001Mhm. >> Mhm. >> Chair members of the board, uh members of audience, tonight before we do a moment of silence, we'd like to remember uh Mr. Booker, who was a custodian with us for several years, and also Ms. Margaret Morton, who was a school board member. They've both passed away recently, so just like to uh remember those uh folks in your moment of silence. All right, let's stand for a moment of silence. And now the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United [clears throat] States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right, y'all sounded good uh saying the Pledge of Allegiance, I like that. All right, board, uh do we have an agenda or Mr.
002Chair. Yes, sir. I request that we uh amend the agenda and add in uh at >> [sighs and gasps] >> 5.03 uh vote on Synergy Contract. All right, so add in um under action items 5.03, the Synergy Real Synergy contract, and that is for the uh firm to conduct the superintendent search. All right, we have a uh motion, do we have a second? Second. All right, we have a motion and a second, any discussion? No discussion, all those in favor say I. I. Any opposed say nay. All right, that motion ca- carries and we'll add that. So, now can we have a motion to approve the agenda? Motion to approve tonight's amended agenda. Second. Have a motion and a second. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed nay. All right, board. We have
003an approved agenda. So, um we will pass it on to you, Dr. Holden, for for 2.01. Right. All right. So, let's do uh student of the month. So, first uh when I call your name for student of the month, uh please come up to the front and stand and then we'll take your picture at the end. We'd like to recognize uh these star students of the month for the uh month of February. We appreciate all the good things that they do in their school and uh we'll get to the recognitions. Uh first, we have um >> [snorts] >> Ian Dawson. Okay. Amherst County High School, Ian Dawson. Yes, sir. AEC, Austin Henley. >> [snorts] >> Amherst Middle School, Callie Martin. >> [applause] >> Monelison Middle School, Carson Woolridge. >> [applause] >> Elon Elementary, Easton Apperson.
004I know he's here. >> [applause] >> Amherst Elementary School, Cole Goff. >> [applause] >> Central Elementary School, Maddox Brown. >> [applause] >> Elon Everly Lloyd. >> [applause] >> Thank you, Ms. Wagner. Madison Heights Elementary, Zion Wright. >> [applause] >> And Timberts Elementary, Wade Tomlin. >> [applause] >> Congratulations. And And while we're getting ready to take a picture, I just wanted to say that these kids are not just nominated arbitrarily. These kids are nominated because of their dedication, their their commitment to learning, and to kindness, and just being great kids. So, I give Give them another round of applause. [applause] 1 2 3 Families, if you want to come on up here. Wait. Get back here. >> [laughter] >> Maddox Brown >> [laughter] >> Good job. I got it. >> Thank you. Thank you all. >>
005[applause] >> Thank you all. Thank you all. All right, for our staff of the month, each school nominates a staff member of the month and we thank these staff members for standing out this month. Of course, we know that they do things each day and each month, but these were just the ones that were our standouts for the month of February. So, for Amherst County High School, Emma Caldwell, Crandall, excuse me, Emma Crandall. >> [applause] >> Amherst [snorts] Education Center, Heather Younger. >> [applause] >> Amherst Middle School, Emily Cain. >> [applause] >> Monelison Middle School, April Hale. >> [applause] >> Elon Elementary School, Sabrina Carter. >> [applause] >> Amherst Elementary School, Mary Wilson. >> [applause] >> Elon Elementary School, Destiny Oaks. >> Madison Heights Elementary School, David Spence. >> [applause] >> Temperance Elementary School, Bobby
006Campbell. >> [applause] >> Central Elementary School, Megan Kinnear. >> [applause] >> S A O, Ruth. >> [applause] >> Done so much for us. Thank you. Congratulations. So again, just want to thank all the staff members that are read present and the ones that could not make it with us tonight. Thank you again. >> [applause] >> Miss Justice could you just stand up please? And Miss Lena. They're taller. Yep, one more and then we're done. [laughter] All right, 1 2 3. Thank you. Thank you all. Thank you all. Thank you. All right, it's always great to be able to recognize our our students and especially our staff for the great work and commitment that they have for our students. So, all right, that moves us on to 3.01 which is public comments. And just a reminder
007uh uh for public comments, it's 3 minutes for an individual, 5 minutes for a group. And uh we have one person who is signed up, uh Barbara Prior. So if you would, come on up and uh tell us your name and address. Or district. Of course. Thank you. >> Uh Barbara Prior, Puppy Creek. Um I didn't write this. Somebody sent this to me, a professor from Ireland, and I thought that maybe the school board would appreciate some guidance. Education inequality is where economic exclusion begins. This woman works with children who are described as underachieving long before anyone asked whether the system is failing them. They are bright, curious, creative, practical, emotionally intelligent, brilliant with people, with ideas, with fixing things, and imagining things. But they don't fit neatly into narrow classrooms, rigid exams, and one-size-fits-all
008learning. So they are labeled, lowered, overlooked. And once that happens, the damage begins. Too much of our education system teaches to the middle, to mediocrity in every subject, instead of nurturing excellence in different ways. It rewards memory over imagination, compliance over curiosity, speed over depth. Children who think differently are treated as problems to manage, not potential to grow. When they struggle, the blame fall falls on them, not on overcrowded classrooms, not on underfunded support, not on curricula that ignored real-world skills, not on assessments that reduce intelligence to a number, just on the child. By the time they leave school, many have already believed they are not academic, not good enough, not made for learning. Confidence is gone, doors are closed. Opportunities shrink. Yearly Years later we call it economic inactivity as if appeared from nowhere.
009It didn't. It started in primary five and year nine and the first time they were told quietly or loudly, "This isn't for you." If you want people to work in training and thriving lives, we have to start by giving children an education that sees them. Equity is not about lowering standards. It's about widening them. It's about valuing practical skills, creativity, emotional intelligence, trades, leadership, care and problem-solving, not just exam technique. We don't have a generation that doesn't want to work. We have a generation that was never taught in a way that made them believe they could succeed. And until we fix that, we keep paying for it in unemployment, exclusion, and wasted human potential. Our children deserve better than a system that sorts them into able and left behind but before they even discovered who
010they are. Now I was campaign manager for Pam and I have to say Pam was an excellent candidate but there was not one forum, there was not one debate and in this county red goes by the name and merit doesn't and I don't mean anything to the new one but we never had any chance to get to know Mr. Childers. You know, and so we failed our school system and we need to think more about what we're doing for these children because we are setting them up for failure. I appreciate your time and all you do. Thank you. Anyone else would like to come address the board at this time? >> I'll just go up here? Yeah, just come on up here and if you would tell us your name and your address, please. Uh
011my name is Ruth Ann Reeves. You said my address? Yes, please. 262 Littleton Lane, Madison Heights, 24572. I think the gentleman next to you is the representative for my area, maybe. All right. Um so, I had uh trying to make this brief cuz you said it's for 3 minutes. Um I have with me um the memorandum uh between the sheriff's office and uh Amherst County High School. So, the reason that I wanted to speak today was currently the resource officer, Lieutenant Goldman. I think he's actually a sergeant now. He's on staff at Amherst >> could you remind her we can't mention people by name? Yes, ma'am. If we could, we we cannot mention people by direct names in these meetings. Okay, well, I don't really want to just be broad to say all of them,
012but okay. I apologize, but we cannot mention people Okay. All right, I believe that maybe uh this board should look more into the memorandum between the sheriff's office and Amherst County High School and look more in depth to the best candidates of resource officers for the schools and if there's any disagreement in it, that then the principals or whoever should speak up for that because there is some resource officers uh within Amherst that have lied under oath. Um and I have the transcripts to prove that. Um there is some resource officers in my experience that are still on staff that decided not to report when my son was assaulted by [clears throat] his uh instructional assistant at Amherst High School years back, and he's still on staff at one of the schools. And so, I
013think those things are important because it's a disservice to the students um for them not to have someone there that would advocate for them and protect them because you can't pick and choose who you protect. And especially children that are disabled that can't speak for their selves, I feel like there's even more of an obligation for someone that can't speak to their self. And also, if there's CCTV of the incident available and um it should be the obligation for them to do their job. And when it's found out, just like staff members, even though they work for, you know, the memorandum issue, if I was working anywhere and that occurred, um I wouldn't no longer be able to be at at least employed at that location. Um so, I just think Moore should look into
014that because it's not right that there's resource officers in this community that are supposed to protect our students that have failed our students. And even go as far as to continue to lie about that specific scenario and this specific person had a protective order entered against him. Um on my son's behalf and that's something that the sheriff can review because he's the only one who can look at protective orders. So, that being said, I just think that it's very disheartening to see that he's still on staff at one of the schools. That's all I have to say. Thank you. Anyone else at this time? All right. And then seeing no one else, we're going to move on to uh 4.01, uh discuss and consider approval of the uh school operational budget, Dr. Totten. Yes, sir.
