ACPS Regular School Board Meeting - Thursday, September 11, 2025

001September 11th, 2001. Yeah, it was 24 years ago today when the terrorists made the attacks on on the United States at the World Trade Center in the Pentagon. Um, I just think it's important for us to remember that that day and the sacrifice made by almost 3,000 Americans uh who were whose lives were lost that day as well uh keep their families, you know, in in our thoughts as well, but also the men and women who perished in the war of terror that resulted from those terrorist attacks in the years that followed. So just as we do a moment of silence, I'll just ask that we uh keep those folks in in our thoughts and prayers and uh and their families as well. >> Thank you. Let's all rise for moment of silence and the

002pledge of allegiance. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. board, do we have an agenda? >> Make a motion that we approve tonight's agenda. >> Second. >> We have a motion, a second. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? All right, we have an agenda. >> All right. So, Mr. Chair, members of the board, tonight we have our school board reps with us. Um for this year we have Lamar Sales in YC. Lamar is a senior who is attending the high school as well as the governor's school. Um she's been heavily involved in school activities through her four years at Ammeris County High School including a member of

003the tech club as as well as an officer for the senior class this school year. And she has already done so much this year to help plan sen the events for the school with the senior sunrise, senior breakfast and the pep rallies. We want to welcome Lamar uh to to joining us uh as a rep from the school board. >> Welcome aboard. >> And Wyatt is also a senior who is attending Names County High School and CBCC CTE Academy. Wyatt is also heavily involved in extracurricular activities included a fouryear member of the football team where he's currently a captain and also a member of the wrestling team where he placed at the state tournament last year. So we want to welcome him as well. Welcome, Mike. >> And I told them when we get to

004their section of the agenda, they'd have a chance to go into more depth as their why and what they're what they're up to. So, >> no worries. We only have very high high expectations for you this year. >> Well, we do welcome you and thank you. >> Absolutely. >> Uh we were going to we still want to recognize the transportation department. However, um Ronda Campbell's daughter had her baby and >> Miss B. Campbell is there at the office holding down the fort. So, they're not here this evening, but um so maybe I'll just bring them back on the agenda at a later date, but they we were planning on recognizing them tonight. But we do want to just publicly state that uh you know, the routes, the work they put into preparing the routes and

005making sure all of our kids get to and from school is uh is a huge task and the work that the whole department does, not just them, but all of our drivers, our maintenance and the transportation department, all the work they do to ensure the buses are running safely and we can get kids to and from school in a safe manner. So, just want to recognize them and appreciate the work they do. Now, Dr. Hen, did you want to say >> Yeah, just echo that. Um, as far as mic's not working. >> There we go. Uh, just echo that. Um, sometimes there are days where what they pull off is actually a miracle. And I want to remind the board several of our surrounding counties daily will cancel bus routes. Knock on wood, we have

006not had to do that because of the work of Rhonda B. all the drivers that come together including the mechanics. Mechanics are driving about every day. So, um it is quite taxing, but our our goal is to get all the students to school. So, just wanted to let you know the hard work that that entire staff does. >> Yeah. And along those lines, we it's certainly not an easy thing, right? It's not like you create your routes in the beginning of the year and you forget about it. They're constantly having to update the routes based on, you know, new students coming in, students leaving, uh, having bus drivers available to do routes and having to collapse routes. So, it's it's a never- ending task. And so, we greatly appreciate it. Uh, that's our the the

007first thing our students see is that bus driver and that kind of sets the tone for the day uh for a lot of those students. So, we're very appreciative of all their work, >> sir. Thank you. All right, next up is public comments. We don't have anyone that's uh registered or signed in for public comments. Uh would anyone like to come at this time? We will offer an opportunity at the end of uh tonight's meeting. Anyone? All right. We'll move on to action items. >> Yes, sir. Mr. chair, members of the board, um we have the proposed changes to the school policy manual. And so what we have done, we met with uh Miss Thompson and Miss Justice met with us yesterday actually to go over some of the policies that were pulled from last

008month just to discuss. Um in section A, those are the same policies. No changes were made. There are no substitutions or revisions. So, we would recommend that the policies in memo A be approved as is um as a second read tonight since there are no changes made to those policies from what we've discussed earlier. >> And what about section B? >> Section B I Section B or I I'll separate them out. Section B is is different conversation, but All right. >> I recommend move on section A first. >> All right. Board, what's your pleasure? Make a motion that we um approve policies under memorandum A. It's a >> motion. Do we have a second? >> Second. >> Have a motion, a second. Any discussion? >> Say hello to summer. >> No discussion. All right. All

009those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? >> All right. That passes. How about section B? >> So section B were policies that had revisions made to them. So we have two options with section B. Um, one would be to treat this as a first read since changes, amendments were made to those policies and it just be a first read tonight to give you chance during the next month to review or um the policies changes were not major in context. If you so felt like you wanted to approve tonight, you could, but being that changes were made, um, uh, you know, you have that option to bring it back next month to approve or you could approve tonight. It's the board's discretion. What are your thoughts, Mr. Chair or Vice Chair? Um, since

010I was part of looking at these changes, um, I feel comfortable being able to adopt those tonight, but I know many of you because of the late hour of it coming in. I don't know if it was last night or this morning. >> Last night. >> Was it last night? Bless you, Britney. Um, yes, she worked really hard in trying to get this together, but you know, you may not have had time to review them. So, if you want to approve them, that's fine. If not, um, I think it would be appropriate to make it a first read to give you a chance to look at those changes. It's up to not up to me because I'm good with them. >> What about the rest of the board? Have you all had an opportunity to

011read it or do you want to put it off to next month or >> I have not had a chance to read it, so >> Okay. So, we'll table that to uh next month. Yes, >> sir. So, we'll bring it back with a second read next month and for approval. >> Yes, sir. Thank you. 4.02 of superintendent goals. We've been working on these for a while. I think we finally got them to a place um that is in agreement with with you and with me. So um I don't I guess this needs to be an action where y'all give approval of this of the goals. So um I'll leave it up to you. I'm I'm good with where they stand. So it's up to the board. All right. board. Any thoughts on the uh the

012goals? We have worked on this for quite a while and had many sessions uh talking about that and um I will say that uh for the community the whole point is um for us to work together collaboratively as we're looking at improving uh our students performance uh and uh just uh uh trying to move in a positive direction and and I feel very comfortable with uh the goals that we have come up with. I'd like to make a motion to pass the superintendent goals for 2526. >> Motion. >> Second. >> Have a motion and a second. Any discussion? >> No discussion. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? >> It passes. >> Thank you. >> All right. Next up is the consent agenda. >> Make a motion. Can we approve tonight's

013consent agenda? >> Second. >> Motion second. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? >> Motion passes. >> Thank you. We're now up to our student representatives. So, who wants to go first? >> They flip a coin earlier. >> Hello. Okay. Good evening everybody. Um, first off, I'm just going to give a little bit more depth into who I am. So, my name is Laara Sales. I am a 17-year-old senior at Ammerst County High School as well as Central Governor School as secretary for National Honor Society, the treasurer for our student council and student liaison to this very board. I've been given an incredible opportunity to contribute to our school events, promote academic excellence, and help cultivate a positive and welcoming school environment. After high school, I plan to pursue

014a career as a clinical pharmacist and I look forward to continuing to represent the student voice in the future. Thank you. >> Good evening everyone. My name is Wyatt. Um I am the head captain of the football and wrestling team at Ammerst. I'm also currently dual enrolled into CBCC. My plans for life is um to come back next year to CBCC and finish my associates degree and then later on the road start my own electrical company. >> Thank you. Good job guys. >> Well, welcome to both of you. Uh it's exciting to to see the new faces and to hear uh from you throughout the year of everything that's going on at the high school. And so we look forward to having you at each of our meetings and uh being a part of of

015uh of the board. So uh thank you guys for dedicating your time because it's going to take some time uh to to plan and get your items to present to the board and so as busy as your lives are already uh we are appreciative of you doing that. >> Thank you sir. We also have a little bit more that we want to say. >> Sure. >> Okay. So, um, just a little bit about what we've been doing at the high school, um, this fall. So, this fall has been really exciting for our school, um, Ammers County High School. Some of the highlights have been we had our senior sunrise, which is a special tradition we have every year where we welcome the new school year together as a senior class, and we join on the

016football field together and watch the sunrise. Um, specifically this time we decided to we had a a mural painted um with ACS class of 2026 and everyone that was in attendance painted their handprints on the wall to commemorate the class and I think that was a really meaningful way to start our year and to all come together as a class. Then the morning after the sunrise, we all gathered for a senior breakfast. Um, our culinary teacher, Chef Phillips, and his culinary students pre prepared a meal of biscuits, gravy, and eggs. um and gave all the seniors a chance to connect and enjoy some time together in the morning time. We also had a very spirited pep rally in preparation for our school's first home game football game. It was a great way to show our

017school spirit and it was cool that we decided to recognize all all fall sports instead of just the football team that day. Another thing is we have a wonderful addition to the school. The cafeteria was is the most main attraction. there are new like very large windows in the cafeteria and it opens up the space and makes it very open and bright and it's just it's a really great place for all the students to connect now and that is where the breakfast was held. It was really nice. Um looking ahead there's there's other exciting events. We have our annual trunk or treat which is sponsored by our senior class and the junior class and other teachers and students and it's open to the whole county. And then we and later later on in September, we're

018looking forward to our homecoming dance will be held right after the football game um in the new cafeteria. Laamera mentioned at the home um at the pep rally about fall sports. I'm going to give the fall sports report for tonight. Volleyball is having a great season so far. We are currently 4- one. We actually beat Appamatics, which we have not beat in nine years. That was a huge upset for us. Um the golf team, the golf team is doing very good, especially Caitlyn Baxter. She is winning tournaments or placing second, so she is doing a great job out there. Um the football team, we've started at a rocky rocky start 02 currently, but um we have Meckberg Friday night at home. That's a big help for us and we've had a great week of preparation.

019So ready to get him tomorrow night. >> Awesome. >> Thank you both. Right. Next, we move into item seven, which will be uh instruction. Mr. Neighbors. >> Yep. Good evening, Mr. Chair, members of the board. I'm a little bit upset. It's going to be a tough act to follow all year with our student representatives. Welcome y'all. Uh several items for you this evening. The first is an update on federal pass rates. Uh initially when this memo was drafted, this was embargo data and the state quickly posted those to our school quality profiles that I emailed out to the board. Uh no big surprises here. We were happy to see that we got a little bit of a bump off of that preliminary data that we reported in June. Uh but ultimately this is just raw

020pass rate. Does not account for growth, recovery, any of those pieces that we were hoping to have a little bit earlier here but we'll be getting later this month. So be happy to answer any questions the board might have. All right. Uh moving right along on that note. Uh we were hopeful, crossing our fingers that we might have at least something we could share with the board tonight in regards to state accountability data. Uh that was not available as of just a few minutes ago when I jumped on SSWS. I've been checking every couple hours here for the last several weeks. Uh what we do know is that that'll be to us at the very latest by the end of September. I'm hoping a little bit earlier, maybe even next week. Uh once we get

021that, we'll be sending that out to the board so y'all can take a initial look. I am going to be working with Dr. wells to put some 2 by twos on the calendar where we can bring folks in and get a little more in-depth into some of that data hopefully prior to the October board meeting. Just want to make sure we've got plenty of time to be able to go through that and really know where we're coming from from a data standpoint. U but again be happy to answer any questions the board might have. >> And we were looking to the October 1st and October 3rd as possible dates. If there other dates that would be more, you know, better for you then just let us know. But we're kind of thinking the 1st and

0223rd of October will be some times we could we could clear in our calendars if if it suits you. Again, if it doesn't, just let us know and we'll find times to do. >> Absolutely. >> Yeah. I think the thing that will help too as we plan those meetings when we were looking at the data, if we can um maybe have some ideas on uh you can present ideas to the board on how what we're doing to move that forward. >> Yes, sir. Um, so I I know I would greatly appreciate that to know that we're already thinking about that piece of it and that's right. >> What are we putting in place to to make it better? >> Absolutely. Yeah. Thank you, sir. >> All right. Well, there no questions. Move on to item

023three. And I'm actually going to bump that back to Dr. Wells. >> So, the acceptable use of technology regulation, which we currently have, uh, we have updated that to include artificial intelligence. So instead of doing an AI specific uh regulation, we include it as part of our acceptable use. So that is at your place and it's also uh under protected section of board docs. Um what we really want to do with this regulation is to um add AI protocols and constraints to the regulation. Um we you know our goal is to have age appropriate use of AI. So, elementary will be much different than middle, which is much different than high school. You know, tight control as far as elementary. You know, they recommend no one under age 11 be able to write prompts and

024stuff like that in AI. So, elementary school be more teacher. Middle school it gets to where you're doing a little bit of gradual release and by high school be more release for AI. But before we can do that, you know, we need to train our staff and what the expectations are. But our goal basically, you know, is to have safe and responsible use of AI. We want students to know how to do it safely, how to do it responsibly. Um, so we're currently working with staff to make them aware. We had a meeting with principles on Monday on the on the generative AI platforms um and division expectations for use. On the meeting, we will have a staff development day in November. We'll be able to provide additional um training for staff as who wants

025to get that. I'll be leading that uh some with with Amber and we'll be kind of doing some of that work there as far as what is acceptable and what are we what are we trying to get to with teachers. Um we're also looking at different platforms designed to monitor student use to make sure they're not going out here and getting into trouble or doing things they shouldn't be doing with it. So we want to look at what platforms meet our needs to monitor the use of AI. Um, we want, again, we want our students to be safe and responsible with this. Um, we know AI is here, if you use one of these phones, if you use Facebook, if you use any social media, um, you know, you're going to be using it. It's

026part of life. So, we need to make sure our students understand what it is, how it's used, how it can be used, and how it should be used moving forward. You know, I would much rather um us prepare students. We need to prepare students for this part of life. But also, I'd much rather us get to a point where um we teach them what's accept what's expected, what's acceptable if they make a mistake or that mistake be made with us than when they get into a career or they get into college. And that has a larger detrimental impact than a than a possible mistake with us while they're still learning, right? So, I'd much rather us get it get that part with them now than have to deal with it later in life where they

027don't really understand not understand the parameters of what they're getting into. So, we want to make sure our students are prepared for life, but we also need to make sure that they understand how AI works and and what they can do and shouldn't do in a responsible manner. So, that's kind of our goal, but we're starting with staff and then second semester we'll start doing a slow release um with that with students. So, Mr. Goldman will be opening some second semester we'll probably start opening some things up. If a teacher has a project they want to do and utilize it then we can work that out with him to open some things up with for student use uh as we move forward. So just want to give you that. So that regulation will go live

028tomorrow but I wanted to make sure y'all were aware and you had a copy of it. >> Any questions, thoughts or >> Yeah, I have just a couple. The current use of AI at the high school. Yeah. >> Have you ran into anything that's prompt you to add stuff to this? Is that where this came from because of stuff that you're coming in contact with? >> We had, you know, AI is fairly new, right? As far as that. So, we didn't have any regulations regarding AI in our reg in in our policy manual. So we wanted to add something now so we can make sure as we move forward and introduce this more to student and it becomes more available and I guess more widespread that we have a regulation in place but we didn't

029have anything in place prior to there's no actions that we felt led to us doing this but we wanted to make sure that we were we had the regulation in place so we knew how to move forward as a division we had that guidance there as a division how we're going to operate and move forward. um six or I guess it was six of us last year went through some trainings through um the state and part of that was to come up make sure we had these things in place and how we're going to incorporate it into our schools. So that was kind of the the reasoning behind it. >> So understanding our staff, how are they um how are they accepting of it? Are they on board with it? >> Some are ready to

030jump in and use it right now. Others are kind of a little ner cautious about it and some I think we probably have a few that might be afraid of it. Um so we're trying to get those that are ready to go working with those folks who and make sure we can do maybe some pallet projects with them but those are a little more cautious a little not as familiar with it. what can we do to to expose them to it and how they can use that um for their own personal life as well as with students because you know there's some things there's some great tools out there they can use to assist them with it with instruction um and how they're doing their teaching their classes that could really help and take some

031take some of that time off of their plate that they can you know use use in other ways. So we want to make sure they they're aware what's there and also how we can assist them in in developing it moving forward. And I'm sure we have students that are willing to assist also. >> I'm sure we probably that know more about it than anybody sitting in this room. So maybe one or two. >> No, thank you. >> That's all I had. Whatbody else? >> So Dr. Wells, what is the current status of AI in our schools? Or is it being blocked, filtered or >> right now it's basically being filtered for students but not for staff. And then again, if a staff member wants to utilize it with their students, they can contact us and

032we'll I think Joe can figure out Mr. Goldman there some will allow some access in there. But currently, just because we haven't gone through the training with students yet as far as accessible use responsibilities and things like that, we didn't want to just open it up so that teachers have access to it. And >> then so changing the um acceptable use policy midyear. So, our parents, they sign that each year. Our students sign it each year. Do you have a plan in place to have them resign it in January? >> We will, we'll get that straight. We haven't, as of right now, we don't have a plan so much in place, but as we get forward with this and start allowing students to utilize it, we'll be communicating with parents on the expectations and go

033with that route. >> Right. But will we make sure they've signed the policy before they given access to it? >> Correct. Yes, sir. Okay. All right. Um I I'll just say I mean I agree with you 100% that um AI is here to stay and um if we don't teach our kids the proper way to do it then we'll be doing them a disservice >> uh in the long run. So I'm glad to see that we are adopted I attended the same uh some of the same trainings as you did uh over the this past year with it and uh so I'm I'm happy to see that uh we're moving ahead with this. Yes, >> sir. Thank you. All right, my last item this evening, uh, the board has a memo related to our enrollment

034and people teach pupil teacher ratios, excuse me. Uh, took data from last year that we presented around about this time and gave a little bit of a comparison to the board of where we stand today. Uh, overall down a little bit. Uh, but you'll notice we've kind of redistributed some students who had a smaller class come in at the high school and certainly seen that increase in some of our schools across the division. I did want to note for the board as we were reviewing for this evening, we saw on that last sentence there an item that we needed to correct. So, initially we thought we were up uh quite a few more students than we actually are. We had some exemptions there related to ADM uh that got pulled out. We are still up

035from where we projected in our budget. So, that's a positive news, just not quite as much as we initially had hoped for with that. Um all in all, what I wanted to be able to provide the board was a breakdown by grade level, by school. It's all that supporting documentation that's provided there in board docs. As of right now, we're talking about class size reduction at the elementary level. Madison Heights is the only school where for our K3 total teacher to student ratio, we're a little bit above where we need to be with that. And that'll be an action item uh that I work with Dr. Wells on here towards the end of the month once all that gets shaken out. Uh other than that, it'll be at the discretion of Dr. dwells in the

036board as to how we want to attack some of the increases in class sizes that we have, but wanted to provide that to the board. Uh, and as always, happy to answer any questions y'all might have. >> Any questions. >> Is it is it too soon to be thinking about or to ask the question in the class at Mount Heights? Are we looking at hiring a bringing a new teacher >> or an IIA or what? >> Yeah. Yeah. How what's the need? >> Right. Yeah. The need at this point I'm always leerary to disrupt the established classes, especially at this point in the year. We've kind of gotten in and gotten our routines. We do have to when we're looking at that class size reduction piece, look at a teacher. So, we would likely post

037for that. Realistically, we're probably looking at an instructional assistant coming in and being able to fill that need, being able to work with the three classes at that grade level to make sure that they've got that support. We have one grade level that's a little bit higher than the others. working with Mr. Hutcherson, that's likely where we would put that support, at least initially. >> And so the IIA that we uh added in the budget this past year to each of the elementarymentaries, is that including that position already? We're uh >> Yeah, it is included. So, we're looking at all these different pieces. Ultimately, we're looking at licensed staff with us from a class size reduction standpoint. Uh but that is already doing quite a bit of good, especially there at Madison Heights. Yep. >>

038Okay. But we would probably be what you what we're probably going to see is um end of this month once we get to September 30th ADM. I want to make sure the numbers are where they where we think they will be. And I'll probably be coming to you in October uh with a request for position at Madison Heights. But I just want to I didn't want to bring it now because I want to make sure the numbers will sit before we do that. So >> Yeah. Did you have a question? Look, you wanted to ask something. Go ahead. >> No. So, what I was going to say is that um given where we are with uh testing and uh where the status where our students currently are. I would feel more comfortable if we reduce

039the class. I know you don't want to break up the classes you have today, but to me it seems to make more sense to reduce the class size and put an actual teacher >> there so that we can have better instruction with smaller classes rather than keeping the larger size and adding an IIA to it. >> Yes, sir. And that's why we'd want to post for that teaching position transparently and and just having to hire in the past at this time of year. Um, I'm not optimistic that we would find a qualified candidate in September or October. That would be the primary concern and I don't want to delay support. We would absolutely post. We would absolutely look for that teaching candidate, but likelihood would be an instructional assistant. >> Y All right. Well, happy

040to answer any questions we're going forward, but that was it for me this evening. >> Thank you. >> Thanks. I do anticipate um with the information coming from the state that next month will be a uh very heavy month dealing with um instruction. So since we haven't got but once we get the information from the state I do anticipate next month being a instruction heavy meeting when we have our October board meeting. >> Okay. Okay. Next we have Dr. Hoden. >> All right. First uh going to talk to you a little bit about construction. Uh, I would like to say as our student rep said, it is nice to see some smiling faces as they walk through there on the first day of school and as they enjoy some of those spaces uh and members

041of the community. So, it's been a very positive uh experience for them and um as well as a community. So, very glad we've been able to do this. Uh some of the things going on right now before I turn it over to Mr. rogues. Uh exciting. The um as far as the fieldhouse, the netting is done for the baseballs and they're are actually uh putting turf in as we speak. Uh expected to last another couple days. They have to stitch it all up. It's all laid out, but they have to glue it down and then um stitch it together. So, that will be done. Uh some of the paving being done and we hope to have the co for that next week. So that is a very exciting event. So that any activities we have

042out there uh from the next week or so we'll have restrooms, concession stands, etc. As Mr. Rogs will show you, we are we'll be moving some of our foreign language classrooms into the new um classrooms in the uh what was the old cafeteria uh and then the uh new restrooms in the next couple weeks and then we will start moving kitchen equipment in the kitchen Monday. So I'm going to turn it over Mr. Ro and then if you guys have any questions, we'll go from there. All right, since Dr. Hood's covered most everything, I'm going to go through a couple pictures. We're here to support it. Uh, as you can see, the kitchen floor is being laid down. Uh, the hood system on the right hand side there is in the kitchen. So, again, hoping

043uh end of this week, first part of next week, they'll start putting some equipment in. Uh, early this week, the freezer was turned on. You can see the light inside the door and actually standing inside the freezer just to test everything out. We actually turned it back off that in the refrigerator so they can start laying the floor so we don't get too much condensation before they laid the floor in there. Uh this is looking from the kitchen out toward the serving room. The picture on the left was back in I think last time I showed you this was in July since we did have a presentation in August and this is what it looks like today. I know it still looks a little rough but at least we don't have ditches, unfinished floors, anything

044like that in there. Uh this is sort of panoramic view in there on the left and right side walls. All the tiles are up uh in those areas. And basically what's going to happen is the floor comes out of the comes out of the kitchen. Uh they'll finish that up and then start laying the floor here in the serving area. Uh some of the serving line equipment is already in place. Some more came in today. And what you're looking at there is you're looking out toward the new cafeteria. The left and right side plyboard you see is where the students will be coming in to eat. And then right there in the middle will be about a 22 foot wide rollup door for the um uh everybody to exit out of. Picture on the left

045is the uh new bathroom just inside the old exterior exit. That again that picture is back in July. And this is what it looks like today. We're still waiting for some uh divider panels to come in. And this is right across from the old gym where I'm standing right now on the left side of the picture. Um if you remember when we had open house, if you look at that hallway, it it was in pretty rough shape and people were like, "How in the world are we going to open school up in a week or so?" And uh anyway, it happened. And uh this is what it looks like today on a day-to-day basis. This picture was taken about about 5:15 this morning. So anyway, actually where I'm standing is used to be the sidewalk,

046the exterior part of the school. If you can see the the brick on the left and right there, you know, sort of pointing toward the middle, that were the that was the exterior walls of the uh the school prior to all the construction. On the right hand side, I'm standing in the corner uh looking down the CTE wing to the left and out to the right is uh that's actually the corner of the old auditorium and looking toward the front of the school there. uh last week. This is when we uh filled in the old auditorium picture on the left. They brought in three hypo trucks uh with pure port and the cement. It goes up the hill uh to a truck on top of the hill connected to a fire hydrant. Ran through about

04715,000 gallons of water and it mixes with some uh other um debris and things they mix in with the chemical stuff they mix in with the concrete. It basically comes out in a liquid format. Something similar to uh floorable fill. And that's the picture on the right as we are starting to fill in the back part of the old auditorium right when they start pouring it in. And then what happens uh this is looking from the stage out into the auditorium. So I'm standing where where the nursing lab will be. And then uh you see a little concrete wall right there. That concrete cement wall or CMU wall will go all the way to the ceiling. And then on the left side there will be two classroom where the windows are and the back right

048corner will be another classroom and a couple of offices up here close to the front there. And what's going to happen is where the old ticket booth used to be will be a hallway coming down through there going out to the right and going out toward the the hall um the old CT going down the CT hall there. So and then again the nursing lab is where I'm standing at right now. So with that uh the the field they used to to put in there actually uh they're putting the on the left picture there all the conduit in for the base the um wiring electrical devices and things like that. A lot of it obviously is going to the floor and up in the walls. Um there'll be you know server different walls divide the

049classrooms out. The picture on the right is the plumbing line for the nursing lab one of the lines in there and that's coming across the old stage. uh out into the old auditorium. And this is sitting actually in the nursing lab. This is early this morning, too. One of the little mini tracks they have in there to to get around with and and move dirt sort ofly. We have a mini trackco inside the school. But many things have been in there. This is the cosmetology lab. Uh what will be the cosmetology lab or the old band room is in choir room is right here. So, uh, the picture on the left, I'm standing in the, uh, the corner of the the old band room looking where it used to be storage areas and offices in

050there. Those walls have already been de uh demolished and the um the one on the right as I'm looking uh basically from the the doors that went into from the parking lot across the band room. So, all that's demoed and we are starting construction there uh here very shortly. As well as Dr. H mentioned in the fieldhouse the uh the nets are up uh three different nets three different lanes for batting cages and then the long aspect will be for pitching as well and uh you just that and then as he mentioned also the turf came in early this week and they start rolling out yesterday and uh put it down today. So, a lot of things are going inside inside the school when you when we were building uh the new addition, you can

051see progress. And you know, as you go down Lancer Lane, you don't see progress. You see a lot of trucks, a lot of people moving around, but nothing's being added. But it's a lot a lot of works being done. Again, we'll be um actually the classrooms getting cleaned tomorrow. Be moving those in tomorrow afternoon. So, when the students come back on Tuesday after the teachers work day, they will be starting in the new classrooms. And uh and for the language classes, that is what's coming up. construct the walls in the auditorium in the new nursing lab, begin construction in cosmetology, and uh then also here shortly begin demo of the language classes uh for the new agriculture lab, which is when you come up Lancer Lane, the first parking lot to get you on the

052lefth hand side, that brick wall there um where it used to be some uh garage doors, that's where we start demolishing uh here shortly. And then as Dr. Hooden also mentioned, we're paving the road as we speak to the fieldhouse and installing the turf. That's where we're at. >> So, lots going on inside that the the naked eye doesn't see from the outside, but it's a lot of progress going on. So, questions. I uh Where are we at with budget on this? >> How are we How are we looking on budget? >> Yeah, we're in good shape on budget. >> When you say good shape, >> I could get you the figures. Yeah. Well, the reason I asked this and I've just I've noticed a lot of hard work going into this and I I

053think it would be a good thing for Gary to get a little something and all the work and everything he's put into it. I see even Friday Gary running around and then working for the fair and doing this and doing that. It's just incredible the work that he does. And and if there was a way we could reward Gary for all his effort because I mean he's got a passion for it >> and I think the board may want to >> look at possibly, you know, rewarding Gary for what he does because we can talk about it all all day long, but >> a little vacation be nice for Gary, I think. >> If you could get him to take it. >> Well Well, that that's a we're going to confiscate both his cell phones.

054and Mr. I greatly appreciate I I truly do but you know again yeah I spent a lot of time up there but as well does as Dr. Hoden and uh but there's a lot of us who has put a lot in Dr. Wills too has been putting a lot of time. He has a bigger picture to run as far as the division goes and that's why he has us to do those type of things. But it's part of the job and you're right, I do love what I do. I'm committed to graduate of 83 from the high school and um but it's part of the ball game and I don't expect anything different than anybody else and and all I want to do is is to to live to see the end of this project

055which would be great and uh and then be able to admire as I retire somewhere down the road years down the road whatever it may be is to go by and you know I've said many times before even my public safety career you know this is somewhat more morbid is that when I go through the county I say hey I worked a fire here I worked a fatal here. I worked a shooting there. I did this here, there, that I can ride up down the roads of Ammerst County, seeing what I did there. And um this will be the same thing. So, you know, when I when I go, I can ride by the high school, hey, I graduated from there and these years we did these things. It cost me a lot of gray

056hair. And uh but that's all I need is is knowing that we have a good place for our staff and students to to get educated. That's all I need. >> We definitely do appreciate the work you do. I don't want you to think that you go unnoticed. >> No, we're we're good. It's just another day. >> Appreciate it. Thank you. >> Any other comments or questions? I did have a question on So, we have a lot of construction taking place inside the building. Uh any issues, concerns with construction work and the students as they're traveling down uh to the you know, CT classes and >> and every every time we have uh you know, construction meeting, we discuss any safety issues. Uh Dr. Crawford, we've >> Dr. Crawford could fill you in. He's he's always

057uh letting Gary and I know of any issues and he's also been talking to Ricky, our superintendent. So, I'll let him speak to any of that. >> Any issues regarding this? >> Just thinking about student safety because we got a lot of construction taking place as students are walking by right there in the same building. So we have and you that I saw they were saw cutting um the the concrete to get those conduits in >> enclosed that's all in the enclosed area. It's all that's all blocked off roped off. They come in and out of the old door. So that those those workers are you know very separated from the from the students. So we we have a really good working relationship with Jamerson Lewis U Moors Electric and pretty much everybody else that's

058there on a daily basis before they really do anything that's going to have workers either walking through the hallway, walking through the cafeteria, being out where they may potentially be around students. Um the folks at those companies come and see me or they come see Dr. Hoden or they come see Mr. Rogues. Um, I can't tell you how many times they've probably come to me in the last 5 weeks that we've been open for school and say, "Hey, just letting you know, we're working on this in the auditorium, but we've got to go from the auditorium to the old cafeteria where the new Spanish classrooms are going to be. Do you mind?" And it's just something as simple as that is them just coming and asking me that. I know that they're thinking about our

059student safety as well. Um, my biggest priority and first day of school, we have a expectations meeting with all of our students to let them know what's going on. And I don't think there's anybody at the high school that student or staff that doesn't understand my expectation in terms of construction. And it was made very clear that no students, no staff go into any construction areas whatsoever. Um we monitor those areas during class changes. We have adults outside of the old auditorium, outside of the old cafeteria where the new classrooms are going to be. Um and we consistently have adults that are outside of the old auditorium on the outside of the building as well that are working there. That's our number one priority. >> Thank you. >> All right. Yes, sir. >> Anything else?

060>> I think we're good. >> All right. Next on my agenda, safety drills. Well, all the schools have completed their allotted fire drills and uh lockdown drills. We did hold and secure drills where um in those drills, we led students on through uh what the expectations are during a real lockdown. We used the Enra app on our phones uh to ensure that those that had the app uh that it um it did what it was supposed to, notified 911, all the SRO, etc. So, we're knock on wood, we're in pretty good shape with all the drills uh at the beginning of the year. Okay. Uh next, uh the Verizon tower update. I did send you all an email with all the questions except for number two. Um Nate had promised me he said that Verizon

061was being very difficult in getting him the answer to number two, but all those other questions that were sent um I sent to you in an email the other day. Um so if you have any questions on that, feel free to to email me back or or let me know. >> And and we're still on for our uh public uh public hearing. Um so the community the community meeting, right? And that is still scheduled for Manellison. Uh we think we looking at this site, we plan on holding it in the cafeteria, the actual meeting in the cafeteria. We'll have screen and chairs and things for people. We'll have computers and to do a survey to give you feedback. Um, we are preparing the communication for parents to go out, I believe, next week and Verizon

062has given us a picture of a balloon test that was done at another site. So, you can kind of see it. It's the red It's a red balloon up in the air. Um, so you can see it. Um, the picture they gave us is kind of small as far as the balloon itself. So, we'll have to do some work magic work there to make it so you can see it well. But we'll have that communication going home to our families uh next week regarding the the the test date. >> Board, any questions on that? >> Yeah, I will say I've seen the balloon test. We did it um where I work and it is small uh but it's just to represent the height and that's you're not trying to see the size of the tower

063but how tall it is. So >> sir, >> all right. Next, uh Mr. Chair, members of the board, you have the uh student suspension report for August. >> Any questions? >> All right. Uh 6 point or I'm sorry 8.03 uh student services update. So, first do you have a memo that was sent on the uh best labs and with all that information in there and if you have any questions on that before we move on to the next one. I believe there were some questions that um were asked that we provided you answers for uh yesterday as well. Some members had some questions on that. >> Any follow-up questions from the board on that? >> I think we're good. >> All right. Next, um there was a memo sent on the mental health grant. Um

064we updated that memo to you today. I don't know if you had a chance to look at that. Give me a couple. >> Yeah. So on that after speaking with some school ad school administrators and getting feedback from them speaking with board members um on some of their concerns we kind of looked at this what in the what is in the parameters of the mental health grant that we can do um to ensure that the parents are strictly involved and it doesn't put a uh undue onus on our building administrators and staff to monitor uh tellaalth services. So we kind of restructured it. So what you should have in board docs I believe was attached to board dodocs written. So in board docs we attached the new uh memo and we'll go through that with

065you now as to what the expectations are and how we plan on rolling this out um so you can kind of understand our our general direction here and what we want to do to provide services to our students. So Dr. Hood >> y so um the memo kind of lays lays it out. We made some changes but I want to kind of back up and and um start from the beginning on on this tellaalth. So, uh, basically we're choosing teleaalth because we're trying to ensure that all the students at, um, Ammeris County Public Schools continue to have, uh, consistent access to highquality mental health supports. The reason for tellaalth is because in May, we were told by the state that this is the direction that that they were moving to and it was mainly for

066rural divisions that didn't have all the supports of the uh, mental health. So um being that we are one of those so the the u monies that were provided to us have to be used for teleaalth okay with um that and again that grant was for 300,000 and about 45,000 of that we can use um for you know for actually people the rest of it is to be used for um for the grant. So um the um again that was in May um and so that was a quick turnaround and we want to provide access to online mental health supports for all ACPS students from home uh meaning that students are uh services are available evenings, weekends, breaks, holidays, etc. We feel that uh at home parents can have a better monitoring of some of

067that. I know some of the board members had some concerns about what the students may or may not hear while they're in the sessions at school. Uh so our goal there would be to uh to change that a little bit and provide those from home. Uh we would however if that was an issue, we we do have some things in um in planning that if the parent could not provide that, we have some some safeguards in there so that we we could provide those at school. I will tell you that um we talked to another school division today and they said that um less than 10% of theirs are are provided you know at the school. Most of them are at home. Um we are in uh we are hoping to talk to another school

068division that actually uses uh the same health provider. I can't mention the health provider by name because we haven't signed the contract yet. So um we're still still working on that. So, um, with the federal funding unchanged, um, Emers County Public Schools has partnership with, uh, two community agencies to provide in-person outpatient. So, we still do have some inperson. Okay. But this would be, uh, another tool where um, parents could could access this at home at nights or weekends. Um, the logistics. So, our plan for implementation is a slow roll out. >> That's for me. Sorry. Keep going. >> Our plan for implement I thought I was the I met my timer. >> You're getting close. >> Our plan for implementation is a slow roll out of telealth services places to emphasize our engaging in

069our for our families. The roll out uh will heavily emphasize the use of telealth services from home outside of the normal school hours. By providing access to virtual telealth services, we ensure families remain central in the process, ensuring parents give consent for services and being key decision makers in supporting what is best for their students. So parents will have access to the online telealth providers and schedule at home telealth sessions with the information provided um by Ammerst County Public Schools allows a parent to remain in control, be involved in the service provided and schedule the sessions that are convenient for them. So those are some of the the big benefits. uh privacy and safety. It's our obviously top concern with the families having the ability to schedule virtual telealth sessions at at a time that's

070convenient for them. Uh they maintain oversight of the process. So students would uh still use their own devices for the sessions outside of the school day. Uh all the telealth mental health care providers are licensed uh Virginia providers experienced with school age children. uh division staff will work uh to analyze the data. And basically the last thing um if you have any questions, while this change is unexpected, we have acted quickly and thoroughly to preserve funding to ensure our students continue to receive critical mental health support. >> Board, any questions, comments? >> Mr. Vice Chair, sorry. Um, underneath implementation safeguards, you said that parents will be encouraged to schedule the teleaalth sessions outside the regular school, but in specific situations, a parent may request for it to be held at school. What are those specific

071situations? >> Could be possibly, you know, their internet at home isn't sufficient. Um, could be a scheduling conflict. We again, um, we don't anticipate many of those, especially to start. But if a parent says we we don't have the ability to do that at home, we don't have internet. We we would still like our child to undergo the services. Can you you know can you help us with that? >> But and part of that also uh the caveat to that too is one the scheduling. Do we have staff available and do we have space available? So the building administrator be working with the parent. If the parent were to say, "I can't do this at home today. Could you or next week or whenever?" If we don't have the staffing available to do that at

072that time, we'd have to work that out with the parent as well. Um, but the main thing would be we our main point of emphasis would be that this would be something outside of school hours and at home. But if a parent were to call us and request that we facilitate it, I would like to be able to work with that parent and find a way to facilitate it if they're asking us to do it in that capacity. So um as Dr. Hoden said, we spoke another school division uh today and they have 13,000 students in their school division. They have they have 26 students that are participating in teleaalth services. So it's not a huge number. If you threw that equation for us, it'd be like six. Um, if you do the do the

073math. So, but we do again our our pro our thought process on this after talking to school building administrators and talking to some of the board members would be making sure the parents are the decision makers in this process and are available and are there. And if the parents do decide to participate, they will they do it at home. But if there's an issue with at home that they need us to become a more of a partner with them to provide a space at school, then you know we try to work with them to do so. >> Has anyone contacted any of our local um health centers, Johnson Health Center, whatever, see if they can partner with us. I mean to me we have the responsibility of academics but I'm seeing that we are going

074to have administrators having to schedule with parents. We're having staff members having to escort students back and forth. Is this something that some of our local um health facilities could help if we provided the room that they came in and did. >> So we had to go through the RFP. We had to go through the RFP process. So we're the the three that we have are the ones that you know through that we've selected through the RFP process. >> Johnson's Health had anybody locally Johnson's health for example could have off you know participated in the RFP process but the ones that participated we had to go with that. Um I'm not saying we haven't reached out but as far as this particular grant it has to be the state is requiring it to be telealth.

075we don't have an option to do to use this grant. Now, if Johnson's wants to come in and work with us to provide additional services, that's fine. But I can't use this grant to pay Johnson's health anything because the state requires it to be tellahalth. We don't have an option to do anything other than tellaalth with this grant. >> Well, I know that it's optional for us as far as our state law goes, >> right? >> But the grant is what ties us to it. >> Correct. So, we have secured a grant prior to any policy even being written. >> We haven't uh we have applied for the grant. We've been told we are eligible to receive the grant. We have not accepted the grant. We have until October 1st to tell the state that

076uh who our teller health contractors are. If we don't have any, if the board does not give me a consensus tonight to move forward with this, then we don't get the grant and we're we don't have any of these, we can't provide these services for our students. But it's $300,000 grant that by October 1st, if the board says, "No, I don't want you doing this," then we don't do it, >> right? >> Um if you want us to do it, we will do it. And Miss Thompson, one thing wrong. I um I support mental health services, >> but I also see a lot of open unknowns here. >> Um how much time is our staff going to be required >> to facilitate this? Um, you know, I do appreciate that it has, you know, parents

077permission and they're involved in that, but I still think that until we know what kind of time limits that we're going to have um, and it says that um, this is a mental health grant. I know up at the beginning it just says that we're going to be doing teleaalth counseling. What's happening to our regular counselors? Our school c our school counselors would do their job. If a if a teacher or a student comes to that school counselor and says I need additional supports, need additional help. A school counselor would get with David Smith who would do the assessment. They would contact parents and then the parents would say this is an op you have an option of doing this if you want and then the parent has the option to allow their students to

078participate at home. I think what we had originally was more of an inschool basis. What we're saying right here tonight is this is at home outside of school hours. The only time it would come into the building would be if a parent cannot be there to facilitate it at home. Then they requested us to do it at school. Then we would try to find a time the building administrator parent would work together to find a time that is mutually beneficial. So it doesn't impact the students as as far as instruction. doesn't pull the administrator away from their duties and and therefore that says let's we we have listened to the board and listened to our building administrators to try to make this something we can still do to provide services for those students but do

079it outside of school where the parent is the one there with the child and not one of our staff because the parent needs to be the one to know what the questions are being asked and what is being stated and if again it's up to them. Um, but we did want to separate it from the school, but also we wanted to have a caveat in there. If that parent calls and says, "I just can't do it at home tonight. Can you do something in the building with my child?" That we would try to work with him to do so. But the whole point is to do it with the parents outside of school hours. >> And I appreciate that. And I think that that parent should be involved outside of school hours. Um, is it

080possible that parents can be involved if they do it during school hours? Yes, there's nothing that says they couldn't, but you know, again, as you said, this is there's a lot of unknowns and this is new and we're working through the process. That's why we want to do more of a slow roll out where it's at home and the parents dealing with it there um versus in the building. Again, we don't know how many students is even going to need to participate. Um but we don't we do want to make sure that if a student if that need is there that we can try to find a way to meet it. Um if you're trying to find mental health support here in our area is very difficult. I mean I know with the family member

081they told me it'd be 6 months they could see somebody and I was like well they might be dead in 6 months and that didn't seem to matter. Um, so we do have issues in our community with that, but this is just one way. I'm not saying this is the right way, the best way, but this is what we're having to deal with right now. And again, this is just one thing that I think that doing it this way with them being at home does take a lot of the pressure off of our building administrators. And that's one thing they said to us on Monday was, you know, there's a lot of questions. And there are a lot of questions, I admit. But this is one way we can incorporate. We can do this while

082still taking the pressure off our schools and but still offer the service to the families that may need it. >> And two things real quick. Remember that it was May 27th when the state decided that this was going to be Tellah Health. So it was kind of like the rug was pulled out a little bit as we prepared for this and then we found out at the almost the 9th hour there was just going to be Tellah Health. It kind of left us, you know, rolling with that. So they decided that and then also I understand because we had our principal meeting and talked to them a little bit about this and we are concerned about overwhelming anyone. That's why we kind of made the change to the at home as Dr. Smith oversees this

083and we think that there's going to be more of a need at the in school. Remember we do have some funds available in this grant that we could hire a person to assist that as well. So we're just that's as Dr. Well said. That's why we're trying to slow roll this out just to see how it comes. But we we do understand some concerns, but we want to make sure we have this tool for parents if it's needed and not to close the door on any student that might need some some extra help. >> So, is there money enough in the grant to provide one person at each of the build buildings to help facilitate this? >> No, ma'am. We have $45,000 that we can use and that's it. And my thought process on that

084if we get to a point where it's more in the building versus outside the building um would be or if we see the need would be to hire someone. We have two options. We can hire one individual who would rotate between the schools. And so if the appointments need to be made county high school, they can make appointments for county high school on the two days that person's there. They could be at the two middle schools the the two day, you know, one day each there and they could rotate through the elementary schools if it if there was a need there. So you could have one person oversight of this who would be rotating around and be the ones making sure things are scheduled making with Dr. Smith and the teleaalth or you could um

085if you had staff members you could do use that money for stipens. I would think I would rather have an indiv have a person if we need a person um as opposed to stipens and I'm still pulling somebody from their other duties of just giving them a stipen to kind of oversee as opposed to hiring uh an individual to do that. But again, I think going the um the way we had it planned laid out tonight was going the family route that we would have time to see, okay, as the families what the use is and if it does become more of an issue, then we could use those funds to hire an individual um to support the program. >> So, Dr. W, I will just say the way it was presented the first time,

086I probably wouldn't have supported it. >> Yeah. Yes, sir. >> Primarily because it seemed as though we were taking on the responsibility and we were leaving the parents out of it and I don't think we ever want to put ourselves in a situation where we're excluding parents. Um they're their kids and they need to be the decision makers and they need to be involved uh in any especially mental health. Uh the second thing is is that it's obvious um that mental health support is needed and is increasing that need is increasing um year after year. Um, and the other thing that I think comes to mind is is that without this grant, if a student went to a school counselor and uh said that I'm thinking about killing myself or needed some type of uh

087mental support, we would be there to support that child. Correct. >> Correct. So, I don't know that it's so much adding to um a counselor or or whoever. It's part of what I think our responsibility is as a school division to support our kids um and especially their mental health. So, I'm I'm glad to see that uh you changed it. Uh so, now it it puts it back to the parents. It gives them their choice. they're involved in the process and certainly if they need uh to come to the schools to use uh the internet uh for that services we can certainly make that available. So >> right >> uh students in crisis regardless whether we have this grant or not a student in crisis we wouldn't call teleahalth and say hey I got student

088in crisis we would go through our threat assessment and if it was a point where the that was deemed necessary they would have to go over to get evaluated at Virginia Baptist or their or another mental health profession. This is a layer on there. >> This is a tier three support for somebody who may have already gone through that initial issue and they just need additional supports to to get through. But it's more of a tier three support for students and in and those needs. >> Right. So, >> um, Mr. Chair, I'm glad you added what you just said because before that it was looking like we was giving up the ship. You see, and and I'm big on mental health now more than ever. Um, and I think everyone is. Uh, and I may

089know this, but I'm just getting myself straight. Who Who are the who's seeing these children now in our system? Counselors or um Dr. Smith? >> Dr. Smith, do you want to speak to that? >> I'm going to be quick. I didn't want to get too drawn up, but Dr. Wells brought up something important. Who is who sees this child right now that's in crisis today in the school system? So when all this was taking place, when we weren't sure what was going to happen with the grant, we went out and got out outpatient providers. Two outpatient providers you talked about in Johnson Health. We have two local providers that come into the schools to support our students. All 10 schools have counselors that can come in and support the students. The only issue with that,

090it has to go through their insurance and there's only certain insuranceances that will cover that. We still have money in the federal grant that we can utilize some for the uh crisis inter >> but under a crisis just to make sure I understand Mr. Lian's question is when a student comes to the office and says I'm going to I'm thinking of killing myself right or I'm going to do bodily harm or threaten or hurt somebody else who are the people how does that go from the student makes that report to them being assessed and so forth who's doing those assessments in our buildings. >> Yes. So we do threat assessments and as a threat assessment team at that point it's determined whether they need to go see to Virginia Baptist or Horizon and so forth.

091We also have set up afterwards a crisis intervention team where they will come and they can meet with with the students from those particular agencies that I was referring to. I'm not going to list the names here today but that's what we have in place. So once they leave, they'll they'll go to that particular agency if that's what the was determined by the threat assessment team and then once they come back, we'll provide those supports that will be in place. >> That that's good information to to add to this situation, you know, cuz at first it's it's kind of a lopsided situation. Not that this isn't real. Um and I think we're all aware that everybody now wants you to go to telly somebody. >> Correct. >> And I'm not sure. And the grant is

092great. So, we're not saying anything negative. We just got to get an understanding because for people listening to this, it's a vague understanding. So, well, what are you doing now? >> Uh, and then you threw the piece in about um insurance. Well, we're not talking about insurance right now in a crisis. >> I understand. >> But I do understand what you were saying. Don't misunderstand. But I just think that this is uh Miss Thompson had asked some questions about I I read it earlier and I was going to ask one or two things, but I saw that the questions that came through were fairly sufficient. But I just think, you know, we just need to be clear. There's two things we're talking about here. But we we we do at this time have a setup

093for situations. Is that right? >> That is 100% correct. >> And you mentioned I don't need to outside people, but we in the school system, we have a crisis assessment. >> We have a threat assessment team. >> Threat assessment. Okay. >> Correct. >> And so where would this come in on that >> as far as this? This could be something that we can utilize with the counselors and so forth if they recommend them to see them afterwards then and the parents agree it's still parents led like we said situation. >> Yes, we can use the tell health at that but it's still parentled and it would still be in the home. >> I got that part but time is of the essence with these sort of things. >> I agree. >> So by the time

094we find out if you have internet at your house or not to deal with this I'm just saying but we do have intervention in the school right away. >> Correct. And we also um will determine that when after they're going if they did have a stay at a hospital setting per se, we would meet with a parent, try to get the releases from the setting that they were in. Discuss with a parent what needs they have at home if they do have that capability at home to be able to provide that service. And then if they didn't, we would make arrangements inside. We also have strategies in place for when that student comes back to be successful moving forward. quite a few pieces. It sound like Well, yeah, it sound like you laid them out,

095but >> you know, it's all good. Thank you for answering those. I just want to get things straight >> just for clarification. So, we're not going to be reducing or limiting anything that we're currently doing. >> Yes, sir. >> I just want to emphasize this is yet another layer, another piece of the mental health support that we're providing as an opportunity for our students. This is an additional layer like when what had happened is I was worried about when this grant was ending. Okay. So that's when I started looking at other entities to be able to help to provide support in case we didn't have this grant. So that's when I started reaching out to different agencies to find outpatient support so they can come into the school and provide that service inside the school.

096This is just an added layer that we currently have as another resource for our parents and for our students. In in the past, the grant was used to to uh pay in-person folks to come into our buildings and now we can't do that. We're still trying to utilize the ways to do it with the federal side of it, but the state side of it, we can't do that. So, we had to go to the tele health route. That's what led us to all this. But >> yeah, >> it's not by our choice. I think it does add a a a situ another element to for the parents to be engaged and involved in the process as opposed to just being coming through the school. They can do it at home and they're more involved in

097the process as well with the tellahalth. >> Yeah. And it can be a family session as well and it doesn't have to with the tele health. It doesn't necess could be for the family as well. So it could be a whole whole situation. It could be beneficial for that whole family that's involved. >> It's ideal though. So you talk about ideal world. >> Oh yeah. Everything's an ideal world, right? >> No, I just I'm not on the negative. I'm just saying that sounds really great. We all sit down to read a bunch. Let's have dinner and look at telly health about your mental health. Uh one in five wouldn't do that. Maybe one and two. So, as long as you have already clarified that we have a system in in place uh to continuously facilitate

098mental health for our our children, then I'm good. >> Yes, ma'am. That's the most important thing we need to have in place, and we do have that. board. Any other questions, comments, thoughts? Uh, Dr. Wells, do you need a consensus from us tonight? >> I need a consensus and I I know it's, you know, we've discussed this a while, but I just need a consensus. I didn't want to I didn't want to sign any contracts of any providers um before getting the the feeling of the board. So, I just wanted to get a consensus from the board. >> Dr. else. >> Sir, >> I appreciate you you took in consideration the board and we've had these conversations about tella health and I think you've come up with probably the best solution for what for where

099we're at. I'm not saying it's perfect. >> I I do believe it's it's a better solution than uh just going in this blindly and allowing teleaalth to do what tellalth does. Um, keeping the parents engaged, I think, is going to be critical to that because there may be references or things that the parents will see and to help our students. And I appreciate that. I appreciate that very much. And it was a concern of mine also. And how long will the grant be effective for? Is that a calendar year? Is this something we're going to have to apply for every year? you can just >> grant is it's an annual grant. Um, and it actually runs from there's two pieces to the grant. There's a state grant and the federal component. The state grant runs

100July 1st to June 31st, whereas the federal component runs October 1st to September 30th. >> Okay. >> So each is one year. >> Gotcha. Thank you. Right, Saunders. I'm good with it. >> Thompson, >> Not as written. Miss Ligan, >> I've asked all my questions, got good answers, but just for my for just note that I would like it monitored closely by whoever that is working, but I don't want to turn down grant money and um and I don't want to lose the opportunity for parents to chime in on helping their children. probably one of the prime reasons that I'll support it. As long as we get an update on it as time goes on, >> we can do quarterly updates. That work >> on this on this. Yeah. >> Yes. >> Dr. W, I

101think you have your answer. >> Okay. Thank you. >> I need to finance. >> Good evening, Mr. Chair, members of the board. Um before you tonight are your August financial and attendance reports. As stated um previously this evening, the enrollment numbers are up from what our budget was built on. Our budget was based off of an ADM of 3,615. And as you can see in the August enrollment report, it is showing 3649, which is up 34 students. Um this is definitely a better place um this year than we were last year cuz last year at this time we were I was reporting that we were down 21 from where we were with our budget. So definitely is an improvement. Um we'll just keep watching those numbers. Um it is early in the year from the

102other reports. There's no area of concerns and it's just something we're going to keep monitoring. But I'll take any questions you may have on the finance reports. >> Board any questions? I do have a question. Um, I'm assuming we do like many school divisions, we purchase a lot of stuff from Amazon. >> That'd be correct. >> And do we have an approval process when staff members put in an order for Amazon? Does that go through an approval process or do they from the school level? They have the bookkeeper and the principal will have the purchase order process that they have to do before they place the order. for at the division level all the purchases go through the finance office um and that is goes also through a purchase order process and the person does

103not place the order until they have the approved purchase order and then the requesttor sends the links um to the finance department as well. So, so for those then I guess you kind of are the approver for that then. >> Yes. >> Then the principles are the approver for the purchases at the schools. >> That would be correct. >> And do we ever um review any of those purchases over time just looking at like what we're buying from Amazon because >> Oh, we look at everything. >> Perfect. Thank you. >> Yes, sir. So, this evening I have another item. It is 9.02 02 and that is the proposed budget calendar. Um it is uh very similar to last year. We wanted to present it to you um similar in the format that there's a public

104hearing before and after the superintendent pro um presents the budget proposal. Um the one thing on this proposal is that there are the from the county side there are some dates that have not been determined yet. So, we didn't want to hold this up because the beginning part of this calendar is is primarily our work schedule. Um, but we can update that once the county has their budget pro um calendar in place. >> Do you have any questions? >> Board. Any questions on the calendar? Any thoughts? >> Seems like you're good, ma'am. >> Thank you. Okay, we are at 10 information items from human resources. >> All right, Mr. Vice Chair, members of the board, um the first item we have for HR this evening is the vacancy memo for the month. And I'm happy

105to take any questions you may have regarding that memo. >> Board, any questions on the vacancy memo? >> You're good, sir. >> Thank you. And I'll turn it over to Dr. Rose. >> Okay. >> Good evening, Mr. Chair and board members. Just wanted to spotlight two events that we have happening in the month of September for our employees. We are spotlighting wellness this month. On Monday, we're going to have an employee popup event at Amoris Middle School where we'll have blood pressure checks, hearing screenings, and vision screenings. Also, a couple of get giveaways and healthy snacks. So, we're really pushing and promoting that and hoping that we can do some more of those on teacher work days when they have the option to drop just drop in whenever they're available. Um the second activity this

106month is the run and walk the Virginia 10 mileer, Virginia four mileer and the Virginia four mile walk that's going to be held um at EC Glass on September 27th. We open registration to any full-time or part-time employee who wanted to participate and we have representation from every school in the division. So far I think we're up to 35 registrants and I see some other names on the list. Hope to see you there. Whether you're walking, cheering on the sidelines, or actually running. I don't know. I know what I will be doing. Slow walk. >> But we are really trying to promote wellness and trying to engage our activities and put things out there for our staff from multiple interests to try to peak their wellness and let them know it's important to us. >>

107I'm tired just thinking about all that. >> Wait more to come. >> Thank you. >> All right, Dr. Wells is back, so I'll turn it over to him for superintendent matters. >> All right. Thank you, Dr. Hood. Members of the board, Mr. Chair, members of the board, I just want to go through a few things with you. Um, we had a community tailgate on September 5th, which was last Friday. We had over 300 um people stopped by. We lost count, but we know it was over 300 cuz that many hamburgers were missing. So, uh, we know we had over three. Um, I want to thank you who were able to attend uh, and stop by and appreciate y'all taking the time. We do have two staff tailgates coming up. That'll be September 26th and October

10817th. We'll send you reminders as we get closer, but the se 26th and 17th uh will be our uh staff tailgates and that's open to anyone. We used to do it where we separated middle school, elementary, and secondary. I just told them if you can get to one of them, get to it and enjoy it. Get to both of them, get to both of them. I mean, just come out and try to have some social time together outside of that school environment where you can just uh let your hair down a little bit and relax. Um, show up day will be September 26 and again that's for attendance that works towards our attendance as our show up day. A lot of schools will be doing activities. Some are going to do it. Um I think

109Ammeris Middle's actually doing theirs on the 30th, but the division level one is the 26th and we'll give you dates uh as if anybody's doing something different and times are doing stuff at their building on that. Um but again, we we're working towards that September 30th ADM and making sure kids come to school. The Lions Club is going to hold a wellness fair at the high school. They'll be using a new uh dining area and down the hallway there towards the gym um for that event. That's September 20th. This is the third year, the third year for their wellness fair. Um and it's just to get families out. They have a lot of community uh partners that come in with them and are there for that. And so just to get again provide a s

110a service to the community that they we partner with them on that. Um constitution day is September 17th and our schools be holding events and somewhere I had a list of all those events. I don't know where it went. Dr. Crawford, what's the high school doing while I'm trying to find >> We've got a few different events planned. Um >> come on up here. We've got a few different events planned at the high school. Um, every single year for Constitution Day, at least uh the last three years that I've been at the high school, um, our US history and government classes have really taken the reigns um, and developed some activities. They've had some fun projectbased activities for their students leading up to Constitution Day. They even had um a year where students got to

111make their own constitutions for their classrooms and then they had their classmates vote on those in the cafeteria which was really neat. Um we've got announcements that we make in the morning and then obviously we signed the the declaration in that morning. >> And Mr. Jordan's going to be wearing a Constitution shirt with hat and wig. >> Yeah. So if you want to come by and get a laugh, that will be excellent. And uh last year everybody asked him who he was with his wig and he kept saying James Madison. If you know anything about James Madison, he was a very tiny man and Mr. Jordan is not. Ammeris Middle School. The SCA is going to be doing some events there creating a video for teachers to show during the Cougar Connections. Um Ammerst Elementary,

112they have the student pledge printed out on a banner. Each student and staff will take the time to sign the school constitution. Additionally, they're going to make a reference during morning announcements and grade levels have their activities. Uh at Elen, they're going to sign um the Elen Constitution with students and constitution trivia all week for morning announcements and various planned activities and and so forth. So, we have stuff going on at every school. That was a couple more on the back. Thank you, Miss McNary. And Math and Heights. The school recognized Constitution Day through morning announcements and by providing opportunities throughout the day, share information with the students and temperance will have their annual fifth grade signing the constitution document. So most of our schools, all of our schools are doing something along that day,

113but this is just a few examples of what's going on for Constitution Day and that is next week. If you would like to go um to any of the schools, feel free. Just let me know. Um if I can join you, I will. And um but if you want to go to schools, let me know and I'll make sure the principal knows you're coming and we can work that out. Um the VSBA annual convention is November 19th through the 21st. We made reservations for all of you. If you do not want to go or you cannot go, please let Miss McNary know so we can cancel those room reservations and and make other arrangements. So um if you're going, great. We'd love to have you come. Um, but if you can't, I realize that. Um,

114just let Britney know so we can cancel the reservations. Um, we do have two of our staff members, Mr. Neighbor, doc, Mr. Neighbors and Dr. Smith will be presenting at Dr. Rose, excuse me, at the event this year. Um, sorry, Wanda, at the event this year. So, they'll be there presenting as well. Um, so if you if you can make it, make it. Um, if you can't, that's fine. Just let us know. Dr. >> Dr. Wells, what will they be presenting on? the Amherst Leadership Academy. >> Okay, >> it's just good to know that. So, great work on YouTube for that. So, >> October 23rd, we have the budget scheduled budget priorities meeting with the board. It's from 10 to 11, 10 to 1, excuse me. Um, on the 23rd of October and so that's

115scheduled to be here. Um, so that's just going over, like we said last year, what are your priorities before we go into budget season to make sure that um, we're prioritizing what you're prioritizing in the budget. So, October 23rd from 10 to 1:00 and that'll be here at the school administration building. Um, finally, delegate Tim Griffin will has asked to tour Ammeris County High School on September 23rd. We know what's going to be in the morning, but his staff has not given us an exact time that he will be there. I will let you know as soon as we know, but he wants to see the addition as well as the uh CTE aspects of the building. So, we've told him we'd be glad to have him stop by and show him around the building

116and the facility. So, I just don't know the exact time yet. Um, once we get the time, we will let you know, but we know it's going to be September 23rd. And then at your place, um, you have some badges. >> You look official now. So, um, you have schoolboard badges. They are, they don't open the doors. You still have to buzz in, but you do have a badge. Okay. Um, so that and we're also by next board meeting, you should have a Ammeris County School Board polo shirt you can wear. So, if you go to events and things like that, you can wear that. um or you can wear it to meetings, whatever. But it's we have it have just Ammerst County School Board uh and a nice uh polo, but that'll be coming

117to it's not they didn't come in yet, so they'll be next month. Okay. Any questions for me? Any questions, comments? All righty. So, we'll move on to 12.1 and 13.01 together. And we'll start with Mrs. Saunders. >> All right. Um, first it was a great turnout. Thank you Dr. Hoden and Dr. Wells for cooking and Mr. Ro and >> they wouldn't let me cook. >> I'm glad his hamburgers were better and that's >> I can't I tell you I had a hot dog so I don't know but thank you. It was very it was very nice. Um lots of people and everyone had a positive response. So good job. Um I want to say a big thank you to transportation. I had a um I say a little friend, she she's now older, but I

118knew her when she was younger and she has a kindergartener in our school and she was getting off the bus and she told her mom, she goes, "Gosh, what a big responsibility these bus drivers have." And it's not until you have one of your kids on a bus do you really realize that. So, thank you transportation. That is a big responsibility. Um, thank you all for streamlining today. that it's worked out well, I think. And I appreciate that. You know, like a short meeting. So, thanks. That's all I have. >> Yeah, I enjoyed the uh the tailgate party. It was We had a few last year, but this one, I think, was the biggest one we've had by far. It was just incredible to see everybody out and enjoying themselves and eating some Okay. hamburgers

119and hot dogs. No, actually they need more hamburgers. >> Well, the count might be off because I did eat two, so count might be off a little bit, but it it was it was a pretty good game. A pretty good uh game, too. Uh we did not do as well as I wished, but the kids are out there. They're doing their thing, and I think everybody enjoyed their time there. It was it was nice to have the first home game, and we got more to come. So, I hope a lot more people come out for for those games and you know some of the kids I did walk around in the school before the game and you know the kids are so excited about that new space. It's like everybody just it's the hangout now.

120Am I right, Joey? It's It's where we want to be. And And I'm sure they're excited about the new classrooms, the new nursing classes, and cosmetology. It It's exciting to be a part of all that, you know, and it's been a long week for me personally. I think uh, you know, I just want everybody here to know that, you know, you matter. You make a difference. And I appreciate all the hard work that everybody does because what you do matters and and I know I I kind of brought Gary out a little bit, but he's been on my mind lately and I see him a lot. A lot. Like I don't know. I wonder if his wife sees him as much as I do. [Music] >> He's usually >> Yes. Abs. Matter of fact, Gary,

121I think we ended conversation just before the game started as you were headed over to Yes, that's what you said. And you're headed over to to the fair. And um yeah, I just want everybody to know I appreciate what you do and I I know the community does and your support for the board and the things you do going through tella health. It it's important for everybody to understand that it's not just one person making a difference. It's everybody. And we're here for our children. We're here for our community. and I appreciate the opportunity to sit here and be a part of this board and I want to thank everybody and that's all I have. >> Um well, we did have our STEM meeting this um this week. Um CBC and STEM both held um

122theirformational meetings allowing students to get together and know each other and learn the campus. So, they had a good turnout to that. Um all of our slots are filled with four seniors and four juniors. Um there's a slight cost increase just because salaries are going up um based on um budgets from this past year. Um they do internships where the students always go out and work with businesses and we have two new ones this year. I trying to remember the names but I'm going to do that next week. Um, but we have a good number of internship businesses, but we've had two added to that. Um, and they're going to hopefully get two more this year. That's their goal. Um, and the internships, um, the students really enjoy them. They build, um, good relationships with

123the businesses. And we were informed that a lot of the businesses do tend to hire some of our students from STEM for their business upon graduation. and that quite often the businesses will pay for credentiing or for further education for those students. So, it's a great opportunity for them. Um they're getting ready to do student interviews um you know so that students can just have practice, bring their resume, you know, answer questions and they always get very very nervous, but they're looking for volunteers um which um will be later this month. So, if you're interested, let me know and we'll get your name on there. Um so we had a very good meeting for that. Um I would like to encourage um people in the community near Menllison as well as um parents that have

124children there, anybody who's interested um about the cell tower on September 25th, I think is at 6:00. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Um so we as a board just want to hear from you um and be able to get your questions answered. Um, so that's a good opportunity and I just want to express that I do support mental health and I know that it is a very um needed support. I appreciate the tier three supports um and the efforts that have been made. Um I I just would like to see it tightened up just a little bit for me personally because I'm concerned about staffing and the stress on them. So, um I hope that no one takes that wrong. I'm just wishing that we could tighten that up a little bit and watch out for

125our staff. Um so, other than that, um I think I'm done and thank you for a good start to this school year. >> Thank you, >> Sen. >> Well, um I I think I'll start by what Miss Thompson said. It's been a great start to the school year. I've heard some very positive things going on. Kids are enjoying themselves. And back to transportation. I mean, we are so blessed here in Amherst County cuz not everyone has a bus that picks you up, brings you home and safely at that. So, every time I see them and uh you can tell Waynecock that I don't go by them anymore. I know to stop there on 29. So, kind of. But I just respect the drivers and what the great job they're doing. We had a Laurel board

126meeting last week. Everything is well at Laurel. We have four students there from Amherst. Um Dr. Lewis is doing an awesome job. We have lots of new board members uh from Appamatics County and from Campbell County and so we're all getting um familiar with one another and doing the work that the Lord needs for us to do. But things are well there and uh we're just excited about everything. They have a new bus that we talked about last year so they can take some field trips and uh just just good things going on. I had a good time at the tailgate and you all are right. It was great great turnout. So, I had a good time. And also that night, I think a lot of you knew that the uh class of 1975 from

127Amherst celebrated their 50 years. And we knew a few friends there as well. So, um that was a good thing. Um I'm hoping to get out to some back to school nights if they don't interfere with my job, but I don't think they will. But we look forward to going and seeing what the little people are doing around the neighborhood. I think Amalons was cancelled because of the weather last week. Someone said it was kind of bad out there. Um, and so we'll look forward to that. I do have a few little people there. Uh, I did go to hear Senator Warner a couple weeks ago as he came to Randolph College talking about education. Um, I was on on the end of the higher ed at that day because of what I do for

128a living and things are well because we're affiliated with CBCC. It's just good to let you know that our enrollment is way up and a lot of that is some Amos County students. I just want you to know that the CTEs, the early colleges, the dual enrollments, uh that plays a big part in the community college here in our area. So, we are excited about that. Dr. Caps are excited. Um I'm going to be watching I think when is bullying month? Is that next? Is that October? >> October. >> Um and when I say watching, you know, this as I close just some serious things going on. That's why I was hitting that mental health story a little bit, not to be over the top, but um you don't have to be far from the

129TV to hear news that concerns you about um mental health. And sometime if I dig back uh far enough, uh it started in school. Uh I didn't say every case and I'm not an investigator, but you might hear a story of a child or or adult who was a child that was bullied in school. And so these things carry over to tragedies and I pay close attention to that. That's why I said whatever we can do to deescalate first of all deescalate bullying if we can and then deescalate any mental health issues going past that for our community and for our nation and that's just a priority I'm looking at right now in my life that there's just so much going on and uh the job that I do I see it from both sides.

130So I'm excited what we already doing and just want to keep that up. But in the month of October, whatever the schools are doing and and I get into that right now to promote not having bullying by anybody. You're going to have people been picking on people for 100 years. I used to call it picking on but sometime we see a different level now. And we just want our teachers another responsibility added to their plate is just to be mindful of these children and try to head these sort of things off just for the good of the community. But other than that, we're looking forward to some more good football and uh more good tailgating. So that's all. And BSBA speaks for itself. Continue to read all your information that comes in daily. Uh and

131they're breast of a lot of things that are going on. That's it. >> Thank you. Well, I I want to reiterate what's been said about transportation. um those drivers and the whole department, they work very hard um you know to get our kids here uh safely and to get them home uh safely and and they have to deal with a lot of uh surprises uh you know throughout the day and um again they they the first person we see and the last person the kids see and uh so they have a huge impact on our kids and I'm very thankful for the drivers we have uh and we want to keep every one of them and uh we need some more of active labor. >> Exactly. Um and I do want to say it's nice

132to see um Miss Sales, Mr. C. I'm looking forward to um you our student reps and uh hearing them grow uh throughout the year and hearing all the wonderful events they're going to bring to us uh this year. And um and I just I want to say a quick thank you to the board. um you guys as board members, you're not uh really thanked for the the job that you do and um you know, this is my second year on the board and I never really gave it a lot of thought uh as well. And now that I've seen what what it takes to go through the board, I'm appreciative for every one of you and the time and effort that has to go into what we do as board members. Um there's a lot

133behind the scenes and reading uh as you know things are being sent to us from the administration. So uh thank you guys uh for that and thank you for working with us as we're trying to redo uh some of the processes and uh shorten our meetings so they're more focused on what it is we really need to be doing as a board and I appreciate your your patience and as we're working through that. So um and I'm hoping to get to some of these uh events. I unfortunately I wasn't able to make the the last tailgate. I had other uh obligations, but I will be at the next one and I'm looking forward uh to that. All right. So, that brings us to uh 1401. Uh for uh anyone that would like to come speak,

134just remember you have uh three minutes. Come on up. State your name and your address for us, please. Good evening. Sam Soer, District 2 Dad. Today is September 11th. This is a solemn day in our nation's history, and I feel the heaviness today. I want to take a moment. Thank y'all. Thank you all very much for everything. I heard Tim Griffin is coming to the high school. That's an interesting surprise. And I feel I must let you all know that I'm going to be on the ballot running against Tim Griffin this year. Election day is November 4th. There's an excellent article that Justin Fogurn just wrote in uh today's New Era Progress, our county's newspaper, and you could read about uh what we have to say. I think there's some really nice things I say

135in there. I'd love for you to at least consider my words. And then on behalf of the town of Amoris, I wanted to promote the town's Halloween event October 24th, 6 to9 p.m. They the town wants everyone to come out. They're inviting community members, churches, nonprofits, the business storefronts. Everyone can come set up their own candy table. Uh they're going to be closing off the main street from Star Street to Second Street. Even East Court Street and Goodwin Street might also be closed off. So, it's going to be an awesome event. I really encourage you all to get this out to your networks. These Town of Ammeris events are super fun for our community and I know it'll be an awesome time to celebrate with everyone. All right. Peace and love. Thank you all. >>

136Thank you. Anyone else? All right. Seeing there's no one else, we'll move on. So, next thing on the agenda is uh closed session. >> Yes, sir. Uh Mr. Chair, pursuant to section 2.2-3711A1 of the Code of Virginia. It is recommended the board convened meeting for the following A1 personnel matters. >> Make a motion we go into close session. motion >> and a second. All in favor? >> I