001[Music] Heat. Heat. [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat up here. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat up [Music] here. [Music] [Applause] Heat up here. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat [Music] up [Music] Heat up here. [Music] Heat up [Applause] [Music] here. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Applause] [Music] Heat [Music] Heat [Music] up Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat up here. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat up here. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat [Music] up [Music] Heat up here. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat up [Music] here. Heat up [Music] here. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat [Music]
002up Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat up here. [Music] Heat [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat up here. [Music] Heat up [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Applause] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat up here. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Applause] [Music] Heat Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat up here. [Applause] [Music] Heat up Heat up [Music] here. [Applause] [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat Heat up [Music] here. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat [Music] up Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat [Music] up here. [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat [Music] up here. [Music] Heat [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat up here. Heat up [Music] here. [Music] Some nights are like that. Six. We're here.
003Eric, y'all ready? Sure. Don, you good? Yes, sir. Childress, you good? I'm rock and roll. Miss Ligan. Yes, sir. Okay. Like to welcome everybody to the uh April uh school board meeting. Uh Dr. Wells, is there anything you need to open with? Okay. So, if we could uh stand for a moment of silence and pledge allegiance, please. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All righty, board. We have an agenda. Can I get a motion? So move, Mr. Chair. Okay. Can I get a second? Second. All in favor of approving the agenda? I I Dr. Wells. Students have the vote. Okay. Right. Okay. We're make sure I was on. Make sure
004you're on. All right. So, we have our staff, our students of the month for February and March. And so, when I call your name, please come forward. Um, and you'll stand up here. We start at the high school and work our way down. So, that if you're from the high school, you get to stay up here the whole time. Um, but instead of reading the whole instead of reading since we have a large group tonight in two months worth, um, I'm just going to hit some of the high points from each student as we go through it. Then I'll call your name. Okay. So, Noah Goff, Noah's not here, but Noah is a 12th grader. Uh, he was recommended because he works hard to make life easier for for everyone and is always cheerful and
005positive and always willing to serve others. We have anime, right? Anime stand up here and you get to stay here to the elementary kids, too. You're lucky. Uh the reason she was nominated because she is pleasant, polite, cooperative and hard hardworking and she interacts well with her classmates and her smile is wonderful and brings great joy to the staff. All right. Landry Falls from Ammeris Middle. Okay. Not here. Um Candace Lloyd Melson Middle School. And Candace was nominated because she is helpful to all of her classmates and teachers and she works hard in areas and always does her best. Congratulations Tatiana Green Amalon. Not here. All right. Um Liam Burks, Ammerst Elementary, not here. Lacy Pew Central. I know we have a few that aren't here tonight. Um Griffin Merritt [Applause] Elen Jack Griffin selected
006because of he is thoughtful, works hard each day as an example for others and he is a eagle ambassador and full of ideas to help the school. Congratulations Ava Broen, Madison Heights, and Carlina Eagle from Temperance. [Applause] Congratulations. And Carina was selected because she's thoughtful, trustworthy, and a team player. She is a dedicated student and she has solid grades and she's always willing to lend a hand without being asked. Congratulations. So, those were our students for February and we're going to take a picture with them real quick. And parents, you'll get you can take pictures also if you want. You'll get a certificate with the picture uh once we get that done. She won't let you. I know she won't. Congratulations. Congratulations. [Applause] You won't get out of the room. So again, reason we had
007February, March, February was because we were out of school so much and we were trying to get caught up back between January and March that we were trying to get two months at a time. So, apologize we couldn't do those last month, but we were trying to get December and January last month because of all the weather we and had to miss and all the stuff going on there. All right. So, now we have March and we have from Ammeris County High School, Liam Mullhern. Congratulations. outstanding student and a great citizen. Involved in several extricure activities, including goalie on the soccer team, has perfect attendance and straight A's for the year. Great job. AEC Kristen Ellis. Okay. Amoris Middle School, Abigail Eder. Abigail That'll make it easy for you. And Abigail also has straight A's.
