SCPS School Board Meeting 11/9/2023

001i' like to call the Thursday November 9th 2023 Central County School Board to order at 6:30 p.m. at the county of County Board Room uh do miss shepher do you have a motion a recommendation for executive session please I do I Rec commend the school board of sheno County convene a closed meeting under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act in order to discuss and consider several Personnel matters involving the assignment appointment promotion performance demotion salary discipline or resignation of several employees of the shanida County Public Schools under Virginia code 22- 3711 A1 and I recommend the school board of shinida County could mean a closed meeting under Virginia Freedom of Information Act for the purposes of discussing and considering several student matters involving the emission discipline or disclosure of information contained in a Scholastic record

002of students in the shanida County Public Schools under Virginia code 22-30 711 A2 thank you do I hear a motion to that effect please yes Mr chairman I move that the sheno County School Board convene a closed meeting under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act in order to discuss and consider Personnel matters involving the assignment appointment promotion performance the motion salary discipline or resignation of several employees of the shannondell County Public Schools under Virginia code 2.2 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 the shenova County Public Schools under Virginia code 2.2 182 thank you Mr Barlo do you hear a second second second Mr Guta all those in favor say I I all those opposed

003motion carried by 60 vote we will hopefully be returning by 7 p.m. e he a motion to reconvene and Open Session please I move that we reconvene an open session thank you Miss gut all is there second I second second by Miss Rook all those in favor say I I all those opposed motion Carri by 60 vote the shenel county uh School Board hereby hereby certifies by roll call vote that to the best of each member's knowledge only public business matters lawfully Exempted from Open Session requirements by Virginia law would discussed in the closed meeting to which this certification resolution applies and second only such public business matters as was identifying the motion convening the closed meetings were heard discussed or considered by the shener County Public School Board each member responds I so certified

004when called by the clerk Miss Walsh ISO certified Mr BW ISO certified Mr bar ISO certified M RS ISO certified Mr C IO certified Mr H IO certified okay today uh Miss R we're going to have the invocation and pledge but before that we have a few people to honor they're memory of that served uh our County over the years first uh Carol Maria redard uh according to miss jet uh she taught at U Ford Elementary School and we haven't found out when that school actually closed uh but anyway and then second uh Kathy John who worked a number of years in our cafeteria in the county and finally Anderson Andy King uh this young man as was in the news uh 27 years old uh he graduated from Clark County High School went to

005Virginia Tech a member of the core Cadets enlisted in the Army Reserve and lost his life on a training exercise in Richmond last week uh his funeral will be at the Fairgrounds tomorrow at 1:00 I believe he volunteered in Woodstock and I think uh K he ran occasionally the Chain Gang for Central football games so if we take a moment of silence to remember these people and their families that deal with their loss thank you Miss red and I've asked a member of our audience a to give invitation this evening I told you you had a purpose there you go there's no microphone but I talk loud here it comes I ask shower how biblical Pastor Katie gosne Edinburg Lutheran Parish let us pray gracious God and Father we thank you for the service that

006you have provided in our shinoa County Public Schools we thank you for their faithfulness we thank you that many lay down their lives and give their life energy for the sake of our families and our children we ask your blessing on this meeting that all we do might bring peace and Harmony that it might continue to lift up education and the importance of this gift that you have given us we remember those who have passed especially lifting up the king family in their most recent loss and we ask your blessing on Pastor Nate and all those who will be at the service tomorrow may it be a comfort to the family and the community as we remember this wonderful man all we do is in your name amen a pledge algi to the flag the

007United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible for liberty and justice for all thank you do hear a motion to approve the agenda please I I approve uh I'm move to approve the agenda as presented thank you Mr G all do hear a second I second second by m Rooks uh all those in favor say I I all those opposed motion carried by SE Z vote uh according to our good superintendent we do not have any recognitions this evening going on public and staff comments the shener County Public School during their regular meeting and doing public meetings uh do do excuse me do not respond we oh let me start again please General County School Board welcomes public comment during most regular meetings and during public

008meetings Schoolboard members do not respond to public comments during the meeting or hearing each speaker may speak up to 3 minutes the board usually allows 30 minutes for public comments if there's a large number of speakers the board May reduce the time aot all comments should address the matter related to shenel County public schools for complaints regarding division employees should be directed to the school principal or the appropriate School Division official the school board expects each speaker to be courteous modeling for our students how one can respectfully disagree with other views speakers will address the comments to to the entire school board and not to one individual School Board member or to the superintendent to a staff member or to the audience speakers will not engage in personal attes speakers were asked to sign up

009as you enter the uh room this evening and they will be called upon as signed up and the first one is Mr Charles Street thank you Marty I'm glad I'm not the only one that does that good evening I hope everyone is well elect the school board members superintendent Dr Melo sheer thank you for allowing me to speak tonight first I would like to wish all the athletes good luck in the postseason play especially Central girls volleyball team the Central football team second I would like to thank the ex members of the school board for their time served thank you third I welcome the new the three newly elected school board members I look forward to an anticipation in what the new board members will bring to the table I feel confident the new school

010board's enthusiasm will be productive the Shanel County voters got their say two years ago and finally the rest of the county had their voices heard Tuesday the voters of shandel County are still upset over the debacle and actions of the previous board and previous superintendent the margins of Victory two years ago and also Tuesday were huge fourth I received a package from Ashby Le Elementary School inside we're thank you notes from the careers on Wheels day last month that we participated in I was really touched that the students enjoyed and mostly learned about the different job opportunities in this County we were honored to be a part of the wonderful event fifth the library policy as I stated last month in my opinion is accusing the librar is nobody is accusing The Librarians as to

011which books are in the libraries or how they got there some just fall through the cracks so to speak but 100 books made their way into the system somehow some people need to understand this policy is to help the Librarians nobody's trying to dictate take which books are put on the shelves just that the that the books are suitable for the students that's all thank you for your time thank you next speaker is Mr Steve Heisman good evening school board members is this the one Steve uh good evening Schoolboard members and Dr Shephard and thank you also for allowing me uh to speak uh uh my voice this evening I always have to start off with a uh a praise and a shout out to weekly religious education and it is very uh inspiring uh

012to know that it is up and running strong and steady as it started off this year three times strong longer than what it finished last year and um that is all praise and glory to the one that we all are thinking about in our hearts congratulations to the uh the three new school board uh candidates from um the elections the other day and I want to thank uh all of the school board members here uh for your service the uh School Board policy the the library book policy that um is in question and I think it's going to be voted on this evening and um I believe did did I find that on the agenda last night and I I printed it and read over it and um and I saw the uh the uh

013updates and uh what will hopefully get this policy pass um I myself believe that there should be Absolut abute zero% tolerance uh on this issue because all of the most all of the students that this involves is under the age of 18 just the other day I had a a short conversation with one of my sisters on on this uh issue she didn't know a whole lot about it now she's got two grandchildren that are homeschooled so we share ideas okay and when I was explaining to her uh what this polic update and proposal is her one question is was why is there not Zero Tolerance why is it even a conversation that this type of material is being allowed snuck into indoctrinated in you call it what you want why is it in the

014public school system available to our student students that are under the age of 18 years old it was a very good question that she had so I uh I I hope and I trust that you responsible board members will um take this policy update very very serious and pass it after little uh or later in the meeting the last thing I I just need to do a another lift up and praise just the um football season has just ended and um just a couple days ago the uh team members were uh picked and notified um who were going to who was chosen to play on the allstar uh in the All-Star football game here sometime in December and the generals or a football team had one player that was chosen to play in this game