015Uh Mr. Chair, members of the board, first, thank you for the opportunity to present the proposed budget to you today. I know that was a uh long process, but again, I appreciate your help on that. This budget's a collaboration work uh that invests in our uh student the future of our students. And I ask the board to approve the proposed budget. And again, uh thank you for your time and leadership uh as I know this was not an easy process. So, as we uh begin this process, I I do also want to add board I greatly appreciate all the conversation that we had today. It was it was uh not an easy process and it wasn't a short process. It was a lot of uh discussion back and forth as we discussed what our priorities
016are and uh what the needs are for the school division. So, I want to thank each of you for being a part of that process. So, um based on what the superintendent has uh presented us and our um discussion earlier today, uh what is the pleasure of the board? Uh Mr. Chair, I would like to uh propose that we accept the presented budget for uh this year and uh send this on to the to the Board of Supervisors for uh their consideration. Okay, so we have a motion to accept um the budget as presented that we worked out this um earlier today and uh uh pass on to the Board of Supervisors. Do we have a a second? Second. So, we have a motion and a second. Um I think before we actually vote on
017it, I would like to kind of go through it for the audience since they don't have a copy of it uh and kind of go over some of the details. Um Mr. Actually, I'd like to have Would you like to come up and kind of go through that? I think it's just fair for everyone to hear what we're getting ready to vote on before we vote on it. Sure. So, yes, sir, Mr. Chair, uh members and members in the audience. So, first of all, we were tasked to decide whether we were going to uh come up with a raise for all employees for 2% or 3%. Based on the governor's budget, those numbers were 2%. What we decided today uh after a joint meeting with the Board of Supervisors last night was to recommend a
0183% raise for all employees. That had some additional costs that we had to factor in. So we had to make some difficult cuts which we discussed today. So with that overall we are asking for a 3% increase for all employees. There will be some cuts in there and some other information and with that we had originally asked the board for 2.1 million. Tonight the numbers right now that we have from the governor's budget would be proposed that we ask for 1.95 million dollars from the Board of Supervisors. And just for clarification so that would be 1.95 based on the governor's which is the worst case possible. If there's if it's as good as the Senate's Yes, sir. version then I I ask for the Board of Supervisors would drop down to 1.6. >> Possibly, yes,
019sir. So So somewhere in between Yes. is what we're looking at. It's not going to get better than 1.6 but not as no more than the the 1.95. >> We're hoping to have those numbers. So the the difficult part in this process is not having the exact numbers. What we need to get next week is the actual numbers. We think that'll be a uh a mix somewhere between the House and Senate. And [clears throat] we're hoping that it's closer to the ask of 1.6. And I I just want to emphasize for the community for those who weren't able to to hear is there was a lot of discussion during the budget discussion and I'm very happy to say that it was all around instruction. What is best instructionally for our kids? And so I want
020to appreciate you listening and hearing that as we crafted this budget. So, having said that, board, is there any other discussion for the motion at hand? Mr. Yes, ma'am. Mr. Justice. Thank you, Mr. Justice. Um, I wanted to just compliment the board and the administration. We as a board had priorities and they were all met in this budget. We are adding We're adding educational positions, teaching instructors, three CTE instructors at the secondary schools, two elementary instructors, four instructional aides, and with included with a raise. And the conversation the whole time was how do we impact the kids in the classroom directly, their teachers, their IAs. And I was just very thankful for the unified board that that was everyone's priority and I appreciate Dr. Hoden and his team responding to that. Thank you, Mr. Justice.
021Any other discussion, board? All right. All those in favor say I. I. I. Any opposed, nay. All right. We unanimously have a budget to present. All right. That moves us on to 5.01, consider approval of the minutes. Actually, we'll do this all together, 5.01 and 5.02. Mhm. Yeah, and 5.03. So, again, 5.03 says this is the consent agenda. We'll approve all this at one time. And we did add to the consent agenda um the contract for Real Synergy which is the uh same company that did the superintendent search uh the last time as well. So. All right. What's the pleasure of the board? Make a motion we approve the consent agenda. Second. Have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed, nay. All right, consent agenda is
022approved. That takes us down to 6.01, information items, student reps. I don't see any reps. Yeah, I'm not sure. Dr. Crawford was out today at something else, so I'm not sure. Yeah, it's an off night. They >> It's a It's an off night. So, the one thing I want to say is I do know of course Wyatt uh went to states for wrestling. Placed sixth. And he placed sixth uh in wrestling. I was uh following that actively. I know my son Landon was also following that. So, very proud of Wyatt. It takes a lot of dedication. If you never wrestled or seen wrestlers it is a a lot of work. Uh it's a team sport, but it's also one-on-one and um so kudos uh to him for being so so successful. So. And then also,
023sir, and I'm sorry, the name escapes me, but we had a young lady and I should have written that down. Um but we had a young lady that placed sixth at the state tournament for girls as well. That's awesome. Awesome. Maybe we could uh I don't know. Can we get them here one day or something? >> be great. >> Yeah. That's awesome. All right, so uh 7.01, accountability update. All right, not as exciting as the student reps, but I'll do my best to see if >> Could you make it exciting? >> You know, I'm going to do my best. All right, we've got some colored graphs and charts, so it's going to be great. We've got all kinds of stuff going on. Uh all right, good evening, Mr. Chair, members of the board. Uh several
024updates for you this evening. In light of our day together, I want to keep this uh brisk, but I also want to make sure I'm answering any questions you might have. Um accountability update, we are still awaiting feedback from the Virginia Department of Education relative to the documentation that we have submitted for Central Elementary School in that school improvement process. Uh we're not expecting anything significant or negative in that feedback. We just want to know what we're going to get and what that's going to look like so we can go ahead and move forward. Uh I know Dr. Profit and his team are eager to get that feedback as well. Uh at this point, if we receive that in between board meeting in between board meetings, I'll let the board know what that feedback is
025and what the process looks like. Uh but as of tonight, unfortunately, the same update as last time around. Still waiting. Um all right. So, moving on to second, our monthly standards report. Uh not the star of the show from a data standpoint this evening, but this is the report that we bring to you each month in regards to how our students are responding to instruction in the classroom. So, as a reminder, this is based on the assessments, the things that they are completing with their teachers on a regular basis. All that is going into our Master Connect system, uh enabled to show us kind of where students are as close to real time as we can get. As in months past, we're seeing some of that incremental growth, especially about reading and math. We're kind
026of creeping up uh with those green numbers in particular. Uh at this point in the year, kind of everybody being around 70% in that green and orange. Obviously, reading is the big exception there. We got a lot of kiddos uh in green and orange, mostly in that orange category. We want to see those numbers rise as high as we can get them as we're getting closer and closer to the end of the year. We're thinking about how those standards are being mastered, how students are responding to those standards that are represented in the data. So, good to see continued incremental growth. Uh we want to continue to see that as we're going over the next couple of months uh and be reflected hopefully in our end-of-year assessments. Uh as always, be happy to answer any
027questions or my name. >> So, just looking at it. So, obviously, math, um science, history, those look fairly strong. Um [clears throat] Obviously, I think the concern is going to be the reading and that you kind of mentioned there a little bit. Um, so any concerns there that they are little lagging behind the other subjects and so what are we doing to Yeah, so interestingly enough and I'll have Miss Wheeler certainly jump in on this as well. With this new HQIM that we have, uh, so obviously second year of implementation with elementary, first year of implementation at secondary, the rigor has been the big feedback with that, right? How our students are responding to that. Much, much more rigorous than what they are typically attuned to within that classroom instruction. As we've seen and we'll
028talk about it a little bit with our growth assessment data, they're responding very well when they see things that are more in line with what those SOLs look like. Quite frankly, I think they're doing things in the classroom that are more difficult and rigorous than ultimately what they're going to be asked to do on the SOL. So what we have a lot in that middle zone that's really representative of the standards themselves, right? So a lot of our students are doing well with it, but not quite over that hump to get into that green zone from a standards standpoint. I really attribute a lot of that to the rigor of the content, that new HQIM that we have in place. Miss Wheeler, do you want to add anything to that? Yeah, I would agree that
029it's very much just the rigor of the of the content where our kids are being asked to do. About that. >> Teacher voice. Um, teacher voice, there you go. Um, I would just agree that what they're being asked to do in the classroom with that HQIM is definitely more rigorous than what we've asked them to do before and in my opinion much more difficult than what they're going to see on their SOL tests in the spring. But rigor is not a bad thing. I mean, once they when you transition from public education into secondary, you know, college, you really hit rigor. Yeah, not a bad thing at all. But I think we'll see better results. Better to prepare our kids now for Absolutely. And to be there to provide those scaffolds in this moment so
030that when we take those away they're going to be successful. Okay. All right, board, any other questions? I don't mean to hog it on that. Uh Ms. Justice. Um I just wanted to acknowledge that when I look at the reading scores over in the right column, those are really low. It had is really exciting to see. Um so thank you for your hard work. Yeah, definitely. I I I like the It's less in the red. I'm a little concerned about the the center, you know, those kids being at risk, but as you said, you know, hopefully it's because we're testing at a much higher standard. Yeah. Right? Then what the actual SOLs will be and honestly, I think that's what we should be doing anyway, right? >> And you're going to hit what you're shooting
031for. That's right. Right? If you're aiming low, you're going to shoot low. If you're aiming high, you're going to get high. >> [clears throat] >> Yeah, and anecdotally, it's been exciting to see this cuz this is the feedback we're receiving, especially at the secondary level from our ELA teachers. I think there was a little bit of concern in the beginning that maybe this is a little bit too much in regards to some of that rigor. A lot of the conversations we've been having lately, they're seeing the students respond to that. And again, I think we're seeing the fruits of that in the assessments in the classroom, but then also the bigger assessments that our students are taking. So, all kudos to them, the work they've been putting in. Any other questions from the board on
032the monthly report? All right. Uh well, my next bullet here is our winter growth assessment. Um so, first off, I'm going to do it now that uh the board got this late yesterday evening. So, there hasn't been a lot of time to interact with this data just yet. Uh we did finish up the um testing as of last Friday. Uh there are still a number of students. I think everyone is aware of the sickness that we've had rolling through a lot of the buildings, so a little bit higher in those numbers that weren't able to complete those assessments yet. So, we are still actively doing retakes and moving through some of those pieces. Uh but we wanted to get to this to the board as quick as we could after it was initially compiled. Uh
033Much like what we saw in the fall, a lot of positives out of this data. So, looking back, we really wanted this to be as apples to apples as possible, just like what we did with the fall data looking back last year at the winter data. So, the same time frame of assessments last year, really seeing a lot of improvement regardless of content area, regardless of grade level, a lot of positive growth, much fewer students in that red zone, which is what we want to see moving into orange and green this time of year. It isn't always a situation where we expect to see a lot of growth from fall to winter. The nature of the assessment is a little bit different. The winter assessment is really where they're seeing fully this year's content for
034the first time the entire year. How are you going to do? What does that look like? But, we still even saw some growth from fall to winter. So, a lot of positive response from students, a lot of good things moving forward there. I will call out science specifically. Uh this is one of the first data sets that we've looked at where science has really been on par. When thinking about math, ELA has kind of been setting the pace. Uh math has been right there as well. We saw science take a pretty big jump uh this time around at some of our schools in particular. Uh and I'll go ahead and share I showed it with uh Mr. Profit earlier. They saw 35% reduction students in that red column from last year to this year, and
035that's tremendous. That's a huge amount of growth for those kiddos. Gives us a lot to be able to work on the remainder of the school year. So, we'll shout out there to Mr. Profit and his team. Um obviously, there are still areas here that we are concerned with. We want to make sure that we are targeting. Uh we want to see more students moving into the green. We talked about this in the fall. It's great to see less students in the red. We're not necessarily seeing that corresponding growth within that well-prepared columns as we're moving to that quarter three assessment here in just a short period of time. That's one of the primary pieces I'll be looking for. Are we seeing more students move into that zone from a performance standpoint? Math continues to be
036an area where we want to push in and focus and support as much as we absolutely can. A lot of those conversations and PLCs are around ELA for certain, but math is also a big point of discussion there. How are we making that time with that set aside intervention time for math specifically and see those students moving forward. The data is again showing that incremental growth. We want to be a little bit stronger in that area. I would feel better about being a little stronger in that area, especially as we're getting into quarter three and beyond. Uh so ultimately, a lot of good things to take away from this data set, but there are certainly still things that we are going to be monitoring, working on. We know these are already on the radars of
037our teams. We've been out there talking, listening to what they've been discussing in PLCs and planning times. So we know they're aware of it. We know they're working on the right things. We just want to make sure we're wrapping around and supporting them as much as possible. Uh one last note I'll make there before I turn it over for questions. We've been working with all of the school administrators on what's traditionally been known as the 45-day plan. By code, they have to account for what they're going to do to prepare students at the end of the year for those SOLs and EOC assessments. Been very pleased in those conversations to see a lot of thoughtfulness, a lot of work being done to figure out how we're making sure we have the right folks with the
038students who need them to be able to get them across the finish line where we want it to be at the end of the year. So we're continually coming back to those conversations and making sure that our team up here is out there to be those extra hands as much as possible in this run up to SOLs and EOCs. So again, I know you all just got this last night. So there may or may not be a ton of questions at this point. As always, I'm happy to meet outside of time, but we'll certainly answer any questions anybody has this evening. So first thing I like to do, Mr. Davis, is I want to read a paragraph from your memo. Yes, sir. Cuz I think it it >> [clears throat] >> Well, we don't comment
039on comments. Yeah. Um to me this says a lot. Okay. And so, this is from your from your memo to to the board. It says, "Although we continue to see improvements in in our overall performance, this data highlights the ongoing need for intentional data analysis and response mechanisms to improve the outcomes for all students. Not just those identified in the at-risk or the needs additional supports categories. Continued work with administration uh has focused on building level instruction supports, ensuring that teachers have what they need to meet the needs of all students." >> Yeah. Right? And that's that's what our goal is. I mean, that's that's our mission. Every day, every child. That's right. Right? Yeah. So, I appreciate you putting it in there and ensuring that that's also uh administration's goal down to our teachers.
040Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, there's >> Board, any other questions or thoughts? Ms. Justice. Yes, sir. Um if you could put the sheet you had up there, that one. There we go. Thanks. Um I was just looking and comparing the 24-25 data to this year's. And when I look at the well-prepared um category across the board with only a couple exceptions, the achievement has almost doubled in the number of students, the percentage of our students that are in that green category. And I was really impressed with that. And I also noticed that Sorry. Am I looking at the right one? There we go. Okay. Winter Sorry. Um in the geometry one, we had uh 38 students that participated. Uh Uh this No, I am so wrong. Anyways, uh Oh, boy. I'm going the wrong way.
041Good. >> [sighs] >> I am very [clears throat] No, I'm right at least in a couple. Um grade three is at five point is at 10.44 versus 5.9. And our fourth grade and our fifth grade have um doubled almost doubled in how they're achieving there. So, and the number of students that participated, looks like. Yes, so I think we'd agree your overall premise that they've improved from last year to this year it's it's going in the right direction. It is, yeah. That's aggressive growth to me. It may not where we want to be, but it is making strides in the right direction. Yeah. And in particular with that elementary level, that was obviously something that jumped out to me as well. I noted it on the memo. Being able to see how students are responding
042to instruction, that work the teachers are putting in, it it's paying off. There's some awesome things being done. All right. Well, if there are no other questions, I will pass it along to Ms. Matheny, our staff member of the month. Congratulations, Ms. Matheny. Uh talk about our mathematics textbook recommendation to the board this evening. Thank you. Um good evening, Mr. Chair, members of the board. I am bringing forth to you tonight our mathematics textbook recommendations from our math textbook review committee. You should at your place have a memo that's very long, so I apologize for that, but wanted to give you as much information as possible that outlined our review process, the committee findings, and as well as the final recommendations. And so, what I'd like to do is just take a few quick minutes
043to kind of highlight some of those pieces about how we arrived at those recommendations for you tonight. So to start off to give you a little context here, the Virginia Board of Education last March approved its final list of mathematics textbooks. And so as soon as that happens, we immediately started looking at the information from the Virginia Department of Education. They provide these really great reports called correlation reports that really show how each publisher is aligned to the Virginia standards of learning, which was a very helpful component for us during this review process. One of the challenges that we have with our current mathematics textbook adoption is that we have multiple publishers at each grade band. So one of the priorities that we had moving into this particular adoption process was to approve one textbook
044per grade band. So one for elementary and one for secondary. In Amherst County, we have a team of math leads which has teacher representatives from each school. And so in August, we utilized that team to start narrowing down that really long state list of approved programs to three core programs for each grade band. And again, the priorities for that was number one, does that publisher have a program for all the courses in that grade band? And number two, how does that program align with our Virginia standards? In September, the school board approved the review committee members which included representation for each course and grade level. And all of those were representatives from each school level as well. That also included our math coaches and also special education representatives. In November, we opened that textbook review
045process for all of our stakeholders. So they had the opportunity to either review the print materials available at each school or the online materials from November through January and provide feedback to the division through a variety of stakeholder surveys. And so I really wanted to take a moment tonight and acknowledge all of these stakeholders that did provide feedback because that was a very valuable part of this process. Not only did we have thoughtful feedback given to us from staff and administrators, but we actually had record number of feedback received from parents and community members normal more than we would normally have during this process. So I just wanted to take a moment and thank those who um did provide feedback on those core programs. Last month in February, we had the review committee convene together
046to listen to virtual presentations from each publisher and engage in question and answer sessions with them to kind of get a little bit more information about their products. We also spent time as a committee reviewing the correlation reports that I mentioned earlier as well as the stakeholder feedback to make that final recommendation being presented tonight. And again, I would like to thank those committee members because it's not an easy job to take all of that information and make a recommendation, but they were very thoughtful and professional as they approached that work to make that recommendation for you tonight. Before we get into the recommendations themselves, I just wanted to give you a little bit of idea about where we're going next. So as soon as you all as a board approve one of the textbooks
047uh that that you would like to approve, we're going to start ordering those materials and finalize our implementation plan. We will also start to revise our curriculum documents to align with that particular uh HQIM or textbook. And then we will also start thinking ahead about how we want to uh be able to utilize those programs. One of our um considerations from the textbook committee, they thought, depending on how quickly we can get materials, we might be able to try out or pilot some of those lessons during summer school, so that teachers can get an idea of how the lessons are laid out and give us some initial feedback as far as implementation goes. And when teachers come back in August, we will begin that initial onboarding process with training and professional development about how to
048utilize the particular HQIM that's for their grade band. And then, of course, we will continue beyond that to provide ongoing professional development or implementation support based on teachers' needs as they begin using the programs. On to uh the recommendations from the committee, so the committee would like to recommend for elementary uh Kid in Mind, and for secondary, Math Space. And in the memo that you have, you'll find a lot of the reasons why the committee is recommending these particular programs, including both strengths and considerations for each of the programs that was reviewed. But, I wanted to point out a couple of things for you here. Both of these programs were unanimously recommended by the committee. They were also the first choice for all of the staff and state uh parent stakeholders. So, in all three
049of those particular groups, these are the top recommended programs. The other thing that I wanted to point out was in terms of alignment, these were the strongest programs in their grade band for alignment. Kid in head a 93.52% adequate rating aligned to Virginia standards and uh math based had actually a complete 100% alignment to Virginia standards. And just so you have an idea, adequate is the highest rating that a program can receive by the Virginia correlation reports uh from VDOE which gives us confidence that they are very strongly aligned to all of the standards that we have to teach and also that would be tested on the SOL. The final thing that I would like to share with you is the uh estimated cost for these programs and you can see that cost breakdown here.
050Uh the committee is strongly recommending for the board to consider a 7-year adoption which would provide teachers with sufficient time to fully implement the materials, develop proficiency with uh being able to use those resources effectively, and also to ensure that we have a sustained impact on student learning moving forward throughout the adoption cycle. So at this time, I'm happy to answer any questions that you have. So I guess the first question I have, this is probably for Ms. Lakhanich. Um budget wise, what do we have in textbooks line to cut Do we have enough funds to cover these purchases? Yes. So when you look at the board report for finance, the um textbook fund uh does not currently have any remaining balance, but we do have the textbook reserve at the county um that we
051can pull from. That's what that is intended for. And it's enough there that we can cover both of these to the sum of 873,567.92. Yes, sir. I'm going to pull up actually the board retreat document just to make sure I give you the exact figure. So, hold on 1 second. And while she's looking at that, my other question is um since we're going with two different vendors uh for the books, any concern at all about continuity of learning as they you know, go from fifth grade to sixth grade? Cuz obviously there's 101 ways to teach anything. >> Yeah. Right? So, what we're teaching in you know, K5, I assume that I mean I trust our teachers, right? But I just have to ask the question. Yeah. >> You know, did we look at that and
052make sure that we're not going into, you know, sixth grade geometry and then teaching something a different way than what they already learned before and and confusing our kids. Yeah, so that was definitely uh something that the committee considered. Um one of the values of being able to have one publisher consistently at the elementary grade band, for example, meant means that you know, from grade level to grade level, you're the routines are the same, the structure of the lessons are the same. Uh the secondary committee felt that moving that transition from fifth grade to middle school anyway is a learning curve and they didn't feel like there was any negative aspects, so to speak, from going with a different publisher. Um so, yes, they did consider that, but they didn't see any uh barriers to
053that. Okay. Thank you, ma'am. Mr. Conklin. Okay, so the textbook fund it has 1.3 billion. Okay, so we're good. Yes, sir. All right. Just got to check that cuz that's that's how you go to jail. So, we don't want to go to jail. Any other comments from board members? Mr. Chair. Yes, sir, Mr. Aronson. So, you had made a comment about hopefully getting the the books in time to use them for summer school or at least implement some of the lessons. So, is there not a digital version that you would get immediately to be able to do that and not have to wait for the actual textbooks? >> Yeah, so we depend well, yes, we would like to also have the digital platform as well, but they don't just give that to you before you
054paid for it. So, as long as we're moving along in that process, I don't see any reason why the publishers wouldn't work with us to get that digital access sooner. So, was the price that you showed us, was that including the digital licensure? Yes, sir. That included both digital and print. Mhm, and it had a classroom set of 30, which is more than we have ever had in a classroom, but yes, they would have access to both digital and print. And what triggered triggered this need for books at this point? Is it something we've been looking at over the past couple years? Is there an event that's occurred that we really think now is the best time to take on this textbook textbook challenge? Yeah, so we typically receive new standards every 7 years, and
055along with new standards, the VDOE releases new state lists for textbooks. We also have House Bill 2777, which was recently passed about school boards adopting textbooks for not just K-12 mathematics, but for all of our resources, which also aligns with our process for this. Thank you, sir. Any other questions, board members? I'd like to just make a statement. Thank you, Ms. Matheny. I was the token because I would be in the in the orange of >> [laughter] >> with math, but um Ms. Matheny really had all of her data. She She really went above and beyond, and I knew that Ms. Justice would really approve of all of the surveys and the Everybody the stakeholders said she's done a phenomenal job, and so has all the other um team members there. So, thank you. And
056I don't know, do we need a motion or just a consent? >> Um No, we will have to to vote on it. Um This This is my Ms. Justice. Um question for you. If we get the 7-year, um which is the recommendation, if 4 years down the line our legislature decides we need to do a different math, is there some sort of grace? Do you know? I wouldn't think so, but >> cuz you'd already paid for it. Okay, good. Yeah, and typically the BDOE is not going to revoke anything that's on their approved list before they do the next review cycle. So, it would continue to be on the on the approved list for the next 7 years until they release the next one. >> Thank you. Are there any other questions or comments? Um
057did you want us to move this to action item tonight or is it okay to take this up at the the next board meeting? That is at the pleasure of the board. If you so choose to do it tonight, that would be great. If you would like to wait until the April board meeting, that's fine, too. Pleasure of the board. I can speak for myself. Um when I looked at different reviews, K-8 math seemed to be very high up there for raising the standard, being broad in its implementation, and accessible. So, I personally would like to see it get passed so that it can be ordered and it can get in the the of the teachers sooner. Fourth? All right, well. I make a motion that we approve uh the purchase of the new math
058books. Second. All right, we have a motion and a second. Any discussion? It's more like a comment. Thank you so much for the survey respo- responses. I was blown away by how many people responded and how many were parents. Me, too. Thank you very much for your hard work. >> You're very welcome. Thank you guys so much. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed, nay. All right, we have adopted a textbook. All right. Well, everybody else had an opportunity, so now I'll thank the board. Thank you all very much for that. We appreciate it. We're moving forward very quickly and as Ms. Justice said, getting that hands and getting into the hands of our teachers. I do just want to echo everything that everyone said. We were over the moon by the level
059of feedback that we received during this process and we appreciate our principals specifically for making time around literally every event that they had for multiple months in the school building. We're making sure people were looking at that, getting the community involved. It puts us in a very different place and I appreciate all the work that was done on that. So, thank you, Ms. Bethenny and your team. All right, for our last two items this evening, I'm going to bring you up Dr. McGinnis um who declined a spot at a table this evening. He wanted to come up to the podium and give a speech. Honestly, we prefer you to come up to the >> There we go. That's all right. All right, so Dr. McGinnis is going to start out uh with a summary of
060our upcoming summer programs. Good evening, Mr. Chair and board members. Can everybody hear me okay? Yes, sir. I'll start with summer school with the allotment that I was given. Let me say in the last past 3 years, we have been spoiled. So, now it's time to get back to reality and that reality is with the allotment that was given, you have a copy of what the recommendation is for that. Um middle, high, and elementary. Going back to pre-pandemic where we do rising third grade through rising 12th grade, um fit it into the budget, and we would have to cut the number of instructional assistants that we normally would use. Our ratio usually was two to 10 or two to 15 when we did the last two years, um because we had the funding for that.
061Um but now we have um a ratio of one teacher to 15 students. Uh each school, elementary school I start with, will have um approximately three Ed teachers, uh one Ed special education teacher, and one instructional assistant. The large elementary schools will have four teachers, uh one instructional assistant, and of course a special education teacher. Also included that for the secondary, they will have a um teacher for each grade level, one for reading, one for math for the sixth, seventh, and eighth grade. They will have an instructional assistant, uh two instructional assistants, one to serve uh each one of those content areas, and of course a special education teacher to assist as needed. We would also have there at the high school would be uh pretty much they would have about uh seven to eight
062teachers. They're kind of different because they work with kids as they come in and need that work from different content areas, and that's from all subject areas. So, the high school will pretty much have about six to eight eight teachers along with uh two instructional assistants, and they'll be together, the middle and high school, because of the construction at the high school. So, in that building at the middle school, which would be Manalapan, the high school and middle school have two instructional assistants that they can work with, and two special ed um um teachers that that do uh support them with that. And of course, as I say, one teacher for each content area for each grade level. The middle, high school, they have a teacher pretty much that works different subject area cuz they're
063broadly endorsed there. We also have planning air for uh health assistants, four health assistants that will serve um the middle schools and the high schools and the elementary schools. Each elementary school will have its own program this year. Normally, we bring them together at two different locations. Each will have their own um program. Uh this has been the voice of the principals. They would like their their teachers um to teach their kids who know them, so we could do that. It would have happened with the same with the middle school other than the construction at the high school forced us to have the secondary at Mandarin High once again. We have three site coordinators. That's one for the middle school, one for the um high school, and one for the elementary school working alongside with
064me. Their job is basically to make sure that the instruction is going right. They go into the classroom to do not so much evaluation, but checklists, seeing making sure that the program that we have established is put in place. Last year it was wonderful. You don't have to worry about us uh purchasing any materials because we have everything. We work with the reading department, we work with the math department, and we come up with the curriculum for elementary, middle, and course the high has the uh their own um curriculums. Um so, in a nutshell, with the allotment that I was given, this is totally just instructional, doesn't include transportation or nutrition. This is totally uh for personnel. So, that's what we have. And and I'll add very quickly before the board has any questions. Obviously,
065Dr. McGinnis would love to have a little more of a lot but it sounds like so we're going to have a little conversation down the road on that one. At the end of the day, we're looking at some of those slight increase in numbers. We really do feel like that site based elementary is going to make a big difference this year where those teachers that are very familiar with those students are able to work with them. It's an extension of what they've been doing during the school year. I personally am very excited about being able to get back to that. It's been a while since we've been able to. So, I think that's going to pay a lot of dividends this year despite that a lot of the component that we're talking about earlier. But
066all in all, I appreciate the work that Dr. McGinnis has done on this. I do feel like this is well calibrated to meet those identified needs that we have right [clears throat] now and what we've been hearing from principals. We've really been trying to take their feedback and our teachers' feedback into account with planning the program this year. So, I will turn over the board. Any questions you all might have. >> like you were anticipating one of my first questions. >> Yes, sir. Absolutely. >> [laughter] >> Dr. McGinnis would always appreciate more resources. That's for sure. Yeah. Yeah. So, in all seriousness, so um you know, obviously, you know, we have to be very um cautious about the money we're spending, right? You know, as as you're thinking about budget season. But our goal Yeah.
067right? We've got to accomplish, right? Which is we've got to take every one of our kids, especially the ones that are that are selected to go to summer school, that's a very special process cuz those are kids that we've determined are are certainly at risk. They need that extra intervention and so, you know, as a board, I want to make sure that we are doing everything that we need to do to make sure those kids Yep. get everything they need so that they can be successful in that next uh grade level as we move them along. That's right. Because the reality is that we don't hold kids back. That's right. Right? So, if we don't give them the instruction that they need during summer school, they're going to be much worse off. So, as long
068as you're assuring us as a board that what he's been allocated is a is going to not just be enough, but it's going to really get there and and make sure that these kids are getting what they need. >> [clears throat] >> Well, and we want to add to that the programs are half-day programs Monday through Friday for 18 days. So, that's another change. Um and I know that will have uh affect some of the things that we used to do with the little ones such as the um exploration exploratory period that we had with them. But, we I got a plan for that. So, we're going to make sure they get a little bit of that, too, still. We do. And to your point, Mr. Childers, we're continuing to look at other ways to
069be able to utilize funds. Uh Ms. LaCount, Ms. Wheeler, and myself have been looking at some of our Title 1 specific funding to see whether or not we can extend some of those pieces, those rising first and second graders specifically. We've been tossing around different branding opportunities for reading camp and other things along those lines. So, this is certainly not the end of what we'll be bringing to the board, but wanted to give that initial outline of of where we are. Okay. Yeah. I was just curious if maybe Ms. LaCount finally got that money tree to grow. >> [laughter] >> We're working on it. We're watering it every day back there. And board, any other questions or comments for Mr. McGinnis Dr. McGinnis? >> [laughter] >> Well, you know, I'm I'm pretty passionate about summer
070school. Y'all heard me on that before. So, let me back the boat up. What was it else we previously did summer school? Uh for it's always been half-day for uh secondary, but for elementary, we went from 8:30 to 3:00 And why did we change that? Cuz the allotment. Well, This is This is new to me. Right. What you have What What I've given you is what fit into the allotment. Um and it's basically appropriate instructional time for students while allowing staff adequate time for preparation, supervision, and dismissal preparation. So, what I presented to you is what would work with the allotment given. Okay. Well, that's one way to look at it. Money is always something in these conversations, but you just pretty much said what we're really talking about here. Um I remember half-day summer
071schools. And I remember saying it was useless. By the time you get them there, feed them, and set them down, it's time to leave. However, a lot can be done. But I I will leave this for right now. I just need more information on how we cut the hours, and then what is going on with the funding. Did I see that in the budget today and miss it? No, ma'am. I was looking at the budget today as well. So, I do want to emphasize when I'm talking about the instructional component of the day and what's previously been done, that has not been reduced. So, the component of the day that we typically have in the afternoon that was more exploratory in nature than other programs that we're running, that's the piece that we're talking about
072right now. Not being a part of it. The instructional pieces that we've had, that's not been reduced in regards to what you're looking at this evening. But we are happy to bring back a more detailed plan for you today. Well, the instruction The instruction piece has always been a half-day. Yeah, I know. I knew, but but it was kind of the other things were pretty much a a good part to summer school. Um for some kids, the exploratory part was was even better for learning. Those who don't go too far out of Amherst and all these scenarios. So, I'm not objecting to any of this. I just was I had not heard that we um For I don't like to use the word cut. I kind of like your word, a lot of I'll keep
073that in my head. So, maybe we'll we'll talk about I need more about this in the future. And if it's possible for the board for us to work with Mr. LaChance to figure out what that differential may be or what that would look like from a staffing standpoint, I'm happy to work with Dr. Mariani on that. >> so, because um you know, summer school, as as you've said, Ms. Shields, serves a purpose, you know, for those who go for those [clears throat] who really go and those who need to go. So, if and we have I mean even though I looked at growth and all those color charts, there's still a need for some of these kids to go to summer school and get themselves together. So, if we're going to cut that down, we
074we just we're defeating some things. Some things. So, I'd like to hear more about that in April. Excuse me, go ahead. >> about the a lot a lot of funding. You were >> [laughter] >> I'm going to buy them t-shirts. My opinion on the subject is is I think we should have more kids [clears throat] in summer school. Uh I mean it it just makes sense that I mean they're struggling and then they need those additional supports. Well, I'm not so much we can't load the buses up, can't pack the buses, but I would just want to make sure that there's a lot of that there's money for those who need to go. Have if it's two or 200. And so, we need to look at that category. I know I know about the budget.
075But let's look at that if we can prior to. Maybe not Maybe we can't change it now because we're already rolling, but we might can look at it for next year's for sure. We might still have time. And the way it's set up for each elementary school can at least bring in 45 to 50 students. With what's in the budget now. Yeah. Which is consistent with previous years. Just to make sure we're being being clear [clears throat] on that. Yeah. But again, happy to bring back some other scenarios and always look through that, for sure. I love how you're anticipating questions now. >> [laughter] >> Just want to make sure we're >> comments on it? >> [clears throat and cough] >> Dr. McGinnis, thank you, sir. Thank you. All right. Uh Dr. McGinnis has one
076last piece for you this evening. I'm going to provide a little bit of a preface here. Uh so, it came uh to be a little while ago, but we've had a team here at the division who has been exploring locally awarded verified credits uh for history. Some time ago, the state provided [clears throat] a little bit of flexibility for students in regards to graduation. Typically speaking students can only have one locally awarded verified credit where they haven't quite hit that 400 mark. They got close. We say they mastered the content just couldn't get that 400 we're able [clears throat] to award them that verified credit for graduation. The state of brought provided additional flexibility with history specifically where they could go through complete tasks or more performance oriented but still very much oriented towards the
077content. That could be a second locally awarded verified credit if a student should need that for graduation. We've been in planning process to bring that to the board and present for approval for next year. What we discovered in looking at where we were with students that are graduating were 11 students at the high school who quite simply only need this to be able to get that diploma at the end of this year. We had completed all the work all the material was there. We figured we wanted to bring it to the board tonight. See if we could go ahead and get started right now and if we can get those 11 students through. So I've asked Dr. Migues to come and present to you this evening exactly what all this means the process that we've
078been going through. I just want to provide that caveat. This was not initially intended to be rolled out this year. I'm never going to look at an opportunity to help a group of kids like that and not at least talk about it right with the board. So I wanted to allow him to share some information with you. Certainly ask answer any questions you'll have at the end. Dr. Migues. Okay, what um As neighbors told you this is nothing new. This has been around for 20 years and it's basically performance task where the kids and this is my thing for the last four years I've been helping teachers innovate their um lesson plans by incorporating performance tasks where the kids actually get to use their own thinking they have choice they do their own research, they
079come up with their own project to deliver and how they want to do that. It is I have learned these skills and now I know how to apply these skills. This is what this is all about. People think it's easier than the SOL, it's not cuz the kids have to do the research, they have to defend an argument from that research from three different inquiries that the state has provided. They have to use that content in their research to come up with a answer to a passing answer. It is then scored of course by the teacher and then a panel will decide whether or not they receive the verified credit. In addition to that, they have to pass the class. So it's more of a performance task. This is great for those students who over
080and over and over again cannot pass a multiple choice test. Not because they don't know the content, they're not good test takers. Well, this right here give them the opportunity to prove I can be assessed and do it in a different way. So. All right, so before you this evening in this memo, uh there's two key components by policy one, uh launching this program and the board being okay and giving us that consensus to move forward with initiating it. Now, it's on the books from a policy standpoint, we want to make sure that we've gotten that go ahead. And there's also three names on the memo that constitute that committee that would actually do that scoring and assign that locally awarded verified credit uh to these students. Again, we're ready, we're there. The work that
081Dr. McGinnis and his team um been doing is excellent. We're right where we need to be with it. Um again, I don't want to delay when I know we can help some kids now, but we'd be happy to answer any questions you all might have. And you have it as scheduled and working with um Mr. Dickerson from three uh teach teachers. Uh you see how far we've gone with the things that we have prepared. Um as Mr. Neighbors said, we're pretty much ready to go, and we have some students, seniors now, who definitely would benefit from this. So, just um forward up to the rest of the board, Mr. Neighbors, so just confirming, so you've looked at our current policy and regulations, and this doesn't conflict with any current policy, any current regulation that we
082have on file. It does not. It just requires >> with any mandates or requirements from the state. >> It does not. No, it just requires y'all to approve that committee of three, and obviously be aware that it's moving forward, and this is how we're going to award that locally awarded verified credit. Okay. Yep. All right. So, just a reminder to the board, as you look at that, I don't know if you had time to look at it before the meeting, but as we're talking through this, let's remember not to mention any names if we needed to, so. But, uh we'll open up to the board for discussion. Mr. Childress. Thank you. Um thank you, Dr. McInnes. I really appreciate your presentation, and I definitely appreciate even if something's short notice, taking advantage of the opportunity
083to present another option. So, if I'm understanding this correctly, is this going to be more like a written um project, or is it going to be like a presentation? >> It's written. It's written. Okay. So, it sounds like it's a little more old school, in a good way. Sort of, I mean. It's teaching the kids to use those critical skills, those critical thinking skills. So, in a old way, for you, man, yeah, that's a good thing. They actually get back to the books. Yeah, I was going to say, it sounds to me like it's allowing for greater flexibility, greater implementation of their knowledge, and greater unique, individual um communicating, expressing it. expressing what they learn. So, that sounds exciting to me. Thank you very much. >> ready for those threes. Any other questions on the
084board? Mr. Childress. Mr. Rossi. Dr. Magill, so you would mentioned that this had been a practice prior for like 20 years. Is that Is that what I'm understanding? >> out with the state department about 20 years ago. It's nothing new. The thing The thing is this was up to the school systems to decide whether they're going to use it. You have already, like Mr. Neighbors said, did it, but we want to make sure it's listed that we want to use it also for history. This is right now and it's has not been used here in Amherst County. It has not. Seems like a great tool. >> Only Only for the the occasion that was mentioned for in in the policies what it was used for, but it has not been used for history. And to
085clarify there, the additional LAVC, so before you can only have one history constituting a second locally awarded verified credit, that's a newer development. So, practice-wise, it has been on the books for a while, but that second benefit component is is relatively new. That's just last few years. Right, so it's not like we weren't doing it cuz we chose not to do it. >> That's right. We now have the option to do more than one. That is correct. Yeah. And we've also found ourselves in the position that this year at the high school to have more students. Typically speaking this time of year we have I'm not going to say quite a bit, but fewer students than we have right now that are still looking for all those verified credits. This is just one of those
086other tools that we can pull out of the bag and say, "Hey, here's another pathway to be able to get to graduation." I understand. Sounds like a good pathway. We should take advantage of it. Absolutely. Mr. Childress. Mr. Justice. Which policy is it? I will have to look that up. I I was predicting that question as well. I realized I hadn't written it down. I'll get that to you. Yes, sir. Any other questions? Board, what's your pleasure? Are Are you asking for us to approve this tonight? If the board is so inclined to do that, we would appreciate it. It gets us on that timeline with those students. If you all would like more time, we can certainly make that work. Whatever the pleasure of the board might be. Well, you've only got so much
