community who are familiar with the issues unique to transgender students to an appropriate committee or working group so these students are properly cared for and not made to feel unwelcome in their own schools thank you thank you is it actually bot thank you good evening my name is Ashley bot I have a first grader at Sandy Hook and a seventh grader at signal n middle I want to express my concern relating to the issues at Sandy Hook but also a
015general concern about the clear lack of Maintenance at all of our schools I am pleased that tests are being conducted however I do believe these would not have been done if it hadn't been for complaints filed at local agencies or the public comments made at prior meetings I am a parent that is generally happy with our school system and rarely complains I volunteer regularly support teachers and staff any chance I am able I am also aware that many of these issues that have come up more recently have been a concern for a much longer time and maintenance maintenance tickets were not investigated thoroughly or were dismissed I am thankful for the staff and board members that have pressed for these issues to come to light I've always felt that our schools were a safe place
016and that the people in such an important role have made the best decisions for our schools and students however my beliefs are starting to waver I am deeply concerned about the health and wellbeing of my children and others the attendance cell phone policies curriculum testing in books seem of Greater importance we hear way more about those than the concern over the health of children in sitting in sitting in sick classrooms my children have missed very few days this school year but could very easily have been the one with pneumonia flu Co or other illness my youngest missed the entire last week of school in May of this past school year due to pneumonia and had to go to Fairfax Children's Hospital for treatment students despite students despite obtained Miss Missing obtained missing work and have
017straight A are told that their economic standing will suffer our home makes education a priority as I am sure other parents do across the county I am extremely frustrated about what is occurring with the maintenance issues and new policies that are said to be great for all students I understand that attendance is a factor in school accreditation in Virginia but that also accreditation is linked to funding so despite previous comments made attendance has an effect on funding I could no longer sit in silence and watch I do not want to consider other education options for my children but that is becoming a consideration the maintenance and capacities issu capacity issues need to be addressed and resolved last meeting it was presented that Sandy Hook is 29 students away from capacity the students are already feeling
018crowded as classrooms have doubled up due to the outdoor classrooms being torn down because of mold issues this affects their capacity to learn and behavior while at school in strawsburg alone there are two new town home developments going in this would very easily include 29 plus children to come to Sandy Hook this next school year where would these children go would they be turned away the capacity and maintenance issue should be the top priority our teachers students and staff deserve to feel healthy and safe at school there is so much going on in this world school should be a healthy and safe place for them thank you for this time to speak and for listening to a supportive yet concerned [Music] parent so Daryl Brown hello my name is darl last name Brown and I
019live in 392 Z Church Road Mar town so obviously if you have good memory you know why I'm here about the swim so this time I brought some friends and maybe next time we can bring more but uh these kids need a place to swim all the kids in the county not just strawsburg kids Woodstock kids with the southern campus I mean they have more kids this year on their team and they probably G have more next year we need a solution I see here on the docket for number five that there's going to be some discussion about um and I'm assuming that's with the athletic directors to see where we're sitting with the aquatics so if we're going to put in new building for school please consider throwing in an Aquatic Facility I don't
020think you'll regret it thank you thank you Ann wi King good evening members of the school board Dr Shepard and citizens of sheno County I'm here tonight to continue to advocate for the construction of a new elementary school over the proposed Vocational School Renovations or rebuild first I want to thank the members of the board that have recognized the Merit of the concerns that were presented in the previous meetings in regard to the structural and environmental conditions of our elementary schools for those of you in our community who have not heard this past Monday an air quality report that had been recently conducted at our elementary schools by ECS midatlantic out of Winchester revealed that there were unsafe levels of cladosporium and hyle fragments in the Sandy Hook Elementary School's attach gymnasium hyle fragments can
021be a sign of active mold growth even if spores aren't present the presence of high amounts of Hyo fragments suggest nearby fungal growth this is the gym that had a plastic Tupperware strapped to mole cover pipes for over 20 years and it's still up there and up until recently it had a leaky roof which has been resolved it should be noted that only the surface mold test conducted by ECS was at Sandy Hook in the Sandy Hook attached gym all the other tests were strictly air quality samples in August of 2012 carpet surface testing was conducted at Sandy Hook in rooms 802 and 804 those tests showed high levels of aspergilus gen genus mold growth thus the removal of carpet in those classrooms was done based on what we have learned from ECS surface findings
022I would like to recommend to the board that similar surface tests be conducted in the remaining carpeted class classrooms at the elementary schools our students are regularly Seated on the carpets during various activities common to the Elementary classroom setting for the health and safety of our staff and students these tests should be a high priority given that there is no current plan in the CIP for 2026 through 2030 to replace any of the carpeting in the elementary general education classrooms also it should be noted that in the CIP plan fun funds to construct an enclosed walkway area between the school building and the exterior gym at Sandy Hook is no longer in the CIP document this exposed area has been a significant safety concern for over 7even years and should be a top priority for
023the general safety of Sandy Hook I would now like to uh switch the focus to our school capacity I have stated this before and will repeat Sandy Hook is practically at capacity and our element schools cannot turn away students that move into our district our three elementary schools serve 45% of our total School population it's at the elementary level that students are identified for special education services and those numbers continue to grow the space to provide appropriate services to these students is actually beyond our current capacity is one king you're over I'll give you about 10 15 more seconds if you need it but that's all um I have somebody to finish but I'll will finish lessons daily at uh sany Hook Elementary we have a portion of sped students receiving their IEP services in
024the hallway because there's no classroom space available I'll turn it over to miss okay so um you're Chris Crystal Hower is that coroller holler Hower holler holler oh it's okay go forward thanks these hallways are the most distracting areas in the building as there are students changing classes coming back from lunch and codal staff teachers and administrators moving throughout the building doing their daily tasks this is a huge disservice to the student population and for sped children that have attention deficit issues this should not be an option for a classroom but is the only space we have available I said this to the board members two years ago that even if the student grow population stays the same over the next 5 to 10 years the students who make up those numbers are changing every
025year from 2011 to 2023 shano County Public Schools grew in the number of students identified identified sped students by 19.5% but more importantly during that same time the students identified with autism increased by ucation student services versus special education student services is diverse and requires adequate spaces and specialized staff in which to provide a free appropriate public education shanoa county has struggled in recent years to retain and attract these qualified professionals my question to the members of the board are you willing to gamble that rrmm and future think has our students best educational facilities and overall safety as a top priority they deny not provide an adequate assessment of the conditions of Sandy Hook but presented the most expensive $60 million project as their recommended Choice there are more pros and cons to take that
026same amount of money and build a new Elementary School preferably in mortown on the county Farmland which would improve traffic flow at the Central and Northern campuses provide funds to renovate their transportation facility perhaps purchase some new buses and make necessary renovations to other schools I am not against a vocational school I come from a family who works in the trades and before coming into the educational profession owned and ran a successful construction business for 14 years however I am strongly asking you to reconsider the priority of the CP projects for the future educational needs of our elementary school student population we too are turning away prek students because of a lack of space in closing triplet Tech may be 5 years older than Sandy Hook however the wear and tear of the number of
027students that have used our building in comparison to Triplet is drastically different and should be a factor in how these projects have been rated thank you Katie lockart good evening members of school board my name is Katie lockart and I'm concerned parent of four four children three of which are already in the shenoa county system with another that'll be upcoming my oldest son Cooper rice is a freshman at Central and a dedicated member of this High School swim team as a former swim coach for Central in 2005 I've witnessed firsthand the immense benefits that swimming offers our students Fosters discipline teamwork and strong work work ethic it promotes physical fitness and overall well-being and importantly it significantly enhances mental health research consistently demonstrates that student athletes often exhibit improved academic performance enhanced time management skills
028and increased self-discipline all skills that are exactly what Virginia is seeking to better develop in our students to bridge them into their future furthermore swimming is a unique sport that people can enjoy throughout their lifetime unlike many other sports that require significant physical impact swimming provides low impact yet highly effective form of exercise that can be enjoyed by individuals of all ages and abilities however the challenges that are faced by our swim team now remain alarmingly similar to those encountered 20 years ago when I coached Central's team a lack of dedicated facility we currently have no dedicated swimming facility for our students it forces our athletes to travel long distances for practices and meets impacting their academic schedules in family time or no ability to practice in the water at all limited practice time the
029lack of consistent practice location severely restricts the training time hindering the team's ability to effectively prepare for competitions and safety concerns the use of pools that are not up to par but are only are the only option creates some health concerns these obstacles not only hinder our swim team success but also limit the opportunities for all our students to experience the joys and benefits of swimming including the invaluable mental health benefits academic advantages associated with team sports and the lifelong Fitness it provides I urge the school board to prioritize the construction or acquisition of a dedicated swimming facility for all our students and our community that's safe wellmaintained this investment would enhance our students health and well-being both phys physical and mental boost academic performance develop critical life skills and support our swim teams by