008Represents AMS of being respectful, responsible, and resilient, and is always positive. Congratulations. Manellis Middle, Taylor Kaine, not with us tonight. Amalon Veta Rodriguez. Okay. Ammeris Elementary. Mckenley Hurt. [Applause] Emma McKinley was kind and respectful towards her peers and teachers, stays focused in class, and is responsible with her assignments. Congratulations. Central, we have Carter KGO. Congratulations. So, Carter was recommended because she comes to school each and every day. She's a good human and she is consistently positive even when things are difficult. She makes her appeals peers feel good about themselves and cheers on each and every person. Congratulations [Applause] Elizabeth Barker Elen. [Applause] Congratulations. She was nominated because she's a hard worker. She meets the goals she has set for herself and she is kind and a good role model for younger students as well. She
009is a soaring eagle. Congratulations, Malia Milstead. Madison Heights. Oh, okay. Aaliyah Spivey, Temperance. [Applause] She is a fantastic classmate and it always displays the temperance qualities of trustworthy, thoughtful, and being a team player. They can counter her to do the right thing and put forth her best efforts. Congratulations. And those are our students for March. That's [Applause] awesome. Congratulations everybody. Thank you. [Applause] So for our staff, instead of reading all the accolades for staff, I'm just going to make some general comments. You know, our staff of the month, they're are role models for other staff members and our students. They exemplify what team means to be a team player and a leader in our buildings. Again, we're just grateful for all they do for our students and for our schools and for our community every
010day. So, for our staff, I want to say thank you for all you do for us and for your students and we look forward to ending out the year on a very positive note. So, let's go to February. And February staff from the high school was Kelsey Saunders. I know she's got the play tonight. Um, AEC was Kenneth Baker. Mr. Baker. All right. Ammeris Middle School. Lisa Lob. Thank you. Just stand up here for a picture. You like the kids. Manellison, Christy, Tyrie, Amalon, Chase Overhozer, Ammeris Elementary. You might be just you by yourself tonight. Ammeris Elementary, Lauren Higgins, Central Gina Cockerham. [Applause] Congratulations. Thank you, Elen Jennifer Morham. [Applause] Madison Heights, Aubrey [Applause] Zeland, Temperance, Lauren Balent. [Applause] from transportation, Shirley Beckley. Not here. And from school administration office, Tiffany Burton. And Tiffany's not
011here either. All right, that's that list. Let's get a quick [Music] photo. Congratulations everyone. Thank you. Thank you. For March from the high school, Miss Aaron Calhoun. [Applause] from AEC. Mr. Bruce Turner, Ammeris Middle School. Jennifer [Applause] Fitzgerald from Manellis Middle School. Stephanie Crystal. Stephanie, I'm sorry. I got two of them. I'm looking down the street. Stephanie Farhard and Crystal Maze. We have two this month. I'm sorry. I'm just reading right under the other. All right. Amalon, Kristen [Applause] Walker, Ammeris Elementary. Cassie [Applause] Mayhew, Central Shaina West, not here this evening. Okay. Elen Elementary, Tammy McCrae, Madison Heights, Margaret [Applause] Piper, Dris Elementary. Heidi Woodson [Applause] transportation, Morgan Dodson. And from the school administration office, Mr. Shannon Presnell. [Laughter] It's fine. That's why [Music] Congratulations everybody. Thank you all. Funny. Thank you sir. Guess I
012don't want to say, you know, nice to meet board member on her way. No, not that one. Wait, she had to run to think she's back to traveling. I think he's talking about Mr. [Laughter] Well, with him saw him last week, literally across the street. Moving on, Dr. Wells, we're going to move on to 3.0 public comment. We had one person sign up to speak tonight. Um, Miss Beverly Jones, would you step forward, please? Thank you, ma'am. State your name, address, voting district, something like that. Good evening. Beverly Jones, District 5. During your March 9th school board meeting, Mr. Childress expressed concern about some teachers leaving the county and about perceived lack of motivation among many of them who remain and I understand that concern. So let's examine some of the reasons. The demand for
013data collection is excessive and timeconuming. All the data collection in the world cannot accurately measure the heartbreak that goes into a single day of teaching children who needs go beyond the classroom. Good teachers love and respect their students. They know that children need extended beyond what can be dealt with in the school. Number two, analyzing and compiling data collection does not help at all. State local mandated data collection cannot be avoided but the school board can avoid adding to this burden. Number three, another issue that needs to be addressed is planning time for teachers. Planning time appears on paper but in reality is often interfered with. Teachers have to cover classes when substitutes are not available. They have to attend PLC meetings twice a week. Where is the time to build relationships with co-workers and
014work to create a teaching strategy? Why are experienced teachers required to submit lesson plans each week? It is time consuming. It exhibits a lack of trust and create paperwork that no administrator really has time to read. Motivation was another issue. Schools need an inviting environment where teachers can express their concerns without fear and feel invited to do so. Give teachers the gift of time and listen to their ideas. Unbburden them whenever you can, please. Thank you. Thank you, [Applause] ma'am. So, we had no one else signed up to speak. Is there anyone from the audience who would like to approach the Yes, ma'am. Please step forward. Just state your name, address, or voting district, please. Good evening. I am Jackie Bby. I'm live in district four and I'm a retired teacher and I want to
015address address the dress policy for teachers. When I look back on my career, that was in the early days. I remember when I first got out of college and walked into the classroom, female teachers were asked, you know, to dress heels, stockings, suits, dressy, and we call them dress up dresses. Definitely no pants. But times have changed. Uh, gradually we graduated and we were allowed to wear pants, suits, and gradually individual pants. perfectly acceptable for women and more casual than the uh dress up styles. But today, we look at today, we look at the students. If you're not in a school where uniforms are required, there's a lack attitude of dress. do have variety of shorts, short tight skirts, raggedy jeans and low cut revealing tops. Even some come in wearing pajama bottoms. So this