087time to give the kids a That's right. >> [laughter] >> Some research going on. It would be nice. It's moving fast. And we're going to ensure that chat GPT's not doing these projects, right? Absolutely. >> [laughter] >> Absolutely. Yes, ma'am. I'll make the motion that we approve >> [clears throat and cough] >> I don't even know what it's called, the local awarded verified credit initiative. Second. As presented. As presented. Yes, thank you. All right, we have a motion and a second. Any discussion, board? All right. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed, nay. Thank you all. It is approved. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, board. Appreciate it. Thank you, Dr. McGuinness. And that's all for me this evening. That was a lot. Trying to trying to >> you said you were
088going to be short. >> have said that. That's what I was. I didn't expect myself right there at the beginning. All right, moving on to administrative items, 8.01, update from administrative services. >> Yes, sir. Before we get to that, I just want to back up. I did uh reach out to Mr. Cox real quick. That young lady's name is Abigail Eggleston that plays >> Oh, for the state, the young lady from the state. I wanted to provide that with you, so [clears throat] I'll see if we can Awesome. All right. So, uh administrative, just a couple construction updates. No slideshow tonight, but I'll let Mr. Ropes give you a few updates on that. Yes, so as far as activity at the high school, there's been minor of going on behind the scenes. The ag lab
089continues to you know get [clears throat] some things done. We We anticipate that having been completed sometime probably mid-April, 1st April, mid-April, somewhere like that. The cosmetology lab, we're about ready to go with that. I'm hoping that beginning of to middle of next week we'll be into that. We've got one more inspection to do with the county and some the final things we're getting done on that yesterday today. And everything else is is primarily primarily winding up for the summer as far as all the work in the welding labs. As we mentioned last month or month before last, the demo has done been going on in the old nursing lab and they're starting to put in HVAC stuff and some of those preliminary things. And there's just not a lot really to show with pictures
090and stuff, but a lot of things still going on. So we're progressing on and getting ready for the the wonderful summer. Any questions as far as construction goes? Just a quick question. So as far as budget-wise, overages, things you know not going to plan what happens in all construction projects, how are we looking on funding and So that's a great question. So Mr. Oaks and I, Mr. Konich, met with Josh Bauer last week and we're currently comparing sheets and we're we're kind of getting that down. We're we're very close on a few things. He had a few things, we had a few things. So we're we're getting that actually nailed down to the penny. But nothing to be alarmed about, everything's looking in good shape and okay. Just want to make sure. Might have enough
091for that scoreboard. I was going to say we'll have to use the extra to get us a jumbo tron. All right. Dr. Evan? Yes, sir. [snorts] Next you have the student suspension report for February. Any question on that suspension report. >> [clears throat] >> Okay, and next you have the student services update from the best labs. I just must share. Just a comment um on the best labs. I like getting the information and I see where we're going with that. I probably should have said something today in the budget, but for the future, I'm still all about equity in the county and I would like to know and are we looking to see if we can put that program in the other schools or is that really a bad budgetary answer? Um I know we've
092said that one time before and I was I can't remember Well, I can remember why we don't have it in at least all the elementary schools. Last year's budget. I mean, it's certainly a >> It's a budget, right? >> budgetary consideration, but if we can get some of the Medicaid things rolling, I think that >> Well, that that's where I was going, you know, um either that or grants. You know, I know how grants are, but Yes, ma'am. um I see that it's doing some good, for a better word. I know the administrators at the schools that don't have it would love to have it. >> Yeah, well, I just think as a service to the county going forward with my short time is that trying to put the same programs in every school if
093possible, if possible. Because if at least to the elementary level. And so maybe not this budget, but as time goes on with new adventures coming up, I think we probably need to look at that, especially with the discipline and if I looked at the suspension list and seeing what children are really doing, they all need this. Yeah. [clears throat] Sooner than later. That's just a comment for the future. And in addition to that, I think, you know, as we discussed earlier today, that I think our our ultimate hope and goal is that as we start to get in more of those Medicaid based payments that that will help us to offset and be able to >> Absolutely. add and push that out into the other facilities as well and not have to necessarily wait on
094another budget cycle. But knowing that we've already got money coming in through the the Medicaid payment process. Yes, sir. Anything else? All right, Mr. Patrick, you're fine. Here, members of the board, we're good now. Okay. Um before you tonight your place is your February financial reports. These reports do um reflect the supplemental appropriations that you approved at the February board meeting. Um again, the items that we have on our watch list is health insurance. We talked about that today. Um sales tax and enrollment both are on target. We're looking good on that. The next big thing finance-wise is the March 31st ADM so that we can get the that funded ADM, but everything at this point aside from looking at the health insurance is looking really well. Do you have any questions? No, no. Any
095questions, board? You get off Scott free tonight. Well, we had eight eight hours of it already. I was just going to Well, I was going It's eight tonight. I said tonight. [laughter] We didn't I get off free. We had eight hours discussion on on finance. I think we're in good shape. That's only because of all the hard work that you put in earlier today and prior today in preparation for the budget. So, thank you. All right, so that takes us to uh 10.01 update from HR. Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Chair, members of the board. Uh the first item for human resources tonight is the vacancy memo and the first month that it is broken down by current vacancies and next year's projected vacancies. Only a few small updates. I would strike reading specialist at least
096for next year. That's why it's not down below because though you see it up top, that's already been taken care of at least going into next year. But I'll take any questions you have. Do you anticipate any concerns as we are looking towards the the new year and getting some of these positions filled? >> don't. I mean, hopefully not. And if you look at the positions for next year, you know, several of those are CTE and we have at least preliminary plans in all those areas with hope there for either continuation or replacements of some individuals there. So that's that's a good thing. Um you know, as far as elementary teacher down below, um Ann Malone is the only one that actually has one opening right now. We did hire for Madison Heights for next
097year. There were a few others already that would have been on the list but we've already hired for those. So um so that's a positive sign that one elementary [clears throat] teacher as as we stand. Now those things can change as people make different decisions finishing out the year. But as far as we know and from those that have decided to either retire or resign, this is current there. Um so all in all, from a primary position standpoint, I think that we're looking pretty good at this juncture and we hope that all of our amazing individuals that um that we have either undecided or finishing the year out decide to stay with us and hope to retain that strength. Awesome. Thank you, sir. You're welcome. And I'll turn things over to Dr. Rhodes. Good evening,
098Mr. Chair, members of the board. Um in your package you see that we have our professional development plan for 25-26. Annually, I update the board on what type of professional learning has been taking place within the division from the division level. Um there are varied positions that fall into the categories that you see listed in the first line of bulleted items. This does not um include school level PD that takes place as well as opportunities that might be provided by VDOE or local colleges and universities in our area. Also, you will see on the second bulleted list what takes place with our leadership. And a lot of these PD opportunities happen during principals meetings, sometimes in leadership, over the course in the entire year. This is not an exhaustive list. There are other opportunities, but
099these are mainly the highlights. Also, um twice a month I update the staff on updates that have been placed on the professional learning site, so that anytime at any point members of our staff across the division can always look on that website to see what new opportunities are being offered. And those come to me from local organizations, colleges, universities, as well as instructional departments, and other members in leadership to make sure everybody's on the pulse of what's available to them. If you have any questions, I'll be glad to entertain them. Board, any questions? You're getting off scot-free today. >> Silence is golden. I have another item. My next item is the job satisfaction survey. This was sent out in February, and I was really encouraged because last year we had 194 respondents. This year we
100had 342. So, that means our members are really trusting this resource and are seeing it as a responsive tool because that's the key of how we try to use it in HR. Um this information has already been disseminated out to all the principals. It has been broken down and analysis in the smaller analysis um form for their school specifically, what you have is a more high-level view across the division as a whole. Everybody feels, if you look at the highlights that I've noted, um there's a strong sense of purpose and a sense of meaningful work that was seen across all areas of those respondents. Of course, there might be some degrees that might have differences at each individual school, but overall, everybody is feeling good about the work that they're doing and um the contributions
101and impacts they're making. Um one opportunity we can already see is creating clear pathways for growth opportunities among some of our staff members. It's clear for some, but not for all. So, that's something that we know in HR we need to kind of put more attention to to make sure people know what those opportunities are and how to seek out ways to support. Um one of the things we implemented this year was professional growth goals across all our professional staff. So, that is something that we started to doing this year with all our principals and staff, and it's going to be something we wanted to continuously look at to kind of create those pathways based on what type of opportunities are our staff looking for. And then the last area, the time, the workload, and
102operational efficiency. Trying to streamline processes, that's something that's continuously been on our eye for the past couple of years, and they actually, I feel like are in a growth area that came up in the survey as well, that we're getting better with that. And those nuances might be unique at some schools and how they work through their processes and um the things that they implement in their buildings. And we're going to make this tool um a reflective piece at our next principals meeting. Now that they have their data, they've had about a little over a week time to look at it, we're going to have them do a deeper dive and be reflective about what this looks like for the remaining points of the year, and also how they can set themselves up for better
103success in the coming year as they plan. So, if you have any questions, I'd be glad to answer them. So, first Dr. Rose, I'd like to say thank you for taking time to to do that. You know, these surveys are extremely important for us to really get a understanding of of what our staff are thinking. Uh for me, uh the one thing I I'd like to ask from the board's perspective, um is when we say things like the majority of staff report a strong agreement, that could be, when you're looking at the raw data, 51%. Right? So, that would meet that requirement of the majority said that. So, I think for us as a board, if we actually had those numbers, like to for me, it makes a difference if 51% of our staff are
104saying that versus 80 90% of our staff are saying that, right? It gives us a better understanding of what is that that secure feeling that our staff are having in the buildings. And and I'm not suggesting you're trying to hide anything with how you worded it at all. But, I just think for us as a board, it helps us to to have a clearer picture if we can associate those numbers with it. No problem. I can get that together for you. Thank you. Board, any other questions, comments? Yes. Oh. Ms. Ligon? No. Uh well, I've read this a couple of times. Uh at night, this is my night reading. Um the key patterns, of course, I'm I'm concerned when I see a comment of differences emerge across gender and race in perceptions of growth. Um
105we want everyone in the county to feel that everyone has an equal opportunity um to do whatever it is that they pursue to do. So, I would like to know I don't need to know, but I think we should be definitely checking that out. I get an understanding what what that means. It could mean many uh bad, good, in between, but I'm sure you're on top of that. Yeah, I actually did a deep dive. That actually drew my attention as well. Um one of the surveys that we did previously showcased had a pocket of those with 11 to maybe 20 years of experience don't feel like there's many growth opportunities. Um one of the questions we want to add to it is what's the level of degree that some of those in those position those
106levels of um experience, [clears throat] do they have advanced degrees? Cuz sometimes our younger employees coming in have master's degrees, so sometimes opportunities open a little bit more frequently for them. So, that's a lens we want to put on it. And when I dig dig into it, it seems that um our people of our um employees, black employees, feel like there are greater growth opportunities as opposed to our white employees. When I looked into the gender, uh males feel there are more opportunities as opposed to females feeling more opportunities. So, we have to figure out what those pockets are within our division and give clarity about how we're communicating growth opportunities within the division. It is not uncommon to hear that around uh in HR situations. You know, it all all And it's perception. Mhm.
107But what we'd like to know uh what I'd like to know is that we don't have that perception that uh that growth is a you know, not everybody can grow in the same way, but it's available. Right. And and the gender and race would not have any bearing on it. That's just want to make sure that we on the same page with that. Yes, ma'am. for digging into that. Mhm. Yes, ma'am. Any other questions? Okay. My last one is a flyer. It's an opportunity for you to be involved in one of our next wellness initiatives. We are going to be supporting the Lynchburg Free Clinic with the Rise and Rebuild Walk and Run, which will be taking place, I believe it's March 28th. Uh we have registered so far 28 staff members to participate free
108of charge. We're covering it with our wellness um and benefit. So, if you would like to participate, please let me know and we can register you as well. Actually, I have a commitment that day, but Jim will be there. I did the last one. I would do it if I was available. It's a flat one this time. >> [laughter] >> That hill I might do that if it's flat. >> Ms. Donna, you already know my response. >> [laughter] >> Well, Ms. Yeah, Ms. Jill, just just on that note um back to that flyer. Uh just I was just watching tonight um for the free clinic had a fire. I'm thinking everybody's aware of that downtown and destroyed the building pretty much in the situation. So now they are open and [clears throat] um this is
109part of the fundraiser to to get the other things they need. Uh I want to quote 500,000 or something is needed. And uh Dr. Derrick Brown who's an Amherst County graduate is now the uh CEO. And so I think this is a great opportunity for us in Amherst to to be a part of this walking, running, or crawling. >> [laughter] >> I actually just spoke with him Sunday and he was like very excited to know that we were supporting this endeavor at the clinic. Mr. Childress Could we do it in a golf cart? Yeah. Mr. Childress There you go. You can walk it, Mr. Childress. Remember that. You can walk. You can walk. It's a run or walk. >> a long walk. Mrs. Justice A quick question. Um back in the day we were able
110to raise funds. Like I'm going to I'm going to go in the 5K. Will you sponsor this? The benefit is going to be going to this um organization. Are we able to do that anymore? That might be a question above my pay grade. I would be curious because I raised a lot of money that way. Being willing to go out, other people were like, "Oh, I'm not I'm I'm not going out, but I'll give you a dollar for each kilometer you survive, you know? >> [laughter] >> So I'd be curious. Okay. Thank you, ma'am. That concludes all I have to offer. Thank you. >> Well, thank you. All right. Well, that takes us to 11:01, Superintendent Matters. All right. Yes, sir. Uh before I start that, uh Miss Justice, just let you know we did
111get you that information. You got an email with that policy. All right. So, first uh the VSBA Southern Region Forum, uh Miss McNerney did sign you up, Miss Leggon, so you are set to go on that. Woo! And then Read Across America. I will say that yesterday I had the privilege of reading to first grade. If you haven't done that, there's still some opportunities and that's a wonderful thing. That's one of my favorite things to do. I will say I have also enjoyed going in with Amber, taking some pictures, some other folks, and a few of the SROs were reading to the students and it was it was cool to see their reaction for, you know, their SRO, somebody that's in the building to protect them, you know, sitting down reading them a book. So,
112that's a that's a wonderful thing and I appreciate everyone that that has done that and it's it's a very rewarding experience. So, that's one of the things I enjoy. I did not get to read a Dr. Seuss book this year, so my tongue was definitely in better shape after that. So, I do enjoy reading those. The trout release, those dates were scheduled and we have all that set up, so we're looking forward to those again as we head into spring. And those will be uh sent to you, so you'd like to come join us. Can you email me that? Yep. Thank you. Yep. And so, that's a that's a wonderful experience and, you know, I know Ms. Legan talked earlier about some of our students, but, you know, some of our students, especially that live
113like in the Madison Heights area that don't get outside, it's a it's a great experience and just to see their face and the kids, you know, being able to get in the creek and and all the all the things they learn that day, it's it's a great thing. So, Is Dr. Wells heading that up? Yep. Yes, yes, sir, he is. Perfect. Yep. I know that's kind of his his >> It is. his passion, so. >> Dr. McGinnis comes. I try to get to a few of them and, like I said, it's a it's a great day just to see they don't realize that they're learning. And then they can, you know, we we get them out there and they actually apply what they've learned. So, it's it's a great it's a great thing and then
114it teaches them about our our watershed and how important it is. So, I think it's it's a great thing. So, continue that. Uh the education foundation student showcase, so you have an email that Brittany forwarded you. That is March 16th at 11:00 a.m. at the high school. And you can either forward you can either respond to that email or ask Ms. McNearny and she will reply for you. So, whichever you would like to do on that, but we would love for for you to come join us at 11:00 on April March 16th, excuse me. All right. Next in your folders, you have the VSBA business honor roll. So, we talked about this a little bit, but the VSBA honor roll is where we can choose three locality. So, you have three of these that we
115will ask you first for a consensus. And then if you approve of that, we will have all of you sign that. So, if you remember, we chose Glad Manufacturing. We chose Fairmont Crossing. And we also chose Neighbors Helping Neighbors. Feel like all three of these organizations we work very closely with and they help us tremendously. So, if we can get a consensus from the board, then please see Ms. McNearny before you leave tonight. She needs to actually get a wet signature on each one of these. All right, board. Do we have a consensus or do you want to discuss it first? Everybody good with it? Absolutely. All right. So, we'll see uh See you at the end to get it signed. Excellent. And the last thing is the April 16th board meeting location change. First
116of all, remember the date change, which we did that to begin in the year because spring break is the second. And then that location change is Amherst County High School, and that will be in the cafeteria. So, we'll get to be in the new cafeteria for that. So, just a reminder for that next month. That will be at the cafeteria. Any questions on that? All right, before I turn it back over to you, just another note to thank the board for all their hard work today. It was a long day, but really appreciate that and work well done. So, thank you again. All right, that brings us to 12.01 committee reports. Saunders, we'll start with you. I'd like to start. Well, I will have to reiterate. It has been a long day. And I was
117not looking forward to coming back in here at 6:00 p.m. But, to see No, I know. To see the joy on the students' faces when they receive their certificate, y'all that made it worthwhile. So, I'm so glad that we do that because that reminds us why we're here and what we're supposed to be doing. So, um I am reading tomorrow to second graders. I was so glad they didn't give me the fourth and fifth graders. They about ate me up and spit me out last time. Not really. >> [laughter] >> They were a little intimidating for me. They are. But, the second graders I think I got it I got it under control child this time. But, anyway, thank you all again staff for for all the long hard hours you put into the budget.
118I know what it does and how much it takes out of you guys and we appreciate all your work. So, thank you very much. Childress. I'd like to thank everybody for the time that we got to spend today, including the board administration. I think I learned a lot being in my first budget scenario which wasn't that totally bad, but definitely taught a lot of things. So, I'd like to thank y'all for that. As Justice. Thank you very much. So, [clears throat] um uh Central Virginia Governor's School got exciting things coming up. Um March 16th is a deadline for our schools getting applica- their lists to CBGS. So, if there's anyone out there who's been thinking, "Man, I really need to apply for CBGS." This is your week to do it. So, get it done. Um
119if you've already applied, letters are going to be mailed by March 25th. That's pretty exciting. I can still recall um applying to a program as a eighth grader and it was a four-year program and the excitement of getting that letter and going, "Wow." I we had our a letter read by Miss Prior and I identified with it as a student because I was at the bottom for so long, so long and I just want to encourage everyone that's in that place. Just keep trying hard. Keep trying new things. It does change. It can move. And don't give up. So, when I got that letter, it was pretty exciting. So, um also the CBGS um the video production um crew from PBS through VDOE was at CBGS getting some footage, which is pretty exciting. Um middle
120school days are coming up. March 27th, April 3rd. If you like the STEM bus, you would love the middle school open house for CBGS. Parents, take your kids out. Just go and see what it's like. Start that bug for them to go, "Man, that's what I want to do when I'm in high school." Uh Read Across America, I visited Elon yesterday and it was all about adventure and I had just been on an airport adventure and out of country, so I brought my backpack and a bunch of entertaining things from my backpack and I had kindergarteners and they were sitting in my lap and we got to share Canadian chocolate and it was just it was wonderful to talk about how things that we read as a child, places we visit in our books as
121a child, can then become realities for us as adults and it was fun to listen to the kids answer the questions of what an adventure is like for them. What does it look like? And camping came up a lot, so that was pretty cool. I look forward to Friday when I get to read at CES. This is definitely one of my favorite parts about being on the school board. Um great job to our wrestlers, the female and the male both got sixth place in the Commonwealth. That's huge. Um I wanted to just say to the public comment that we listen. The board takes these things really seriously and so does our administration and um thank you for sharing your thoughts and I really look forward to all the great hands-on activities we've got in Amherst
122County going on. Thank you, sir. Mr. Terry. Yes, sir. So, I won't reiterate everything everybody has already said about the budget, but you know, we we did spend a long day today and um we kept instruction at the forefront. So, I think as a board, that's that shows it's important to all of us. Um hopefully we are granted a really good budget this year by the the state and uh that helps us uh helps us along. Um and thanks for the team looking at the math books. I mean it's it's it's not a one-man job. It it takes it takes a team to get all that done. So, thank you guys for assembling and doing that. And Dr. McGuinness, your your passion for the summer school program, um I love how you take that to
123heart and when you see something that you think needs a little more, you're not afraid to stand up and say it. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Um the trout release, uh for anyone who's never seen that, it's more than just putting fish in the water. Um those kids learn math. They learn ecology. They learn geography. I I was amazed. Uh Dr. Wells was asking them, you know, the the water where we're in is the Pedlar River. Where does that flow? They knew it went to the James. From the James, it went to the Chesapeake Bay. From Chesapeake Bay, it went to the ocean. He said, "Now name off all the major rivers." And they did it better than I could. But, I mean those kids take to heart what they learn in
124the field, the hands-on part. And some of those kids have never seen the Pedlar River. Although it runs right through our county. And unfortunately, some of those kids will never see it again. Uh which is a shame. Um So, um yeah, want to see those dates cuz I want to go participate where I can. And I uh we hate to have to do it, but I look forward to working with Real Synergy. It's one of those things. Um the board's supposed to approve policy and uh hire a superintendent. And so, we'll get to work with them. Real Synergy um did a great job with us last time. I look forward to it this time. If you are asked um to be interviewed by them, please be very honest with them. Open up what you would
125like to see in our next superintendent. Um we need input from the public. So, thank you all for everything. Ms. Logan. Oh, yes. Um well, Laurel is still good. We haven't had a meeting since I reported last time. Uh but I do see Dr. Lewis frequently and things are well there and our students there about four students are well. Now, for the VSBA, uh we've already heard from um Dr. Holden that there is a uh spring forum and it's going to be in Danville this year. And uh they are hosting now. We are hosting next year uh at Amherst High School. If all goes right, cuz I did put in the bid and they accepted it. [clears throat] Um so, you know, somebody ought to go down to Danville. You know, I'm going because um
126I'm that's what I do, but we uh do have to take our art down. Uh so, it it's not just it's very important to be present when possible, but at this time I do plan to go down, but I did want you to know that Amherst is uh on the list to be coming to our new high school and everything next year, which goes quickly. Um I was excited uh to see all the awards this afternoon. One of the little young men go to my church. Uh and his grandmother's right there. Just sweetest people in the world and all the others as well. So, we we're happy about these good occasions. And I was kind of listening to what Mr. Terry was saying. Once again, we will start the process of um doing the best
127we can to bring a new superintendent to Amherst County and as Mr. um Terry said, uh they will be talking to stakeholders. We all in this together uh for the good of the county. So, we will get started. We did have great results from this group last time. So, we feel confident that they will lead us in the right directions again. Um and then last um the budget I had a little fun today, really. Eat some cookies, had some subs, you know, I come for the fun. Uh, and we accomplished what we had to do, that's the thing. Uh, we it's revolving doors, we got board of supervisor, we got the Senate, the house, the governor, we got all kind of people involved in this in these numbers. So, we just going to hopefully come
128out, we usually do. We make it, we come out with it. We might have to shave it, or we might add to it, but as a whole, I don't think we cried yet. We haven't cried over a budget yet, so let's not start now. Everything is good. Uh, and then last, uh, last week I was excited, Dr. Caps, who is my president of CVCC, came over to the high school, um, with his associate Chris Ogden, and my pastor Reverend Lee came as a community, uh, support. And they were toured by Dr. Holden and others. Dr. Wells was there, Dr. Crawford was there. We had a wonderful time. You can't show that place off too much. Uh, one of the reason we asked Dr. Caps to come is because we do dual enrollment with Central Virginia
129Community College, and so he was just excited to see what we're doing here, Mr. Maddox, with all your CTE over there. I even sat down in the little hair thing, you know, I need to lay back under the dryer. But, um, I'm just excited as I can be still showing it off. So, those three people enjoyed themselves, so uh, I am passionate about summer school, and we will follow up on that a little bit more as time goes on, but thank everybody for everything, all the papers we have here, lots of papers take home. Thank all y'all for that finance reports, Dr. Holden, for the job you're doing thus far, and for Mr. Neighbors, and Britt, keeping us in line. Thank you. Mr. Rossi? Yeah, I'll keep it short because [clears throat] it's been an
130extremely long day for for us. Um, the the budget season here, and our meeting last night with the board of supervisors led us down the path we went today. I know the Board of Supervisors has got some really tough decisions coming up. There's there's deficit and you know, these are challenges that that we will overcome. Like we're going to make it. One way or the other we're going to make it, but I know throughout our meeting today the focus was the children in instruction. We're going to do everything in our power not to reduce any teachers in front of students. That is the goal of this board. I believe that the Board of Supervisor is on board with that. They have a passion for this county just as we do and we need to raise
131the bar and move forward. Um and I and I think we're going to get there. I don't know if this is going to be the budget we're going to have, but I know that at minimum we're going to do our best to keep teachers in front of students and keep the learning moving forward. It's it's what we have to do. Bottom line, that's what we have to do. Uh Dr. McGuinness, thank you for that social studies uh opportunity for students to graduate. Uh Dr. Neighbors, I know you put some work into that, too, and to have >> [snorts] >> students that don't fit into the box to have the opportunity to graduate, that is so important. And uh the letter that was handed to us today, yes, I agree with a lot of lot of
132aspects in that letter. I've I was one of those students that didn't fit in the box. There had to be alternate ways for me to to do it. Picking C didn't work. I tried. It didn't work. I did graduate, but it wasn't by picking C. So, I appreciate that and the fact that we had that opportunity and we're going to utilize that opportunity means a lot to me personally, but I'm glad that it's going to benefit students in our district. And that's that's very important to me. And yeah, we made it through the day, guys. We did it. It's all here. All right, so as everybody said, I'll keep my comments short and sweet. I do want to I try. I do want to thank the board again. I mean, it was a long day
133today and certainly the administration and everybody who had a hand in the budget budget conversation. You know, it's not easy. And we had to make some tough decisions as we went through that process and obviously I think we you know, we listened to what the Board of Supervisors told us last night in our joint meeting for the two-by-two and um you know, they made it clear. They've got some tough decisions to make as well. And so we can respect that. But also at the same time I think the community needs to understand and respect that you know, when we put forth a budget, it's a budget that it's it's not a want. That this is what this board is saying is a need in order for Amherst County Public Schools to do our job to
134educate every child every day to get them to where they need to succeed. So I appreciate the dedication of all the board members in in in that effort and all the administration for for being a part of that. I will say I'm extremely disappointed that I was not able to participate in the Read Across America. Unfortunately, um it was good for me, but I was I had to go out of town last week. I was in Albuquerque, New Mexico and so I couldn't take off any additional days this week to do it. But what I would like to do, Dr. Hoden, is perhaps next Friday if we could pick a school or two, I'd love the opportunity to go and do some reading to you know, some of our kids as I do it's a
135passion you know it's one of those when our young students see adults that have a passion for reading that helps them to have that same passion. Right and yeah I think we need to do everything we can in our power to do that so I would love that opportunity to be able to do that. Again with real synergy I you know that the board is work with them in the past I'm looking forward to that process and and especially working with the community our stakeholders right talking to teachers talking to community members administrators to to get feedback on in that process to what the next superintendent is and all that's going to be collected together as we formulate the questions that we're going to ask these candidates so if you're asked to participate in that
136please participate in it cuz it's extremely important to the process and we want to make sure that we this is like one of the the most important things that the board can do is choosing you know that the next superintendent and we want to make sure that we pick one that one aligns with the vision and goals of the board but also our stakeholders which would be our community members our teachers and administrators so we do seek your input throughout that process so All right >> [sighs] >> so I told you I'd keep it short. What's that? public comment Yep yep so we're going to get down to public comments anyone like to come and address the board at this time? All right I'm not seeing anybody moving. board motion to adjourn We have motion
137to adjourn. second We have a second do you all want to debate it? Nope all right all those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? We are adjourned.