030allowing optimal training and increased competitive success as well as providing lifelong Fitness I believe investing in our students physical and mental health is an investment in their future so let's provide them with the resources they need to thrive thank you Mike good evening Mr chairman members of the board pleasure to see you guys my name is Mike Arts I'm a longtime resident of Woodstock and I have five children three of them have uh participated in the swim team and I have uh in the past and I have two that are in the swim right now one's a senior and one is a um an eighth grader almost a freshman uh and they're on the swim team uh this year and they have been uh for many years and they've also participated in some other um
031areas such as the Phoenix swim te swim team and also with the the summer swim league here in the county I am also the uh uh vice president of the summer swim league and I want to tell you if you don't know this maybe you do we have uh swim clubs in um strawsburg Woodstock Mount Jackson Edinburg New Market we also have uh teams that come from out of the county from Stanley and from Warren County Front Royal we have over three 00 children who we are teaching how to do different types of swims during the summer and and we do this for about five or six weeks and we have competitions we are preparing these children to be competitive and be a part of a a sport that is fantastic as um Katie just
032mentioned and so we also do our part in helping out um the high schools with um things that they may need such as computers and things like that for the swim meets um we really need because we're not going to stop we really need you guys and the Board of Supervisors to to begin to step up and help us to find a solution for a long-term swimming facility for this area it would be a good thing I go to a lot of swim meets around mostly to the East and we will see as many as 500 swimmers in a in a day with all the parents as well so you might have a thousand people going to these facilities and they're pretty big facilities and they draw a lot of people and it's not just
033swimming that goes to these facilities there's other things there and quite often these people these families go there and they spend the night they're spending money on other things too lodging and food and entertainment so it's it's it's a real big draw these types of facilities you done yeah no I'm not done but I I can be done more seconds and you no I'm I'm fine thank you so much for the opportunity thank you thank you um help me here Chris is it Dalton yes sir okay good good evening school board thank you for the time my name is Chris Dalton a lifetime resident of Woodstock proud Public School administrator and an even more proud parent of a central swimmer a former Woodstock dolphin swimmer and even and no doubt a feisty future Falcon swimmer
034I assist Mike and others as a Woodstock summer swim team board member and I'm a vocal advocate for not only mine but for all students and tonight we are forc faced with an unfortunate challenge over the course of the last few years the central swim team has grown to an amazing 35 swimmers this season and over double of the previous years we have numerous County District Regional and state champions and medalists and our potential for future success is high as it is all around the county we have two amazing coaches who sacrifice everything to help their swim family reach their goals to which all have they cheer they organize Council and console swimmers and are right next to them to coach them toward their individual and group successes we have phenomenal summer teams around the
035county that Foster a love for swimming and help Foster the passion for the pool and our future Falcons the future is bright for the sport in this area We Now find ourselves with a huge team of amazing swimmers that have absolutely no water to practice in we have had the ability to swim at MMA for the past few weeks however for about an average of 90 minutes per week in a 20 yard pool that is about as inadequate as the strawsburg re Center which I'm sure you know about now that pool is shut down and the strawsburg re Center is nowhere near ready to operate safely empty promises from that owner of the rec center and deplorable conditions that still exist make it impossible to consider that facility our coaches have worked far above and
036beyond the Call of Duty to contact other practice facilities dating back to the beginning of September the 4th if I remember correctly only to be told to have good faith and wait as the rec center was going to open coaches communicated with athletic directors and admin well before the start of the Season about around October 15th with options and availabilities for multiple facilities but were met with unfortunate roadblocks other schools in the area scooped up remaining slots and CHS was left with very little options due to a lack of communication and a failure to act when someone presented viable solutions for a time there was little practice and now nothing so where does that leave us we are losing that good faith that our swimmers will be supported like other sports we are upset that
037our children are being failed by a lack of communication by those that seem to that can't put forth any effort to support the coaches and more importantly our students it is beyond the time to act as a school board and put together solutions for the growing swim team to offer adequate facilities for All Sports and to support all student athletes the central swim family has had more State medalists and champions in their sport than many of the teams and other high profile Sports and yet they can't find someplace wet to practice it is time to work with the town County or anyone to provide a pool fitting for the great of of a great program both in school and in the community it is time to act and ensure Equity amongst all sports all schools
038and all students anything less will be a failure to our kids thank you thank you Mike shy good evening uh Mike shyy quicksburg um father of two one Ashby Le student and one incoming next year so um I had written something here but I'm going to divert from that which I almost always do um another thing that you know um that we really need and it I find it amazing that all the things that people are talking about in coming whether it's CIP building improvements New Pools and things all of these things cost a lot of money so and I appreciate the school board in your position here because you guys don't control the funds collectively all this has to get passed from you up to the Board of Supervisors and they need to approve
039it and that um I just want everyone in the public to realize that it is not all on you guys so um that being said um last year we had um a cut in three student support specialists in our schools um as I become more involved with the um Coalition or mental health task force I have seen and learned how vital those positions really are and those two will cost money so um you know roughly $270,000 to to fund those three positions for the year and getting those positions filled um much like the staff teachers and all the other um uh vacancies that we seem to come in every year if the if those six students support Specialists are completely overworked and overwhelmed like they are they're going to look to go somewhere else too
040so next year if we don't have nine the following year could be looking for nine so that's something that we you know that once again that um as budget season comes up we really need to go and look at um how that's how that's going forward and we've got to ask the Board of Supervisors to help us fund that too so um but this is the last uh meeting for 2024 so as we reflect on that um I want to thank everyone in the administration the staff um you know everyone who works in the schools the teachers you know and the students themselves for working so hard to to to do better and to improve the education in shenoa County there's been a myriad of and just constant distractions whether it's you know buildings that
041have been neglected for 30 Years or new policies people don't agree with and stuff um you know it's been a constant distraction but in spite of those hurdles our schools continue to improve um and so staff Dr Shephard everybody thank you um and to school board members um I want to thank you for your efforts as well so um you know it's been tough for you um as you know with controversial votes name changes all these things so um all of you um you know and even you Mr Vance you're new but um you know I I applaud all of you for your time and efforts and um you know I look forward to what you the board can accomplish United and together in 2025 right thank you those are all the folks who have
042signed up is there anybody who would like to take the opportunity to speak not we'll move on uh to the uh consent agenda do I have a motion to approve the uh the consent agenda items I moveed to approve the consent agenda okay um we have a motion from Mr Rickard a second second second by Mr Street all those in favor of U approving the consent agenda please uh indicate by saying I I I any oppos none opposed and now we'll move on to the instructional agenda and uh the first item here is strategic goal and comprehensive long range planning Dr hin good evening Mr Barlo and members of the board Dr Shephard thank you for a few minutes here to be able to um share some information about our comprehensive plan um I'll try
043to be pretty brief but uh I wanted to make sure you understood um the process of of this and and what it means to us we look at um several indicators to to determine how things are going and a strong or organization pays attention to Leading indicators and lagging indicators and um throughout the school year we focused a lot on leading indicators things that like benchmark scores and see how things are going as far as grades things like that to determine how things are going in the moment and there're those are important but leading indicators don't talk about history uh or historical context or long-term trends um they're also important so another type of key performance indicator is called a lagging indicator and that's what we're going to look at here in just a second
044these are Ed in the past but they're looked at in the present and lagging indicators are valuable for evaluating performance over time the limitation though of lagging indicators that they're all is that they are reactive they focus on past performance and also they may reflect data from individuals who are no longer with us but ultimately both leading and lagging indicators are essential and it's important to keep both in perspective balance is the key and and that's what we aim when we gather information to drive Improvement and that's what it's all about some we talked about earlier today is what can we do to get better and that's what we use this information for let's take a look at some lagging indicator data from this scps comprehensive strategic plan and keep in mind that while numbers
045and data can provide valuable insights they also have their limitations and they don't capture the full picture all right they're just numbers and they do tell the story but they don't tell the whole thing all right so just a few pages and I'm not going through every page in the in the handout that you have or the on screen that you have I'm going to kind of cut to the chase but it's important to remember that the key performance indicators are built out of the Schoolboard goals and these were goals that the Schoolboard adopted and and made we we've um tweaked them I believe two years ago and one of the tweaks was um that academic achievement and growth was added to to the top to indicate it's our our first or our highest priority
046but the key indicators that we'll look at are those that um populate each one of those goals or provide information for each one of those goals all right we'll start with the the first maybe I can see it from up here easier um we start with the first goal and that's academic achievement and um you know I'd really like to spend about an hour talking about this because this is this is good this is good and this is what this is our job and this is what we want to see um but you you can see where we where we were three years ago last year two years ago and then this past year um you can see that that's on time graduation rate I think the state averag is 94 it may be 93