016not only can apply to the students, sometimes it even applies to some of your teachers. I think you know we can agree that we expect students as well as teachers to maintain a reasonable dress code. And if you're talking about mandating a dress code or uh having a dress code for a county, uh it varies from county to county, from school to school. It's not a one thing fit all policy. Then again, when you look in the schools, you can see that when you have different teaching assignments that you should dress differently, especially like PE or an art class. So, let's look at one of the issues that's at home on hand today. Should teachers wear jeans? Now, why should teachers be allowed to wear jeans in the classroom? Is it only because they can
017only wear them on certain days? Or should they wear them when they wear the school t-shirt? Or should they have to pay for the privilege of putting on a pair of jeans? What's the issue? Is it the jeans themselves? Is it because jeans were once associated with physical jobs that required clothing to stand up to the rough use? basically was it for the laboring class, not the professional class. Now that was at one time, but I look at jeans today. Today, some of your jeans will cost as much as a regular dress pants. So, why not wear jeans? It does it will the jeans affect your teachers dress uh teaching ability? Would it affect the classroom management? Will it affect the child's learning or will it create a behavior problems? So we know that no
018teacher should come in the classroom looking like he or she just rolled out of the bed and just put on anything tattered holes whatever. We know that we can't there's no argument about that. But we do know that at in some instances your instructor's appearance makes a big difference in the classroom. But it however it doesn't affect the knowledge of the teacher. It doesn't affect the training experience or whatever. So I wonder why the school board have to sort this out. You we have capable administrators in the in the school system. There are some huge issues that we have to conf that you have to confront now such as cutting of funds, achievement gap, reading math scores, politics, excessive school book banning, lack of minority teachers, on and on and on. So, let's not get
019bogged down in the small things. So if we're going to resolve this, I think we need to look at the teacher salary. Some teachers have to work two jobs to maintain their families. So if they can wear a pair of jeans that's decent and durable, so be it. We have teachers in the classroom who spend extra personal funds for classroom items that may not be provided for the system. I know when I worked I had I spent more money for my students than I sometimes I spent for my own children. Baby, can you Okay. So, if jeans are to be worn, don't nickel and dime the teacher for the with privileges. Just say you may wear jeans. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. [Applause] Anyone else from the audience? Okay, please step forward. name, address, or
020voting district, please. Good evening, school board. Sam Soer, District 2 parent. Thanks for letting me address with you tonight, the recent attempt to end our membership in the Virginia School Board Association. In last month's meeting, it was suggested that we could save $16,000 by exiting from our membership. Meanwhile, there's a $1.2 million budget shortfall that the board of supervisors says it can't cover. So, I I don't really see sort of like the 16,000 about the Virginia School Board Association seems sort of like there's something else going on here. And I think that's what it is. I think this there's been an attempt, a push to get us out of the VSBA for years now. I believe this is an organized attack on public education. I don't know where your loyalties lie, but you could understand
021if I suspected that you would prefer my tax dollars to go towards homeschool or private school. And I don't have the ability to send my kid to private or home school. And certainly most other families couldn't do that either. We rely on public education. The school board has spent so much time carrying on about policies that aim to help marginalized students. Why does this bother you? Please help us understand. Meanwhile, high school seniors are struggling to read and write. This is the chief concern there. The only It's the only thing that the majority of parents want you to concern yourselves with. To fix this, we need more teachers, smaller class sizes, more reading and math specialists, incentives to retain teachers, and you know this. But instead, we're subjected month after month to this timewasting, this
022pouring over the policy handbook. Librarians are being put upon by schoolboard members. Well, meanwhile, the the students are general struggling to read, so don't worry about what books are in the library. I mean, they're not going to read them is is the issue. So, I I don't see this school board fighting for Ammerst children. I see them fighting for a national political agenda. We need common sense from our school board. Peace and love, y'all. Thanks, sir. Anyone else from the audience like to approach the school board? Okay, seeing none, we will move on to 4.0 consent agenda. board. Have you had a chance to look at the items in the consent agenda? Oh, Mr. Thompson. Welcome. Mr. Chair, I do have a question um for the superintendent on um the superintendent's actions. There were a
023couple stipens in there. Do those align with what we had discussed at the last budget meeting regarding I'm sorry the um you had a couple of stipens that you were adding or did I misread that under professional stipens? There were two there trying to get there. the right sheet there. I'm sorry. Which one's title 6B which is one for those are things we always have. Yeah. I'm not asking why we did them. I'm asking the the monetary value, the amount. Yes. Does it align? Yes. With what we had said we were going to do in the at the last budget meeting. That was all my question. Thank you. Okay. Not questioning why we're doing it. Yeah. Okay. Mr. Chair, I move that we approve the consent agenda. Okay. We have a motion. