001[Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat up [Music] here. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat [Music] up Heat up [Music] here. [Music] Heat. [Applause] Heat. [Music] Heat up [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat up [Music] here. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat up [Music] Heat. [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat up here. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat up [Music] here. [Music] Heat up here. [Music] Heat Heat up [Music] here. [Music] Heat Heat up [Music] here. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat [Music] up here. [Music] Heat. Heat.
002[Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat up [Music] here. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat up [Music] here. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat [Music] up [Music] Heat up here. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Applause] [Music] Heat [Music] up [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat up [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Yeah, that's I'd like to welcome everybody to the May Ammeris County School Board meeting. We have a very full house tonight. Is there people still trying to make their way in? Okay. Okay. Dr. Wells, you want to start something? Yeah. First, thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh, for all of our guests here
003tonight, we have several recognitions and there are a lot of folks waiting to get in. Um, so I would ask that if you want to stay for the meeting, you can. However, if once we recognize your children or your students, uh, if you are so inclined to leave, that's fine. But if you want to stay, we'll find more seats. But just try to cycle out when we have those rec recognitions. And again, if you want to stay, we'll be glad to, uh, find room for you. Great. Thank you very much. So, if we could all stand for a moment of silence and pledge allegiance, please. I pledge algiance 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
004all. Okay board, we have a we have an agenda in front of us. You have a motion. I make a motion we approve the agenda for this evening. I second it. All in favor? I Okay, Dr. Wells. All right. So, we'll start with our recognition. So, our first recognition tonight, I'm going to come over here. [Applause] We have go all the way up there. I'm kind of tall. So, uh, we have several recognitions tonight. The first is our schoolboard reps. Each year, um, we have two two seniors from County High School who serve as schoolboard representatives. And tonight, we are recognizing Danasia Brown and Will Carver for their time on the board. This year we have a uh certificate for them as well as a a plaque so to speak and I want to present
005that to them at this time. So will we want to thank just so everybody knows what say what it says says in recognition of your exceptional dedication and in invaluable service as a student representative on the Ammeris County School Board Ammeris County School Board student representatives 24 2024 Again, I just want to thank them for taking time out of their schedules every month to be here. They're very active in school and I know there's a lot they have to move move schedules around, things like that to get us to get here. So, we want to thank them for that. And I don't know if Mr. Chair, if you want to say anything, would a picture with them real quick or not? Picture. Okay. One, two, three. They have some words they're going to share when
006it's their turn to speak tonight as part of their All right. Next, we have our students of the month for the month of April. So when I call your name, please come forward and then I'll say a few words about each individual student as they come up. Would Gideon Thomas Ammerst County High School here just a few things uh straight A's throughout the year heavily involved in athletics and football. He also was the lead as Nathan Detroit in the musical Guys and Dolls. So and he's also plans on going to the Marine Corps when he graduates. Awesome. [Applause] Um, so the high school also has Noah Goff who missed the February one because of all the sickness and weather. So if he's here, he can come forward. [Music] Noah stay here the whole time. Aren't
007you lucky? Uh so Noah is a senior at Ammeris County High School and is an works in the office as an intern and works hard to make life easier for the office staff and the school in general. Uh one of his teachers, Mr. Atlas, stated that he's always cheerful and a pos and is positive in class and is always willing to help others and they just want to thank you for all you've done. So thank you. Robert Edcock Ae. Okay, we move on. Grayson Clark, Ammeris Middle School. Natalyia Haley, Manellison Middle School. Congratulations, Natalia. Um, she was as she was nominated because of her strong work ethic and she goes above and beyond her studies and actively participates in class. She has a positive attitude and is always willing to help others and she creates
008a positive and supportive environment for her peers. So, thank you. Remington Simmons Amalon Remington, come on [Applause] up. Going over Remington was student of the month because he consistently shows kindness to others, helps everyone around him, and always puts forth his best effort. And he embodies what it means to be respectful, responsible, and safe as a true Amalon Bulldog. Congratulations, Elijah Sogore, Ammerst Elementary School. [Applause] Elijah is a fourth grader at AES and he's selected because he always does his best. He's kind to everyone and shows what it means to be focused, accountable, and respectful every single day. He has a positive attitude and helps make the classroom a better place. Congratulations. Ammeris Elementary also had one from February who couldn't be here and that is Liam Burks. Liam. And Liam was the student of
009the month because he shows compassion to his classmates, is respectful to his teachers, and follows school and classroom rules. He is kind, witty, and overall a great kid to be around every day. Ashton Desper, CES. [Applause] Ashlin is a great student who goes above and beyond to help others in class, uses her manners, and completes tasks with a teacher, and is a great friend to all. She is kind, considerate, and and has great attendance. She's a true Wildcat. Congratulations, Elena Smith, Elen Elementary. [Applause] Elena was selected because she works hard in and out the classroom. She is a wonderful mentor to younger students, especially the kindergarteners. She is one of our eagle ambassadors and is always accountable and respectful. So, Soro and Alina, congratulations. Jaylen Cook, Madison Heights. Jayla was nominated because it is possible
010an example of kindness and compassion. Her warm heart and positive attitude brightens everyone brightens everyone's day and she approaches each task with determination and a smile. She puts her very best effort and inspires her classmates to do the same. She is caring and that makes and she's wonderful to her friends and peers and her genuine enthusiasm for learning is contagious. Congratulations Jaylen and Major Thompson Temperance Elementary [Applause] School, second grade of Tempest Elementary School. And he is selected because everyone who has a pleasure of knowing him here has experienced how he brings a smile to their faces. He has a wealth of random knowledge. He is so inquisitive and smart. He's truly a great friend and overall good person. Congratulations. All right, let's squeeze together. Congratulations. [Applause] Thanks. Congratulations. [Applause] So parents, what we do,
011we'll have a a certificate for you plus the photograph. will get it to the school and they can contact you as how to pick this up once we get everything all the photos de developed. So not developed anymore I guess copied dating printed. Yeah, I know I'm getting you know you know I'm old. All right, staff of the month. So from Ammeris County High School, Wendy Self. And for those of you who don't know, we have a pretty big construction project going on at the high school. Um, and we had to switch the cafeteria around. Matter of fact, the cafeteria no longer exists. Um, where they serve food no longer exists. So I had to move all the food service lines over to the old gym. So the students get their food from the old
012gym. But they were able to turn this around about two and a half days. So, thank you for the work y'all did there to make that happen because the kids wouldn't get their food if you hadn't taken taken that initiative. So, thank you. Rebecca Peters, AEC. Okay. Tammy Sprouse, Ammeris Middle School. Congratulations. So Tammy was nominated. Um she's this in school suspension coordinator and she's on because of her great attitude and is always willing to help in any way needed. She helps students reflect on why they are in in school suspension and holds them accountable for their actions there. We're so glad she's part of the AMS team and congratulations. So thank you Elizabeth Rose, Manellison Middle School. Okay. Matt Hayward, Amalon. [Applause] Matt has been a valuable addition to the Amalon staff this year.
013He consistently maintains a positive attitude and is always willing to step in whenever he is needed. Despite despite managing a large case load, he takes on significant responsibility with dedication and he has p built strong relationships with students, parents, and colleagues alike. Congratulations Kathy Waller, Ammeris Elementary School. Okay, move on. Kelly Humphrey, Central Elementary School. Not here. Caitlyn Thomas Elen. Okay. Melody Herman. Madison Heights. Man, teachers are playing hookies tonight. Albert Canada. Temperance. And Italia Cecil School administration. She's not here either. So it's us. Miss Thompson, could you speak just perfect? Thank you, ma'am. All right. One, two, three. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. We got certificates. All right. Next, we're going to recognize our our teachers with 25 years experience in Amoris County Public Schools. Some of these have more experience in other divisions,
014but they've been in school teaching here for 25 years just in Ammeris County. So, we'll start. I think these are now put order. Britney, Kelly Arrington. [Applause] Lisa [Applause] bet Oliver [Applause] Canada Melissa Carter [Applause] your official. Congratulations, Jonathan [Applause] Collins, Jennifer Fielder, [Applause] Tammy [Applause] Gelot, Regina Green, [Applause] Mary [Applause] Hughes, Kathy [Applause] Lindsay, Wendy Sale, [Applause] Christine [Applause] Spicer, Janice Tomlin [Applause] and Bruce Turner. So, I want to say a couple words. I want to take a picture and y'all have have the rest of your evening. But I do want to, you know, 25 years in one job in one place and one division says a lot. I mean, I appreciate the time and effort y'all put into being us with us here at Ammeris County Public Schools. And I've had the pleasure
015of working with some of y'all directly and many of you in this current capacity and as superintendent, but I do thank you for that. It it's been put 25 years in one place says a lot. It says about a lot about you and it says a lot about what we do here in Ammeris County Public School. So, thank you very much. Appreciate your service to the county. So, thank you. See, Right. Okay. Next, we're going to recognize our real world design challenge students. A little bit about this. This is um it's a state competition. It goes on to national. Um our students have won the state the past three years. Um so they're the state champions three years in a row. You don't hear about and in sports that would be something you'd be saying,
016my gosh, three year state champions, right? You be all over the place. It's not thought of as much, but but it is a great achievement. And so we want to recognize them. However, a sad news on this front is we found out recently that the national organization that helped sponsor this has opted to stop the funding of the program. So, we will be the last state champions of this unless it gets funded again. So, we do want to congratulate them on all they've done. I'll turn over to Mr. Dr. Crawford and he can share some information. Absolutely. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. It is my pleasure to come here to explain a little bit of the background of the team, what what the event is, and uh to bring up our students
017for what they did. Um so, Miss Betty Stinson is the sponsor that sponsors this program, and she's done this for several years now. Uh as Dr. Wells stated, she's won multiple state championships, which doesn't happen very often in sports or in other activities and things like that. So, this is an incredibly important feat that they've accomplished over the last few years. So the name of the team this year was women in STEM Excel wise. And so I'm going to read a little bit about the background. In recent times, the issue of wildfires has been plaguing the United States as well as other nations. These wildfires have been destroying numerous natural habitats and forests, most notably on the West Coast, particularly in places like California. The cost of fighting these wildfires has been detrimental and agencies
018across the nation have been attempting to both effectively fight the wildfires and do so in a costeffective manner. To achieve this, new technologies have been used to combat these wildfires. The goal of this challenge was to design a UAS, an uncrrewed aircraft system that would effectively deliver supplies to those fighting fires quickly and efficiently. The team was tasked with creating and developing a drone that could deliver 70 L of water, 25 L of gasoline, and four plastic containers, all within 6 hours. Given this task, Wise designed the UAS titled Bunson, which was specifically created to cost effectively deliver these materials quickly and accurately. I'm going to call the students up now and just give you a little bit of background about each one. and the team leader Phoebe Camp. Fun fact about Phoebe Camp is
019that she was the only remaining member of the 2024 Real World Design Challenge team. So, we won three straight state championships and Phoebe was the only one from last year that returned. So, that speaks volumes to everybody, but most importantly to your leadership and Miss Stenson's leadership. So, great job, Phoebe. Next up, we have Audrey Collins. Audrey is the math the mathematician. She's dual enrolled uh senior at Ammerst County High School, Central Virginia Governor School, and attends Central Virginia Community College. In her free time, she loves being a barista at her local cafe. Audrey adores physics and hopes to attend the University of Tennessee to pursue a degree in nuclear engineering. Next, we have Ellie Armstrong. Ellie is one of our engineers. She's an Ammeris County High School senior in the STEM Academy at Central