047um so we're we're well above the state average and and that's been a consistent Trend there you look at our SAT score and our Benchmark with math it's it ticked down just a little bit um however it was higher than it was two years ago but you look at our rating and our rating went up some I'm not going through every single one of those but of course the so scores are always important important data point obviously and you can see there that we're trending in the right direction um even though the state's increasing the rigor and this year is going to be a challenge and next year with new standards will be a challenge um you know we'll we'll we'll take it on and we have confidence in our kids we have confidence in
048our teachers we'll keep trending in the right direction uh you can see our math scores have gone up our science scores have gone up and our social studies scores have gone up so we're very proud of goal one look at goal two in positive School climate and culture and you can see where the information of this comes from first we're taking discipline data and we look at that and you can see that's the total number of discipline in incidents over over time and this this data point causes some some interesting conversations um it all depends on who you talk to on how they view that number the reality of it is that number is what it is and our administrators deal with discipline in school as well as our teachers obviously but some are going
049to you know some are going to take away from this that um there's there's more students misbehaving maybe it also may be that uh fewer fewer students were documented with discipline incidents 3 years ago it's it's all kinds of stories that impact the data there's not one reason why something is the way it is I will tell you this and I told two different groups this over the past month 97% of our kids 98% of our kids come to school and do a great job every single day there's there's a small percentage that struggle and and that may have some discipline issues but we got great kids and I and I I was told a group this probably two weeks ago that we got great kids and we got kids to be proud of and
050almost every single one of them comes to school every day and does a great job shortterm suspensions you can see those um those are suspensions of 10 days or less um that would be assigned by school administrator long-term suspensions um would be from the from the Schoolboard office level um and then expulsions would be from from your level you can see our attendance attendance has been talked about you can see the attendance of our teachers has improved some attendance of Administrators has improved some um then you look at the climate survey and student reports students students who say the adults adults in this school care about me this is holistic is looking over the division that's four out four and a half out of five is where they ranked that um not much difference there
051I feel safe in school that's a statement and then students respond to that hey we like looking at the at the good stuff we got we got to be willing to look at the hard stuff too and that's one of them and that bothers me to know when when when student when says that and it ticks down that number's not going in the direction we want to and that's that's a point of conversation with our administrators um what what what do we need to do what can we do how can we figure this out um same thing with the next one um I would I would like to see this bullying is a problem in the school I I want to see that number getting better it didn't get worse but it didn't get better
052you know that's that's a reality point that we need to look at and say what can we do so again I'm not going to go through every single one of them there's a few more there I will go to the next next one number three um Family engagement Community connections you see we've had a number of uh community events over the past few years um we ticked down just a little bit last year um The Pride survey um percent of students who perceive vaping as a moderate or great risk and and you can see we did not do that we don't do that every other year but that's that's an interesting data point percent of students who perceive vaping as a moderate or great risk 34% it's pretty amazing I think there's been a lot
053of Education that happened last year and I know is ongoing this year to hopefully um change that you see the next one percent of students who perceive alcohol use as moderate great risk same thing but it's amazing this now again this is student reported data um from The Pride survey there's been some talk about the student support specialist you can see their case load and how that is evolved 522 to 497 to 512 last year um that number is probably going to go down this year simply because we have fewer of them but I guarantee you that the need is still going to be there you see our preschool enrollment and you see our preschool weit list there goal number four this is around recruiting and HR and there we give a a Paul survey
054as giving each year I guess we've given that for probably 13 or 14 years um I'm sure mes knows exactly but um I know it's been around that time and um so that's that's nice to be able to look at at those transend and they're pretty consistent um as you can see the numbers there from the pul survey and there's compensation data that's a that's a goal of teacher and Abe being in the median of comparable divisions then the staff report and the exit exit survey you can see which direction those them seem to be trending I thought I thought near the bottom was an interesting one we hear a lot we talk a lot and engage a lot to talk with teachers but this demands of the job seems that have ticked down a
055little bit last year I I would like to think and I know this is some wishful thinking but we try very hard to say what can we take off of teachers plates and hopefully we've done a few things I know we've definitely listened we've definitely made some changes um to things to try and give teachers more time and hopefully that's helping all right we go to goal five and this is um about facilities um and really the only uh key performance indicators there are the utilization of the facilities and again this is across the across the division um so the percentage of utilization um obviously is different in each school but that's across the division and um we do not yet have the information um about our student teacher ratio that comes from the state
056report um that has not been populated yet from the the pro school state school profile so yeah I thought that was would do it any questions let me Happ to he us thank you all right thank you very much thank you sir so the next agenda item um is um 4.2 the spring 2025 library book materials purchase list Dr Shepard thank you policy IP Library material selection requires that new library materials go through a process to ensure the selection of Library materials are of the highest quality suitable for supporting educational goals and worthwhile for the limited amount of time available for most most appropriate for students regulation I I p-r Library material selection establishes the procedure for the selection of the new library books library materials in October the Librarians developed a draft L list
057of new books for purchase and Prov for the their principal on October 15th the principes approved the list and forward the final list to the directors of Elementary and secondary education and we posted the list on the we website um the director of Elementary and secondary education reviewed and the director of secondary education recommended reconsideration of five titles to be evaluated by a subcommittee comprised of six members of the parent Community advisory committee um selected by the superintendent due to the number of books recommended for reconsideration there were two subcommittee uh two subcommittees where three members um of the parent Community advisory committee um were on each subcommittee and they reviewed the books um one book in one series while the other subcommittee reviewed three books on December 5th the subcommittee of the parent Community
058advisory committee met to discuss the five books requested for reconsideration of the five books that were re uh submitted for reconsideration the subcommittee recommended that three of the books re be removed from the final approved Library materials purchase list the three books recommended for removal were um Tokyo ghoul um continue the series from 15 to 30 um due to the graphic content profanity and sexually explicit language pick the lock by as king due to its graphic depictions and descriptions of sexual abuse the minus one club by um kekla magon due to the sexually explicit content the subcommittee prepared a report outlining its outlining its findings and the director of secondary education reviewed that report and upon reviewing the report he recommended to exclude these three books from the final approved Library list so the final
059approved Library materials purchase list is presented to the school board for information at tonight's meeting the recommendation for the school board to approve the final list uh Library materials purchase list will be at the January 9th Schoolboard meeting any questions I would like to personally commend the U school system itself for being able to take a complex policy and implement it uh in a in a very uh exemplary Manner and the the idea was behind the policy was to get every stakeholder group involved and you guys have done that and you've done it in U it's kind of below the surface but we we know how much time and effort goes into that and and appreciate it uh and and I think it's accomplished its purpose of giving everybody at least a chance to put
060eyes on these and uh a chance to to weigh in and uh it's a since it's it's a spaced out over time like that it it gives us at least a little bit of time for each of the each of the stakeholder groups to look at it so I think this is kind of proof that something this I'll use the word detailed can be done U but it it needs a a whole of school approach which I think uh the superintendent has overseen uh and in that U just a little information for the rest of the board um that policy was passed on a one-year basis it was a sunset uh policy which expires on December 31st uh unless we take further action and there are U three members of the board have volunteered to
061um visit the the libraries this week and next week to uh to listen to Librarians and listen to the administrators and see what uh suggestions they have for improvement and answer some questions we have about the process so um based on the report that we will bring back so I I wanted to thank uh Mr cutshaw and Mr Vance for volunteering to be part of that group along with myself and so we'll be in groups of two uh to the various to all all of the schools over the next week week and a half uh and so we will present a report a recommendation to the rest of the board in January as to where we go with the uh with the policy from here so um and then at that point we will be
062able Madam superintendent to u to address the that issue at the time so so we'll be able to move on with the with the policy thanks again to for everybody involved pretty remarkable informational agenda we don't you Dr H Garner for Aquatics I'm happy to invite some friends uh to the podium Mr Mr Dyke and Mr haisman are here to share some information about um swim teams and swim facilities for uh this year thank you guys for being here hi Dr sheph Mr chairman School Board um swim kind of c c s guard I kind of went into a panic myself I know Matt and I talked a lot as well uh Ed Ed's in the loot now also we were uh in that panic I met with my coach and said we've got to
063find some facilities and I think the critical thing for for this county is the facilities or based on your proximity the ones that are available so I truly feel like the southern then came out the best because of Harrisonburg my coach personally went and met with two facilities he and I called three I think there three others and our practice situation is pretty pretty good uh considering circumstances we are at JMU twice a week sometimes three times a week probably one of the best facilities in the area because it's maintained by a division one college program and uh we are also one day a week at MMA as some of the parents and coaches and stuff have talked about MMA has some hiccups but we have a good relationship with them they're working hard to
064work with us and uh so on our end it's it's kind of worked out GMU is actually closer than the signal knob Center for us so uh other than the actual meets being at Manasses park or joining with the valley District that's the uh that's the only real downfall we have right now but like said I realize we're fortunate compared to the other two schools any questions ours at strawsburg is a little bit different uh we were used to beting at seed noing right down the road we didn't have to travel like the other two schools did up to our our way um our coach and I worked a lot together to find some facilities we are at Jim Barnett Park uh one to two nights a week and we've been lucky enough to get
065in the Valley Health Center in Winchester as well one night a week uh we do get bumped out of Jim baret uh whenever the Frederick County Schools need something or have to reschedule something uh so we've had two nights about every week um some nights we've been lucky enough to have the three nights uh I know over the holiday breaks we've been able to secure four total days of pool time from the time we're out of school till the time we get back after the first of the year um U I've been our coach and I have been in contact with the owner of the re Center many times um she's been out to visi te I think three times in the last two weeks uh the pool is better the pool is getting closer
066to ready but every time they get closer to the pool something else comes up is wrong in the building um as he told her the other day there's no heat in the locker rooms um the pool itself he thinks is getting closer to being back up to where he could have people in the pool but the other facilities around it are still in really bad shape so we can't let our kids go in there and get into restrooms and showers and stuff that they need to be able to get access back to that facility and even at this time he had he has no interest in being the person in charge of running the pool so obviously he was hoping maybe an outside organization would run the pool for him we even had a lady
067in strawsburg who's certified to run the chemicals and stuff at our town pool offer to go in and help maintain that part um but even after is $170 some th000 worth of repairs to the building itself uh the locker rooms and some other areas around it still are not ready for us to be able to put kids in there um uh we were talking about practice areas Keith and I talked a lot early on I looked anywhere from um you know Winchester Warrington to two or three private schools in the northern Virginia area that had pools um we looked at RMA we could go in RMA at 5 o'clock in the morning which I think was feasible for our kids uh so uh when we go to uh Winchester right now we're pract our practice
068times are 8 to 9:00 or 8:15 to 9:15 um we only allow our kids to transport by bus I do not allow them to drive to Winchester so they're on a school bus from 715 or 7:30 and got back like last night they back at 9:45 uh so um all of our meets I run all the bull run in Char the Bull Run scheduling we do have all of our Bull Run District meets at Manasses Park Community Center which is a nice place it's just an hour 15 minutes down the road so all our meets are there or like he said we're in conjunction with the valley district and going to Winchester wboro places like that to the YMCA and having meets there as well anybody have any questions what's the timeline for the pool
069in sturg that's a good question he gives us we get timelines from him and then we go back and he said it's not to this point or we found something else wrong we were told originally hopefully as early as the 1st of December um and then last week uh last time our coach was out there he he said in 2025 and she said like in 2 weeks in 2025 or the next one season he said uh I don't know so we really don't have timeline as anybody that's been involved with the conversation with the rec center knows that it's one we just don't know you our coach has been out there two or three times and met with him and we don't have an we don't have an exact answer because we get told something
070different as many people involved in swim no we've been told something different every time we go out and talk to him and again I don't know he has any interest in opening it back up unless he has someone to actually run the facility as I don't think he has any interest in in being in charge of the facility anymore as far as this one par goes that's private it's not the county it's private but you're no idea as far as his future anticipations or just he he's he states he built it for high school swim um obviously so and he wants to get us back in there but again every time he repairs something he says he finds something else that needs to be repaired before he feels comfortable even getting to that point of
071letting us back in and right now the locker room is the next situation he came across he said no heat showers aren't ready all those kind of things when it when it is up and running from the past is it adequate for the students just depends on what day of the week I mean facility itself I mean it's never been clean it's never been clean it's never been I mean we've got to the point as the swim coaches and everybody knows we stopped having Meats there we practiced because that was the only practice facility we had available that we could get our kids in three to four nights a week we stopped having Meats there we took all of our Meats to Manasses park or to the WARF in Warrington as far as the size
072and and things for practice it's it's it's the lengthwise it's fine there's six Lanes as far as a practice facility it's much better I mean much more feasible than I think mma's is 20 and ours is 20 that one's 25 so it's a regulation pool as far as that goes and six Lanes so if you could get teams in there right now I think it would just be our three teams if we can get back in there which provide adequate practice time but we would not have meats in there it's not we never never have have meats we used to it's just too small very small we had I think we had the county meet in there last year I think or three of us were in there at one time and that was the
073only meat we had in there it's just packed it's way too way too packed to have a swim meet in there were the structural steel uh issues repaired do you know U from talking to Mr King he says they were repaired and actually they got re I think the um the County County Board um County building supervisors were out there and I think they they went through and approved everything he had done thank you does the Community College have any pools or like shano University doesn't have a pool they swim they they don't have a pool CU it's all in the bubble Jim baret Park you where JMU has that sheno University does not have one low WS does not have one well I'm the new guy and I got stuck with we got no
074place to play right now um with um Mass nutting going down with a leak we were told two to three weeks and we have nowhere to go um I have contacted Jim Barnett JMU West over Valley Fitness Valley Health bridgew College um I have have one hope in the warf which is in Warrington um he's supposed to get back he was supposed to get back to me today I was hoping to have some information but I got left high and dry again and um so I'm in a situation where that's about the only place I got to play um and that's only going to be for a couple weeks um we're in a situation where all the other schools especially you know this is in Warrington all the uh faul here County Schools down there
075all go down there um so and that's what I've run into other places where people have group members ships and Club memberships and they don't want to bump their Club people that's where they make their money so um that's kind of where I'm at uh I my team's high and dry um they're doing dry practices at school um the other issue and this is something that has just come up in the last week we don't have bus drivers to take them anywhere so I mean I got a wrestling match and a swim uh meet this week I don't have driver for and we've asked everybody so I you know I'm in a situation where I hurting there too so even if I get a place to practice I might not have a bus driver to
076take them there Dr Shephard are you able to speak to that bus driver issue I am not that's the first I've heard of it thank you so that's what I got going on leave to drive practices you got teammates here they can tell you yeah they can tell you all about it is it just like lifting weights and stuff or just you actually found us a workout video on YouTube and um then what we did is we were supposed to go to the weight room but it was theball team they were using it um somebody else was using it while we were supposed to use it so we didn't get to use that anyways and we kind of just walked around the new gym for a while and that was our entire practice yesterday um
077and today we were on the Flor in our cafeteria doing we do dry we do dry land two days a week in our building outside of the three that we have practic what you just kind of like stretches coach Christman has all kinds of stuff they do they use the wrestling room cuz our wrestlers don't practice till 5:30 so they use the wrestling room and do Rubik workouts and things in there and then they use our weight room and they run around the gym and just all different things she has different um stations and things that they go through Mr Dyke did I hear you correctly that you have a swim meet this week but you don't have a driver for correct and a wrestling match still so the swim team is still competing just
078no play this would have been their this is their first meet coming up I mean they have a full schedule they're all set to go anywhere I mean I've called all the way to Manasses trying to find places to for them to swim did you try Chen Aquatic Center in Manasses yeah I tried that and the community center I'm I'm I'm tapped out i' I've I've you know we we were given uh Valley Health on a Saturday night at 4: to 5:00 but we have M our meets are on Saturday most of them you know the situation is not very good so so do you usually practice at MMA and then they're just yeah we they had that going they had tues we were Tuesday Wednesday Thursday and then we' had a couple of Valley
079Health Fridays but once again we're you know Valley Health you they can only do with so much and you know like I started hitting all the places in her Berg and I'm you know I've been dialing everybody and U so MMA just their pool or something have a leak they have a leak they've drained it and they're working on it um when we get back from break that it's going to Beed yeah but but had to insult the injury I was also told they have to replace the roof sorry I didn't mean to throw that one out but uh that's what I've been told so h River that's say I hate to tell you I hate to tell you we used sign we we talked about that option we were when I was the ad
080in Warren County when they wanted to try to get a swim team together and there's no place to swim and Bill cup the ad at Skyland said well shano runs right by my football field better than the sign river in France I'm well that's what I'm saying I'm just curious I'm thr this out there Mr long the the school the bus driving issue is that there's no bus drivers countywide or is that just central campus would there is there is there other bus drivers at the North End or south end that's willing to haul a team at the central campus or what what I'm just curious It's not a concern that's been brought to my attention as okay regard okay it's probably something we can look into absolutely okay we put in our trip tickets
081and you know like I said I'm just learning this stuff so am I I think I'm more of a rookie than you are anyway uh I'm just I'm just learning how to do it and and you look right on the thing and say that the trips have not been taken and we we fill in who we have and we keep asking bus drivers every day when the bus Circle comes up and we just don't have them nobody's willing to do it I'm pretty sure Mr long probably can look into that and help you know help that out okay Mr long when he puts those trip tickets in do they just go to the central campus drivers or does it go countywide it's going to be tailored to the central campus drivers but I'll be interested
082to see the time departures and returns and other details thatr better understand how I can satisfy thank you Saturday make it a little bit more difficult to I me attain drivers and I I understand I mean is there a way for all three athletic directors to get together and you know stollberg has a place to swim stonewall's got a place to swim is there a way we could coordinate it where rberg gives up a night Mount Jackson gives up a night and Central gains two that's what we did at MMA we had two nights at MMA secure also and we gave up Wednesdays to allow them an extra night there there's a concerted effort going on we're trying to get it done it's just not getting done I I appreciate it I mean us that
083had been in strawberg for a long time pretty much knew at some point it was going to come to this but I guess we just kept not thinking about it kept hoping it wouldn't happen right thank you thank you thank thank you all right information agenda item 5.2 is an update regarding the facilities Sandy Hook Elementary School and WW Robinson Elementary School um so um Danny orts is going to present for us Mr ort is our maintenance supervisor yes good evening board members and Dr Shephard um I am here to give you an update on the indoor air quality testing that was performed at our three elementary schools and put in the roof issues at ww that we had last month so on November 26 of um this year engineering Consulting Services midlant conducted indoor
084air quality testing samples on 10 of our schools at each Elementary each 10 classrooms of each Elementary School that was selected by the administrative staff at those respective schools no mold or M de growth was observed at Ashby Le Elementary or ww Robinson Elementary Schools Sandy Hook had no issues in their sampling rooms except for the 91 gymnasium where the ECS technician noticed suspected mold growth on piping in the ceilings around the Rooftop in ECS returned to the gymnasium on December 3rd of 2024 and did tape lift samples from the pipe insulation and they were found to contain elevated fun fungal spore meetings that may be associated with active fun fungal growth or B ECS recommended recommended that a remediation contractor be bought in to S seal off the gymnasium and remove the contaminated insulation
085of materials wipe down all the walls and all the surfaces and perform air scrubing in the area for a minimum of 8 hours if not more it was decided at this time to close the gym for the prepare for the removal and Remediation process as well this work will be performed over our winter break coming up so that we No Interruption of Faculty or staff operations ECS will then return to do a post for mediation survey and sampling before we release the gy back to the insulating contractor will then Comm in and reinsulate the piping on the ceiling and the walls that was affected in addition to that work being done our maintenance staff will remove and replace all sailing tiles that are stained in the tested rooms at all elementary schools and the noted
086stained areas of carpet will be cleaned by a certified Carpet Cleaning contractor as well that will be finished tomorrow morning the um tile replacement will be finished tomorrow morning ECS will then retest all rooms again when this work is completed before we return from winter break my maintenance staff will also with the assistance of the custodial staff at the schools at each School replace all stained or discolored tiles in all of our schools this process will start at immediately as we received material from our vendors for installation and we'll continue to all these tiles have been replaced across the whole division now turning to ww R Elementary School we had a roof leak in the sunken area of the school I believe it was November the 11th in the early morning hours that caused some
087water and seiling towel damage overnight and activated the fire alarm system which is how we found out it was leaking upon inv investigation of the roof it was found that some of the roof decking was rusted and the water leaked through those areas of those affected metal at no time was the building's structure in danger of collapse or being compromised this was only the roof decking material that is under the membrane on the roof not the steel structure of the building the roofing contractors made those repairs about 12:00 p.m. that day all ceiling tole fire alarm devices and speakers were reinstalled by 4 p.m. the roofing contractors was in called in to look at the roof over the library area of WW Robson because it has similar roof decking issues in that area even though
088the roof is not leaking at this time it was decided to replace the section over the winter break as well temporarily because of potential snow loads if we would have a winter storm ww Robinson's roof is scheduled to be replaced as com spring through our CIP program and this will deviate the issue thank you for your patience during this process and please know that we are committed to the same resolution that everybody wants and that is a clean safe and comfortable learning and working environment for all of us thank you all you all have any questions I just like to thank you for your work clearly this is a sad and unfortunate thing that we're dealing with but again we all have to remember remember that these buildings are extremely old and these things are
089happening now and we have to act fast to keep up with them and they got worse before we could make them better unfortunately um but I thank the maintenance department for addressing it the school board is obviously we don't want to see this in our schools we don't want students getting sick or faculty getting sick or whatever um I know it's happening in multiple buildings and it starts to add up very quick like we're seeing uh so thank you to the maintenance staff we appreciate it obviously there's still more work to be done but uh I think the public deserves to hear this tonight and there I know there's a lot of people wondering what's going on uh I think we're making the proper strides there's still more room to improve but we do thank
090you thank you um yeah thank you for for doing all that and bringing the attention um one more question was and I don't know if you about this last meeting but how about the the sage backup over at I think Sandy H right um has that been addressed or what's what's the status on that yeah the Milling was completed last month at some point and then we came in last week and milled the area from the 90s Wing hallway back up into the '90s wing um classroom areas and there was little if any um damage or debris in the way of that in that area they found hardly anything the only thing we could come up with is just typical backup or somebody or someone doing something with the system itself so we haven't have
091any more we've had no more no Danny I thank you for your work and your response time to this issue um you said they're starting the repairs or getting the 90s gym ready starting tomorrow is that what I heard we're we're starting with our tile replacement immediately yeah we will award the a remediation contract probably tomorrow gotcha okay and the the tiles are you just replacing the ones in the rooms that were tested or any that you come across all all the schools all the towels and all the schools okay have all the leaks or all the causes been detected and repaired that caused those tiles to be moldy I think that um a lot of the tiles that are there were from previous leaks or incidences and frankly we haven't been changing the titles
092so I'm going to incorporate the custodians to teach them how to properly do this as well and they'll be helping us and they'll be learning as we go along because of the severe turnover rate of the custs we've had they just lose sight of of what their duties are because you when one leaves the other one doesn't tell them the the proper u s so's for our schools so and we will correct that as well so just reiterate the company that's doing the um the work at Sandy Hook um is certified to do mold and milary removal is that correct that is correct yes okay yeah totally so thanks Danny appreciate it thank you thank you thank you information agenda item 5.3 is a proposed revision to policy on privacy dignity and respect for all
093students and parents in sheno County Public Schools and that um proposed revision is um being proposed by Mrs carlino uh Dr Shepard do you want to report on this or do we want to have Gloria report on report on report on I can give a quick summary if you want um without reading it and I know we're not going to be discussing this or debating it so basically what we're trying to do is just eliminate um sections four and five in the in the uh gender identity policy that we passed earlier uh this year and the reason for this is because since we passed that policy we've had uh more guidance when it comes to this um topic and what we've had is we've had a preliminary injunction that our attorney general Jason Miis actually
094um included Virginia um out of the six district in Kentucky which uh was granted and it was actually affirmed by the United States Supreme Court which actually stopped a title line um the title line Provisions that were given by the Biden Administration um it actually stopped it and said um it's the ruling prevents the US Department of Education from implementing enacting enforcing or taking any action to enforce the final rule of TI line um the reason we're doing this is because as it stands right now Not only would it go against what the injunction said but since then we've also had a couple of cases here in the Commonwealth of Virginia uh that have been at this point they have been settled based on this decisions one was in the the West Point School Board
095which actually settled for $575,000 uh to a teacher who was fired for refusing to use a transgender student pronouns um we also have another one just a couple days ago out of Harrisonburg city uh same thing there was a uh a settlement because the teachers three teachers had actually sued because they claimed that these uh Provisions actually violated the constitutional rights and um you know more specifically they argued in state court that their constitutional rights have been violated and the school district relented so the reason is because if we allow this to continue uh we're basically saying that they can the parent can actually ask for this uh prefer pronouns but then we're saying that um we need to make it clear that the teacher is not going to be punished for actually using those
096uh if they don't want to use the prefer pronouns because they are alleging that they have a constitutional right uh First Amendment and also freedom of religion so it's basically just clarifying it and it's making sure that it's consistent all throughout the policy because the way we have it right now you know is saying yeah you can do that but then we're not going to punish a teacher um any concerns about I know that there's a concern that uh that teachers are going to be compelled not to use a prefer pronoun that is not in this policy at all um also anything on parental rights is still included in that policy we're not taking that away is mostly with regards to what we're compelling our teachers and our staff um to use so I look
097forward to having a little more information and we'll debate it um hopefully at the next meeting all right and the next informational agenda item is related uh that it was a is a proposed policy on the prescription of disinformation concerning gender identity in sheno County Public Schools um same thing Dr Shepard you have anything to say to tee this up or should we turn it over to U are you prepared to give a short introduction as to what it's all about do you have something go ahead yeah well again we're not gonna be debating this today but um basically what we're saying is uh very specifically when it comes to gender identi uh what we know is that this is uh not science this is something that we have um learned and we'll talk about
098this more later that in many um when it comes to the issue of gender identity this is something usually that is learned and the problem that we have right now is that when we hear about a lot of the cases even from the transitioners is that the kids were learning about this in school um this is not something that should be taught in schools the parents want to talk to the kid about this uh they're more than welcome to do that they have every right to do that but what we're saying is that in the shano county schools we're not going to be talking about this and by that way we're not going to be um in any way promoting um or at risk of having a teacher that is indoctrinating or pushing one ideology
099or another because that's um that's what we're talking about thank you um item five five is School Board Norms uh Dr Shephard thank you at the April 11th 2024 school board meeting the school board adopted the shinida County School Board Norms according to the board Norms the school board chair in consultation with the superintendent is responsible for preparing the agenda for each meeting ensuring that relevant and timely topics are included prior to each meeting the chair will reach out to board members to gather agenda requests and we'll regularly pull them about potential items during board member comments at a school board meeting or work session a board member may present their question concern idea to the board if there is no OB objection to further Discovery the board will direct the superintendent to pursue the
100top topic um it is essential that the superintendent or staff have time to prepare an agenda item allowing sufficient time to research the topic gather information and prepare necessary materials or reports this ensures that discussions are well informed and well organized providing the board with a complete and thoughtful analysis needed to make sound decisions it also allows staff to coordinate with relevant um stakeholders and ensure all aspects of the agenda items are properly addressed so attached to this agenda item are the Corr current board Norms along with a draft highlighting one proposed addition related to Clos session if the school board has any recommend recommended changes please let me know and I will incorporate them into the final draft for consideration at a future board meeting so this item was deferred from the um November
10114th meeting and will be Revisited in January if you can get your um your revisions to me um before um January the 9th for discussion um I I would like to say um that the Virginia code on the authority and the activities under the rubric of the school board is very very short and um allows for a great deal of Independence uh from the school boards themselves which is one of the reasons why School boards are powerful because of because of that Independence and I think there therefore the Norms that we have which are exactly what they what they sound like the Norms the the normative way the the routine way the if you will the school solution for how to to follow rules and issues uh are are put forth in this H basically
102three-page document and it winds up being very important to us and so how to get things on the agenda uh what our basic responsibilities are and um how we communicate with uh stakeholders whether they be parents or whether they be teachers who have issues with uh with the school system whether it be uh ways that we as Schoolboard members communicate with the superintendent and our staff uh and the administrators are all suggested in this very short document and the fact that it is the key guidance piece that we have uh makes it uh doubly important that we that we include those guidance pieces that are important to us so we we did uh earlier this year reopt these uh with I think I don't know if there's any changes made do you remember Dr Dr
103Shepard I I I think that were we a few minor changes you yeah so what I what I'm suggesting is that uh as we and we we've already talked about you know some something that we'd like to see in here but uh but I encourage each member of the board to take a close look at these norms and make them sure that they're as clear and as as U necessary as as they need can be and um I will just say that um I wish I had read the these more carefully when I first got elected because I I just say the previous School Board didn't pay much attention to these uh and uh as time has goes on goes on there's a great deal of wisdom in this guidance and uh and while I
104think it is excellent I I I think that some of the concerns that we've had and even some of the disagreements that we've actually had on this board have often times U Been generated by either a lack of understand understanding or lack of U of agreement as to what the what those Norms actually actually mean so this is a good chance for us to get it right to make it more U comprehensive if you will and yet understanding that there's a great deal of flexibility in it which allows us uh to uh to be a little bit more um elastic if you will in in our in our approach to things so I I think this is I think this really is an important objective and I I encourage the members of the board to
105uh think about inputs they think would be germine um to now to that um the second is there is there anything else we want to cover here Dr shefer you want to cover before we move on from this um no nothing here okay all right fine okay with that in mind then um we'll move a Personnel uh Personnel actions and I want that good for you thank you um so we have uh presented the the Personnel recommendations uh from uh from the superintendent and um to have a motion that we accept the recommendations uh relating to the Personnel actions uh that we that were discussed earlier this evening I move to approve the Personnel list as presented thank you Mr Gall for that motion is there a second second thank you Mrs Carino so there's
106been a motion to accept and second uh the uh personal list as has been presented and um do do we need a roll call Vote for This we do okay so I'm going to ask Cheryl if she will do exactly that thank you Mr yes M Caro yes Mr gsha yes Mr Vance yes Mr rer yes Mr bar yes so um acceptance of the Personnel list is unanimous item 6.2 uh the proposed calendar uh for activities and events for uh development of the 2025 2026 budget have been presented for our information um and do I have a motion that we adopt uh those meeting dates uh for the if fiscal year 26 budget development calendar I move to adopt the 2025 school board meeting dates and the fiscal year 26 budget development calendar as we
107Senate thank you Mrs Carino for that motion second second second by Mr street is there any discussion uh so Mrs uh J will call the RO for Mr yes M careno yes Mr gsha yes Mr B yes Mr RI yes and Mr bar yes once again uh that passes unanimously action item 6 point3 uh 2025 2026 program of studies for middle schools and revised program of studies for high schools um so the the proposed updates uh to the high school program uh of studies uh has been uh uh has been presented and the updates uh have reflected the new course offerings uh and so I am asking for a motion to approve those updates as they have been presented I move to approve the updates to the program of studies for the 2025 2026 school
108year thank you Mr V for that motion second second second by Mrs Carino uh is there any any discussion chery Mr stre yes Miss carono yes Mr gsha yes Mr B yes Mr Rickard yes Mr yes once again that's a unanimous vote and our final action item is U the proposed uh voter registration policy uh at the October 10th school board meeting uh it was U requested to add an agenda item regarding the registration of student voters uh text of this agenda is the draft version of that policy which we have had now um and is uh do we have a motion to U adopt the voter registration policy as it has been presented so move okay Mr Advance thank you for that motion is there a second second second I heard Mr Street uh
109the second is there any discussion I think it's unfortunate that it's come to this um because of miners that's the ERS monitors and um drilling for information prior and I had a couple of student former students here um who can attest that once upon a time you brought the registar into the classroom and it looks like we're going to have to go back to that and you spend a class period in a seven block day registering students in each block if they wanted to I never forced anybody excuse me and Along Came the voter Act of 1995 and about the same time that it takes you to fill out a postcard at the beach having a great time wish you were here signed whoever you were registered to vote and the um voter registration forms
110went to the Board of Elections and that was both for the adults and the miners that's the OS uh because a 17-year-old could register and voted an election occurred in for uh by 18 birthday but now you have these monitors who have hijacked the process and so we have to take this action to prevent that from being hijacked and Shan into County I just wanted to add um I mean the reason why we uh I propose this um uh policy because we have heard in other parts of the state where this is happening we have third parties that are coming into the schools and um basically not just the kids to feel this out and we we did hear from somebody where the their kid had said that they didn't feel you know safe doing
111that that they wanted to take it to their mom and the person said no no you have to do it right now um and sure enough uh what this surveillance referred to did actually happened by the next day a lot of the kids were getting texts from some of the political groups that had actually mined um their information now having said that we have not had this problem here in sh County that I'm aware of and I know the superintendent is very uh strong this but uh we need to make sure that we have it for the future and also to give clear guidance to our teachers and like Mr van said I hope that the teachers will take this and they will um help um promote the voter registration you know with our kids
112U with a caveat that you can't have a third party and um ideally what you're going to have is have the voter register come over and take those ballots I teachers can even give out the the ballot they just can't take it themselves um um so so that's just clarifying that and um I hope that um that like I said this will give guidance and hopefully promote voter registration around among our kids and let me just add that these um data monitors are in violation of the Privacy Act which says that the information contained herein is only for the purpose of voter registration so somebody's in violation of privacy act I'm sure that's at state level and they worthy of prosecution if they violate that that's my opinion I'm not a legal expert yes any
113other discussion okay I think we're ready for uh for the vote um and U Cheryl if you do the roll call we appreciate it yes M car yes Mr Guta yes Mr B yes Mr Ripper yes Mr bar yes once again that's a unanimous vote no opposition and that's the last action items and now uh we're about to receive the superintendent report thank you December is always a busy time for our school music departments and this year is no different whether they've been participating in the town tree lighting ceremonies and parades are hosting concerts on their campuses we've had some amazing performances so far and they are more schedule for next week and I hope to see you there also for the four straight month we saw improvements in our attendance rate year-over-year with an
114overall attendance rate of 94.2 for the month of November I would like to congratulate strawsburg high school football team for their um uh bid for the um region let me find it here region 2B uh championship this Saturday at Salem and they will take on Graham at 5:00 p.m. at the um for the vhsl class 2 championships uh Championship so good luck grams and I hope to see you there also the Stonewall Jackson boys cross country team led by Marcus Foley's All State performance finished um fifth place overall in the vhsl class 2 state championship which was held in blackburg we had eight officers of the signal non Middle School FFA chapter along with advisor Dakota strad and principal Scott sletner um attend the annual White House turkey party which was very exciting for that
115group and then North Fork our special ed team hosted a mini career fair where students were able to meet local businesses and community service providers such as First Bank uh V do AEL Plumbing Mount Jackson Fire Department Chino Mor Memorial Hospital Holtzman oil Chantel and Walmart and finally I want to wish our students staff parents and Community a very very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and I hope they have safe travels if they travel out of town thank you answer any questions appreciate that any questions for the superintendent I was going to say our students got to see the first of many pardons that have taken place um going back to our last meeting when I requested uh information on the $77,000 from the Woodstock moose um we did receive uh some invoices
116and um some reference material in one of our Friday night notes after that meeting um I went through all the invoices I printed them out and I was surprised to find that six out of the nine were actually invoices from before we even received the donation um so I didn't understand why we got those um also I noted that in here the $7,000 donation was listed as cash was that a cash donation do you know I don't have that information but it was a donation from the Moose um organization um so out of the nine invoices for basketball baseball or softball three of them came after the donation uh the six that came before the donation total $2,351 184 the three that came after the donation was $ 42648 so out of that $7,000 they've
117only spent $426 48 um are we to assume that they spent the $2,351 184 knowing that donation was coming um cuz some of those invoices date back to July of 2023 um so I mean even if I were to include all nine invoices the total of all nine is only $2,778 32 which leaves a leav $ 4,221 68 unaccounted for are we able to delve into that any further and find out where that money went certainly I'm doing some quick calculation right now so excuse me so what was your figure that you had that they had spent total prior to the donation or after after the donation after the donation was made was $426 48 yeah so my number c uh the number that I've calculated is $794 186 um that was um spent after
118February the 8th and then each of the um each of the teams have um money remaining so the boys basketball team has $1,711 remaining to spend uh the girls basketball team has $1,710 124 remaining the baseball team has $1,422 remaining and the softball team has 1,000 the whole amount remaining because they spent no money after any on any additional equipment after February the 28th and these numbers do not include any any expenditures on uniforms because the money was to go towards equipment and it didn't include uniforms but we um the school did spend quite a some of money on BAS basball uniforms and softball uniforms um last year after their donation but that do these numbers aren't included in that so can we get a breakdown of that breakdown of what the numbers you just
119ran down we never saw those those were in the Friday notes the money that was left from that 7,000 I did not come across that could you resend that to us be happy to thank you I have a question with that um why were there um receipts from 2023 was that money that was spent in anticipation of getting this grant or what no they just sent that that was just extra information that they sent so the information that I I gave was um was just extra information so absolutely that total you came up with after February the 8th where did those invoices come from because I have all the invoices you provided us here and if I go after February 8th all I come up with is a little over $78 y so I I
120would have to go back and look at those but it was $794 186 after February the 8th on equipment after February the 8th on all four of those accounts um for boys basketball girls basketball baseball and softball yeah if you could send that breakdown I'd appreciate it thank you all right any other questions all right we move on to uh board member comments anybody want to volunteer to go first can I go first yeah we didn't think it could be done but we actually had a peaceful meeting and we agreed and it was everything was unanimous we still have to get we still have to get through more com that's right never mind never mind I take that back um I just wanted to say we had the opportunity um well some most of us
121had the opportunity to go to the Schoolboard memory Alliance um conference last week which was fantastic um it had a ton of information and we had governor yanin was there and attorney general Miis and um Governor lieutenant governor with MERS and also Secretary of Education so we got to have a lot of um good talks and good information from there one thing that I did get from that that I discussed with Dr and we're going to look a little bit more into this was the idea of having maybe even a shorter school um I'm thinking probably for agricultural um because we have such a strong FFA and we have a strong um um programs here in ch County I don't know how it would work so we're just still going to be looking into that
122I know Warren County has said that they would be interested also in working with us on that one um I also wanted to say that we're still working also trying to get information on whether we can have I to see here at Junior I to see here in um back in in Shor County and um another thing that I wanted to say is I know there's a lot of people who complain or or have concerns that we're only um dealing with some issues you know the cell phone or or the transgender or the you know some of this name change we are working on a lot of the other stuff we are working a a lot of the you looking into the curriculum we're looking into you know the library books we're looking into a
123lot of that stuff so we can actually do a lot lot more than one thing at the same time so we are looking into that and as we prepare for the next year I hope that my what I hope to focus on the next year is actually going to be looking more at curriculum um just to see what it is that we have or we're teaching U because what happens is the Commonwealth will give us really broad standards of what can be or should be taught but we as a school district can actually tailor that those a little better so you know at least take a look at that I don't if there's anything that's going to change necessarily but at least we'll take a look at that um and I think that's it Merry
124Christmas to everyone and happy New Year and look forward to seeing you all next year Mike uh first off I'd like to thank an wi King and Ashley bot and Crystal holler for coming out tonight and speaking about the issues at Sandy Hook and keeping that at the Forefront um I said it earlier I'll say it again I thank Danny orts and his team for responding so quickly to that um I just want all my constituents to know that uh until these issues are fixed at all of our elementary schools building or expanding triplet Tech is on the back burner for me personally um the kids kids safety and health comes first uh before we worry worry about building anything new um also I would like to congratulate coach lamb on his first year running
125the football program at strawsburg high school and all the players on the football team for making it as far as they have uh I wish them the best of luck this weekend um also I had requested one of our eighth grade students uh down at North Fort Middle School has done a phenomenal job of um research ing safety for her her fellow students and staff um she's reached out to me she reached out to Dr nun Dr Nunan has helped her uh formulate a fundraiser um she's gotten in contact with a company called nightlock security I requested that this be on the agenda for informational this evening I request that it be put on the January agenda now so that we can give a presentation on it um the idea behind it is uh Lena
126Langston the e8th grader at Peter mberg she researched this found it online reached out to the company um found out the cost the whole nine yards she's since been in contact with I believe Chad um about either Dr Nunan or or the student herself reached out to you and I believe Deb was given her was going to help with a grant or trying to locate a grant for security um that something you were aware of or involved in um anyway I've I've researched the product I've talked to the company it is a phenomenal product it was in place in the Nashville shooting last year uh saved numerous lives when it was employed it was also in involved in another shooting at a uh Michigan school and was employed by the students in the classroom and
127saved countless lives um so I just want to give her the kudos for all the research she's done the fundraising they've come up with at North Fort Middle School I'd like to see it countywide uh if we could get all the schools involved with the fundraiser and especially if we can get a grant to cover it um I appreciate everybody coming out to talk about C Cal Swim tonight in strawsburg I thank you guys um Dave for putting that together hopefully we can come up with a solution to that um I think everybody involved needs to understand Tom and I have been here since 3:30 this afternoon in meetings on grounds and buildings and CIP and all the improvements we'd love to do to our schools um I think the public needs to keep in
128mind the minute we start talking about this stuff all we start hearing about is oh God my taxes are going up um if anybody in the community could reach out to me if you have any other Solutions uh if we could talk about the money end of it any ideas you have to find the funding to pay for this stuff at all cost money um so I want to thank the members of the School Board office for continuing to work on this continuing to try to figure out where to get the funding from to make our schools better um I see the hard work you guys put into it and I thank you for that um and just to wrap it all up I want to thank all our staff our students I hope you
129guys get some rest and relaxation over the Christmas break I hope all of our all of our families in shanoa County have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year uh three three quick points Mr chairman I had a delightful visit to sturg high school on Wednesday the 20th of November there were so many happy faces and it wasn't payday and it was only Wednesday and despite it being Club day there was very modest Hall traffic which is one of my OS synes the building was very clean and very well maintained and I think one employee summed it up best when she said I'm really blessed to be here Point number two last Frid I was part of a group that met as a Board of Trustees for the uh Lawrence Lucas Foundation what a
130great organization 22 grants of money returned to the community and I left that meeting just so thrilled in wishing that I had known this gentleman and wishing there were more Lawrence Lucas and point number three I realized this evening I have two microphones Mr parl ter I guess I can vote Yes on this microphone and no on this one is that proper uh yeah okay long as you don't do both long just one vote what a follow up on all these holiday wishes um I want to share some wisdom from Ben Franklin and Mr reporter uh I'm par phrasing this is not a direct quote Ben Franklin said one time make war on your vices make peace with your neighbors and always strive to be a better person come New Year's Day happy New Year
131Merry Christmas thanks El uh Tom sure well I'm a little concerned tonight um I hope Steve heison is okay haven't seen or heard anything out of somebody maybe well all check on him um anyway now I'm sure he's up to I'm sure he'd like to be here uh congratulations to strawberg football Regional Champions that's and uh making a road trip to Salem for state champion congratulations that's awesome and I want you all to know want strawberg to know that uh even though some of us including myself are not there uh we're listening to listening to it on the radio so uh if we're not there physically we're we're with you uh in spirits and listen to the game on radio so good luck Saturday and I I wish you all the best um want to
132thank Dr Huard for your presentation and that's something we have to look to uh you know look at and uh everything you presented with the um and we talked about today with uh the Outlook and facilities and strategies and and and what you presented uh the stats you presented here tonight present interesting um thank you Mr or for your um responding and your presentation and and response and and uh you know responding the best you can and and getting things squared away um well Mr bone been quiet night that's that's good isn't it Merry Christmas thumbs don't get used to it um and you know the swim issue um I you know I I hope we can figure I hope something works out I hope we can figure something out um you know my my
133heart goes out to especially Central Central being in a situation where they're kind of stuck um but but I just hope something can work out there um want to thank uh the staff uh everyone uh from the superintendent down to the St here to the teachers and and the coaches as coach custodians uh thank everyone for all the hard work you continue to do in dedication and um just want to wish everybody a Merry Christmas thank you st like to begin by uh wishing the Rams good luck and Salem one one Saturday for the state championship um couple other things to think about the swim thing was clearly concerning don't think any of us really knew at what to what extent it had gotten to um so hopefully we can find some solutions there it
134sounds like the bus issue will be resolved so they'll have a bus driver if need to be but the facility issue is obviously much bigger at this point so hopefully something can be figured out do appreciate um coach Dyke for calling everybody that he can call it seems like he's going to every length possible to find somewhere for them to go um some other things appreciate everyone's support and everything throughout the year as we get ready for 2025 it's hard to believe it will be year four for Dennis and myself um time has flown to this point so we do look forward to that appreciate Dr Shepard and all the staff uh for everything that they do uh just want to thank thank the board for giving me the the privilege of being the vice
135chair this year um and I look forward to hopefully we have a a better 2025 in the sense that we can get along a little bit better I think tonight showed that although we didn't get into too many discussions I think we can get along and do good things I've talked about it before I am optimistic that we can come together much better in 2025 and help the school system um I'm looking forward to that I think we can do it and I hope we can do it so happy New Year and see you next year than okay yeah I have a number of things um first of all I wanted to uh report to the board that um I got a phone call from George Bowers uh representing the um weekday of religious education
136uh process that's been going on and he's uh and that organization are thinking about a soft long launch at the end of the school year for fifth graders for the Bible Break um so with the concurrence of the board uh tonight I'm going to um ask that uh we allow W to present a brief on that concept at our January meeting uh with uh a vote coming as soon as possible after that and uh I've also asked Mr Bowers uh if or at least I uh suggest that he be in touch with Dr Shephard staff in the meantime to uh to kind of increase the skids for that make sure that we're in seao when he gives that briefing so if unless there's any U non-c concurrence with that I'll just we just go ahead
137and schedule that in it's awesome news sorry that's awesome news that is it's good good stuff okay thank you um Gloria talked about some of the great uh presentations we had at the uh at the Symposium and I have to say that it was a it was uh it was an excellent set of presentations a lot of them uh we we have in slides and other forms so I'll provide them for for those uh for for all of us each of us even those of us who went but there was one specific presentation on making the Strategic plan come alive which really intrigued me because in the military I've seen how strategy drives the tactics and then back again and uh the Secretary of Education Amy uh gadera talked about how that's possible how we
138can be data driven I know I know you're coming out of your seat on this I know this is your your language but um talking to doc Dr Shephard um but Dr walstrom um who is really a great data uh analyst and and makes it all realistic which is a remarkable Talent as far as I'm concerned and um Dr um Gibbs she's out of Matthews County she's a Schoolboard chair and the two of them uh have worked out a way that that the data uh can you know for the objectives can be um Quantified and used for uh making um conclusions about what's happened and and Trends and suggested um improvements and and measurements and this is all even now I'm getting excited about this stuff anyway uh but ju just to have the the
139ability to to um to use our strategic plan as uh as a real living document and have it um inform of the things that we do I think is something that because I every year I watch Dr hun Gartner present this thing and it's you know I've lived with strategic plans all my life but the ability in making come alive and be living documents is very difficult because it tends to be abstract but when we tie it to this C so I'm looking forward to um and I've talked to Glory about this as well if we can get some uh those folks in here to help us kind of uh they've already got nowhere to look for the data we're not have to have to um do anything to uh make them bring them up
140to speed they you know they're both Educators and they kind of know where to find these things so if unless they're too expensive for us but I think they they'll help us out um did did anybody this week the most astounding news something I never would have thought I could have lived to to to see was that um there was a bill passed by the house on the second day of our conference and it it's called The crucial communism teaching Act was passed by how many people this is incredible um like uh three 367 members of the House you can't get them de degree on the color of the sky and um and so this HR 5349 is to develop and disseminate a civic education program and oral history resources regarding certain political IDE ideology
141and this um this this act um will ensure the future Generations M the pain and suffering caused by the brutal communist ideology what drove this is the realization that Generation Z has no idea what communism is or was or what it's done detrimentally in this Century uh and they have a positive view of this from their time in college where they're not told I mean uh my RIS r a is it as an expat from a refugee from Cuba because he was fleeing communism and he'll ask people what about communism and they have no idea they have people have no idea why North and South Korea are different and why one is thriving and the other is in Stone Age economy and it's because of Communism and the fact that this has been downplayed ignored
142or countered basically uh in our higher education has been troubling to me but the fact that um that this large again this is bipartisan both parties uh vot voted voted for this uh and it's going to the Senate now uh and it it's got a couple of uh sponsors already so in it there will be there asking for people to develop a uh parts of the curriculum that can be used so I'm looking to forward some of that that we could use help develop uh and a lot of it could could be with uh or should be I think with um resource speakers uh my um hung who ran for Senate uh Refugee from from communist Vietnam and what the Chinese are doing are doing now and and we're just not aware we as a
143culture are not aware but certainly uh our students in secondary education who think that communism is some sort of party I mean you know have a good time party and not understanding the the uh the immense suffering and problems that are that come along with that is uh just kind of exciting to me that we're actually owning up to it as a as a culture so uh I rather that I'm not looking at anything specific now except to think that um I'm glad people are whether it's because of Tik tocker or or the hinis programs of of the Chinese or whatever um I I just think it's it's important that we that we make our kids aware of this uh of this uh unspeakable evil that uh that has caused so many deaths this century
144and continues that's the problem it continues to oppress people today so I I just think you know when Congress does something that I'm like I'm perking up um second last thing I want to say we have had some uh conflicts on on on the board this year and I think part of it I'm going to take on myself because I think I overstressed uh when some of the new folks came in uh the need for us to develop policies but we sure develop polic policies uh and and good ones I think but I would again I I'll refer you to our Norms which indicate we can accomplish a lot as school board members without having to to pass a policy and and and spend uh time necessarily here trying to trying to debate and pass
145those uh in the the last page of the of the Norms talks about how we're supposed to communicate to Schoolboard members um uh so if a staff member talks us we're supposed to listen encourage a staff member to contact the principal and their immediate survis supervisor and to advise the superintendent as warranted the and and the chair about the concern that was shared so um when me Members need information from the central office request will be made to the superintendent by the school school board member uh the school board member deter the need to request information that pertains to operation of the organization from the principles the staff request will be made to the superintendent for response so I'm I'm thinking we are not using enough of our just ability to tap into the principals
146and to the superintendent's office and just ask questions or this is the problem can you help solve me do and I have been doing that with problems with bus routes and with where people live and what pictures are on the web page all kind of things that that I that I get in touch with the superintendent and she and her staff take care of it I I think that's that should be business for us and I want to um in particular a shout out to um one member who's done this rather well this year and it's Tom Street and Tom has has accomplished a number of things for he saved us a ton of money on buses uh he's he generated a dialogue among the staff about uh the use of propane uh he has
147uh been kind of at the Forefront uh with uh with looking at the concept of U uh career in technical education and and he has um pushed the envelope with um with the superintendent and with with principles and so forth about about asking those questions and um and sharing ideas that he has and uh I've I I've seen that sometimes it just opens up a lot of information that that is extent on on the staff and and that we might gain if we ask the question and have have some dialogues about it so um so I I I really think U and and and I I also um really think that you're and I'm talking to Tom about here that um the ability that you have to kind of sense um the schools from being
148there and being part of it gives you an extra insight to be able to do that so not everything has to and this this was a quote from the conference not every solution requires a policy uh and so when we think we have to pass a policy to make something happen that's not always true sometimes we can get a lot done just by um tapping into the into into the uh staff and into the ad administrators and uh and and seeing that can be done so um I had I know I had one oh yeah I I wanted to finish on this note um I do of course want to wish everybody Merry Christmas and some day soon I'll have time to put my tree up but in the meantime um I think I want
149to remember this year for a year of great Improvement and educational um uplift that you and your staff and your teachers have done uh because I think after Co what we did to our poor kids and uh seeing the attendance go back up seeing academic uh numbers go back up yeah we have these problems that nobody's trying to ignore um but you know those those logistical problems you know they they're with us forever we have to solve them we have to face up to them but that doesn't indicate Who We Are who we are is what are the outcomes that the kids have what what's happening to them in terms of their academic achievement and that's all on the rise and um and and you you should you should be very proud of that and
150and we as a board should be very proud of that not that we made it happen but uh but but that we're part of part of the team that U that cares about it and wants to make make it occur so uh I I think it uh I think it's a great way to end the year to have that kind of um that kind of improvement and those kind of levels that that we're reaching so uh good on you guys for what you what you do and um unless anybody has anything good for the group I'm going to uh ask for motion to adjourn I move to adjourn thank you Mr Guta any second second second Mr Rickard all in favor please signy by saying I I we are adjourned at 9:40 all