015and his name happens to be Trey heishman who happens to be a grandfa or a grandson of guess who thank you very much next speaker is mik xby you almost got it this time I butcher that every time I'm going have to send you a postcard so I'm Mike shy not Shelby but I'll go by that too that is my dog's name um I wanted to just uh touch briefly on a couple things the biggest one is or the main one is the uh the library policy um I want to um commend everyone on the board who put work into this um you know the as it moved along there were compromises um there was a lot of work specifically with Andrew and um and uh and Dennis recently so I I really applaud you

016guys for that um because I started looking into doing research as I like to do on my own and I found a lot of things um you know and the letter the letter of the night is I the I so I found a lot of inconsistencies in purchasing in what books were there and and other things said they weren't um I found um through some foyer requests I found in subordination from School Employees towards you know school board and other members um you know and um I found a lot of misinformation anyway along the that regards um you know and then some commentary um you know and then from the public I found Flatout ignorance so you know um I think that I commend all of you once again on this policy but I cannot

017stress enough the importance that it is um parents should have a view a a voice in this too not just the Librarians and the parents' voice really shouldn't outweigh the Librarians I mean my aunt is a librarian at a school in Pennsylvania and you know I talked to her extensively about this and you know um and she gave me a lot of insight so um you know I think the new policy as as is being presented tonight has really made a lot of compromise and it hits most of the nails on the head um you know so and I I hope that you um that you pass it um you know as is um you know because uh it's been a long time coming I mean we've been talking about this for over a year

018closer to two um you know and secondly before I go um Cindy Marty um Andrew I want to thank you for the time and years that you've put in on this school board we haven't always seen eye to eye but we've been able to to talk civy and things and um that's something that seems to be lacking in uh a lot of America today and here in our County as well so um you know thank you for all you've done over these years and um and that you'll continue to do through the end of your tenure and um and the rest of the school board I mean you guys too obviously so but I'll puff you guys a little bit up on your last day too so all right but thank you all um you

019know and thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak so thank you thank you Mike at 11:30 words uh anyone else like to speak that's not on the um that did not sign up okay hearing none we will proceed hey you hear motion to approve the consent agenda I move to approve the consent agenda as presented thank you Miss Gall do you hear a second second second by Mr Barlo all those in favor say I I all those opposed motion carried by vote and going on to section four information agenda first 41 new program studies for the middle school and revised program for the High School Mr Hen your right good afternoon Mr chairman members of the board M Shephard thank you for giving me the opportunity to share with you our updates to

020our secondary program of studies and what we've put together as a middle school program of studies first I'm going to start with the secondary program of studies are high schools that we do each year each year we strive to provide courses that are relevant to our student popul that we have and what's pertinent within our community and within society as our children are growing up this process really starts at this time for next year too so throughout the 2223 school year the principales continue to evaluate what they need in their schools what their students would need on October 26th we met together with recommendations what happens is that the teachers will meet with the principals at each school and they will go through their recommendations and if it fits what the school needs and at

021that point the principal will forward that recommendation to our committee that the whole division meets with so we met on the October the 26th which are the courses that you have in front of you this morning or this afternoon I'm sorry and we'll bring it back in December for approval the first one on the list is a new course but it's something that we've always done for our English the second language the courses that they were taking they did not get a sequential elective uh within our program of studies we're able to offer English as a second language that they will also get two of in a row that gives a sequential elective that goes towards their graduation where they weren't getting that before first a and CPR and AED training we've always been doing

022that as part of graduation but what we want to do is we want to add it into our ninth grade health and physical education as a course just as we do driers education before we were hand toing marking kids that have completed for graduation this way our system will automatically keep it and we can do a quick search of who's completed the course next are two courses at triplet Tech these two courses would be provided within a semester it's medical billing Co and coding one and two we'll be able to offer that as a general course within a semester and we'll also at the very bottom of other suggested amendments we'll offer that as a dual enrollment course also through Laurel Ridge the last recommendation that you have before you will be Spanish to honors

023right now we don't have an honors after you leave Spanish one we have a Spanish three honors so we're adding in a Spanish two honors once students have entered taken the course and they've showed they excelled they have an option to take an honors course in Spanish those are the recommendations for the new program studies for the 2425 everything else would remain the same do you have any questions on that one come on middle school so we've always had a courses at middle school but we've never had a program of studies that outlined what is actually at the middle school one thing that we run into is that courses may be named differently but they're the same course because schools were acting individually throughout the county so my the principles have worked hard on this

024along with Miss Miller she's went through and she has taken every course in the county paired them up to see Al our three middle schools who is who is offering what if something's missing can we offer that at another school also so their principales are able to see what each other are offering at our middle schools so out of this we have brought before you today this started back um right right around in Co originally and Co kind of knocked it off the trail until now uh Amy has spearheaded that I thank her a lot for taking over this and going through it as you can see if I can use the mouse it was not working very well it gives for general information which is about the program of studies academic and career planning

025that every student will need to do and it starts introducing those career clusters to our students that are very important within the CTE World it outlines the grading policy and practices in Shand County Public Schools which we've worked on it gives parents an idea of how the scheduling works within middle school as far as changes what happens with changes also if you want to remove a course a student may take a high school level course in eth grade the parent has an option to remove the grade going into high school if they want so it's trying to get this information in front of our parents um earlier so they can see it and not later after it's all done at each grade level it has tiles that can be clicked on and when they click

026on the tiles it opens up and it gives a description of the courses at that grade level so they can go through English Math Science History PE and then the electives that would be offered Within this example sixth grade so we have all the Career and Technical courses that are provided to our sixth grade students all of our Fine Arts that are provided the world languages and then our GATE program for students that are involved in gate and this is repetitive through seventh grade and 8th grade so this is a method to bring consistency across all schools uh make sure that courses are named the same and that we're also teaching the same type of content if we're if it's a world cultures class we're teaching the same type of content any questions question so

027if they have if the parents choose not to have the grade follow them to high school do they need to take the class again yes so what they would they would fill out a form that we have a form that they fill out that would go under C the file saying that they've asked to have that redacted from their transcript got it okay and then they could retake it that's what used to be y just a comment I think it's a great idea to provide program studies at the middle school level as well and I think that might alleviate some concern at the beginning of the year another this year for example uh we had a course that was mistitled I guess yes mistitled it was the same course being offered at another school just

028they had used it four years ago and they they pulled that course back out so one of the things I'm glad you mentioned that so one of the things that we did is that we've went through and we've removed all of those courses so uh the school is not able to go in and grab that course name to be able to put in it's gone so they all have the same courses in front of them when they're selecting yeah I've got one going to middle school be your advocate any other questions I like the way you have it set up here too that it's really easy to navigate you know some some of the course studies pages that we've had in the past have been really complicated but this this puts it very simply for

029for parents who are new to choosing classes yes you know it's more complicated at the high school but it's nice that that very easy user and that was one of the goals starting out to make it easy to navigate for parents because it is the first time coming out Elementary School that they would start navigating through a program of studies right thank you see you've got um the 8th grade math placement the explanation on that which is you know for those that are on that voal of whether they should be an algebra one or you know how that worked yes and those discussions it's pretty well out here the Iowa Iowa algebra aptitude test that all that's wonderful Wonder ful information and yes nice we're trying to be as transparent as we possibly can be

030um with parents and we always work through that nothing is ever concrete obviously so uh we we use multiple measures uh within assessments to determine those too so well information gets passed from student to student from however on how things should be done so it's great yes anything else uh I had a parent over the weekend contact we do not retain students at the middle school absolutely we can retain students at the middle school have okay have we yes is that based on your s so so scores no it just it's it's a compilation of a lots of things that they set down and take into account so it's not one determining Factor okay I don't think we make a practice of it that's I think is where we're kind of the the the culture

031is here especially since Co that we're not retaining students that aren't passing not only their SOS I mean they their report cards show one thing when they go to take the's different things different teachers weigh in and I don't believe you know I know when I talked to Mr sletner I think last year he was talking about about talking to parents about um retention but it's something that we don't really have a culture for because there's a mentality that it it it's damaging to their self-esteem if we if we withhold them or we retain them and and that's something that this board will probably have to discuss on you know do we do we take you know are we are we looking at those is it in the best interest especially if they're younger um

032with coid if they haven't been able to caught up I mean tutoring we're obviously looking at that but if it if you know if they're just not where they should be is retention the best option for them and I don't I'm not sure if we're using it I mean do you have any numbers on how many we I I don't have any numbers on that right now yeah so I think that's probably what is is the culture is probably similar something where in that ballpark that have has probably need to be discussed any other questions thank you thank you okay proceeding to 4 two overview of light spot safety app by Dr hegard good evening chairman Hy board members Dr shephard I ask Miss Lon if she would join me up front um we're going

033to talk about LIF spot app but this was a perfect opportunity to take a few minutes and just talk about school safety in general which is our number number one priority it's the only priority and I often tell people it's the only priority that Trump's teaching children how to read uh is keeping them safe and so you know we wanted to take a few minutes just to chat about that and I ask Debbie to kind of kick us off all right thank you Dr h Governor um for as you know you look at the crisis management plan for our School Division every year and you have to um okay that and we um face everything on the four phases of Emergency Management which is preparedness prevention preparedness response and recovery and we're going to talk

034a lot about prevention today um school safety starts in the school and the relationships that are built there and you have to have a of belonging if you're a student we encourage all of our students not just to come to school go to class and go home can we get involved in school can we have a sense of belonging in that school and teachers work hard to get students engaged we want to make sure they have strong connections to the school because then with that will also come academic success but then also will make a well-rounded human being so all of that is really those first three things is all about school culture and the culture that you have in that building and all of you have been in a building and you know what

035that building feels like the very moment you walk into it and so you know what that culture is is um promoting also in Pre on the prevention layer we have threat assessment teams in all of our schools and there are very specific protocols which are outlined in the crisis plan on what we have to do for threat assessments and we conduct those um according to the protocol we make sure everybody's trained in in those protocols we also have great communication with our law enforcement um we have SRO in every building which we'll talk more about in just a moment uh but we also that that is imperative cuz they let us know the things that are happening in the community so the student doesn't really do anything in school but they're doing things in the

036community and we need to know that as well so that we can help that child make some better decisions not not only in school but also in his life um the the physical security that you can see in our buildings um we have all of our doors are locked except one you have to be buzzed in uh we have our badges that we have to that we use and everybody all the schools have a visitor management system so that we are scanning for sexual offenders and making sure that the student is going home with the right person so we've got to make sure that those part people are are vetted um all of our schools have a school crisis plan and we also have of course our division crisis plan and all of those are

037interconnected all of those crisis plans are developed with our partners in the community with law enforcement fire and res Q health and mental health uh people so our plans are are very interconnected um we have secure vestibules where you have to be signed in we know that and buzzed in and we know that we're working on those fules at the elementary schools this year and those hopefully will be built and will be completed so that's exciting because we want to make sure that we have as much safety as we can we want to layer as many things as we can to make it as safe as possible we have a very thriving SRO program and I again I want to tout it and I want you to understand that we have an SRO in every

038school in our school Division and that is not how it works in the state of Virginia not every School Division has an SRO in every school in fact it's usually the elementary school that gets the lowest and that's the last one to go but we have a true commitment from our Sheriff's Department to have an SRO in in our schools in every school and and that is just awesome and and I tell that as often as I can um and those um SRO are working hard to build those relationships and help to the students make those connections that we referenced at the beginning with our school culture and we have um anou with the um sheriff's department and we have to update that every year and that will come uh for approval for next year

039been we'll update that and of course about State mandate we have lots of drills that we need to um perform uh throughout the year and just let you know we do fire drills monthly uh we do a movein drill we usually do that in March with that's in connection with tornado awareness uh month we have lockdown drills that we practice evacuation drills we practice and um Who would thought we also have earthquake drills that we do here in Cho County as well we practice those those protocols so all of those drills are important for students and teachers it's kind of like an athlete with muscle memory I got to know exactly what I'm going to do if something is is occurring and we have our sro's involved in that active threat training every year with

040our teachers and so that's a constant thing that we're always looking at and also reviewing and previewing and how can we make those drills better every time as well so lots of layers you can see lots of layers in our school security and now here's another layer and that is the life LIF spot app and I'm going to have Dr H Gardner take over and tell you all about that exciting piece of equipment thank you um Miss Linton wears a lot of hats um in the student services department and taking care of um security and safety is just it's one of those does a great job making sure all those plans are up to date and are and are um updated uh annually and and when they're supposed to be this is one of your

041yeah I don't think it was a written goal I know it's not a written goal but I think it was something that you all were very interested in um was having some kind of notification system near our staff who would be able to alert police or fire and rescue um in a in a blink of an eye in an emergency situation and we heard that we heard you say that and in various meetings and so we tried to look and see what what would meet that goal excuse me what would what would work for us because there's so many moving Parts with something like this and we landed on What's called the livespot app and I'm just going to give you a real brief overview of that I will tell you that we started yesterday

042with our it's uh with the live version of the livespot app so it is up and working right now in the school system it is the one one product and one budget line that we all pray we're never going to have to use this is not used for a two students who get in a fight in the cafeteria this isn't used when a mad parent comes in because their child was suspended from school this isn't used if a a staff member has a a health emergency and we need to call the rescue squad that's not what this is for this is for the absolute worst thing that we can ever imagine that would happen in school this is a gun or or a threat to bottle harm that's what this is this is used for

043so we pray to God we'll never have to use it here's what it looks like though here here's what it takes care of here's what it helps us with here are the things that it gives us that we didn't have before yesterday um it it immensely reduces response time it immediately notifies the right people it gives the precise location of where something's happening it communicates with all the relevant people in the moment moment in the moment communication is what's important here um identification of of the who of of the people that are involved and you'll see what that means H it gives the ability for reunification um and then it also gives the ability to um let people know who is seriously injured show you how this works so here's the app it truly is

044an app on your phone I don't want to demon I don't even want to open it up and take a chance on setting it off it's not easy to set off but I don't even want to take a chance um starting on the leftand side the person would open up that app and they would hold their finger on that Focus button and this has had a this has a lot of research I can talk a pretty good while about this because I've learned a lot about it over the last few months but I won't bore you with all the details but there's a lot of research that's gone into every little piece of this and it continues to evolve a lot of this was put together from Homeland Security and law enforcement who have dealt

045with mass shootings all right this isn't just somebody's good idea this has a lot of research behind it and the word focus is one of the research um components a person touches that has to drag it to the bottom of that red line and they have to hold it there for 3 seconds and that gives them a Time on to process just a little bit more is this really what what I want to do because soon as I let off of this I'm going to notify every law enforcement officer Sheriff Town police and state trooper who is assigned to shanor county is going to get this message just like a me a text message just like that um and so it's a lot of activity going to happen if I set this off so it

046gives you a little bit more processing time before you let off of it once you do that then you go into a series of screens It'll ask you to identify the floor where the threat is and and each one of these are modified to meet our schools um so it's just because that I think that says like there's a one two and three and B is for basement we don't have a third floor so that's not what ours look like this is just an example the third one is going to show the third screen is going to show this red area and this red area is about a 40t circle that identifies about where this the event is taking place now this is what the user sees on their on their phone when it's when

047it the alert goes off all people that have the app that are inside of the Geo fence on imaginary Geo fence around the property and I'll show you what that looks like in a second we'll get that alert we have we cannot mandate that people put it on their personal cell phone so not every staff member has downloaded it but we have encouraged and and and once they have seen it and gone through the training most of them have over 600 of our employees have have downloaded the app and are currently using it um but we can't mandate that they do it so all staff that is all staff who have downloaded the app will get the alert all the responding officers the command in officers 911 dispatch also gets it and fireing EMS all

048have the app and the and the company we work with they did all the training for those folks um so they they brought all of them on board we didn't have to to do that again you will see this is the background of a school here in the background and you can see this red dot shows about where the uh is the two would indicate the floor in there so that would be saying second floor again the notification screen the first thing a person who who opens this up is going to decide is if they're going to fortify or they're going to flee they're going to lock down in their classroom or they're going to flee from their classroom depending on what they may they may feel and see and and recogniz I on the

049app they have to make a decision when we did our training we told staff this app doesn't tell you what to do this app gives you information from which to decide what to do because the app is is just your phone what you see with your eyes is what you need to be most responsible and responding to this is giving you information to make a decision it's not telling you specifically what to do so they still have to use good judgment and the training that they've had on what they need to do to protect themselves and their children and their care so that's that's the first thing that's the next thing over here is is going to come up a chat feature and beside that is an injured button in the chat feature they're able

050to communicate with with law enforcement any any fire and rescue that have this they could say I I saw an intruder in the library you know I I saw a person you know with with a weapon you know with had a black jacket on or whatever U it's pertinent information this isn't you know is this real is this is this a really a threat is this you know this is pertinent life-saving information only and they understand that and they can also then choose if they are injured or if someone in their care is injured and you'll see why that's important here in one second I just mentioned about the chat feature when they do chat they will only see their chat line their their chat with law enforcement they won't see you know possibly hundreds

051of other people's chat um they'll only see theirs the neat thing is that the the fire and rescue or police can chat back with them they can say stay where you are you're safe right where you're at or or whatever they may need to say they can respond uh they can respond to the whole group or they can respond to just one person when they mark an injury it's multiactor so they make sure they're not Mis Mish hitting that because this is really important when you have EMS coming in to a whole school they need to know exactly where to go to they can't trying to figure out where to go to everything is about knocking down seconds of response so once they have once they have identified that they they or someone in their

052care is injured see that little dot right there that's the same dot right here see it right here it's yellow and yellow means I'm I'm um not honing down but um I'm fortifying I'm honing down um I'm fortify I'm staying where I'm at that's what that yellow dot means but once I identify someone in my care is injured and I and I select the injured button then my little dot will turn red law enforcement can see all of this EMS can see all of this so they know here's where injured people are another nice feature and especially as we talked to teachers who have been in lockdowns for long periods of time the worst thing is not knowing what's going on you're sitting there you know 5 minutes feels like 5 hours and you know

053you just you have not a lot of connection with what's going on most of the time with this you'll have a banner there's a there's a banner up here a notification banner and that will give you information and it as soon as a law enforcement or fire and rescue respond to that app app that Banner will let everyone know who has it open that police are responding somebody knows that something's going on and they're responding so you get a little bit of information and a little bit of feeling that okay you know somebody's doing something about this um then once the fire and rescue or the police arrive inside of the Geo fence that Banner will change to police have arrived so now you got a little more comfort and a little more feeling that

054okay you know help help is on the way that kind of thing versus prior to this we had nothing you know we just kind of sitting there crossing your fingers that everything's going to be okay with this you'll have at least a little bit of information okay and and this kind of brings it together because this is um and I know it's a little a little bit tough to see but this is the the screen that the commanders would see um those those that um are running the the fire and rescue and the and the police they're going to see all of those dots and you can see them on this on your screen proba if you're looking there on the computer there's a a number of dots there you can see some are yellow

055there's a couple red ones and out here are a couple green ones remember green means go means run means flee so when they see green dots well away from from the vicinity they know those people have fleed um that's not something that we're kin to uh we're that's not something that we have um um talked a lot about in trainings over the I'm talking about over a period of years you know probably when you were teaching no one ever talked about the teacher taking the kids and running it was you know it was fortified you know lock the doors and put stuff over the doors now we're evolving more and this again is based on a lot of research and and the studying mass shootings and what could people have done to help save more

056lives and one of them is you know if if something's going on in in the gym and I'm in the cafeteria and we can run down over that hill and get to wherever that's what we need to do and so we're talking more about that um and so that's this would help in those cases when to know where people are and the reunification piece would also be strengthened by knowing where people are so that's the power that this this product gives us um it's not perfect and that's that's one of the things we tell we have told our staff nothing is perfect it runs off of sell service and and Wi-Fi both of which are always 100% perfect right if we learned anything boy we want to look at what we can do to to

057boost our sales service and some of our schools it's not very good at all but nonetheless that's what it runs off of so that could you know you you might be in an area where you don't have good sales service or you don't have good Wi-Fi so it's not perfect but it is as Miss Linton said safety is about layering on components to to build a thicker safety net and this is just another product that helps helps our schools stay safer any questions I I do have one more slide to finish with but I'll take any questions on the app right now so are there it doesn't seem like there is but is is there a option to use this on the computer like the user no it's it's it's really it's really not it's

058um it's really made for the mobile device and we looked at that also but there there are a lot of pitfalls with with both ways this was the option that was felt like most people would be able to utilize especially um because more people have their phone on them all the time yeah than ever have their computer on them or even their iPad on them all the time most people have their phone on time one one thing I didn't mention that I think is important for you to know is that if if someone is outside and this is a good kind of connects to what you're you're asking Kyle is is that say for example a bus driver a bus driver may be in St Luke and they're and they're coming into the school and

059if they have this app the app will go off right the alarm will go off well they know I'm not going to school you know I'm turnning around and we're going somewhere else but we're not going to the school um that's that's a perfect example so the the the will activate and receive inside the Geo fence but outside of the Geo fence it will only receive you can't activate it so this this this building is in a geofence but say like if I was at Walmart you couldn't set it off at home you could receive the alert but you couldn't Set It Off okay so there's some safety nets built in there like like that for us so I forgot to mention that that's probably important little component to know um have we discussed any

060incentives for those other 500 folks or so to download no um at this point at this point we have it um what's a rationale I mean what are they saying they don't well um okay here here's one thing probably the thing probably the thing that that most people do worry about in since since the it's the service is pinging off of sell the app is pinging off of cell service or Wifi inside that geofence and so when it's activated and so I can see when you go over there or when you go down there or when you go way over there I can see what you're doing when it's activated it will track your whereabouts inside that geofence and I think some folks are a bit skeptical that it's not tracking you always which it's

061not but some may be a bit apprehensive iive that it is so we we had we talked a lot about that that only when that device is activated and let's let's say this again we pray to God it will never be activated but if it is it it will it will track your whereabouts for all the reasons that we just talked about about trying to help save people's lives but there's some fear or some whatever you might want to call it that that's not actually true it's tracking wallity I'm guessing that it's if it's their own private phone they can refuse to have it done right if the school system were to provide them with a with a device right and say this is part of your job to have this thing available they probably

062have to do it we would reach a point at which we would decide whether certain Key Personnel would have to have one of those gizmos assigned to them in which case part of the job description be car that that's right that's right yeah and and I will tell you one other one other question came up about the this world of hacking that we live in and that certain you know an app could be hacked and thus people are able to get into your phone and and find and get into your you know personal information and so that well if you're carrying I mean unless you've got Cricket I mean you carry an iPhone you take that chance with absolutely positively anything that you're I mean and a lot of times you're being tracked you're not

063even is sure know that you're being track so um the I had a question about the Geo fencing does it cover because we have a campus setting as is it covering just a high school or is it covering all three schools would be P Peter mberg and and Robinson so you know God forbid that we you know ever have to use it but again all three schools that close proximity we don't ever want more than one shooter right but you know if there was a targeted attack you know is it covering just Central or is it going to cover everything no the C the southern campus and the central campus that whole campus is one giant geofence so if one school goes into the lockdown and the app goes off at North Fork it's going

064to go off at the other schools as well for anyone who has downloaded the app same way with that Central right at strawsburg each school is a separate right um geofence so is our protocol at that point if we have something on on a central that that we're going to lock down Robinson yes okay yes so it's going to be the whole campus that's correct all right that's that's correct um will it run off of Wi-Fi so Woodstock is a a Abyss when it comes to um you know you hit you hit certain spots and unless you're up by the interstate there's there's nothing in the middle of town um so if you know you you mentioned running off of data and in our buildings being issues with that can we can they come in

065and sign in to the wi-fi at the school would that be something that they can do yes as as a matter of fact fact in the information that went out to all of them they received a a link to a document that that Mr Culler Mr Taylor put together that shows them exactly what they need to do to get on the employee Wi-Fi in at every school um so and some of them have I'm not going to say many of them have but some of them already have done that um but some of them did that when we introduced this um but again that that's a choice you know that they cuz again it's their personal phone but it would definitely be an added layer of security that they would be able to hit you

066know Wi-Fi and lastly what are what is your thought process on parents downloading this I mean they're not they can't set it off but that's going to if they decide to after seeing this presentation or whatever and know that that's available that they're going to get alerts I mean yeah outside that Geo fence well the the only way the only way that someone would be able to have this on their phone I mean I mean you can download it on your phone it's in the App Store and whatever and Android calls their thing um but it would not be functional unless we gave them a code that they put in that makes it active for that Geo fence and I will tell you um the the information from from the company um but this was

067this is true for other products um as well but definitely in our work with this company you want to make sure that the right people have this right you want to make sure that that doesn't mean everybody right because the more the Messier um that other than and that's why I said it the very very beginning the the right users the boots on the ground users are the ones who need this everybody's going to know about this it's not like if you don't have this app you're not going to know this is happening okay obviously everyone is going to know within minutes probably that something like this is happening but the core information that law enforcement and and Fire and Rescue need are just those boots on the ground people in that building right there

068that's who we need to know about I don't need to know about everybody else in the community that this app is going off on so that's why we're trying to make sure it's very restricted to our staff um but obviously open to all of our staff custodians secretaries bookkeeper ladies in the Schoolboard office and and folks you know here so and and one other component is if you work in multiple buildings you're set up so that it would be active in multiple buildings regardless of where you worked so thank you can one of us well can I share the Page County specifics so um so there were employees in paach County who had similar concerns about having it on their phone and being tracked and I and I heard from teachers early on about that

069too here um and then there was an incident in one other schools that was pretty scary and a lot more staff downloaded the app after that like I would love if all of our staff would download it right away but it took an incident for them to realize the um the value of it we we we used that we we shared that with every training and just just really fast you probably saw it on the news you can go back on WHSV TV3 and see it I think it's still probably on there but they had they had a person at Senor Elementary School and and a staff member felt that it was a a bad situation and they set this off and that that person was in handcuffs um within 90 seconds there was an

070there was an officer a few blocks away from shador elementary school that got there this person was in handcuffs in 90 seconds you wouldn't even get through 911 in 90 seconds um and it's 911 is awesome and it's great and it's wonderful but this is like instant text message to your phone all right let me leave you with this uh last earlier this week I spent two half days in a in a uh virtual National Conference and it just took a couple things away from that because it was perfect timing and it fit with everything we're talking about and um you know they said you know the key here are the keys it's being proactive doing things like this being being ready being proactive being vigilant being aware communication is absolutely Paramount and and having

071the ability to communicate and but also the communication mindset of if you see something or if you hear something you say something and that is for all of us that's for all of us and that goes to the very last one and that school safety is everyone's responsibility not just teachers and principes and board members it's everybody in our community you know when you see something you got to say something and and if it's turns out to be nothing then then that's great but we'll look into it that's all I have have have we had a practice drill no but that's something we want to do this summer we we definitely want to set up and utilize the app in its in a drill mode in a full capacity thing we we've done that at

072other times but not using the drill obviously we just just got it so other questions just one more thing sorry before you go I just wanted to thank Deb Linton again for all the work that she does on our crisis planning and everything and also um Dr Shephard for making the vules at the elementary school's priority you and Melody and I visited a school in Harrison B this morning and that VES ofal was an excellent way to get into the school and I actually I like the signage they have those arrows yeah you couldn't miss you could that's right you knew exactly which way to go apprciate that anything else thank you Dr H Garder okay moving on to 43 Miss D uh requests you increase uh 2024 operating budget and special budget as a

073result the general C passing the h the 601 budget Bill finally thank you Mr chairman members of the board um so on September 14th 2023 Governor yunan signed House Bill 601 which included a significant investment in public education the approved budget includes an increase to our operational budget of $847,000 um which would be used to help offset various operating costs within the the division additionally the plan provides for one time P per pupil funding uh for the implementation of the Virginia literacy act learning loss and to combat chronic absenteeism shendo County Public Schools is receiving 2,11 15,5 for these efforts and um has just recently um received the approved approved plan which includes additional tutoring efforts in the areas of math and reading so I'm bringing this here tonight um for your information it will

074be on for um vote but we will need to appropriate those funds accordingly okay questions and moving on 44 request to increase the special budget for physical year 2024 federal and state allocations so we um at the same time we've been receiving our final allocations for our title funds which are our federal funds um and then um with that state budget we had some changes in the textbook funds so as a result the net increase in the special budget will be $38,600 virus response act funds during the pandemic These funds were meant for employers with fewer than 500 employees shoa County public schools has over a thousand employees so we did not qualify for these funds even though we did not qualify for the funds we received a total of $139,700 through March 2021 from

075the Internal Revenue Service for the family's first Corona response coronavirus response contact last year Shino County Public Schools received notification from the IRS that we did not qualify for these funds and were required to repay the money received from the family first Corona virus response act with penalty and interest from October 2022 through May 2023 we repaid the IRS $148,200 41 in interest working with the IRS Collections agents we were able to get the $115,000 45,47 n44 evaded in August 2023 we received notice of overpayment and a check from the IRS in the amount of $113,000 $3,625 due to overpayment in connection with the family's first Coronavirus response Act form 941 since that time we've been working with a tax attorney from s Anderson to make sure the IRS would not turn around and Bill

076us again the attorney has pulled the quarter 4 2019 through quarter 4 2022 transcripts for the shanadoa County School Board and there are no IRS liabilities the attorney C called the IRS and the agent indicated for quarter 4 2020 the case for that period was resolved in August of 2023 based on the transcript in the call the quarter 4 2020 form 941 has been resolved by the RS the agent also indicated that from her review of quarter 3 2020 and quarter 1 2021 form files all of the submitted documents and tax returns for the each period have been processed in the are no funds due or refund due for the tax periods so in essence we paid we received $139,700 definitely good news do we look to of it I'm sorry Brandy I didn't hear

077you do we look to get the rest of it so um I am not hopeful of that I think um we take the 113,000 um and deposit it and um and use it for um items of need like some replacement lawnmowers and snow blowers and things like that but it it really we did it about face at Le at least three times if not more and there was a lot of Finance staff time spent um fixing this and um and and we're most appreciative for them getting the penalties um interest evaded earlier well miss s should be definitely commended about the extra hour you put on this uh to get all the paperwork straight any other questions on this all right going into 46 the Virginia School Board Association propos legislated position and amendments Dr

078Shephard or Cy Miss um so you elected me your delegate to the VBA convention and next week um and there are four legislative proposals which we discussed or you were given of at our last meeting I asked if everybody could get back to me by November 3rd you had any objections to any of the four and wanted those pulled out to be voted on separately and I did not hear from anybody so with that I assume the block is okay with the board just for the block of the board comments um I apologize I I was not here at the last meeting and as I read through these um yeah there were several that I I just do not agree with um that would be um you know the the nons support of school choice

079which which proposal there are four of them um oh so you're looking at ones that were not approved um to be considered right um I also you know there was another where um they're talk the vsba is talking about um decriminalizing um disorderly conduct um you know with the current um atmosphere over in Warren County especially um where they've got parents in an up I'm really really shocked that the vsba would would um you know sign on to to decriminalizing disorderly conduct and and and some of you know things that um definitely I mean if if you are in an fight and you um you know I don't know if if a simple assault could be listed as dis worldly conduct but if you're if you're breaking in somebody's draw um there should probably be

080some consequences uh for that one as well um so it's just just interesting stuff um again from from the vsba um and um those aren't going to be voted on next week and there's a process that starts in March if you'd like to have those addressed next year we went through it last year around this time what the process was and nobody chose to object to any of the legislative positions in the handbook yeah so um last year when we did go through this drill and I was the alternate and I got a look at the handbook I became aware of this I'll use the word Arcane system that the vspa has of uh looking at And discussing possible policy recom ations and became aware that the uh that the board of directors are the

081ones that have pretty much C blanch in U in developing these and um and even though it takes up through the spring and the summer of getting them developed we had very very little time to take a look at at them so uh it is true that we had these couple weeks now I guess but um once again they are lung together in groups so that it's very difficult to disaggregate them uh it's difficult for organizations uh give credit to um Warren County for taking a a heroic try trying to um the one that breny just indicated is is one that's U rather remarkable to me that um VBA um supports this supports decriminalizing disorderly conduct for school-based defense uh and um and Warren says um in the current climate many districts are struggling with

082serious discipline issues there are many times when it is appropriate necessary to charge a student with disorderly conduct which sounds like good sense to Bor so um I I wish we had had these uh ahead of time uh another example of one I really like I did I did do some research on it um legislative proposal number number two calls for State funding um uh that supports uh implementation of the FBI Next Generation identification non-criminal Justice rap back service which is a mouthful uh what it amounts to is that this program gives government agencies the right to receive notification of subsequent activity on individuals who hold positions of trust and further Research indicates that this means that those people in trust would be fingerprinted with the anticipation that if anything happened they could be tracked

083um and the the VSS narrative says while participation in the service is anticipated to be voluntary the system would be most useful with maximum participation there quite a bit of uh civil rights at at risk here uh and so um there there are two examples I give of how the SBA itself kind of comes up with this stuff it's uh I use the word undemocratic and and not very transparent and not very much time for us to to respond and the uh the divisions that actually do take the time to do this uh pretty much get slam dunk and I think it's uh rare of H teeth than any of these make it through so I'm I'm not I'm not happy with this process uh and and I don't think it it serves us well

084I don't know what we can do at this point uh because vsba does what it wants to do it's a it is approved by a committee that has members that are Regional so we do have representation on that committee um but that's neither here nor there I just want guidance for next week um if you if you all decide that you want to pursue changing the process or getting involved in the process earlier in the year when the notification comes out which is around March please go ahead I just need to no guidance for next week well anything else one one of them was proposed by Warren County one of the ones that's in the well there was several from more count yes no but one of them is is included in the ones we're

085voting on next week I um they'll be offered as a block unless somebody pulls them out yeah once again I I as I say I I fully aware of the process which is I take 20 minutes to describe how the process works but I don't think it's Democratic I don't think it's transparent and I I I choose not to be involved with I just think it it it gives the appearance of transparency democracy it is not anything else so I just want to clarify so we can't just vote on the Warren County one we can't just support theirs and throw the other well you can if somebody goes on the floor of the delegation and says I would like to pull this one out to vote on it separate then you need 2/3 of the

086delegation to approve it okay so I need guidance from you all whether I should vote Yes on the block or if there's anyone that you would like to pull out and ask me to vote no on if it's if it's approved but chances are it won't be won't get two3 votes people that I would be okay with just scrapping the whole thing that's just me and that's that's what I did last year I was the only person in the state of Virginia um who voted the way I did that be yeah I I I kind of second that I mean you know we we give these folks a lot of money and and the thing is is um you know what Warren had to do to be able to even get here and and you

087know their school board members um were treated so poorly I mean to the to the point that the vbba had uh you know wrote letters to their chair and their superintendent and wanted wanted them not you know to send their delegate um you know to ask questions there's nothing Democratic about this at all and of course last year we learned that if you don't sign on you you as a board have to come back the way it also works is if if everyone everything passes even though Cindy you might have voted against everything if we didn't as a board okay um even at that if as a board we didn't come back and make a public you know decree against this our names shter County Public Schools were still included when it went to legis

088when it went to the to Richmond we were included in that and that we supported all of them so it's it's really mobike to be honest with you because um you know the the whole idea is is you know to to promote what everybody in education wants to wants to see and and yet the little guys really um their voices are are are very much silent so I I'm I'm okay with abstaining again this year um and not supporting any of them that would mean that we wouldn't be supporting the waren county proposal that was approved just FYI I guess my question would be though are they even in the vsba anymore but they did get one approved which one was it anything anything else sendy anything else nope I just need to know what

089I need to do Warren County the first one school facility construction funds and financing if you want me to abstain then I will be abstained from approving that one as well well if they liked it if BBA liked it that means it's going to get approved anyway so um again I'm okay with abstaining on all of them even if um cuz we know it's going to pass so what about the rest of the board what do you want me to do I two two of them that that got on to the proposal list are from rural counties and two of them are from more urban counties so I would say this this list of what we're going to vote on next week is definitely more balanced than last year's list was um so just tell

090me what to do it's good that two rural counties got got some in because the previous year I think was all of them from North Virginia if I remember directly most of them but one was from tazwell and one was from Warren this year this year this year oh it looks like it's a split um Andrew I don't care I mean I I don't think it makes any difference you know we can argue about all you want but at the end of the day it doesn't doesn't really matter right and the objection is not to the legislative proposals that are before us that we're voting on next week the objection is to the the process into the BBA so well both I there's error on these dogs uh but uh we haven't had much time

091to take a look at the ramifications of FBI fingerprinting key members of our of our staff so uh I'm you know I vote against that on that basis until I found out more about it but in the meantime the the process is not only Arcane it's it's a given I mean it's by the time to come to us it's all done so no matter how we vote those two rural counties aren't going to be counted up or down our our our po vote isn't going to make one cill of a difference no it's I mean I I would vote obstain or vote against against taking action on it just because I think it's an unfair and undemocratic process okay that's fine I can do that is everybody in agreement I will abstain again this year

092okay moving on 51 action item proposed Library material selection policy they hear a motion yes Mr Keller I move to approve the proposed Library material selection policies presented do want hear a second I second that Mr Marlo second discussion yeah uh well it's a collaborative effort um in I think that it does support our Librarians our teachers our students and our parents uh it's not foolproof uh and it's not the golden ticket to everybody's uh hopes and dreams but I do think that it's a layer of oversight prior to the purchase of library books and materials uh that that we need in in that I think that uh uh that that is wanted uh you know I think that we need to thank our Librarians for their input and of course Mr Barlo for what

093I would call his uh uh thoughtful measures in preparing this policy other discussion Dennis just for uh historical record uh I'd like to I'd like to go through this very very quickly to indicate what I think we were trying to accomplish uh when we started this about a year ago um and make sure we kind of know where we're Landing make sure everybody is is clear I'll be I'll be quick before I do that I do want to give a special uh shout out to um Andrew for coming up with I think are some really really uh good sites that actually I think the compromise we made actually made it a better policy so I thank him for that um I want to thank uh uh Brandy for what I think has been a a

094heroic set of inputs that she's made and a dogged determination to do the right thing in spite of the fact that she has uh taken a lot of uh abuse for that even in a form of U of anonymous letters and so forth um because this has been an emotional topic but um I think she stood her ground and she has uh she's uh come up with quite quite a bit of information I I thought was important um along with Andrew I do feel that U each of our stakeholders and each of the each of the professionals involved uh have a very key role to play and uh so our guiding principles were the involvement of stakeholders uh dealing with misinformation and disinformation uh to have a as libraries or opinion should have some degree

095of classical uh and historic U literature available uh that professional review tools should be fair uh and well applied and that we deal with the law uh dealing with sexx explicit content uh those I don't think should be hard for anybody to understand or agree with specific guidelines I'm not going to go through those but we but those grow out of those uh General guidelines um for instance should ideal uh uh align ideally with Virginia standards of learning and be appropriate for the age and development level of students I don't see anything that uh is um controversial or IDE logical or political about any of those uh now the stages in the selection and acquisition process um uh recommendations for Library materials will be made semiannually by the school librarians uh they will provide those

096lists to their School principles who will develop a final draft list of the books the public will be notified uh through a final drafted materials uh that will be published on the U uh by the superintendent's office on the website and then the uh the the change that and Andrew I'm going to specifically shout out to you I think this was a kind of a brilliant stroke um that U that this list then will be forwarded to the to the Department of Instruction for reviews or the directors of Elementary and secondary education um then we'll we'll we'll take it on they'll evaluate the list based on stakeholder comments and guidelines provided in this policy uh if they recommend approval and pass the list with the recommendation to purchase to the superintendent that will be it

097if the directors desire to judge one or more titles they will recommend an evaluation of the titles in question by a subcommittee of three members of the parent Community advisory committee nominated by the school board and selected by the superintendent so this allows for Parental oversight uh based on uh the initial screen of the list by by the two directors um committee will develop a sucin report on its findings off for the recommendation to the superintendent who will pass this uh on to the school board um we made specific recommendation that that U weeding that is getting rid of books also be included in this in the plan along with Acquisitions and uh we finally said that there this would be a sunset policy that would be in in effect from January 1st to December

09831st of the next calendar year and that unless rescinded uh at the conclusion of the termin policy will be reviewed for sufficiency and amended rescinded or continue to enforce so next year will be if you will a trial year to see how uh how that uh Works in um achieving the the goals that we stated dur the policy uh I think that's a very workable policy we've been told by the administration that it's U that it will work U so we do look forward to um the regulations that will be coming from the superintendent's office based on the policy and I think that might be it except to um once again thank um Dr Shepard and Dr heinr for what I think has been a really difficult job of seeing us through a controversial concept

099without themselves um getting involved politically or otherwise and providing very objective and sound guidance and their good offices and I think that is what has made this uh this possible for us at this at this moment so um I didn't mean to be long withed Mr chair but I just think a lot of people were unaware of what the what the finance policy was so I wanted to give it an overview okay other comments Cindy you I spoken yeah um I appreciate the I appreciate that there was um there was compromise on this um there were there were certain parts of it that um were a deal breaker to me but I I really appreciate the hard work um I actually I especially appreciate the um the appendix at the end I think that says

100it all um what the criteria um for selection should be and that's what the Librarians wanted most so I think they're going to be very happy to have that in writing that appendix um I I worry a little a little bit that there's no um timelines put into the review process really um but I'm hopeful that that it all that it'll move quickly um and that books don't get held up for months and months um in this process was there did you all discuss how long um they would be on a website for comment no okay I believe that um it indicated that um that that it would be on there 30 days yeah for for the school before the school board would take final action but Andrew I want to interrupt no go ahead

101because I think at one point well I mean I think ideally I believe that that librarian should have that list submitted to their principles before the end of the school year for the next school year okay well excuse me it is a it does it talks about twice a year so it's a semiannual process so they can restock in you know at the winter break if they need to for the second semester no I I appreciate that too um anything else Indy no thank you okay Cal I mean although it was a and I pointed this out a long process probably longer than it should have taken really appreciate Dennis and Andrew you know no matter what anyone says about anybody up here we've done a lot of compromising over the last two years or

102so on different things and this is another example um you know if you look at it from a fair and unbiased perspective I don't think you can sit here and say this was a biased leftwing or right-wing process um I think it was fair different perspective persectives involved the Librarians got to um provide their feedback and um I appreciate everyone's hard work the school board staff Schoolboard members and Librarians because I know it took a long time um so good to have something here to vote on tonight and we'll see what happens Brandon um yeah I would like to thank um Dr H Gardner um and uh Dr Shephard for um being the middleman um not having to pull out any um you know any any um gosh what's the word I'm looking for um

103you were graceful you stayed neutral um and you know I appreciate that um I appreciate the hard work that went in uh to the policy by Andrew and um you've been a pleasure and a and uh you know it's a painful process um and um but I I appreciate all the hard work that you did you came to the table and um and and you and you know it's it's a great policy Dennis you know um regardless of what the vote is this evening um you've been wonderful um you've taken a lot of hits um and I've learned a whole lot um about culture and about folks that that work for us and about the community and um how emotional this this was and you know I really wish that we had that on in

104in in a lot of other areas um you know where we pack the boardroom on on why you know we kids aren't reading or what we need to do to to you know make things better in other ways um as the librarian said you know you've got other problemsin this um but it's been extremely eye openening this procedure and this this um this policy not only has to do with sexually explicit materials but it has to do with culture a culture of the public schools what um is out there and you know we had a lot of folks that want to make this political it um culture is everything and if we do not protect the culture of what we the institution that we have here um we're going to lose it and you know

105folks can walk out the door at any time take their kids and and say you know what not only do I not have a say but you know um what is available on the shelves um is just not what what we should be giving kids so um yeah it took longer way longer than it should have um but I again I am appreciative of all the hard work um that went into it so thank you all right I uh I have been spoken on this I'm going to support it but I have reservations on a couple of things I think uh is micromanaging the The Librarians and that send to me the wrong the uh the wrong impression that they're not value whatever and I hope that does not case but the compromise was good

106the committee that worked on that um and uh I'll sum this up with doing open house at the southern campus I talked to one librarian and she said she said Marty what has happened when President Reagan was President in the80s he preached smaller government and less regulation and we really got away from that I remember the conversation but maybe that's a culture we have now we have to okay uh anything else roll call vote Mr Barlo yes Miss Walsh yes Mr belshaw yes Mr R yes Mr CER yes Mr H yes motion carried by 60 vote moving on 52 proposed 25 budget development calendar and school board meeting dates for 24 Dr Shephard it's option you just need a motion oh motion I'm talking you exactly right you'll hear a motion on 52 thanks for

107clarify that Cy Dr sheph this is something that we can adjust if we need to next year and we abstain if we're not going to be here no I'm voting I move to approve the fiscal year 2025 budget development calendar and the 2024 school board meeting dates as presented thank you Mr caler here second second second by Miss Walsh discussion question roll call vote Mr bar yes M Walsh yes Mr bsha yes M RS yes Mr CER yes Mr H yes vote carried 60 53 Personnel motion hello I move that we approve the Personnel list as presented motion made by Miss Walsh to approve the personnel as present do I hear a second second second Mr Keller roll call vote Miss J Mr Barlo yes M Walsh yes Mr fsha yes M yes Mr caller

108yes Mr H yes motion carried by 6 Z vote moving on superintendent monthly report Dr Shephard you have any highlights I have a few few comments our October attendance increased from 92.8% in 2022 to 94.5% this year we'd like to thank our families for making sure that our students go to school each day and to our staff for their efforts to encourage attendance our schools are currently hosting their school school level spelling days good luck to all the students participating the winners will compete at the division level be in January and I was able to attend the end of one today in the spelling word that won was fiddleheads so next week is American Education week each of our staff members plays a unique and essential role in ensuring that our students have the support

109they need to achieve their full academic potential thank you to all of our teachers and staff for their dedication to our students families and school Community the all count choir concert will be held Saturday this Saturday at 300 p.m. at Central High School school and then our marching bands will also perform at several Veteran Day events on Saturday Athletics I would like to wish good luck to our athletes competing in Regional and state events this weekend our Central High School and strawsburg High School football teams compete in the region 2B quarterfinals tomorrow evening Central High School volleyball team competes in the class 2 State quarterfinals this Saturday November the 11th and we have athletes from all three high schools competing in the the state cross country meet this Saturday questions comment um the uh attendance

110that you spoke to do parents realize that if a student is absent at the beginning of the day or party they can go in at 2:00 and get counted for the full days they should yes well I I took a student out of North Fork and he came back the next day and we got him there so it count but I'm not quite sure about all parents know that well anyway anything else board comments moving on no who wants to go first Dr Keller I pass it this time I reserve my time for next pass m r pass go Falcons football volleyball and even the Rams football tomorrow thank cow Miss uh Cindy Miss Walsh I'm glad Melody went through all of the different Athletics because I was going to say all of those um

111I'm just I'm really proud of our students throughout the county and in their efforts and sports and um our marching band competition season is over there's a couple more performances as Melody mentioned um and um they they are all fantastic marching fans they all did really well sometimes their scores don't show it we have got the most dedicated uh music teachers in the world in shenoa county and it shows in the success of our students um one thing that I forgot to say when we were talking about the library book policy is I think one of the reasons that it took so long was because a policy like this is actually unprecedented in the state of Virginia so it's one that um that I think needed a thorough a thorough look um and as I

112said earlier I appreciate that there was a compromise in the end but I think that helps to explain why because there's not a policy like that in Virginia right now unless there's one since we started uh there wasn't when we started um and then um Dennis and I both attended the take your legisl lator to school event in Harrisonburg I went to the first half he went to the second half um I mentioned we um the part that I went to we toured an elementary school in Harrisonburg and um I would just encourage current board members who are going on new board members to um to embrace opportunities to network um especially regionally because it was so great I listening to Melody with Dr Richards are you doing this are you doing that and then

113also just being able to talk to the principal at this Elementary School about his challenges and the things that he's proud of it just it makes you feel like you're a part of something um and you're not the only ones dealing with the same challenges or the same positive things it it I just I would encourage you uh especially regionally um harrisberg and Rockingham are great Partners in a lot of things and um and it was also very funny to see that school because it look so much like our schools that were built during the same time period so um and then Dennis can tell you about how the legislative part went I couldn't say for that U Mr Marlo so U yeah the first thing I want to do is uh congratulate the three

114new will be the newest members of the school board in January I see that they sat in geographical order so you guys are all train um but um everybody up here knows how much uh effort um it takes to do this job uh to do it conscientiously and I think I think we we we do that and we know that we'll do that uh and God bless you for it but uh it gets tough but uh but thanks for taking it on and look forward to working with you guys um yeah want to the take your legislators to lunch today it was all said to do battle with my ideological counterparts and instead we came to a meeting of mind on some great issues that we know we have to uh address uh specifically uh

115drugs in school and and and what that's taking and it was uh it was I think very edifying that across the Spectrum everybody understood that that was something that has to be taken on seriously and uh even to the concept the the related concept of having um when there are those people who who have released kind of back in to our school system from incarceration or from healthc care or whatever that we that we're aware of who we have and and what what uh what the background is and this helps us do what Dr hegard was talking you know 20 years ago we would never say job one is safety but now we do say job wanted safety and uh and so both of the things I think speak to that so I think that

116was very healthy for me to see him taking taking part in um at the uh at the risk of being Debbie down I am going to uh I guess Denny down or what we want like is u i I do want to say that we we ostensibly took a lot of time to look at the library policy um to see what was going on and we saw a lot uh and uh I have uh indicated some of those concerns uh to to the superintendent uh and um and and so there really isn't an argument we we didn't have a policy there was no policy folks we even we there's not not even an evaluation for librarians they're evaluated as same as teachers and the scope of librarians is a whole lot different than teachers and

117and so uh Dr Sher I don't uh Envy coming up with regulations to come up with this because because there there were a lot of empty uh empty policy bus here that just needed to be filled and so uh but but I I do propose great trust in this uh in central wa stat as well well as as the whole school system and I'm sure that'll be done that'll be done properly um so uh I just wanted to clear that out the uh and and I will say I'll say something personal just before I stop here and that is that uh one time after we left your andreou from telling Tales I'm sorry put his name on my shoulder and said kind of tough tonight and it was because it's not easy to hear people

118uh tell you that you've written terrible policy and um you're racist for writing this policy or uh the that um writing policy is is micro maging or that parents are too dumb word actually use in this room um and U so we we have to um but I'm the kind of guy that hurts for a while and then it gets better and then I'm okay again maybe maybe I shouldn't be that that needy it takes me a while but it takes me a while to get over some of that um but um for for you guys it's it's going to happen and and um and uh the thing to do is just uh decide you guys are really really young I'm the old guy here I used to watch um probably remember um profess Parker

119um use the hands up here at the chair call me for holing um what was um d c d Crockett D Crockett just come on he said be sure you're right then go ahead I don't know why that sounds like such a pearl of wisdom but anyway uh yeah when you know you're right you go ahead and and you you don't sweat the small stuff so um it's uh so you know sometimes painful and then you just U you just rub it off and then you go on so with those words of wisdom from Fest Parker or Walt Disney whatever it was I'll turn it over the chair all right I I got a few things uh first of all uh Jessica Sager I reckon she was the uh key in planning the celebration down

120at Mountain View and uh a lot of us went and this was the second year and what a great C ation that was to coordinate that and U she's do get the credit she rightly deserves but Jessica you do a great job whatever you probably need an assistant but anyway um also I had the pleasure uh probably one of the the pleasure uh at being a school board member is to read to an elementary class and I went to Andrew's uh Sandy Hook I read to a first grade class and the book was the day the farm quits okay and Miss Howard's first grade class asked her students to send thank you notes first grade class I mean I I was touched came through the pony and just uh Cheryl gave it to me this

121week so I mean what was the name of the book The Day The Farmer quits quits and I took the the book I purchased the day the teacher quits and I gave her the book to keep in a room so anyway that was a good uh good morning for me and and uh let's see uh Sunday and I we cut the ribbon at the playground ofit at Mountain View that Del rice coordinated spearheaded uh for the severe handicapped students down there and we do a lot in this County but we do not neglect any student the needs that they have and Mr rice should be commended for that uh facility and the lastly uh I will say The Outdoor Classroom in northp should be open by December 1 it's coming along if you have get

122there you can see it the uh FFA at North Fork was very proud of that and on that note it meeting adjourned at uh 8