020Virginia Community College. She's worked with a lot of 3D printing, coding, and mechatronics. She hopes to further her education at Virginia Tech for the engineering program. Briana Chapman. Briana is also one of the engineers and she's also a senior at Ammerst County High School and in the STEM Academy at Central Virginia Community College. She has experience with CAD, Fusion 360, and working as with as well as building VEX box, VEX bots, excuse me. She intends to continue her education at Virginia Tech and earn a degree in biomed engineering. Next is Briana Vgara. Briana is a mathematician. She's a senior at Ammerst County High School and she does well in school and takes advanced classes. She has a Microsoft PowerPoint certification and does well in managing computer applications. Bianna plans to go to an instate school
021to get her elementary education degree. And so I'll put a plug in. Have you heard of Ammerst County Public Schools? Would you like to come back and teach here? That's Briana Vgara. Next we have Shaklo Kajiva. Shaklo was Shaklo is one of the writers. She's a senior at Ammeris County High School and is dual enrolled at CBCC as part of the CTE program taking criminal justice. She has taken many advanced and AP classes at the high school and enjoys writing and research. She hopes to continue her education at George Mason University to pursue a law degree. Next, we have Aaliyah Blair. here. Okay. All right. And then finally, we want to mention that we have a former ACS graduate to be honored here tonight as well. Is Duncan Gordon. Is Duncan here? Yes. Duncan Gordon
022is a former ACS student. He's currently working at Textron. Miss Stenson reached out by email to ask Duncan if he would be a mentor for the Ammerst team. Duncan met with the team to answer questions and responded to questions when he was out of the country via email. Additionally, through the team's mentors, Wise was able to take a field trip to Liberty University School of Aeronautics to further develop an understanding of the drone. So, thank you, Duncan Gordon. Photo. Yeah, you can be in Good job everybody. Thank you. [Applause] Tonight science fair. Let me get my right order here. Science fair. All right. So, next we have science fair. So, these individuals were recognized. We have different levels. We have elementary. We'll do them first, those students first, then we'll do middle school winners and
023honorable mentions. And then we'll do our high school recognitions at the end. So, first we have our elementary students. So, elementary from Elen Elementary School. Griffin Merritt also from Elen Kinley Mazize from Ammeris Elementary. Abram [Applause] Picar from Madison Heights. Dominic Rucker and Alex [Applause] Lopez. Also from Elen Belle Robber Amoris Elementary School, Michaela Napier. [Applause] Temprince Elementary School, Angley Giles. [Applause] Yeah, I did. It's good number seven. I'm sorry. From Amalon, William Grer from Madison Heights, Leila Penny. An honorable mention from Elen was Ryland Tapia and Temperance Amelia Green. Sorry, Ameilia. Congratulations. So, elementary Anyone else want to come? All right. Congratulations. Congratulations. [Applause] There you are. Middle school. Scar Weekes and Olivia Tucker. Ammeris Middle School. Olivia Hughes, Ammeris Middle School. Ard McFatterder and Sophia Hadfield, Manellison Middle School. [Applause] Andrew Nush and
024Logan Breeding, Amoris Middle School. Lala Stennet and Carllin Fitzgerald, Amoris Middle School. Cheyenne Jernigan, Amoris Middle School. Mackenzie Campbell and Maddie White. Ammeris Middle [Applause] School. Amaya Lewis and Gracie Barnes. Manellison Middle School. [Applause] Charlotte Tyrie and Olivia Foster, Manellison Middle School. Lily Tyrie and Kylie Butler, Manellison Middle School. Honorable mentions, Tristan Martin, Amoris Middle School. Renee Tyler, Amoris Middle School. Laya Bryant, Manellison Middle School. Sabrina Belot, Amoris Middle School, and Riley Cam and Elijah Thompson, Manellison Middle School. Congratulations, everyone. One, two, three. Up and down. Up and down. [Applause] Yeah, I love accomplishments. So, I hope not. All right. From the high school, I'm going to kind of read kind of the what they received here. Margo Marseilles, grand alternate is finalist, first place in engineering and engineering technology. Also nominated to represent Ammeris
025County High School, Virginia State Fair, Virginia State Science Fair. Marggo [Applause] Elena Stanley, second place in medicine and health [Applause] sciences. Casey Harvey, second place in Earth and Environmental Science. Phoebe Camp third place in [Applause] chemistry. Congratulations. And Sam Williams and Ruger Young, recipients of the US Air Force Awards. Congratulations. [Applause] Okay. Middle school. Yeah. FCCLA. Is that right? Yeah. So, now we're talk we want to recognize our FCCLA recent winners. Uh folks who went down to Virginia Beach in the state competition. This is state leadership and recognition conference. So, we have Taylor Green, chapter Service Project, third place in a gold medal. [Applause] Izzy Cardy and Corine Gammon. Focus on children. Third place in a gold medal. Congratulations for culinary arts level three. Hazel Hullbrook. Second place silver was a national qualifier. Landry Adams
026and Briana Brown. National Programs and Action. Fourth place, silver medal. [Applause] Jordan Gallier, classic Classic knife cuts, silver [Applause] medal. Leanne Spicer, bacon and pastry bronze [Applause] medal. And we also wanted to recognize some other students that were also a big part of this this team in competition. So, if you're president, please come forward. Devin Morham, Reagan Kaiser, Brienne Thcker, Rachel Bryant, Lillian [Applause] Pickle, Nolan Tess, Sophie Coffee and Robin Jewel. And Miss Addison, do you want to say anything about these young folks here? I know I put you on the spot. You did. That's okay. So, we took 16 students down to Virginia Beach um in April and um they all worked so hard the whole time and we had um eight competitors. We were really proud of how hard they worked and um
027came home with lots of medals and we hope to do it next year. Thank you. That's cool stuff. you something. All right. Next, we have our welding wars, finalists, winners, however you want to call it. Mr. Johnson, you can come on up here in a minute, but I'll start. Um, we have welding level one. We had there are 25 participants in the welding wars and this takes place in central Virginia area and so a lot of our businesses go there and they are impressed with our welders every year and our kids walk out of here getting getting very good paying jobs when they graduate county high school. So we want to thank the work they do but also Mr. J for his work. So welding one of 25 participants we had Jackson Presnell second place
028and River Johnson third place. Congratulations. Welding level two. There were nine participants. We had Meline Thompson first place. Sean Puit second place. Neither one of them are here tonight. Artistic welding. There were 20 entries. Kayla Slusser was first place and I believe she's here this evening. an artistic welding crowd favorite. There were 20 entries and Kayla won that as well. And we have her work on display. I'm gonna ask let Mr. Johnson come up and talk about that for a second so y'all can kind of see what she did because everybody has seen it's been fair I've been extremely impressed. But I think it's it's fairly impressive work. So thank you. Thank you. [Laughter] But she made stainless steel roses and tools. cut everything up by hand for everything by hand and then took a
029piece of aluminum pipe and cut aentric welded it all up and there we go. Awesome. It's not the arrangement she had. I'm sorry. But the work she did was just impressive and it impressed the judges. I mean to win first place in both those categories is is impressive. a lot of uh a lot of entries in there that were that were really nice, but the detail work and working with stainless and aluminum is very difficult at any place before you understand. Yeah. All right. Thank you. Go get [Applause] it. Never go over. Thank you. Think about roses. Roses. Yeah, you have a dust. So, every year um the VSBA Southern Region holds an art competition and we had three students that uh art was uh nominated from the school system. And if you're here this
030evening, please come up and get your certificate. Taylor Massie [Applause] Kennedy Lang. [Applause] Congratulations. And Annabelle Daniel. Congratulations. Good job. One more. One more. Couple more. We got one more. We got one more. [Applause] Have you played the 24 game? Seen it though. I didn't go good. And finally, last but not least, we want to recognize the winner of our math 24 competition this year. And with Knox Wilson come forward if you're here this evening. And he achieved first place in the math 24 elementary competition this year and we want to congratulate him and all he did to get us there. So you ready? Good. Donna, I'll pack my stuff up. See Bye, Tony. cold in here. All righty. Yeah. All righty. Dr. Wells, we'll move on to uh 3.01 public comment. Yes, sir. Currently,
031we have one person signed up to speak. Uh Gloria Wit. Yes. Oh, there you are. Busy night tonight. Yes, ma'am. I saw you in the back popping up every five seconds. Good job. Uh Gloria Wit, 432 Browntown Road, Amherst, Virginia. Um I wanted to uh weigh in on and you've probably already made the decision, but I think I wanted to just kind of share my thoughts about whether or not the school board we should stay or leave the Virginia School Board Association and join the Schoolboard Member Alliance of Virginia. And uh why am I interested in this is because from doing a little bit of research, it appears as though the Virginia School Board Association is a nonpartisan organization that's been around since 1906. And it offers uh training, development, and policy templates to the
032school division and its entirety. And it has relationships with political leaders to make sure you influence the education system, etc. And when I looked up the school board member association, I was shocked to discover that it was established in 2022. It is a conservativeleaning group uh that is focused on eradicating wokeism. Uh and I would argue that uh without wokeism, many of us would not be having a voice in the room, particularly the women on the podium. So, thank God for woke wokeism. Uh, but I digress. So, what does the uh school board member association of Virginia do? Well, it's new, pretty much unproven in terms of its benefits other than offering some training and development for its individual members. So, it's not a collective uh relationship. Each person individually pays kind of like personal
033interest. And I don't understand why we would even consider uh joining an individual membership association when we've been preaching for years that education is a nonpartisan issue. Uh but I digress. From what I could research, there is no policy templates, but this organization does spend a lot of time uh being driven by conservative values. I translate that as indoctrination. And so anyway, I wanted to kind of map out those differences particularly for people that's not in this room. So to finalize based on my understanding of the differences, I hope the board has already decided. I know last week you were in a private session, but my hope is that the board has come out of that meeting uh with the decision to maintain our relationship in Ammeris County with the Virginia School Board Association. Yes,
034it cost $16,000, but it very well could be a false savings to break our relationship uh because now someone's going to have to do this policy template work and legally review it, etc., which could actually drive you into hiring another resource which would distract from the savings. So that would be my hope that you maintain that relationship. Thank you for the opportunity to map it out for the folks that's online. Thank you. Ma'am, thank you. So that's the only person who has signed up tonight. Is anyone from the audience who'd like to approach the board? Okay, step forward. Hey y'all. Hey y'all. Sam Soer, District 2 parent. Y'all, I I would also like to come before you tonight to say please stay in the VSBA. It feels like a throughine that I've been coming to
035these meetings for years now. And I'm honestly like the only parent that comes to meetings every month for years now. No one else could say that. Some parents come here and there and maybe that's worth nothing, but if it's worth anything to y'all, please just stay in the VSBA. We could work this other stuff out. To me, I say the same things over and over again. So, I don't think I necessarily, you all know my points about this. I'll even add in like we should be working for the farmtot stuff. That's as important as anything that the children, you know, that's a great issue for us. You know, uh the apple juice, for instance, uh that the kids drink is made from apples from China. You know what I mean? We have apple orders here
036in Ammeris. Let's make that work, y'all. We should be working real hard for something like that. That's the kids, you know, it's what they're drinking. You know what I mean? Again, these textbooks, I talked about the textbooks last month. Um, I really hope also as as well as staying in VSBA, if you could please get these new reading textbooks. Textbooks are 22 years old, we heard. And so as you could say, what's one more year? No, the textbooks are like falling apart. Like please, we you know, let's just get the new textbooks. It's it's fine. It'll be fine. The textbooks, I assure you, there's nothing like controversial about race in them. You know what I mean? There's no there's nothing indoctrinating like I have this on good authority. Don't worry about what's in the reading
037textbook. Worry about what's in the apple juice. You know what I'm saying? E even once we were treated to an excellent treatise on the dangers of microlastics. I'm just saying like there's validity in a sense. Um thank you Mr. Porter, you know, for that kind of stuff. But the to get out of the VSBA, it feels like the through line is y'all used to talk about this African-American education was going to be mandated as a you know a requirement in Virginia schools and that's where when I started watching these meetings the consternation had started. So please don't worry if you truly believe in diversity. Yeah, let's let's learn about all the stuff. You know what I mean? all the good stuff. That is all very reasonable for especially high school students to be learning about.
