001records involving discussion or consideration of admission or disciplinary matters concerning any student of any state school system under Virginia code 2.2-3711 A2 thank you you want to hear our motion to that effect from my colleagues please yes I moved at the Shenandoah County School Board convene a closed meeting under the Freedom of Information Act Virginia in order to discuss and consider several Personnel matters involving the assignment appointment promotion performance demotion salary discipline or resignation under Virginia code 2.2-3711a14 and to discuss Scholastic records involving the discussion or consideration of admission or disciplinary matters concerning any student of any state school system under Virginia code 2.2-3711 A2 thank you Mr Barlow do you want to hear a second second by Mr Keller uh all those in favor say aye aye aye all those opposed uh carried 6-0
002we will reconvene at 7 00 pm we like to welcome you all to the December meeting of the Chandra County School Board uh do I hear a motion from my colleagues to reconvene in Open Session please and so Move Motion made by Mr Barlow Joe here a second second by Mr gutchall all those in favor say aye all those opposed uh the school board now is an open session the Shenandoah County School Board hereby certifies by roll call vote that to the best of each member's knowledge on the public business matters lawfully Exempted from open meetings was discussed under Virginia law in closed session by which the certification resolution applies and second such public business matters as we're identifying the motion convening and closed meeting was heard discussed or considered by Central County School Board
003each member responds ISO certified when called by the Clerk I so certify Mr gutshall also certified Mr Barlow ISO certify certified uh uh next uh Travis do you have that slide for a moment of silence for thank you uh Donna Ann Millard passed away from our previous uh after our previous meeting uh she served uh our County and let us pause for a moment of silence for her and her family thank you Mr Keller will have the invocation and the pledge thank you we bow our heads dear God thank you for this opportunity to come together as a group of people to support our students teachers parents and all those tasked with educating our youth give us the wisdom to make decisions that enhance those in our care help us to Value each member of
004our community from smallest to biggest and to recognize the contributions and needs of all be with us as we all try to pursue excellence and help us realize that while our method strategies and philosophies May differ our goals are often United these things we pray amen amen thank you thank you I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible for liberty and justice for all Mr chairman can I be recognized for a minute uh yes Miss Walsh I would like to move that we amend the agenda for this evening to remove item 6.2 just for this evening okay a motion uh uh uh Miss Walsh um correct me if Am I Wrong uh maybe we need a motion on
005the whole agenda and then your Amendment would be yeah I looked it up and it can be either way um so if you want to do it that way that's fine too um I looked it up on Robert Sewells um but I can do that okay all right do I hear a motion to approve the agenda as presented colleagues that's kind of misleading I agree what's that it's kind of misleading I mean the agenda of this would be all of it correct in instructional information action [Music] but it can be amended later yeah it can be done either way well I I think it should be a minute first if it's going to be amended and then approved okay all right all right Cindy I'll recognize you or your motion to amend the agenda do
006I hear a second I'll second by Mr Keller discussion I have Miss Barlow so uh this has been a discussion that we've had for months and months and um I've actually put it off for once or twice and it was up for discussion last meeting and there was no discussion on it uh and so it seems like uh even though we passed its twin back in September this is uh this has been going on uh it's um disconcerting to be prepared for discussion of a topic like this where there are uh citizens who believe it's going to be voted on tonight and we find out at this at this late time it's not so I'd like to know uh What uh what has caused this issue that has been lingering for months uh to yet
007be uh postponed again other comments that um you know this was brought up on the informational agenda last not a word was said except for Mrs Walsh who used her last 10 minutes after discussion had closed to indicate that she had a problem with the policy and at that point she also indicated she would email us what those were I never received an email of anybody else did so I was a little perturbed to say the least that two days prior to this meeting we get hey we want to table this um because it's it's not correct I'm not exactly sure why it takes six eight months for this board to come up with a policy um that allows parents purview of what's being bought viewed um and we have one for curriculum we have
008one um for just about everything else but this one's for the library book seems to be a touchy subject for whatever reason um which makes me wonder you know whether I need to dive further into the library books and what's being bought um but again I mean we're tasked with policy and this should be a simple if there's no issues you know there's transparency and that's what we should be offering that this shouldn't be a problem to pass and yet we're going to be pushing it off almost eight months so that's that that's I would like to know why it's being I mean I'm almost starting to think it's a game but you know I'm to the point that I don't understand why we can't have a discussion fix what the issues is which what
009the issues are and move forward I don't think anybody's prepared to discuss it this evening but that that's the question why I mean again why why are we continuing to discuss something that should be fairly straightforward I've shared my objections before um the biggest one is that we have a policy that works and it works well and a librarian told me that he was a part of two reviews one of which he agreed with and one of which he didn't but he accepted them um he accepted both of them and they worked so that is my biggest objection I think we have taken a very simple straightforward policy and inserted a lot of extra language that is not needed I would imagine at that point then you can voice that we put it to a
010vote um you know the um the interesting thing about that librarian um let me find it here there is an email that floated around last November prior to my election I won't read all of it however um I think we're probably talking about the same one um the book in question this was sent to the school that um his school Community this is the book in question is one of the most General sweetest affirmations of our love of our children that I've seen and the overriding message in the book is to listen to your heart you're okay you're loved and I keep wishing that when this woman was in the school that made me the kindergarten student who had read the book would have given her a smile and maybe a friendly conversation recognizing that
011she was a person of worth too I know my worst days brought to you by the ramble of locals social media and a smile and away from our students is the best tonic available I may have put myself in Peril by writing publicly to you all but after the courage on display last night how can any of us allow the bullies to trample education and human decency so this is one of our employees who obviously if part of those had very strong feelings I am okay with him having those strong feelings but I think that the the folks of Shenandoah County should have a clear concise Pathway to having if they are having an issue with the book they know what's going to happen they know how long it's going to happen they know that
012they may lose it they may know that they may flip around and appeal it what we have now is pretty Broad and it's pretty much left up to the individual building and to make those policies to make those those procedures so um I I you know like I said you're you're very much welcome to your opinion on it and that's fine but we should be able then when this comes you just vote no I mean it's it's instead of you know uh hindering a policy that there are some of us that feel that it it shouldn't should be I mean that's that's how the process works yeah I don't believe I'm the only one who feels that way well I mean obviously I mean I've called all you guys and spoke to you about my
013concerns with it and I guess that's what's prompted where we're at right now and I'll share those concerns with you um but first thing I would say is that I'm I'm okay with with being transparent I'm okay with with parents having a role in uh in in looking at books and reviewing books in in I think we need to Define that process my concern was that it continues to be is that the um I felt like in the in the most recent iteration of policy that eight people on the committee were too many I think that can be paired down I think we need to have a discussion about um about that committee uh you know I think one of the things one of the the issues was having a principal from another school I
014think that's that's Merit for discussion at least um I think uh you know the the responsibilities of the committee should be considered uh you know one of the things that that concerned me is anytime you type you tie a policy one of our policies to a video e specific bdoe policy or specific Senate bill you know those things might change I I'd rather use the use a phrase like guidance from the vdoe or guidance governmental guidance in terms of uh uh you know being able to look at this stuff so that's my concern and I guess I would I would also say that uh um you know when we first looked at the whole um the whole policy and we I guess we agreed to divide it into two and one would be the instructional
015material and won't be the library material I vote in favor of the instructional material and I made it very clear that this is instructional material only uh you know I I don't know anybody and I'll say I don't I don't think anybody up here wants to have anything inappropriate in our school written you know in in our libraries nobody wants that um so we had a policy I guess that was great by Mr Barlow um it went back to the Librarians revised some and then at the last board meeting we got a another revision so I mean I feel like you know you say yeah we've had this for a while but we've had different parts of it in pieces of it for for a while and but only only within the last month what
016I would call the final draft so um I just I just want to get this right okay and that's I think what I communicated to you guys the other day I just want to get right uh I don't think that I certainly don't have a a motive to to hide something but uh but let's let's take our time and we've got a policy right now in place that if we have an issue with it it would be the policy that we use for instructional materials that that uh that would fall back to so you know I don't think we're we're going blind into into this um I mean if you you want to talk about it more now and iron it out now so we can get something passed tonight I'm whatever other comments yes
017so we got two problems here one is that now we're arguing the issues instead of whether it should be on the agenda what was brought up as a procedural question and I want to argue the procedures okay all right I'm sorry so I will say as part of the policy committee that's been working on this since May that we have done our due diligence brand Randy and myself along with Dave heimgartner's group and we have worked assiduously and we've worked with the ability to bring this to you as a group as a as a school board we have had two work sessions during which we talked about these things we have agreed on the policy committee to uh to accept and invite input from The Librarians which we did uh that particular version is standing
018right there to be voted on and ready to be uh to be nominated if that's what we want to do um and go back to September at a meeting with the chair Vice chair and superintendent and we were asked to hold the saw for two more months until November and we did and that document was on there all three versions were on there a week before we met so they were there to be seen and those issues were talked about at both of our work sessions Last Summer the two work sessions both of them and so why okay and so it came as a a shock to me um when um and I have been chastised uh for deviating from Norms but let me tell you what our Norms say uh board members agree to
019be fully prepared for the meeting by becoming familiar with materials provided value board docs prior to arrival you know we have been working with the staff the central office staff as well as on policy committee to get this out in front of you now it was there with the things you brought up Andrew or the things we could have discussed tonight and we can't discuss those tonight I mean I I have not known exactly what your concerns are although you did articulate some of them at our work session and we talked about the numbers of people this wasn't mine this was a this was a this was a um policy document that was that was came down to us and I think the common consensus was it was originally penned by Gabby rhymers that are
020listening okay so I don't know about that but I do know that it came to us and at that point Andrew there were 13 people on the committee and there were two larger committees so if anything we parried it down did I help edit this yes I did okay but it was with that kind of with the input that we had from the work session and I am fine with letting a discussion go about the about the the merits of this particular thing but I don't want it to die uh running out the clock or death of a Thousand Cuts I would like it to be declared on it or decided on its on its own and the final thing also about process I haven't said anything about oh yes I have I tried not
021to say anything about the merits itself is is really the the Cavalier way in which it was dismissed at the last meeting because when it was on the table nobody had a question nobody in this group brought anything up but in our closing comments Mrs Walsh said I didn't bring this up during policy section because I didn't want to get into a long discussion well maybe we need a long discussion I still have serious issues with the klb BLB policy but I will send it to you all in an email to save time I I do not think Mr chair that it is the role of this corporate body to ask other people to send individual members their input rather than to discuss it as part of the corporate group if any board members would
022like to talk about any of them separately give me a call there are a couple things I think we need to amend such as having an eight-member board what if it is split well that is discussed in the in the uh in The Proposal I will send that to you I won't get into it tonight well I didn't get anything either but I don't think we should be as individual members inviting people to send us their input on something and then refuse to debate it as a corporate group I just think that's wrong now having been said I'm okay with kicking us down the road two more months because we won't do it next month it'll have to be a discussion we have in January and February but I will say this about content if
023we're tone deaf enough not to give the citizens of this County the chance to actually look at a book and say I'm not sure about that I'd like to have a review of this if we're not confident enough in our system to deal with that and and we want to keep that our parents from that kind of transparency we are shooting ourselves in the foot so um I'm going to hold on to this like Grim death and and unfortunately what we're doing we're kicking this thing into the budget time we're we're kicking it into the we're kicking it into all the issues that have to do with uh the other policy things you know things that are going to come up in the spring as well as our whole set of uh of other of
024other issues and this is just gonna is gonna you know it's gonna weight us down because it's going to become even more emotional than it's been already it should be a slam dunk I've indicated any of you who've called me that I'm ready to um talk about the numbers you want different numbers I told you Andrew I'll go with different numbers I don't care I'm not waited to eight can we do that tonight I'm fine with something with number uh but there are other things I won't budge on we can find out during debate what those might be but uh and I thought again you brought up a really good point what happens to a book while it's being challenged and you had a a good idea that I think we should incorporate into this
025but it's something we can do as we as we develop and discuss this issue you know rather than waiting two more two more months before we take a look at it if we still need and and people may have planned not to discuss it tonight because I guess others knew that this was going to happen I didn't until two days ago then um I didn't either then we can do this that's that's good to hear but um well hey this but if I called I called you to let you know that I didn't think I didn't think your policy there the one that you had come up with was going to get approved I understand okay I told you I I appreciated your phone call I told you genuinely kind of hard I did and
026again I would have been not been prepared have you not called me so thank you but um so uh but so I'm ready to discuss tonight I'm ready to if you guys say you need more more time that's fine and we can talk about numbers of people in the committee we can talk about what happens to the book in the meantime but uh but I think we need a policy that allows the citizens of this County to be able to parents stakeholders to be able to uh at least request a review it doesn't mean they get what they want as you well know parents can already do that under the current policy well this ensconces it what's wrong what we ought to do is make it clear and again what was presented to the policy
027committee was something that was already developed which was much more complex in Arcane that we've than we we've developed right that's something the previous board never saw yeah well you have and it's not not until it was brought up no no it was here in May it was here in May no no brought up to the board the previous board by the School Board Personnel well I don't know what happened to the previous board I'm just saying that in May it was presented another discussion I'm I'm like Dennis uh I mean this isn't going away if if you know the idea is we just you know continue to make issues and you know how you knew it wasn't going to pass is interesting you you couldn't figure that out no I didn't have I I
028you know nobody said a word last time so you know you're you reached out and said I don't think it's going to pass which would mean that there was discussion between um some of us here on the board that went didn't include somebody else so that's fine I don't have a problem with table in it but I'm like Dennis this isn't going away if if I have to request it to be on every agenda for the next um until we I don't want it to go away I can do that if you guys want to vote on it then vote on it if you guys want to have put it on the action plan or a discussion we can do that okay for tonight and Hammer this thing out if that's what you want you
029know the thing is if there's genuine concerns and there's problems with it fine if there's genuine concerns and you still don't like it you still think it should be then vote against it but okay okay but I'm okay with hammering it out but it's not okay with just you know continuing I just want to make sure we got it right but that's you know that's not a a a priority then then you know let's let's keep on going I'd rather listen to the strings anyway all right uh we got a a motion to amend the agenda made by Miss Walsh and second by Mr Keller to uh delay uh the library policy on our agenda uh uh roll call vote to remove yes Miss Walsh yes Mr gutchell yes Mr Barlow I'm staying MS rutz
030yes Mr Keller yes Mr helsley yes so the mo the amendment passed by to a vote of five and one extension okay do I hear a motion to improve the agenda with the amendment I move that we improve the agenda as amended okay motion made by Ms walcho here a second second by Mr Keller uh uh any other discussion uh uh all those in favor of the approving the agenda with the amendment say aye all those opposed no okay it passed five to one okay Miss Shepherd uh next on our it was five to one to approve the agenda with the amendment could you do it okay roll call that'd be fine Ms Walsh Walsh yes control yes Mr Barlow no Miss rutz yes Mr Keller yes Mr Healthy yes okay the motion pass to
031a five to one vote uh Miss Shepard do we have some recognition that you would like to share with the group please yeah so this evening I am delighted that we have Mountain View High Schools um Orchestra with us and Miss farmer will introduce her students and the songs hello I'm not sure okay hello um first of all I'm Miss farmer and I have the joy of the Mountain View High School string Quintet um these kids have been working incredibly hard outside of rehearsal time practicing on their own preparing on their own to be able to present some wonderful tunes for you tonight so the first two will be playing is the waltz from Sleeping Beauty this was written in 1889 by Tchaikovsky for the ballet of the same name the Sleeping Beauty um Disney
032of course later adapted the time there we go um Disney later took the ballet and adapted it into a movie that we all know and love Sleeping Beauty with Aurora the princess um in the original scene Aurora is dancing in a ballroom and there are four princes who are trying to court her and win her favor we know that in the movie there are less princes involved but uh the sentiment of Love at First Waltz is still present so please enjoy the waltz From the Sleeping Beauty too much [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] foreign [Music] please enjoy the waltz from Sleeping Beauty [Music] right now [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you all right uh so the second tune we will be playing tonight is called night shift by Richard Meyer this one's a bit darker
033a bit more intense and has a bit more technical challenge to it um and it requires the players to master a technique called shifting which is unique to string instruments um it allows them to move their hand which usually plays you know once or right here to shift all the way up to the highest parts of each string it allows them to access a much higher range of the instrument it's pretty challenging and it's pretty demanding and once again I just have to express how proud I am of them because they pretty much prepared all this and then presented it to me and said give him play this at the school board so I I'm very impressed and they look like I'm leading them but they could honestly I am very impressed with how passionate
034and dedicated they were to putting this all together so please enjoy night shift by Richard Meyer [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] thank you so much for having us here tonight we really appreciate it and once again thank you so much thank you and students have a great uh winter break y'all looking forward to it I hope you've been good girls and Santa will come for you we'll have a pause till they um take their instruments and have a great Friday thank you again chairman he'll sleep that's all I happened this evening thank you Miss Shepherd the Shenandoah County School Board welcomes public comment during most regular meetings and Joint public hearings school board members do not respond to public comments during the meeting or hearing each speaker may speak up
035to three minutes the board generally allows up to 60 Minutes for public comments on agenda and non-agenda items at the beginning of the meeting if there's a large number of speakers the board May limit the time for each speaker all comments should address matter related to Shenandoah County Public Schools the school board will not hear public comments on involve a complaint about individual staff member a personaire action a student this area matter a complaint about an individual student or pending litigation the school board expects 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 and not to one individual School Board member to the superintendent or to a staff member nor to the artist speakers will not engage
036in personal attacks speakers signed up as you entered the uh room today and we will go by the list and the first one is Brad Pollock good evening chairman Housley and members of this school board it's a pleasure to appear in front of you I don't usually take this opportunity um I communicate with some of you frequently but not publicly I come for you tonight because frankly of a disappointment that you all took the action that you just took um the item that you all took off the agenda today includes from from my review of the agenda something called public review of library books and materials and this has been an issue for a long time but an issue since before this past election last month and it's been an issue since before an election
037a year ago and this board has chosen not to take any action at all and what is the action that might be sensitive well my review of it is the procedure for filing a request for review concerning library books or materials is as follows and there's one two three four number of items down to five and then we get down to Five D six way down deep and it says there were the responsibilities of the Review Committee are to discuss the material to focus on specific concerns relating to determining the appropriate nature of the book or resource with regard to sexually explicit content is explained in SB 656 and elaborated on in the Virginia Department of Education publication model policies concerning instructional materials with sexually explicit comment and then seven assessing the prurient nature of
038sexually explicit content as delineated in the vdo8 publication model policies concerning instructional materials with sexually explicit content you as a body have just chosen not to vote on them not to take it off the agenda and not to address it which is really quite a disappointment considering you were elected by the people and what our constitution provides as a provision actually written by George Mason in our Bill of Rights that says the government is or ought to be instituted for the common benefit protection and security of the people Nation or community of all the various modes and forms of government that is best which is capable of producing the greatest degree of happiness and safety and is most effectively secured against the danger of male Administration and this is in our Constitution and whenever any
039government shall be found inadequate or contrary to these purposes a majority who you all got elected by and who you're accountable to hath an indubitable inalienable and indivisible right to reform alter or abolish it in such manner as shall be a judge most conducive to the public will so you're not doing the majority's work I'm sorry to say otherwise Pleasant to see you all tonight thank you thank you next speaker is Gina Jenkins good evening good evening Miss Shepherd my name is Janae Jenkins and I am the library media specialist at signal knob middle school as well as an active Citizen and parent of a Shenandoah County Public Schools Middle School student I wanted to express my sincere gratitude gratitude for the board's willingness to work with all of the school librarians in the county
040to come up with the library book of materials review policy that is separate from the curriculum material review and selection policy that was needed after participating in and following the development of policy klb a few sections of the proposed policies that are before the board to be voted on are still concerning two of the largest concerns are what happened to the book or material while a decision is being made and what happens to the book or material after the decision is being made while the decision is being made the book or material in question should be kept in circulation for many valid reasons removing the material book from circulation during the review process gives a feeling of bias towards the removal of a book it impedes the student's First Amendment rights a student's right to
041an intellectual freedom is restricted before any investigation or discussion decision is made about the book or material this is the kin to Proclaim proclaiming someone is guilty before the benefit of a hearing or trial the Virginia Association of school librarians publishes a clear position statement on the censorship of books in Virginia and school libraries and it reads that the amendment the First Amendment rights and freedom to read of all students in Virginia schools will be opposed uphold upheld we oppose censorship in the removal of library books without following the policies and procedures set by The Local School Division this leads to what happens after the decision about whether or not to retain the book and collection is made there is really only two options in the proposed policy keep or remove it from circulation the
042downfall fall of the third person a proposed policy book of is to remove it from circulation you're removing it from all of the County Libraries so therefore if it's in deemed inappropriate in a lower school than the higher schools won't have access to it so there needs to be something in between that decides the approprieness of the book should it not be put in the Middle School level then maybe moved up to the high school and so forth adjusted accordingly thank you for the consideration thank you next on our list is Mr Charles Street good evening I hope everyone is well elected school board members superintendent Mallory Shepherd thank you for allowing me to speak tonight that was a very talented group of students and musicians that was great first I'd like to congratulate Central's
043First Act team and also Central's football team on their accomplishments and now going to compete in the 2A state championships good luck to both and I hope both teams bring back state championships second there seems to be a banner that was up at dick Crow Stadium for the student section an individual complained that the banner had to come down well for one thing it had been put been up for the whole football season except for the last game obviously this person must have only had attended uh fall Music Festival I guess most everyone there was upset that it was taken down and I'm offended that it was taken down because my daughter's senior class started the Twitter page called the wall and if this person would have researched they would have noticed that the initials
044MV are in front of the wall on the Twitter page this Twitter account was set up by the students and is maintained by the students I don't know the specifics but I will research that later also I would like to say that there has been some conversation about the amount of Stonewall stuff in there well it's been there for a long time now and I would be offended if it wasn't there because it wasn't called that before so I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and we'll continue thank you thank you Mr Street next on our list is Mr Steve Heisman good evening school board members Miss Shepherd uh thank you for allowing me to speak a minute this evening I just wanted to take uh just a minute and uh
045promote once again the weekly religious education uh that is uh participating in the school systems and you know it is a slow but steadily growing uh there are positive very positive attributes about it and there is now some interest in second grade students that we look forward to seeing uh signed up and participate hopefully uh just in the very near future just a word of comment on uh what Charles was just talking about that that uh M uh or Banner that was on the stadium uh back when those those students that put that banner up and yes it had MV on it okay not SJ um when that was told to be taken down uh that's that's um uh that's flirting within uh with interfering with their First Amendment right their their voice of opinion
046uh to speak their math that's something that needs to be thought about a little bit and the other thing is um this vote I gotta admit I don't know a whole lot about this vote that was um postponed for this evening uh that has to do with these books in the schools and uh the censorship of them those things what y'all guys need to think about is this is the public school system and the public school system across this nation has enough troubles as it is and it is a broken system and if if if this County if this board is even the state of Virginia if they are allowing even the possibility of a library book having some type or any type of adult or sexual content in it to be available to a
047person a student that is under 18 years of age and you better take a hard look at yourself I don't know what the reason is that that you're you're taking what should be a slam dunk and you're making a complete mohill out of it if we are Christians and follow in the way of Christ and trying to teach these children the right right from wrong there there should be no discussion and make the vote to do the right thing for the betterment of the children of Shenandoah County thank you very much and Merry Christmas thank you Steve the next speaker is Carissa Jenkins good evening I'm Carissa Jenkins Central High School librarian first I'd like to thank you for separating the library and curriculum challenges into separate policies the library is also truly appreciated the
048opportunity to offer input on policy revisions please know that I am not against revising the library book challenge policy parental involvement and conversations about literature are always welcome there are several reasons why the current draft concerns me in the first paragraph the last sentence States selected books and materials will adhere to the educational philosophy of of and goals of Shenandoah County Public Schools while respecting the cultural norms of the county and concerns of parents I want to know how we Define the cultural norms of the county cultural norms are Dynamic which they should be with an ever-changing population whose filter determines appropriate content according to education week a third of book bands deal with lgbtq issues while almost 41 percent of all book bands Nationwide feature protagonists of color the definition of our County's cultural
049norms concerns me because family beliefs in our community are as diverse as the books on our shelves as book bands across the country increase it's more important than ever to ensure the general population's wishes are held over vocal special interest groups another concern is that the policy states there will be an even number of Voters on the committee this means a tie to either keep or remove the book as possible in addition the newest Library challenge policy says when a book or material becomes the subject of a Review Committee it will be temporarily removed from the scps student accessibility until a final decision is rendered this policy is highly concerning because books will be inaccessible before any verdict is decided our high schools serve College dual enrollment advanced placement gifted and talented biomed and Governor's
050School students why should a book challenge even before the book review restrict access for students enrolled in college courses or on higher reading levels book challenges are welcome for literary discussion but the Reliance on opinions in the language of the current draft for Library policy remains concerning please consider the powerful quote from Meg Medina of the freedom to read Foundation to pull books from a school library because of the discomfort they create in adults is a recipe for disaster it erodes the trust young people have in adults in their lives and pushes them to secrecy it undermines the studied opinion of professional Librarians and Educators it supports the false idea that there is one version of life that is acceptable and it denigrates the work of authors who are brave enough to name experiences that
051are real thank you for your consideration and your continuous School library support thank you is anyone else in the audience who did not sign up would like to speak now yes sir identify yourself please and you have three minutes my name is Mike Rickard I live in Strasburg I am planned on speaking tonight so I don't have anything prepared Mr Barlow I'd like to commend you for getting on them about kicking this thing down the road um like the gentleman that just spoke why this stuff is even in our school system is outrageous I as a parent it's my job to bring my kids up if my kids have a question about their Identity or whether they're lgbtq or whatever all these other um letters are that's for me and my child to decide in
052our home in our church not for teachers to talk about with my kids not for librarians to talk about with my kids not for anybody to recommend a book here's a book take it home read it no if my kid's three to seven years old Brandy was referencing a book that uh Sarah gimple had mentioned for a three to seven-year-old I just asked that when you all go to vote on this whenever that may be pray about it put yourself in my position some of you probably have grandkids in the school system maybe even great-grandkids do you want your grandkids your kids your great-grandkids coming across that book or any other book I mean I've seen this talk about Nationwide now and the books that I've seen referenced in high school systems like he said
053for kids under the age of 18 what are we doing we're destroying our own country with the crap we're putting in the school system and for you guys to keep kicking the can down the road like Mr Keller said why are we being transparent these are the people that elected you and put you in office and you want to hide what's available in the school system to their kids it's ludicrous my daughter's a sophomore in college she came up through Strasburg School and she gets straight A's on everything did doing enrollment and now she's down at JMU my daughter didn't need this stuff and she didn't check out these books she was raised in a Christian household we don't need this stuff in our school system if my kid wants to know about that stuff
054my kid can come to me there's a public library in Strasburg I'll reach out and find these books at the public library they don't need to come across them at Sandy Hook signal knob Strasburg High School there's no reason to have them in there if I need that reference material I know where to find it let the parents parent pray about this long and hard before you vote on it you all have a Merry Christmas God bless you thank you okay moving on to the consent agenda you'll wear a motion to approve the consent agenda is presented colleagues I moved to present to approve the consent agenda as presented okay motion made by Mr got you I'll do here a second second it second by Miss Roots discussion all those in favor say I don't
055think we suppose tell you past 6-0 checking my notes Here Cheryl okay moving on to number four instructional agenda revised program of studies by Mr Hensley good evening Mr chair in terms of the board with Shepherd every year we bring to you changes or updates that we have to our secondary program studies the document that you have in front of you is an overview of those changes I want to go through and tell you how we go about this process principal is notified to speak to staff to identify any changes they feel needed to have inside the program studies which I'll show you one tonight where staff identified that we need to change the description because match better with what we're teaching at the governor School all those recommendations come in as you can see
056we asked them we've started since I've been a director of secondary education asking for 11 different things when they're doing a proposal they have to tell us whether it's a new proposal for a new course whether it's an amendment the course name the description an outline or pacing of the course so we have an idea of what it's going to be taught also course interest data so that we know that students are interested in the course to take the sols or competencies address competencies are for the CTE courses the credential assessments for CT courses or Sol tests the budgetary implications so you'll see this year that I actually put on there where's budget if it's going to affect us budget which will come into play when we discuss budget later on suggested prerequisites to those
057courses teacher certification needed and then if it's a CTE course completed so I'm going to briefly go through each one there's about 19 different um changes or updates that were recommended the first two is for environmental science and what we're basically doing is we're adding dual enrollment we have a teacher that is now certified to teach new enrollment that to the course instead of just having the environmental science we're going to have the environmental science one which is AP and dual enroll and then the Environmental Science 2 which would be Advanced piano we added the piano at Central High School those students are now able to go to Advanced piano and our program of studies we typically have a regular course and advanced course this is adding the advanced course for those students career strategies
058career strategies is a course that we're going to look at through budget to see if it's a course that we can put in but we know that there's a need for it this course covers the College and Career Civics Readiness index that is reported to the state and right now we have a feeling that we may have a little problem with this coming up in the next year what they do is they link work based placements where we're going back as a senior a student may go back and go to a work based placement but the course may have they took was in the 10th grade we can no longer do that now it has to be within the same Academic Year so from Fall to to the summer it can happen okay we have
059it in the second semester and it goes to the fall the next year it won't count so it's only in that year and that's going to start this year which is going to affect some of our numbers because this was put in place but this course will allow us to have a student enrolled in career strategies and be able to do the workplace race and savior algebra so there's no change here the only thing that changes is that we are looking at the eighth grade results of students so that if they pass that Sol and they have a c or higher you want to make sure that they're not taking algebra one part one we want them to take the whole course which will help them with selection of courses throughout their careers so that
060they don't have two semesters taken up with algebra they'll have one semester pre-calculus this is a Amendment because Laurel Ridge who we use to go and roll with they use pre-calculus it used to be math analysis pre-calculus so we're dropping off the math analysis foreign statistics we're adding in a tape that they can take the AP test if desired in May the same thing with Biology three honors we are removing AP because the course syllabus was not approved so until we have a approved syllabus for AP we cannot offer that under verify a credit section we're going to be moving away from the workkeys writing test and we're going to be given the English 11 reading and writing assessment so that's in there the next is a chart that you'll see for mathematics we've had
061a lot of questions on whether a student takes a standard diploma or whether they take an advanced diploma if they start out in eighth grade with eighth grade math what can they take so we've added this in so that students can plan ahead and it gives options from eighth grade through seniors that students can take that they know that they can get to higher levels of math even if they take eighth grade math Regional Governor school or the two courses that was somebody updated that just to match what they're actually teaching at the school tripletech we're looking to put Virginia teachers for tomorrow there you can see that there's implication in the budget that's where a half pound person but the goal is to bring students from all three hospitals together to make a section
062large enough to have that course so you'll be a Virginia teacher for tomorrow one and two of course we're looking we're excited about hopefully but the invisible therapy and occupational therapy one and two obviously that comes with the big price tag and we'll talk about that in in our budget discussions also additionally at the tech center we're looking at HVAC one and two to run that in and then the last thing that I have I'll show you it's probably easier to see on the screen this is a career clusters at triplet so all our courses fall within clusters so what we did is we added underneath architecture and construction you can see all the courses that fall underneath of that Education and Training all the courses that would fall under Health Science all the courses
063that fall under so that's that chain you see at the very end that's everything for our suggested changes and updates any questions questions for Mr Hensley thank you for putting it so excuse me I was just joking Miss Walsh I've done ah and can an eighth grader take algebra one yes currently I'm a eighth graders do we have taken out I'll talk to you depends on the campus um I believe the southern campus has the most and I think there's 12 there the others are around 10 8. um that's just all five minutes I think it would pull the courses to see who's actually in the class those students uh let's say at uh at the southern campus they go to the high school to take a instructor there's an instructor in the building they're
064currently at the hospital okay oh that's true but I mean when they reorganize next year well that's what we'll have to okay what's that I told you I wouldn't go have any questions um that um our seventh graders are having these conversations regarding their pathway when does you know with the counselor with someone because eighth grade credits you know start or we're having those conversations so they know where they're headed yes so in sixth grade there is a career investigations course and Mr Atlanta myself worked on a pacing guide to work through that students work through that course and they get a rough outline for their academic and career plan which parents can now inside the portal click on put their email in whatever email that they give the school system they put that in
065they'll automatically send a PDF of what what they've selected so that begins in sixth grade they start picking some of those seventh grade they were a little bit more eighth grade they finalizing more anything going in high school and then it's reviewed every year if a student would change courses for some reason in high school after that year is up it will update their plan to show what they actually were taking but a parent could look forward to see if I have assault more I can look forward to see what did they think they wanted to take in 11th grade and 12th grade that was my next question parents were attribute to that sense and we added that to our portal thank you anything else thank you hello okay moving on to number five information
066agenda uh Dr heingardner I think you're next about the Capital Improvement for 24-28 yes and uh good evening Mr chairman and board members and Mr Shepherd thank you for giving me a chance to talk about or giving us a chance to talk about the CIP this is a one of the fun things we get to talk about um it's uh Mr Horseman I think it's necessarily so fun but um it's certainly an opportunity to improve our school system so um but first thing I want to do is make sure that I thank Ms Stein Mr ortz and Ms Sager it's a collaborative effort to put this document together because there is a huge amount of work that we've tried to condense into a more concise straight to the point document this used to be rather
067lovely and we've tried to make it much more user friendly but there's a lot of work behind the scenes that go into this and I really appreciate their their help also want to thank our County because they've been generous to help us when we need you know facilities upgrades or changes or improvements or um so financially we would appreciate all the support that we get from from accounting so I'm just going to go through this briefly um you have it there on your computer screens and just kind of give you um the Crux of what this is about and of course we'll try to answer any questions you have you see a table of contents you'll see an introduction that kind of talks a little bit about what the CIP is how it's prepared the
068development phase there's a numbering system we use that kind of drives whether or not um a topic or an item or a project is an urgent project of necessary project um or not so that there's a lot of discussion around that it's never purely one thing or another it could be a little bit of both so that's but that's all part of CIP development you can see the evaluation criteria it's written in there and you can see what we would use to determine what those numbers are you can see the process excuse me we've always involved the administrators that's always been a discussion but this year we we did even when a step further and did walk throughs of their entire facilities and grounds with the principal with Miss that with Mr ortz and we
069talked about you know why is that the way it is what's causing that and what's wrong with that over there and what do we need to do to fix this and fix that and get this so there's a really uh in-depth look at every facility including the connecting facilities you'll see some things in here like sidewalks that are in between the schools on the central campus and those sidewalks cracked and valve elevated quite a bit this major tripping hazards not just in right there by the school but on the whole facility we've tried to do a good job with with looking at that you see a total summary there by gear and that'll make more sense here in just one minute you see the facilities out of plants and I want to highlight that the
070enrollment number is the day I put this document together so um two weeks ago when I started conscious numbers eight or nine days ago I try to get it as close to this point as possible so the numbers are as accurate as possible but I'll guarantee one of those numbers is already wrong because there's a it's always a moving Target but it's very close so that you can see the percentage of capacity and you can see what that is based on then there's two pages of a brief facility descriptions and then we move into the transportation phase because our our buses and our White Fleet are also part of the CIP you can see the the transportation buses that we have and the rotation of those buses by the year and this next page kind
071of shows you the breakdown of where they are in terms of our efforts to keep the bus fleet 15 years or younger because that's kind of the point that the video gives us the eoe gives us as you know you better start looking at doing something when they're starting to reach that 15 . and then here's um just the inventory of the White Fleet as well as the buses and then this next space I'm going to let Miss Stein take over I'll take from here with the long-term facilities plan so I just want to first um just remind everybody that again what what's in front of you is a plan um it's what's currently needed in some cases what's currently desired within our facility and some of it's based on compliance or mandates others in
072Safety and Security some Aesthetics um but again it's a list and it depends on funding well now um we are still competing with the other departments in in the in services within the county for the very limited resources that there are so um you know we've talked like Dr heingardner said with with the administration of buildings uh to come up with what we thought was a really good plan but just like your home budgets this plan to go to pot at any time if we have um you know something major mechanical happen it's going to change the whole thing so it's a moving it's very volatile the whole time so um with that you'll also notice that in the past um over time we have kind of used the CIP for our everyday you know
073HVAC repairs or boiler repairs or things like that fortunately with cares funding we've been able to knock out some of those big bigger projects and we feel comfortable with that so you'll notice that we have added some long-term planning for some facility Renovations beginning in fy25 that's why the number looks a little bit higher there but we want to get it on the radar for instance our transportation facility I don't know if you've walked through that um but our buses are growing in length and our facility does not so when um Lucas is mechanics go to work on a bus the back end of it sticking out so that they can get to the inside where they need to work so we really need to start looking at that kind of those are high dollar
074items um but we want to get them out there because if they're not out there the Board of Supervisors isn't going to know about it and and we can't start working towards that so that's as far as the long-term planning goes um if if we not mentioned um and then I know you all are aware of this but um um it talks about the capacity construction um debt um June 30th of this year we will knock off um excuse me 2 million fifteen thousand one hundred eight dollars of debt uh this is paid for uh School can't take honor and debt so this is paid for at the county level but um our high school Renovations that were done many years back that debt is gone at June 30th of this year so we will
075have they will have some extra funding due to that um the supplemental financing for those same projects matures in fy25 and then again in um FY 26 we lose another 880 million dollars in debt for the um the Energy Efficiency borrowing that we had done under this Q scan so um that's some leverage maybe that we may have in in getting some of these other things funded and then I think um Dr heingardner and Mr ortz and myself have have put it together in this list for you um again based on the scoring that Dr High Gardner discussed and whether they're necessary or desirable we did try to keep anything desirable and push that off a little bit so that we could really focus on what was necessary for school year um and and it
076looked like it was about 2.3 million dollars that we would need to be asking for um with that though we did not have in here and I would like to discuss adding is the edulog system for the buses and this would be the easy to use tablet system that the drivers could do driver time and attendance right there on their bus um we had student ridership and I just would keep the students safer and make Transportation smarter this does come at a cost um and again we did not include it in here initially but it is 270 thousand dollars initial for all the tablets and all the equipment that would be needed plus the first year of service after that it would be an additional 75 000 annually to maintain the service on that yes
077and that let me mention one more thing about that because that's such a unique um opportunity that we could have and I know it's incredibly expensive I understand that but there's two little pieces of okay kind of big pieces with with the bus driver situation that we have um it's often It's Not Unusual at all for a bus driver to be on a bus that's never driven that bus before imagine you get a call I need you to drive bus 72 to wherever and you've never done it before you've never dropped off kids before that's not what we typically have and they would typically drive that route before school starts and they know the route all that but in a sub situation they don't know well with this tablet system that works just like a
078GPS and that route would be logged into that tablet so they know I go down this road I stop right here this is the student 's house now make a left here and so it would guide them plus the fact that it would offer a scanning system for the students so we know who got on that bus and who got off that bus which obviously helps with accountability of students so it's a very powerful tool that's very pricey tool as well so that is a perfect example of how we had this finished oh by the way here's another thing we might need yeah so this is a active document it's and we do have air conditioning in the uh I'm like going to bring that up all right um colleagues um questions for Dr Ann
079Gardner or Miss Anne yes sir first of all I really commend you for doing the walkthroughs so many times when policy and operational people don't talk and I I can never see landscape from a map I got to get out there so when you do that and you see those things are obvious to somebody on the ground but not to you guys so that's really good it also brings those two groups together so good for you and plans are places to start I only um recommendation will be as you change them on the Fly that you note that someplace so that somebody doesn't think the still the plan is still going on and I think the vulnerabilities that our buses give us in so many ways you know so many potential problems that anything we
080can do to you know to me that's a high priority investment so even though it's like you say a late hitter it's one of those things we'd be silly not to consider thank you other questions that uh the lights on the softball field at the southern campus and they started I believe they start Ed oh my goodness and the completion is a couple months I mean weather conditions I know will affect it 30 and 45 days so be ready for softball season in March that's yeah get ready are you questions thank you and miss Ann you might as well stay here I think you're next on the agenda about the revision of the 23 budget yes um I I as you all are aware um we did receive the Safety and Security Grant again this
081year um we typically don't budget for it because it really isn't guaranteed although it has been available for the last several years we applied for um a lot more than we got but we did receive 188 296 dollars we are required to do 25 of that locally funded and that's 47 000. we actually had to do about 49 000 in order to um complete the three projects that were approved so I'm just asking for the board to approve amending the budget for the grant okay any questions okay thank you thank you okay going on to section six uh action items you'll wear a motion to approve six one I moved to approved policies r and i i a b as presented okay motion made by Mr gutschildren here a second not second second by Miss
082Russ discussion okay I I have uh one uh I got this from the Delaware News Record and I assume this policy will cover if a teacher in a class wants to use sexually explicit material as part of her itinerary the teacher must notify all the parents in the class and if a student or if the parents reject using the material an alternate form of the material will be supplement for the student to perform in that class is that not correct that's okay okay any other discussion roll call vote Ms Walsh yes Mr gutshaw yes Mr Barlow yes Ms rutz yes Mr Keller yes Mr yes okay uh are we approving this what Miss Stein said about the no not this time January thank you Miss Shepherd okay uh moving on uh six three uh they'll
083hear a motion to prove the Personnel that was presented to us earlier so Move Motion made by Mr Barlow to her second roll call vote yes Miss Keller yes Mr helsley yes okay uh uh Ms Shepherd you have any uh specific uh super uh muscle reports that presented yes ma'am I am the opportunity to enjoy one of the programs we have things happening over the next couple of weeks and I just encourage you to attend that um and I want to wish our students well on their end of year assessments and their Sol exams which are coming up or they are taking this week and I hope that our students and our staff have a joy-filled holiday and then last I would like to wish Central High School football team good luck on their bid
084for the state champion on Saturday at 4 30 at Salem Civic Center that's all I have if anybody has any questions I'll be happy to answer any questions from Ms Shepherd about the mustard reports uh notice obviously the attendance is all because of illness throughout the county yes I wish it was better we understand okay uh well we are getting to uh eight board comments uh Dennis you want to make yours first uh okay I'll do that um I would like to just wish you all a Merry Christmas to leave but um I can't do that there's a lot of stuff happening and I just want to do kind of a year-end not recap but kind of I'll use a Dave heimgartner thing and talk about where we were and where we're going to want
085to be and talk about this uh about the Gap that's between them so let me talk about that for just a minute um I've listened to a presentation from the Secretary of Education Amy gudera and she makes some really powerful points I think based on the scores that we've seen that have finally come to light between 2015 and 2022. uh and she talks about the fact that the state this state unfortunately uh consciously decided to lower expectations as they lowered of standards for proficiency downward one of 14 states that consciously did so and we're finally coming to grips of the fact that that was done um so dealing with it now is uh kind of digging ourselves out from a pit in some ways um but I'm glad that we have at least Statewide leaders
086who understand that to raise those standards we have to raise expectations among students teachers and parents a Triad that we need uh and not just blame the covid on this it was perhaps part of the coveted response but this degradation started before two years before covid so we have to be honest enough to close that Gap um but there's some really bright points in that um situation I think in that we have we are kind of admitting that I give uh credit to our superintendent for facing that issue face on head on and uh it's part of her her uh the goals and we're behind you and supporting you on that I hope we can be positive about that there's money for doing this um right now uh parents individual parents can get 2500 to
0873 000 per student um grants for tutor for tutoring to to bring those students who have have a learning Gap back up to speed and we have to one of the things one of the challenge that I think we need in our next discussions is figuring out how we our school system can get our parents or our parents get the parents uh in that and not just let it go to the Richer counties or those who are in private schools or homeschooling so I think we've got to like look at that um she claims that there's two billion dollars available across the board I know uh Madam superintendent we're looking at like eight million dollars that we have the ability to uh to uh to it to address the learning losses and I hope that
088as in the middle of the budget discussions we take advantage of accessing some of those those uh dollars to to help close this Gap um but I think our greatest resource is the Triad we have of uh parents uh teachers and students who are uh really really excellent we're really lucky in Shenandoah County to have such high quality professionals and uh one of the challenges is keeping those folks as you all know and finding more and so um everything points to the fact that um you know when you have quality teachers performance of students goes on and so as long as we keep finding or try to find those new teachers and new uh places to find them and various skills that they offer and willing to pay and more than that give them a
089workplace environment that they feel happy and proud to be in and I think we're on our way so I think there's a lot of capabilities that we can bring to bear on uh kind of the the the the the decline we found ourselves in and so I'm I'm particularly hopeful uh next year but I would like to see if we can access some of this extra dollars and not just figure out a little War Story here I've hated and depending on him at the end of the school year or school you have the budget year we found out we had like an extra three million dollars we're looking forward to spend it on and it really bothered me we looked for anything to spend it and I hope that we could be smart enough and
090we can provide a little bit of guidance that we can provide smart ways to spend that money and not just look for ways to spend that um and with that I will wish you all very happy Holidays and Merry Christmas and uh it has been an interesting rookie year for me I'm I'm an old rookie but I'm a rookie nevertheless and it was a learning experience and I look forward to doing better for you next year thank you thank you Miss Harlow Miss Walsh you want to go next uh yeah I'm not going to say too much tonight um but I do wish Central the best of luck and football and they are on a tear and I'm so excited about it Kyle I was told to ask do you know if it's going to
091be televised for those of us who can't travel there well I'll be on the radio so I'm gonna oh my gosh you can see him on the radio but they'll have it on the shooting on the streaming platform as well okay but the radio is freeze you don't have to pay that oh okay you don't get a cut well all right are you done all right Mr guttrell you can go next please okay so first off I want to wish the one act and the football team good luck Saturday I'm assuming 1X Saturday too I don't know but um that's one thing another thing so I received a phone call today a couple of texts and an email as well um addressing addressing bullying and we know bullying is always happening somewhere um we don't
092want it to be here so I'm going to ask because of the concerns that were brought to me that we address our bullying policy and some of the repercussions for if you're caught doing that to someone because clearly we don't want that happening here or to any of the students anywhere so that's something that I will ask that we address moving forward into the new year new semester um another thing I know everyone kind of shot their arrows earlier about the library thing I didn't really step in too much because a lot of points were made um I will say though that I can understand the Viewpoint from both sides you know the Librarians don't want um I feel like they don't want too much um what's the word for it regular yeah too much
093regulation I can understand that at the same time as a board I feel like you know us doing what's best for Shenandoah County and the people of the county and the kids of the county is very important as well um you know I'm not a big fan of like Dennis and Brandi said continuing to push it down the road because you know it's something that I feel like we could get done and with budget and other things coming up that'll be important um but you know we will get together and get it right and that way we can you know get it approved if we do and you know put it in place so I am happy at least that we'll get it right and and get the you know effective policies in place and
094finally as Dennis mentioned this is the end of our first year Dennis Brandy and I um you know we at times have been very back and forth on certain things tonight's a great example but I think we need to be thankful because you look at some other areas even locally and I'd say we are a perfect group compared to some of those so um thank you to all the older board members that were already on here and look forward to next year and have a merry Christmas and happy holidays thank you Miss Rex um yeah um first of all I would like to send a um a big thank you out to northwork middle school we we were having some issues with um keeping you know a policy where we're keeping you know picking up
095kids and checking things and from my understanding North Fork um you know has knocked it out of the park and I'm getting a whole lot of feedback that um it's it's a good change they they appreciate I know it's inconvenient to pick up the kids and and um you know have to show your ID but um you know um I'm sorry but I think it's it's it's wonderful and I I appreciate Administration on the southern campus I hope that um it continues in its and it in a ghost district-wide um secondly I'm going to piggyback on Kyle on bullying I just want to remind folks that um you know we have Virginia code 22.1 through 27 9.6 that tells you know the Board of Education as well gives us um you know power to make
096policy um regarding bullying um you know and it talks about guidelines that includes removal of a student for from class um that you know there's policies against alcohol you know um discipline activity gang activities hazing vandalism trespassing it even goes to talk about um student conduct grooming codes dress codes um you know where profanity Warren County is is is another place that are looking at those they have up there um their disciplined five days suspended 10 days suspended for those kids that can't seem to be kind to each other um they're talking about creating a night class where they attend four to six and for those parents they can't seem to to you know to be complacent with their child being um an idget [Music] um they're you know they're talking about creating a class
097similar very much to our drug class that parents are required to take and I think once we get to a point that we um for for parents that do not seem to be on board with that maybe making making them participate in inconveniencing them just a little bit might help us get over um you know the bullying issues that we have um I again I'm gonna request that we get I know we've we we're getting a report but I would like to see incidents those numbers and incidents of each that's going on at each campus um I think our public you know they don't have to can you know contain any information but we've had you know referrals here for this referrals here for that um so it is something that we don't lose sight
098of um in our public notice you know that their incidents are happening and that we all of them are a part of it um I did have the pleasure of sitting down with one of our elementary teachers buying her cup of coffee she is an extraordinary extraordinary teacher and um something she said has stuck with me she said um you know if I was um in a at home involved with a a person my spouse that verbally abused me hit me threw things at me whatever I'm fairly certain my colleagues would tell me that it was an unsafe situation and that I needed to leave that situation she said however when it happens in the classroom I'm told to deal with it um so you know that is something that we can't have we just
099absolutely positively cannot have and um it was very so rude to me like I said it hasn't left my mind to know that one of our own says that and thinks that about the students um that that we all that we have so I'm going to ask that we have policy in place use it follow through on it and protect our teachers from situations um you know Subs things of that nature it's all been rolling in and I think we have a duty to to make sure that that happens um lastly yeah it's been an interesting year I haven't drank any extra but I have lost a couple nights worth of sleep but I wish everybody a Merry Christmas and um I will use Merry Christmas um so you know I appreciate the work that
100we do here it's it's important and um you know when you look at the debacle um the Sham that is going on in Loudoun County if you all haven't read the report there I never want this board to be associated with the issues in that in that report whether it's transparency whatever it is um it is I will take that personally to make sure and and if it comes down that I'm being called a jerk or whatever I don't care um this is a I don't want it to happen in general County we have great people there are some wonderful people that do a great job in this in this room and I'm um you know blessed to be able to be a part of it and sit up here and make you all listen
101to me for a couple minutes so um thank you Merry Christmas Mr Keller yes born yet you know I'm thinking if I was watching this tonight or in the audience tonight I would probably leave this meeting thinking that Shenandoah County public schools has no policy on library books and that is just not true we have a a pretty good policy that that we need to tweak because it's to me in some cases it's not rigid enough and in some cases it's too rich so don't think that there's something uh that there is no policy in place there is and I think that it uh uh just needs to be tweaked and refined a little bit and I'm confident that we can do that um I'd like to say Merry Christmas and happy New Year and
102I will also say something and I thought I would never say the good luck part yeah I hope Central wins the football state championship I really do all right thank you Miss Keller all right I'll reach I'll work and I'll finish up um uh coming to Woodstock today I came early I had some tasks to do I love that phrase and I followed school bus at uh Wesley's Chapel and a little girl gets off and I thought how many of our employees came in contact with that young child today she rode the bus accidentally because she got off the bus this evening how many of our employees touched that child we made a difference in that one child and I know we made a difference in 5200 students that we have Professor Mass so we
103got good people and and uh so anyway all right I'm scared for the ref um Tuesday this week I ate well this week and Tuesday we had our retired teacher luncheon at tripletech and Paige cross's kids did the admirable job feeding the people they gave years to this County and um she had an overflow people that wanted to get in a program she had to turn kids away so anyway she had 17 uh first year and 11 seniors whatever and they just did a management job they always do you've eaten there and uh so that's just one program we offer and and uh Travis showed the spotlight that Jessica uh compiled through the past two weeks I hope you read some of what some of our colleagues think of other colleagues in our building they're
104thankful they're working here and we need to keep them here as as Dennis pointed out whatever and um and obviously I'm going to say good luck to the Falcons I graduated there in 1969 and it's been there 60 couple years they never played for a state championship all right now I got the fun part uh my elf we have a milestone of one of our board members that occurred uh last week was it a couple weeks ago a couple weeks ago oh my goodness and Cal let me give you a uh this Strasburg and Central no no it's JMU JMU thank you you couldn't figure that one out I do now all right I left valley flower shop that's why I had to come early that's how I got behind the bus Etc et cetera
105I go one block and the 21 balloon exploded oh my gosh I did about face and got another one for you well I appreciate it yeah yeah thank you happy birthday thank you uh and uh it was a pleasant being your chairperson and uh the rookies you did well I think I'm going to have you back for a second year thank you and Cindy this is your seventh and you're the senior member whatever and uh uh turn to you for guidance from time to time whatever and finally elf uh Miss Shepherd this is from the school board and you know I didn't do the bags my wife did beautiful uh she has a taste um would you mind opening the card it's not gonna make me cry is it I probably will just read the
106short phrase please Genie's classes the best gifts aren't always under the tree they're people like you okay meetings adjourned at 8 47. have a great holiday I was going to get cupcakes I love your mother you didn't ask me why do you want to talk to my friends what did you get a hold of her yes