038I appreciate y'all for the work you do. Let's go, Lancers. Peace and love. Thank you, sir. Is there anyone else from the audience who'd like to approach the board? Okay, seeing none, we'll move on. Sir, Mr. Chair, next we have 4.01, 01 which is policy. This is a second this is a second read and we present this policy to you last month. Again, majority really all of these were very minimal changes and adjustments based on um typographical things for the most part and some updates with code. Okay. Board, if you had a chance to look at the policies. Okay. Can I get a motion? Mr. Chair. Yes, ma'am. Um, I have a question I'd like to ask before we move forward. Um, it's just about policy GBLA. It's fairly simple. All the rest of them
039I thought were pretty straightforward. Um, GBLA um, third party complaints against employees. I just wanted to um, know that says in the superintendent will establish regulations for processing third-party complaints against employees. And it looks like that's optional. So I was just wondering if that's something that we were going to pursue or is that something we already do? I believe we already have the regulation in place. Yes, ma'am. Okay. So that would stay then. Okay. And then the things that are being struck out after that are just like time um expectancy sort of gives an average amount of time to respond. Um what is your recommendation? Is that something that by taking out that time reference that would cause this to be delayed? I personally I think with the time reference it it would allow staff
040or third party complaints that don't meet that 15 days because they didn't realize it that they wouldn't be heard if they were not within the 15-day window is my understanding that was struck. So I think this just allows people more time to file those complaints. But there's no limitation on that. I have to double check one more time. Miss Thompson, I'm not aware of any limitations. Um, we could place a limitation. Again, we can add a we can add a line ite. Mr. Chair, I guess my recommendation would be to approve the policies tonight and maybe let that one go to the policy committee just to give Dr. Wells and a staff of some time to to talk about that time frame. And you're looking for a statue that you know after a certain amount
041of time they can't appeal. Is that that correct? Right. And and that might be just an attorney question. I don't know. The the the reason the BSBA struck it was we just missionary filled in the notes was that there's no legal requirement for it. So they struck the time frame. We can set a time frame whatever we want. If you want to stay 15 days, we could or we could go to longer. Um, so if you want, I'd be glad to sit down and talk to legal counsel and submit a recommendation. Well, I guess my recommendation be that we approve it tonight and then if we need to follow up on it, we can. Okay, that all right. Y I make a motion that we approve tonight's um policies and GBLA to be looked at
042with superintendent and the attorney later. Okay. Okay. Second. Uh any other discussion board forward on any of the policies? Okay. All in favor? I I Dr. Wells. So next we have 4.02. Consider approval of the secondary English reading textbook recommendation. I know there were some questions last month and we we contacted the state. I finally received an answer this morning from the state. Uh I ordered that to you and also should have a copy of that at your place regarding their response. that to summarize it, there's nothing in that presidential executive order that would impact curriculum, textbooks, or anything along those lines. So there would be no reason to fear that that could cause us if we adopted the books and there was something there that would cause any recourse in that capacity. So okay,
043board, have you had a chance to look at the information? Okay. Can I get a uh a motion? So question Dr. Wells. So the committee is recommending uh HMH. Yes sir. And the three or fiveyear? We were recommended a five. Um the question from the board looking at the financial since there is no issue with the executive order things of that nature. Uh from a financial standpoint you're better off going with the five than the three um just because of the amount of dollars that were associated with if you did the three then you had to go again. It would be cost more for the division to do that. Didn't we did we ask you to contact them to find out if we did the three what it would be if we wanted to extend
044that? We believe we forwarded that information. You did. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So, if we were to do the three, it would be initial um cost of 25506 $62.91. Bid 5 is 355727. Uh the cost per student after the contract will be a 65,895. So um that we have to pay that additional um in there. So let me find the right to enter. Make sure I get this for you. Um so the cost of a digital base will be additional 658.9560 for student access and I'm trying to find the rest. Let me flip it over. Is that per year? Yes sir. That's per year. So it adds thatund 30,000 additional. So it's a $30,000 savings. 30,000 savings if you don't do that. Yes, sir. Mr. Chair. Yes, ma'am. Yes, sir. Um I feel like we should
045go ahead and go with what the administrative team has requested. I know there was some discussion over the three or five year, but I like the idea of saving the money and I think it's if we feel like it's a good enough product for three, then we keep it for the five. So, I make a motion that we uh enter in a contract with their number one pick, HMH intro literature for five years for a total cost of $355,727.14. Okay, we have a motion second and a second. Any other discussion? Okay. Uh, all in favor? I I Okay, Dr. Thank you. Next, we have consent agenda. Mr. Chair, I move for approval of the consent agenda. Okay, we have a motion on the floor. Second. Okay. Any other discussion on the consent agenda? Okay. All
046in favor? I All right. Dr. Wells 6.01. Yeah. I would like to if I can find my piece of paper, Miss Rhodess. I would like to take a moment to introduce uh Miss Rose, Christristen Rhodess. And come on up. So, uh, Kristen, uh, since you did the consent approved the extended night will be the newest school administrator at AEC. And so, uh, she has 23 years of experience both as a teacher and a leader. She has a bachelor of science liberty university, a masters in special education from Old Debian University, and a masters in educational leadership from the University of Lynchburg. She's been a special education teacher in Lynchburg and in uh Bedford County. And she's also been at the Fort Hill Community School in Lynchburg. Served there as the lead teacher. And then she
047is spent the past um what two years at TC Miller? Past two years at TC Miller as a principal at TC Miller Elementary School in Lynburg. So we welcome her to Amoris County Public Schools and welcome aboard. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I'm honored to be here in Ammeris County and I'm look forward to working with Ammeris Education Center with our families and our students and our teachers. So, thank you. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. All right. See the rest. Well, yeah. I guess we will. Mr. Neighbors, you can sit here. I think you make him stand. You can stand. So, you can have the mic. You can hold it. You can spike the mic. So, Mr. Neighbors, again, with your approval tonight, you also have approved him to
048be the chief academic officer County Public Schools. And uh he's been with us long enough that you should know. I'm not going to have to do introductions there, but we'll let Mr. Neighbor say a few words at the podium. [Music] Good evening, board. Just want to express my appreciation of your support this evening. Obviously, I love being here in Ammerst. I'm excited to continue to be a part of team Ammerst. Looking forward to working with each of you on moving us forward with our academic program. But thank you again for your support. I appreciate it. All right. Next we have our student reps. So Mr. Carver and Miss Brown, this is your last official board meeting with us. So you can always come back and visit. This will be your last official meeting. So the
049floor is yours. Good evening. On May 5th, we had our band concert at the high school, which was a great success. On May 6th, the coral concert took place featuring the chorus classes and both show choirs. And last night, we had our CNA graduation, which I was a part of. We received our red cords, a pin, a white rose, and our certificate. On May 8th and 9th, Folly Beach will take place, which is the independent study that some of the theater kids have been working on for a while. A lot of hard work has gone into it, so if you have the time, I recommend you check it out. And on May 19th, the Ammys will take place, which is basically an awards ceremony for all of the actors who have been a part of
050the theater this school year. It is a free event and food will be there, catered by our culinary arts class. And lastly, I just want to say thank you for this opportunity. I've learned a lot this year from being a student representative, from public speaking to getting to know more about my fellow classmates. So, thank you all for all that you do and thank you for the honor of serving as a student representative this year. Thank you. [Applause] And um building off what she said, we've had several successful ceremonies so far um in counting like the CNA she mentioned last night. We've also had Golden A um happen where we got to honor a profound educator and then Golden Tass as well for NHS. Next Wednesday we actually have our senior awards. Um so that'll
051be exciting. I think that might be the last one um before we keep moving. So um this year prom is May 17th themed Nashville. Um so we are enjoying that and I don't know if people follow the theme but maybe they'll wear their cowboy boots to prom. Um, spring sports are fighting for playoffs right now. I know. And we have a bunch of senior nights coming up. I think girls soccer's actually tomorrow. Um, so we're proud of them and their dedication to making Ammerst proud. Um, we it's exam season, so it's really stressful, but um, I know today at least we've had two different AP exams and so testing and all the different things throughout the high school. And so we might have to be quiet walking through the halls, but uh, we can see
052the finish line and that's exciting. Um we have 15 more days until graduation the 23rd. We're excited. Um and with that there's a lot of senior events that are coming up. Um just spending time together before we all part ways to college and whatever comes next. Um so that's going to be uh senior tie-dye shirts. We had um like cinnamon rolls for seniors who have paid their dues. Um just different little things like that that's exciting and uh keep us coming to school because you know how senior itis can get for some of us. So, uh, it's it's it's encouraging to come to school and stuff like that. Um, so I was going to also talk about I didn't know if you guys would be curious with the from the students perspective of how lunch
053has changed um, for us. And so, uh, it's very similar except the lines are on the other side of the hallway. Um, and so now we're also eating our classroom too. So that's a little bit different. Um, but I think it's actually good as well because um, you're in you're eating amongst your peers who you're also working with in class. Um, so that's different than seeing other people and it's also different faces. We usually sit with the same people every day the whole year and now it's a switch up. Now we're seeing new faces that we wouldn't have necessarily spoke to before and so I think that's a good thing. Um, I know it's not permanent but I think there's some positives to take out of it. Um, and then lastly, I'd also like to
054thank you all. um this opportunity has been awesome and the grace you've had with our schedules. Um they're so busy. It's just a blessing and um it's been great to get to know you all and um I'm just thankful for this opportunity and hope to be back in some board meetings in the future. Great. Thank you. And so tonight, this is your last official. You get the You have to keep the fan. Okay. Thank you. Put that on your wall. Thank you so much. Your certificate. Yeah, I got mine. Yes. So, in case I've missed it, what are your plans come after graduation? Do you want to go first? You go ahead. I'm going to attend the University of Virginia School of Nursing. All right. I go. [Applause] I'm not going too far. I'm going
055to be right at Liberty uh in the fall and studying psychology, hoping to be a chaplain for the army and uh maybe do some Christian counseling. So awesome. Awesome. You be in the RTC program over there? Um I'm still considering that. I've talked to officers so I it's on the table still, but not sure yet. If you're going for the chaplain side, you ought to go ahead and get it done while you're right. Get it taken care of. Yeah. So, well, thank you guys for all that you've done this year. It is it's awesome to hear y'all's uh interaction with the other students both at the high school and the uh the lower graded schools. So, it's it's it's awesome to see that interaction and the information you guys bring to us from these schools
056is uh is very beneficial to us. Uh we love hearing about all the projects coming and going and um we try to take advantage of everyone we can. But uh good luck to you guys in the future. enjoy these next couple weeks. Um, you know that most people will tell you there's a lot of people in this your class that you won't ever see again, but hopefully you'll be lucky enough to see some who stick around for 40 years. So, uh, this it's always a great thing. So, good luck to you guys. Thank you. It's our pleasure. Thank you. And just for me, just thank you both and we wish you the best and if you ever need anything, you know where we are and reach out. Okay. So, thank you so much. Thank you,
057Dr. Wells. So next we have administrative services and first on the list is a construction project. So I do want to update you there. Mr. Ro is going to spend time showing you where we are. Um we're not where we wanted to be at this point in the year. Matter of fact, we wanted to be having our grand opening Saturday initially, but winter hit and then some other delays we've hit and trying to make things right. We wanted right. I don't want to bring people in if it's not where it needs to be. Um, we will be there, but it's not going to be May 31st. It's probably going to be like probably a week, maybe two weeks off. So, I don't want to put a date out there right now. Instead of May 31st,
058it might be a week or two later, but we don't there's no time frame. I know some of y'all have vacation plans. So, we will work around your vacation plans because once we get into June and July, it's no reason to just go off a date. Just go off a date. We looked at May 31st because it was close to graduation and getting our students that had just graduated and stuff before they took off when all their they left us to come back in and be able to experience it. But if we go into June or July, then we will pick a date that suits the board and um some of our other people who want to be with it. So I think we will have a much better feeling I guess in probably about
059two weeks we'll have a better understanding. You know, they're getting ready to pave the parking lot now. the finishes inside are happening, but I don't want to bring invite, you know, as the community up there if things aren't where where we're ready to show them off, right? And we want to make this a good experience and and get the best out of it. So, uh, we have postponed the May 31st date. Again, we will work with you to find a date that is conducive for everyone and move forward from that point in time. I would say sometime after the middle of June into early July is what we would be looking at from a time frame. We can go later if we need to for y'all schedules, but I just want to have it where
060when we do it, we do it right and we can get the community in. So, thank you, sir. Any questions on that before I let Mr. Ro show off what we had do have. All right. Roll, Mr. Ro. All right. Thank you, uh, Mr. Chairman, members of the board. Like Dr. Well said, we're right on the board line to getting to where we need to be. Uh but we had some pretty good discussions late last week and early this week uh with the contractor and amongst Dr. Ho, Dr. Wells, myself, and and Mr. Crawford, Dr. Crawford, excuse me. Uh but anyway, we want to do the right thing. We do this one time. We want to make it right. So, let's take a tour. So, uh, actually this was about about 5:50 this morning and,
061uh, I was up at the high school and and you see the sunrise in the morning. So, we're getting up and going. All the lights in the interior on the cafeteria side are done. Just like I said, looking to the cafeteria windows. Um, this is doing a panoramic view of the parking lot like Dr. Will said. The, uh, you can see the curb guttering on the left hand side uh, right there in the middle sort of where the dumpster sits right now. They've been um installing the the water u aspects of where the lead leads come off the roof uh to capture that and treat it and then it goes on down into the um the pond below. So they they've actually completed that today and probably tomorrow or first part of next week they
062will start doing the c curb and guttering on the back side of the parking lot uh to the right of that gravel pile you see and coming around that way. Uh so we're making progress there. sidewalks are in and uh you to the left there's a a sidewalk going up to the main entrance and then the right hand side here is on the parking lot side going down by the auditorium and again as as things have transpired there little things that uh like in the main entrance some things they've got it corrected we were unhappy with the product we got and you know so again some of these things going to have to be redone a little bit and that's why we're having some of the delays we're having coming in the front door this
063is the uh the middle the corridor as far as the middle of the cafeteria basically where the students uh whether will come in from parents drop off and that type of thing as you can see the the lights um you there being hopefully first part of next week some of the cables that came in were too short so little things like that has caused delay but anyway it's uh significant improvement for where we were last month at this time on the right hand side you can see again looking back from the old part of the school back up to the main entrance uh say probably 90% of the floors in and um you know it's beautiful floor look throughout the building. So uh we keep them all covered up as the construction continues. They uh
064the floor guys in Jameson Lo been doing a real good job keeping them covered as the floors lead. They're right behind them putting uh covering on top of them so they do not get damaged. This is looking at Main Street this morning again about 6:00. Uh they turned lights on through there last night actually or yesterday afternoon. And I see we still see got some tiles got put in the ceiling. Uh but this is looking basically from the cafeteria corner right there looking down Main Street and then a little bit further down uh Main Street next to the auditorium looking down to the old uh entrance to the the two door seat into the hallway going the back hallway to the gym uh hallway. So uh some of the laminate is going up on the
065cabinets you see in the hall for uh display cases for trophies and and other various uh items throughout the high school will be here. TVs, sitting areas for the public and those type of things as well. with the finishing line that's going up on there as uh right now above that you'll see it like about a 3- foot wide um gypson or or sheetrock paneling above that that is being finished as we speak and that will be painted a burgundy and then you have a gray line above that and then you have the black ceiling above that as well to the left. Uh we had a little excitement this morning with a little waterline issue at the high school and while I was up there at Pittsburgh stage was there getting ready to leave and
066they showed me a brief like 10-minute operation um on this new light panel we have here on the left and they will be back here in a few weeks to give more formal training to uh all parties involved. But um pretty slick light panel. They were here playing with it yesterday. It's amazing what the lights on the stage can do and the uh the power this thing has. Um the right on the picture on the right hand side is just lights from the wall pointing toward the stage uh that they were in a testing yesterday afternoon while we were walking through. And then again, this is uh just standing back where the uh flat part of the auditorium while we're looking at lights and making making some changes in the lighting aspect up front uh
067behind the the lights about 17 lights across the catwalk up top above uh those u sound panels up there and they're having to make some adjustment that to get the lighting right and uh so we were just testing some things yesterday afternoon. We talked earlier reference to the uh the cafeteria. So, um Wendy and and um Miss Klein from child nutrition and I met right before spring break to get a tentative game plan of what we wanted to do and our maintenance team. We came in there Monday morning about 6:00, moved all the serving lines out of the existing kitchen over to the uh um old old gym over there. and uh our custodians had actually already cleaned out all all the tables and that miscellaneous things. So like Dr. Will said earlier in 2
068and 1/2 days our maintenance staff moved uh after that morning moved all the things out. Moors Electric Company came in and uh basically two and a half days and rewired everything from the existing cafeteria or serving line area over to the new gym. It was up and operational and uh Wendy and I talked several day several times throughout the week. She came in, touched everything and then when the students arrived back on Monday morning, we never missed a beat and uh and kept on getting it. So I think the uh cafeteria staff has been happy, the school staff has been happy and uh according to Mr. Carver, you know, the again the students are happy as well. So this went pleasantly surprised very well. Uh regarding the old cafeteria, we're about like I said about
069four weeks into it now. They started uh the Monday of spring break. As you can see, they came in. The first thing they did was remove the ceiling tiles, start doing those type of things, start digging up the floor. What you see here on the right hand side is a uh the new restroom that that wall will be tore down. That restroom will look like the bathroom that is out in the uh new addition. It'll be 16 stalls open concept just like we did out in the hallway there. Um over here on the left hand side, I'm actually standing in the corner of the freezer where you see the floor deck up on the left there. That whole long stretch is the new freezer. The area to the left is the kitchen. The area to
070the right where you see the gentleman up there actually installing HVAC duck as we speak uh is for the new classrooms and stuff. So, uh a lot of the HVAC duct is installed and they should actually start building walls for the new classrooms uh hopefully sometime next week or the week after. As you know, we're in a very tight deadline uh for the kitchen move this uh this summer. On the left hand side of fieldhouse, we can't forget about Mr. fieldhouse back here. Uh the HVAC unit has been set that was done last week and uh in the bathrooms there. Um the petitions are in they haven't been installed. Obviously this you know sort of got put on the back burn a little bit as we were pressing very hard inside the main school to
071get that ready and uh so they still been working on this but most of our effort has been focused on the uh the main part of the school. This is looking at the left picture on the left is in the U concession stand in the fieldhouse and the one on the right is just the mechanical room in the fieldhouse as well. So what's coming up complete phase one? I truly anticipate um probably the the second week of June we'll be you know pretty much done. Some of the cabinet work's got to come in. The big part of it is getting it clean. Uh they've had a cleaning crew and doing some preliminary cleaning over the last you week or two. Uh but as you know in a project this big and and areas we want
072to make sure it's clean and clean good one time. So that's going to take a little bit of time. Uh again I talked about beginning the CMU or the masonary walls in the classroom in part phase two and again continue with the kitchen um part in phase two. I think here in the next week or so actually we start putting some hood systems in there as well. Next Thursday they plan on pouring the concrete where we've already cut up and the new kitchen area. So that's progressing very well right now. And that's where we're at. Any questions? Yes, sir. So, what um what is the time frame of when they were supposed to complete this project? Contract. This part of it right here was springtime of 2025 is where we initially were talked about. Spring
073of 25. So, we're we're right there where we need to be. Um obviously with any construction, there are going to be delays and challenges that you have to meet. Again, you know, as y'all well know, this is not like we're building a McDonald's all over the United States. This is the one and only time they built this type of thing, uh, for this type of building. So, there's been some challenges for supplies and things like that. Um, but we're on target. We had an aggressive, you know, we wanted to try to get it used this year for the seniors and that aspect, but they were looking for the spring of 2025, which we're in that window, right? So, so they're not really they're not behind as far as what the contract says. Is that correct?
074Contractually we're fine. We just had they just had earlier when we started the project with looking at if things went great, we'd be done earlier this month or today, right? But due to some of the issues back in January when it was snowing and 10 degrees, it kind of put them back a little bit. Sure. Um, so in the contract, so let's say they were behind schedule, so they were supposed to I don't know what the due date because I mean there is a date that is supposed to be done, right? The contract says, let's just say it's May 31st. Uh, do we have anything in the contract that holds them accountable uh if they're behind schedule on that? Yeah, there are some liquidated damages, you know, mentioned in the contract as well. Okay. But
075we're not at the point where we're looking at that. No, because we're not looking to go past the date. Right. Okay. Could you let us know what that date is? Sure. At some point. Yes. Thank you, Bo. Anything else, Mr. Terry? Yes, sir. I didn't see any chairs in the auditorium in that picture. That is correct. There are uh as we speak, they're getting ready to get put in. Actually, there would have been more in there. And I just, you know what happened was back when they poured the concrete back last year sometime, they had to cover the concrete up so it cure, put brand spanking of new plastic out of the box on it, laid it on the uh concrete, and when it did, some of the chemicals, whatever in the uh plastic adhered
076to the concrete itself. So, when they peeled it up, you know, month or two later, there were brown marks throughout it, almost like if you will, like a leopard skin type, just periodic lines through it. So fast forward through all the construction process, got to the point where we get ready to put the seats down. We looked at the contractor looked at and architect looked at it was like, "Hey, let's go ahead and stain the floor underneath the seats so that when you come in and look, you won't see this pattern, you know, random pattern on the floor. We thought it would look a better appearance." So boom, they uh stained it. Looks great. We're ready to go. Uh chair installers come in last week. They land at the floor, put painters tape across the
077stain, do the little pattern, start drilling all the holes for the 770 for 740 seats in the bottom of it, start peeling the painters tape up, and guess what happened. Now we have tape marks in a stain which so they turned around this week and actually two days ago and went in through there remed everything got a floor scrubber scrubbed everything back out and repainted underneath the chairs again. So it's those little type of things. So the TJ distributors the chair companies have been in here. Um if you look at like on the left hand side of the auditorium those actually the frames had been put in place not secured but put in place and they were working their way around and then we saw this we like so that's you know we were hoping
078you know to use it for next Wednesday night for the senior awards that's one of the things and those are the type of things that are have sort of pushed us back a little bit you know unexpected things like that. So, as far as like the all the chairs are in We have all everything we need. We don't Yes, sir. We're not waiting for anything. No, the the chairs have been in in the ConX boxes down below the football field in the park in the junior parking lot. They've been there for several months. Yeah. They were delivered months ago. It's just a matter of the construction process. Uh, you know, we can't put the chairs in because we had to put the sound uh devices up in the ceiling. Correct. So, you know, you have
079do above stuff before you do low stuff. They've been here for months. And uh the the kitchen, are we going to be waiting on any equipment like freezers? No, sir. That equipment stuff is in house. Yeah, it was ordered months ago. We've purchased that stuff uh months ago. So, it's it's ready to go when we're ready to go. The construction's ready to go. We just need to get the the ship ship date. Yep. Okay, that's all I have. Okay. Board. Anything else? Quick question. Yes, ma'am. Um I know you were frustrated with the um concrete in the auditorium and all that you went through. Um, I guess my simple question came to my mind is if they stained it and the paint tape took up the stain, how durable is that going to be for
080us? Well, I think one of the things that the the stain really didn't have a lot of time to cure. They put it down basically two days later. We're back on it again with tape. And uh, so I think that's one of the issues. Uh, and also the company had, you know, this is one of the few times they've experienced that. hindsight 2020. Let's, you know, let's go through with tape first. Get all your patterns down. Drill your tap holes and stuff. Because what they do is they put the pattern down, they make a template, they go through and drill the holes for each seat, all 770 of them off this template, then they peel them up back up and start drilling the drill holes. And uh so hindsight 2020, we should have done that
081first, then come back, stained it, and then come back and put the seats on. So it's um it is durable. Uh it's a Sherman's William product that you know the paint products we use throughout the whole school and through the school system. Um so it's just I think the biggest thing was it really didn't have time to cure in a you know let's say 2 days before we start putting tape on it and then peeling it up. I I guess I'm wondering if you go back to the original what caused the issue was when they put the plastic over the concrete as it's curing. Do they have any do we have any legal way of saying that it's their responsibility to come in and give us a durable floor? Can they put epoxy or something
082on it that we're not going to have to repaint it in 5 years? Yeah. You know, the stain is I forgot what the light the warranty is on the stain itself. It's it's pretty durable, pretty long. Uh will you have to retreat it? Yeah, possibly. And what you they were talking about is like when it comes time to probably replace the seats years down the road, we would look at also at the time to do that as well. So you from a uh liability or responsibility standpoint again from a construction process putting plastic over concrete is a happens all the time particularly in the I think that floor was poured in the in the early winter winter time it's a normal process for it to help cure and uh so it's they didn't do anything
083wrong different than they've done several times before on this floor like the parts where the uh the aisles are and the carpet's going to be no big deal but we would debating on whether or not we were even going to do it. It was on a borderline where we could do it because you could see it and we were just concerned about when you had the house lights up and you look down, you see this, you know, the sort of brown color in different areas, you know, what's that? So, we were trying to do the right thing, you know, and cover it and be done. So, that's the problem we ran into. But, it's they didn't do anything wrong. Anything they didn't do, they did the same thing back in the uh uh fieldhouse back
084there when it was poured. And they don't know what caused it. It's just some reaction between the plastic and the concrete. Again, I I sat there and watched them pull the plastic out of the box. It's not like it was used uh plastic. I watched them pull it up out of the pl out of the box, put it right down there. Pure white, you know, pure clear plastic and it had a reaction. Well, I appreciate everything you're doing. I just don't want to have to come up with a big price tag item and find Trust me. Trust me. And uh we Dr. Wells, Dr. Hood, myself, we have this conversation all the time. Um, we're the we like to just like this grand opening, we're not happy about it. Contractors are not happy. Architects aren't
085happy about it. But I know I told you before, when I do something, I want to do it right one time and be done with it instead of doing halfway and come back 10 times. So if it cost more money, let's do it right or take our time and do it right. And and that's what I told the contractors yesterday. Let's slow down. You know, don't take your really foot off the gas pedal, but let's think about what we're doing. Let's make conscious decisions and do the right thing. And at the end of the day, we will have a great product one time instead of trying to have a great product and a lot of uh a lot of fatigue and everything in between. So trying to get it right. Thank you, Mr. Oaks. Yes,
086ma'am. Yes, sir. Yeah. So, I don't want to belabor that point, but it is their responsibility to make sure it's right. Right. Because even though it wasn't their fault. Yeah. It's their responsibility to make sure that they're providing us a product that's acceptable to us. Not arguing that point whatsoever. Yeah, I just wanted to point that out. Uh it is their responsibility to make sure we have a good product and something that we shouldn't have to come back and fix later. So hopefully, as you said, we're going to get, you know, 25, 30 years out of it um before it has to be redone. Yes, sir. Exactly. I understand the construction thing. I live it uh myself and so I can appreciate everything you're going through. So, thank you. Okay, board. Anything else, Mr. Rog?
087would like to say, you know, thank you for not settling unless I let's just get it right. So, thank you very much. Thank you. Okay, Dr. Next, we have just an update on the Verizon cell tower. Um, we have sent our recommendations back to Verizon with they're with their legal team. They have not returned back to us yet from negotiations aspect. So, we're still in that limbo land. Just want to know, we haven't we're just waiting on Verizon to get back to us. So once they do, we'll look at what they come back with and then we'll see if it's something we agree with. But we did up the Annie a little bit to make sure we were being compensated appropriately. Thank you, sir. All right. At what point are we going to uh consider
088having the community um discussion? Yeah, I wanted to make sure that we could come to agreement on what it's going to be because if we don't get to that agreement, then it's a mute point. So once we get contractually we will start find trying to find a time to do that. But if they can't meet our we can't come to an agreement with the finances part of it then you know I didn't want to schedule until we had that agreement worked out between the two. That's reasonable. Thank you. Okay. Yes ma'am. Are you talking about having something else besides the public hearing that we have to have anyway for the No. They wanted to do the balloon test so people could see it from the neighborhood as part of that public hearing. It was so
089public hearing would be held at Melison, but the balloon test would be out back. You can see the height of it and all that so you know kind of what you're getting into before. So as a county during the process you have to have a public hearing anyway. So I used to have two. Okay. Okay. Chair. Yes ma'am. Um, at this point, do you feel like anyone in the community is actually aware that we are even looking at it? Has that information been put out on the website or is it just from us talking? It's just from us talking right now through that because we haven't come up with there's no we're considering it, but we don't until I don't want to go there until we have an idea of what the numbers would be.
090If they again, if they can't agree come to an agreement with us, we can't reach that agreement, then it's a new point. So, I didn't want to really start putting that out there. I'd be glad to, but we hadn't done that yet. Well, I was really hoping they would have returned that agreement by now, but they haven't. So, um, we'll be glad to start putting information out there about the possibility of it at Manelis Middle School if if the board so desires. We can start doing some doing some social media aspects of it if you wanted to, just to put it out there that we're considering, but there's no we don't have a date yet. I know people have approached me asking when it's going in. So, it's Well, I I personally would like to
091hear from the community, you know, because it may be something that they need and they want, might be something that they don't. Um, so I don't know what the board's pleasure is, but I do think that's an important aspect. Well, you know, would the board like for him to go ahead and publicize it around Melisonson or I mean, I know people already have already, like I said, approached me about it. So, it's not a secret. It's out there. Merry. Yes, sir. My only concern with putting it out, and it's not that I want to try to hide anything. I don't want to give everybody false hope that it may not be going in or I I guess either way they're going to find out. I I know I've been approached by it. That is I'll
092I should be able to see it from my house. So I do talk to the people in neighborhood about it. So and I know there's a terrible dead zone there. There is. And uh I haven't got any negative feedback yet, but I'm putting it out in the into the public and getting people worried about something that may not happen. I don't know if that's that's worth it or not. Yeah, I feel it's probably a little premature at this time, too. Okay. Not in my district, but Eric's if you feel that way. I I mean, I definitely feel that way because we've got a ways to go for this to to work its way through the system. That works for me. Okay, we'll hold off now. Then again, if we get the numbers back from them,
093we can reach an agreement, then we can start moving it forward so people know it's actually possible based on public hearings and all that type of aspect. Okay. Okay, cool. Thank you. All right, next. So, next we have 7.02 proposed revisions to the school policy manual. This was the wellness policy JHCF. I know we approve the board approved JHCF. Um when we went through the federal monitoring of our child nutrition program, there was one line that they wanted they said we had to have back in. So all I did is I took that one line and put it back in. Didn't change anything else to the policy and Miss McNarney is pulling that up now. And so it's under food sold outside the school meal programs. So we basically wanted us to strike during the
094school day excluding ex concessions. The rest of it there were no changes. They just recommended or really told us we needed to do that and that would be make us in alignment with federal and state requirements under child nutrition. So I would ask that nothing else was changed in the policy. You've already approved the policy. Um this is just what they were when they did their review. That's what they said we had to change. Okay. But that goes against what we said we needed to have that in there because if we don't have the exclusion for concessions then is that not holding your concessions to the same standard? No. So what they were saying was um the during the school day part since we don't sell concessions during school during the 7:40 at the high
095school 7:45 to 245 the concession stands aren't open so that's why they said but after school it after school hours it doesn't apply again that's what the lady from the USDA told us so that's what I brought back to So, this does not apply to anything after the bell rings to go on or after your regular hours. Correct. Because they're not required to be there during that time is my understanding. Mr. Chair. Yes, ma'am. You know, I know this is just a first read, but as we're looking at it, if that is the intent of it, then I think we need to say that because I think that's absent. Okay. I don't know if that would be permissible or not, but right now it's just blank blanket statement. I'll be glad to take it back.
096And they were just asking I mean again from our child nutrition we just need to get one approves. So let me um can you help me understand what is it that they want? They she just basic again I I can't speak for her but I just know when we had our meeting at when they did the follow-up meeting regarding everything they just said that that she gave us this back and said if you do that strike through you're good. I said okay and tried to but so I I I guess does the policy only applies to foods served between start to finish bells. It doesn't include food served or sold after the bell rings to send people home and and programs. Right. Okay. So, I can put there's if there, you know, I think what
097Miss Thompson is looking at is there's no, you know, finite time frame that that thing is and if you read it, you know, it's school meal programs shall meet the standards It kind of implies that it would be everything. But it's where does it say it's only four during the day because that's what that line said from he's just going I'm just kind of paraphrasing what she told us when I was in that meeting with her a month month and a half ago. Um, let me make contact with Kim and child nutrition and let me make contact with the rep, the person who did our evaluation and just make sure that that's is if we put that in, we're we're going to be good and then I can bring it back to you. But that's
098what that says, right? Because that says what they asked us to strike was during the school day, right? Correct. So, but if you go back and ask to put that back in, let me let me get the clarification. But that's just what she said. If you strike that line, it would meet where they are. But if we need to put if we can put a time frame in there and that meets it, then I'm fine with that. Let me But let me and maybe ask her about concessions. Yeah. You know, at at the sports games, right, Miss Terry? Yeah. I'm just reading it. It's like okay she had said or the comment was made about only during the school day from bell to bell and that's exactly what they took out and they said by
099taking that out it would also include the school day and concessions but we've also excluded concessions which specifically said excluded concessions. I'm not arguing the point. I'm just telling you what they relayed to me. So, you see the concern, just what you can come up with. I'll find it. I'll figure it out. Thank you. Thank you. And I'll get you something during the month. So, um hopefully in June you can see it. We'll be good to go. How's that? Thank you, sir. All right. I understand. 7.03. Dr. Will 7.03. Again, I just wanted to summarize the meeting we had last week regarding VSBA or schoolboard membership. And so, um, the board at that meeting opted to maintain membership in the VSBA, but then also had the option if board members wanted to join the SBMA,
100then they could let Miss McNarney and myself know and we could take care of we could make sure membership is taken care of for those board members who would like to join the SBAMA. So we are maintaining full membership in VS SBA but again individual board members may join the SBAMA. That was the consensus or this that was the discussion of the board. I just wanted to make sure that since that was not an open meeting that we or in this type of meeting that that was relayed. Okay. I believe that's where we ended up board. Did that one other addition to that is that we had um decided to not continue with the $500 correct for the attorney for the attorney fees uh fees for the uh BSBA. BSBA. Yes, sir. Okay. And just
101one comment that was an open meeting. It's different. Yeah, it's open meeting but it wasn't in this. I didn't want someone think I think it was a close meeting. Sorry for misp our work session. Yes. Okay. Okay. All right. Thank you. And then the last I have a student suspensions for April. Um is a regular report. So, and I'll say Dr. Hogan's not here tonight because he has a stepson who's graduating college in Bosezeman, Montana. And he's been sending me pictures from Bosezeman all day today and I'm a little jealous. So anyhow, that's why he's not here this evening. More power to it. Okay, Dr. Wells eight. Next, we have finance, Miss Cottage. Good evening, Mr. Chair, members of the board. Before you tonight are your April financial reports. So, we are steadily wrapping things
102up, closing out, monitoring revenues and expenditures to close out this year. I am going to sort of flip my normal script and start on the expenditure side tonight. um and go to our object code summary. Um you're going to see some overages um some that just appeared and I do want to talk about those on page one under the 3120 professional services. You will see that that is over budget by 103,805 and that is attributed to contracted direct services to our students that we had expensed and it's still pending Medicaid reimbursement. Um we had discussed that during the budget retreat and some of the obstacles we have in getting that to go through their system. We have not given up. Um but we also didn't spend that money not having some um plan B um
103knowing that there was maybe some timing challenges on that. Um so while it's not in the same object code, we do we did know that that we had some positions that were vacant the whole year. where we had long-term subs in them and that created some the savings that if we had to use that, we could. Um, if you look on page five of that same report, you'll see that by the major category and instructional function, we are still in good standing. We are not over budget. Um, if the funding comes in this year, that's great. We will be able to do an appropriation. Um, even if it comes in in July, we could um rec still recognize that revenue. Um if not, it would just get pushed into the following year and it would
104be revenue um additional revenue to that budget. Um there are some other um overages that aren't as substantial in the areas of like grounds, janitorial, transportation, supplies, everything's costing more. Um it has been an ongoing issue of some of the things we addressed in the budget. Um we have the fuel savings if there's excess in the fuels that can cover that and again by major category we are good. Um, now to the revenue. Uh we have a new revenue source that's not reflected in the reports at this time and that's because last week when the governor signed off on the Virginia um state budget bill amending the bianual budget there was a new funding line for bonus payments and it was providing Ammeris with $427,457 and that was to fund the SOQ funded positions for
105$1,000 bonus per FTE. Um so next month um we would be bringing to you a supplemental appropriation to allocate those funds um to appropriate to for that purpose as well as a budget transfer request to fund the non-SOQ funded positions. Um if improved it is our intent to issue the bonus payments in the end of the month in June. We would get it approved in June and then be able to issue the payments to our employees on the May on the June payroll and we would be prrating the bonus it for part-time employees. So, we wanted to give you a heads up of what our intent is because it is a really short time frame to get everything turned around. Um, but I'll take any questions you may have. Okay. Board. Yes, sir. I have
106a question on the object code um 6030. It's um I'm sorry. 6040 online software instructional. Um looks like we have about 104,000 left in that line. Yes, sir. Um I would have to honestly I'd have to dig into it. We have a lot of softwares. That's why I'm questioning that. That doesn't seem right to me. Um some of them we do they do the timing of them. It it'll it crosses fiscal years and we will start expensing them right um in the last couple months. But I could give you what those what those softwares are. and and unfortunately I can't hear the real reason I'm asking that question is I would love for us to consider uh using something like GoG Guardian uh to provide that resource to our teachers. Dr. Wells um I don't
107know if you've seen it or not but it's a valuable tool I think um it puts a lot of control back in our teachers hands as far as it allows the teachers to monitor uh what our students are doing on the Chromebooks. I can see each student. Um, uh, they can limit where the students can go. Our kids love to play. They go to places on the internet. They're not, and I know we have content filtering in place, but this allows the teachers to create essentially a list that they can only go to these websites. Um, it's a invaluable tool, I think, and it gives a lot more control back to our teachers. So, something to consider. Yes, sir. Thank you. So on the just real quick on the um thousand bonus, we we felt
108it was important that we did that in June. So it's kind of a recognition and to our staff who have really worked really hard this year, our teachers and everyone else that they get it as part of the June um time frame. So we want to do put it push it into the June time frame. Um, so it would be a thousand dollar bonus. The the governor's budget or the budget that was approved and signed off on May 2nd um gives us funding for the SOQ, but we would have um to find the funds for the nonSOQ um which we have a plan to do that. Yes. Um we we still have that excess in in the VRS line um that we could could utilize. Also, we have some we would be looking at our
109grant positions that are grant funded if whether that could be written into the grant and of course child nutrition would would fund the bonuses from their own budget. So, Mr. Chair. Yes, ma'am. So, the thousand bonus is that supposedly been in the budget for the coming year? No, that was for the current budget. That was approved for this current year. Yes. Yes, ma'am. not for not for FY26, but it was put into the budget in January for FY25. Okay. So, it doesn't impact our budget next year as a direct Okay. for this year. And then talk to me about the school operational revenue report. You said that it I was just stating that it has it has a new it'll be a new line item for that bonus revenue because that's not reflected on the
110reports right now but we will be bringing it back to you next month now that um that has that budget bill has passed. So how much of our operational revenue has come in? Let me pull that up. Sorry. Um, of the we have received 50 53,841,123. I rounded and our budget was 72. 72 million. Correct. Um if you look at a large portion of that outstanding is going to be your county the lo local appropriation. Okay. So you have received the 53 million. It's not 25% received. No that's the amount remaining to be that's the difference of what we received and what was budgeted. We have that much. Okay. Of the 18 million. I was panicking there. Yes. I would be too. um of the um 188 18 million that you're showing as available. If
111you look on page two um where it says it's the ops direct, that is your local appropriation and 6.4 million of that is um in there. And and also with your sales tax, again, when we say when we're thinking May, you don't think you you're thinking, oh, you just have this is April reports, but you'll have May and June. We actually have four months of sales tax. So, I'm at this point I'm not worried either. I do not have any concern with the revenue. Still looking at the sales tax. Um, but at this time, no concerns to pass on. And when will we get the rest of the sales tax for this fiscal year? I'm sorry. When will we get the rest of the sales tax for this? It comes every month. Every month. Um,
112it's just we're the way we we have to recognize it. It goes through we get two months. We So July and August is actually in this current year. So we still have four months of and that's the uncertain number. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Board. Any other questions? Thank you, ma'am. All right. Thank you, ma'am. Next, we have information items from instruction. Dr. Norman is not with here tonight. Uh so, Mr. Neighbors will carry that. All right. Good evening, Mr. Chair, members of the board. Two very quick updates for you this evening. Miss Wheeler was able to prepare a memo with our current kindergarten screening registration numbers. Uh the only thing I'll highlight here is last time this year we had screened about 177 students. Uh so a few more that we had screened but we're
113actually ahead of where we were this time last year with enrollment. Uh so seeing some positive trends there with bringing some more of those kindergarteners in. Uh again, if you have any questions, I would be happy to answer those at this time. Bordon, any questions for Mr. Neighbors? Okay. Thank you, sir. All right. Well, moving right along, our monthly update on best lab utilization. Uh, we saw a little less sickness this past month, although spring break was still there. Got back to some of our more typical numbers in regards to visits. So, no significant changes in regards to our typical data trends on that report. And again, if there any questions, be happy to answer those. Any questions? Okay. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Next, we have 10 information items from human resources, Mr. Gallagher.
114All right, Mr. Chair, members of the board, good evening. Have a fewformational items for you this evening. The first is our monthly vacancy memo that you have in front of you. Um, any questions? I'm happy to take on that. There have been a few changes since Friday. We are very active and busy with recruiting and hiring, staying busy in our office right now. So happy to take any questions. Not a question but a comment. I was happy to see that we I think we hired the a teacher. Yes, we did. Allison. So that uh was very gratefully and thankfully we did do that. Yes, indeed. So thank you for your effort. I know it was an ongoing process. Absolutely. Thank you. Was a struggle there, but I'm glad we got it done. And so definitely
115a shortage area. So we're happy to get that. So thank you. Yeah, Mr. Gallaer. I know I'll I'll hear in a couple weeks, but how many uh teachers are retiring this year? Uh between retirements and and resignations or just retirement. I was just curious. Retiring. What are retirement? I could pull that up for you. That's fine. When you when you get it just Yeah, it's it's I'll pull it up for you. Okay, that's fine. Actually, before the meeting is over here, when my section is done, I'll pull my little list up. So, and I'm going to get to retirement reception here in just a minute, too. So, if there are any more questions on the um vacancy memo, I do want to take my opportunity for all those listening at home just to say, you
116know, we are hiring in ACPS. If you want to join the very best division in the whole state of Virginia where you're valued, supported, and also appreciated, come join team Ammerst. So, had to say that. All right. So, next we have um an additional information item, and that is our workday calendars. There are four of those prepared for you for your review and I'm happy to take any questions if you have any on those. Thank you board. Any questions for Mr. Ger? Okay. Okay. And just to get back to you, the number is 26. And thank you Dr. Rose for pulling that off the spreadsheet. So, thank you. Which leads me right into my thirdformational item, which is the retirement reception, which again will be at Sweep Brier uh College Prothrow on the 20th, Tuesday
117the 20th of this month. That does start at 6:00 and you are all welcome and encouraged to attend. I hope to see you all there and present celebrating our wonderful retirees. That's always a fun evening. Uh I would ask uh Mr. Terry, if you haven't been asked already for closing statements that evening, uh so I expect it. Yes, indeed. Well, we're we're very much looking forward to that. That's just one of the the fun year- end celebrations that we get to gather together and celebrate the individuals that given so much over the years. So, just wanted to make sure you're aware. Okay. Thank you, sir. Yes, indeed. And I don't have anything else this evening. Okay. Dr. Wells moving. All right. Forward. Superintendent matters. First, budget. We've already missed the comments talked about a little
118bit earlier, but the governor did sign the budget on May 2nd. Um it impacted higher ed a little bit but really did not impact K negatively impact K12. Again the the thousand bonus was approved and um the support cap uh was removed. So we're working through that. We are not getting it. The C tool that was given out on I think May 7th or May March 7th or March 10th somewhere in that time frame. What's the couch tool we'll still be using. They're not going to issue a new C tool. So we're good there. And we're just waiting again for the money to be the for the bonuses to get to us so we can take care of that. But we're actually K12 uh was spared the the axe a little bit. So we're very
119grateful for that. Um date reminders, just a few things here. First, Mother's Day is Sunday, gentlemen. Um don't forget that ladies, moms in the house, thank you very much for all you do for us and for all you've done raising your families. So, Mother's Day, thank you for Mother's Day and and I wish you the best. Happy Mother's Day. Uh May 14th is senior awards ceremony. It'll be at the high school in the old auditorium. May 17th is prom. That's at 7:00. If you want to go to prom, you're more than welcome to. Uh just let Mr. Crawford know. And then May 23rd is graduation. That's at 7 p.m. We'll be sending out next week um those who want to ride, want to ride the van, those who want to drive, parking situations, stuff like
120that. and then the uh and we'll just like we've had in the past. So, we'll get the information out to you regarding that. We'll try to get you there by 6 so we have a little chance to have some like refreshments and then do graduation and uh if anything you need if you've lost your gown or need anything like that or just let us know like by really soon so we can get it. Um, nobody said anything, so I'm assuming we're all good. But if that's if that's the case, let us know. But graduation's in a couple weeks and we're looking forward to it. Um, educator appreciation week is this week and so we've been providing meals from Chick-fil-A to staff this week and um, that seems to have gone well and I think people
121are appreciative of the they either have a chicken sandwich or they can have the salad. Um, so that's gone well. And then a lot of businesses and uh school group sponsors of school at certain schools. I know Glad gave Ammeris Elementary um some other some more Chick-fil-A sandwiches another day this week and other PTOs and other groups have been providing resources. So we want to thank everyone who has uh chipped in this week to support our staff and just again thank our staff for all they do because again without them we couldn't get the job done. So we appreciate everything our staff has done. The last thing I have is a little video. This was done by WFXR. Um, George Nolof came with us when we did the trout release for Temperance and he actually
122did a article on this um on WFXR and it's actually been picked up in stations across the state and some across the nation from what I've heard on Google alert. So if we pull up Britney commercial. Sorry. I'm sorry. It's time for Outdoors with George Nolith. Outdoors bound this morning. And this may sound odd, but have you ever wondered what you might learn from a fish? I would probably learn how to swim. I feel like they could point us a lot better. Yeah, for sure. Well, it may not be a question you guys have pondered. I've pondered it. I don't know why no one else has. But one school system in our region, well, they think the answer is that you could learn a lot from that fish. And our George Nolaf reports with class
123in session. Believe it or not, these are kids so excited about learning that they're running to class. And this is their classroom. Oh, and did I mention that some of who they're getting their lessons from are fish? There he goes. All right. Welcome to the Amherst County Schools Trout in the Classroom program, courtesy of Virginia Trout Unlimited and the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources. Today's students are third graders from Temperance Elementary. There he is. Oh, he's at your feet. We get eggs from Department of Wildlife Resources in the fall and they uh they hatch those eggs and they raise them in the classroom in tanks and then the trout that make it into the spring, they're about inch 2 in long. We'll put them here in Pedler River. The kids have hatched and raised and
124studied these little tiny baby brook trout known as fry at this stage of their lives all year in a tank in their classroom. Now it's time to let them go. There you go. Now that the fish are in the water, there are more lessons to be learned. That means finding bugs and other things. But don't tell these kids class is in session because they think they're just having fun. I think I'm going to find a couple of crawfish. Maybe maybe like those um maybe like mayflies or um minnows. Um like those type of critters in there. Definitely hands on. They'll be up here. They'll be catching the the insects, the macro and verbus in the stream. They'll catch crayfish. May catch a minnow or two. There's a crawfish. All right, flip the rock. Flip the
125rock. We got two coffins. By flipping rocks and catching what flows downstream in a net, the kids can use a formula to figure out by what's living there just how clean the Petler River is. Why do you think it's called a water penny? Because it looks like a penny. That's exactly right. And in this case, what they found is good news. What water quality was it? 20. 20. 20. So, was it poor, good, fair, good, or excellent? Excellent. Excellent. Excellent. This may be the best way to learn about the outdoors, seeing it, touching, counting. It helps these kids to put it all together in a way they can't in a classroom. Good for them and in the long run, good for all of us, too. They need to understand that as being stewards of the
126environment, they have to be able to, you know, take care of what we have. And if we don't take care of it, nobody else will. Good deal. How y'all doing, folks? Well, those kids were having fun. And trust me, they were having fun. They were also learning chemistry, biology, math, earth sciences, climate sciences, and a bunch of other academic disciplines. Plus, they were stocking the Pedler River with our very own state freshwater fish, the brook trout. So, they're helping to enhance a vital natural resource, too. You know, I say that's a pretty good day on the river. Absolutely. And a very interesting way to learn, right, George? I mean, I don't know. I I never got to go outside on the river and be hands-on like that. Yeah, you know, it it's a very cool
127program. Here's the thing. The lessons these kids learned that day, they're going to probably stick. And and the reason why is education experts say hands-on learning actively engages students. They make deeper connections to the concepts being taught. That promotes knowledge retention. You know, put it simply, these kids are smarter because they spent some time on that river. Very cool. Thanks, George. Don't miss Starbecue featuring Craig Camp. So, I just wanted to share that was the experience there with him. I appreciate him coming up and filming and doing the article on it and how he did it. But anyway, um just want you to see if you hadn't seen what we do up there. That's kind of what we do on a day on a trout. So, thank you. That's all I have unless you have
128any questions. Any questions for Dr. Wells? Thank you, sir. Thank you. Okay. Uh moving on to uh 12.0 uh public comment again. So if there's anyone in the audience who would like to approach the board, please step forward. Mr. Chair, can I just use my loud voice? I just want to say yes ma'am. Um county public school education association. We heard cookies to everybody in the county transportation. Everybody, we enjoyed that. And that uh the Amos County chapter of the NACP, we are collecting uh toiletries for Ammerst Cares. They asked for 600 toothbrushes. They're going to get them. So we So I want you to know the community is also working for the children of Ammerst County Public Schools. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Jones. Okay. All right. Seeing no others, um we will move
129on to uh individual schoolboard matters and and uh committee reports if you have any. So, Miss Saunders, way you go. Here I am. Okay. I attended the governor's school meeting um two days ago. graduation was May the 4th and they had so many people they actually ran out of programs and they said that was the first time I think they printed 300 programs and they like they so happy that every student had family or friends that stood up for them. Um this is not widely known but Dr. Smith is retiring. They will advertise for his position in August. Um I just want to say thank you for all the staff especially those that have been there for 25 years. that shows a lot of dedication and we just want to say that we really appreciate
130you too. Congratulations to all the seniors and their parents. I'm sure you're singing a big hallelujah. I know that I would be I did. So, good job for a great year. Thank you to all the staff and to everyone that had who had a positive influence on these kids. So, thank you all. Um and I'm so happy that we're in the news for something positive. So, thank you, Dr. Wells. All right, that's all I've got. Great. Thank you, ma'am. Mr. Rossi. And another year is winding down. Uh it's had a lot of good progress this year with the construction. Um obviously student recognition is always a great thing to see when I sit up here and and all those students and their parents getting engaged and involved and and getting them out and showing their
131support to those students. And the teachers, you know, the teachers are are fighters on the front lines teaching these students day in and day out. We definitely appreciate that. And I would definitely look forward to that $1,000 bonus if I were a teacher. That would be uh that would be really good, especially that time of year, right? And uh let's hope it coincides with contract signings. Just putting it out there. Maybe, you know, sign a contract, pick up your bonus. Um, yeah, it's uh it's exciting this time of year. Everybody's getting ready for graduation and and I love uh watching the students come across stage and know that there was there were many years of work that went into that that short walk across the stage and I'm looking forward to it again. And um
132summer may be coming, school year might be coming to an end. There's still tests to take and uh it doesn't end for the administration and I appreciate the fact that you guys continue to work and work and work and Oh yeah. and work some more because it it doesn't end. It's it's a constant struggle and I appreciate everything that y'all do every day. That's that's it for tonight. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Miss Thompson. Thank you. Um, I know that Wilia have left, but I want to say how much I've appreciated them being here with us on a monthly basis and all that the insights they give us and wish them well. Um, I also just want to say uh congratulations to the real world design team and to Mrs. Stennet. I I think that
133is just such an amazing an amazing uh uh task and talent that they have. They've just been awesome. It was sad to hear that it might be the last year, but maybe that can change. Um, but they did a great job. So, congratulations. I'd like to say welcome to Kristen Rhodess, um, new principal at AEC and to Mr. Neighbors in your new leadership position. Um, so welcome. Looking for great things in both of those areas. Um, appreciate all the educators, the staff, and the students. Um, it's been a great year. Um, you know, you've accomplished one more year we can put behind us. Um, but a lot of great things have happened. So, I'd like to say that uh congratulations and thank you. Like to say a special uh congratulations to all the seniors. You
134know, your education or at least this phase of it is culminating um this month and uh have great uh things to celebrate and they all deserve it. Um also would like to let you know that uh CBCC will be having the graduation next Thursday at 7 o'clock and that will include the STEM Academy. Um and I want to say a big thank you to the Ammerst Education Foundation. and you've been uh supportive of the uh children and the school system here in Ammeris for a long time and Ammeris cares. It really shows that the citizens in our community do care. So, just thank you very much for those efforts. Okay. Thank you, Miss Lian. Uh I I would like to echo what Miss Thompson said. This is a great time of year and we surely
135wish all the seniors and their parents the best of luck. And Mr. Rossy just thought of something when you said it. 12 years of long sometime maybe 14 depending on how many preschools you went to uh will end with a walk across the stage this portion of it. So sometime we don't think about that's a long time for little people to go to school. They started two years old now you know so it's a long journey. I did attend the coral concert on Tuesday night and this the singing and it was beautifully done and um I know we won't be in there too many more years but it still sounded really good to me. So I want them to know I enjoy myself. Uh Laura, we had our board meeting yesterday and um out of
136the 48 students, we have five from Amherst County there. Laura will be having their gradu graduation as well on u the 27th of of May and they have two students from Lynchburg uh city and one from Appamatics and we try to get to attend that. We did approve a budget at Lauring about two or three positions that are needed there. Um, some things that are great there is that we finally got a bus. LOL has his own bus and we're not I don't think we'll need to ask the divisions any longer for the use of buses which was a strain on drivers. So, we have a brand new bus. The funny thing is the bus kept and uh Mr. Neighbors was there. The bus kept going off and they said it's because it was a
137snake in the engine. So, I didn't bother to go out picture. I said I'm not going outside. So anyway, I don't know what that was all about, but the way you get a snake out of engine is you let the uh bus horn go on and on. So it was kind of funny, but um those were just the highlights of the lower budget meeting. But anyway, also just to end this up, u I did receive a email uh from Miss Klein and I shared it with Miss Jones from Scott Zion as well and we are going to be one of the sites for u hosting the feeding for the children during the summer on Mondays and Thursdays. So, Pastor Lee and the Scots Baptist Church is excited to be a part of that. And yes,
138we're collecting toothbrushes at our church as well. So, uh, Ammerst Cares is is just such a worthwhile cause that I feel good about being a part of that. But other than that, we just been out at some, uh, games and tracks. We're all over the place. One day there's a track meet and that's a game. But, we're enjoying oursel and uh, it has the year has flown by. We're not there yet, but it's went on by. I feel like we just got here and said beginning of school year, now we're about to end it. Congratulations, Mr. Neighbors, and congratulations to all those that we approved on the personnel list tonight. And we're moving on. That's all I got. Okay. Thank you, sir. You're next. Chair members. Um I also would like to extend uh congratulations
139and a thank you to Will and Dasia. It's um it's a lot of work for uh these students to serve on a on a board and uh all the extracurricular activities that they go through and and and participate in and um it's a lot of effort and work and so I'm I'm grateful for them and and their time here with us and and again all the recipients tonight the 25 years of service um that's a long time uh to be in education and so what an honor to see them uh to hear uh their names Um, and I think it shows a level of commitment uh that uh these people have for Ammeris County and it gives me great hope. You we talk about retention and how do we keep these people here? I think
140we need to talk to them. What's kept them here for 25 years and we need to um copy that and uh you know um to to keep a lot of these other people, these young people that are coming. How do we keep them here for 25 years? uh this real world challenge uh the UAS and um I think they called it the Bunson but the the wise the they called the group wise that is phenomenal. Uh I don't know if if we really understand like what they went through to create a a drone to meet those requirements to be able to lift uh and carry those things but that is phenomenal. Uh and to have um young ladies participate in that I think that's phenomenal. we don't have enough uh women participating in those science
141projects like that and so that's encouraging to me and I'm I'm very happy uh to see that and for them to win at the state level. Um I hope we can keep a group maybe they don't participate but I would love for us to keep a club or some after school uh to keep challenging uh and if it's strictly for young ladies I think that's great. I think we need to do that. Um, the rest of them, the welding, I don't know if you guys have ever welded. I've welded and to see what the the student did, that's phenomenal. My wife hates it when I compare myself to someone. She says it it takes away, but it's just awesome to see what the student uh was able to do. Uh, and then last thing I
142have, Dr. Wells, um, you had mentioned about asking Will if he was going to join the ROC. Um my question for us as a board is have we considered uh maybe doing ROC in Ammerst County schools. It's a great program. I know depending on which branch of the military I don't really have a dog in a fight on that but I would love for us to get a ROC program here in Ammeris County because again that that teaches a lot of discipline and uh it's not necessarily connected to the military. they don't have to join the military or all those things, but I think it would be a good opportunity for us to consider. I would love to ask you to look into that. We applied once and I want a war and a wait
143list and order merit list, but I'm hoping I can work with our local uh representatives to see if we can get that pushed up. Okay, awesome. And last thing I have, um I did attend the uh the play on I think it was April 7th, Guys and Dolls. And so the last time we have a play in that auditorium and uh in typical fashion our uh students and all those in support of that uh program did an excellent job. Um I leave there and it's it I mean it's just it's a great opportunity for our students. They put so much effort into it and so I'm I'm grateful for our arts program and what they do. So thank you. Okay. Thank you. So, um, yeah, I want to start off by congratulating, um, everyone in
144their new roles. Anybody? I don't want to try to name off everybody because I know I'll leave someone out. So, and I really want to focus on the students right now. Um, like you said, Mr. Rossy mentioned, you know, the time and years that have been put into the education of these students and uh we get to go see stuff like the Guys and Dolls and and be a part of their celebrations like the Golden Tassel Awards and and hear their accomplishments like the the Real World Challenge and those those things they just they excite me. I love to see how versatile our students are as they approach graduation. Um, unfortunately, our seniors don't get to participate in this new building that we've got going on, but hopefully they come back and enjoy it, and
145those students that are coming up get to uh get to reap the benefits of the programs that these seniors are leaving behind. Um, it has been awesome having our student reps come feed us information that they they see at the schools and hopefully take some information back from us to them. So, we want that information to flow both ways. So, I I just want to make sure that all of our students who are getting ready to graduate, I don't care if you're going on to be a a Duke or a Hokei or a Wahoo or a welder or a homemaker or whatever, just remember, you know, once a Lancer, always a Lancer. And you take our morals and our values with you no matter where you go. Hopefully, you stay in our county because it
146is an awesome county. But if you do go outside and go other places, you know, just remember where you came from. We're very proud of it. So, thank you very much. Thank you, sir. So, now we have one more one. So, we have planned a close session to discuss personnel matters for basically superintendent. Um, so pursuant to section 2.2 23711 A1 of the code of Virginia. It is recommended the board convene a closed meeting for the following A1 personnel matters. Okay, a motion. Second. Okay, all in favor? I close session. [Music]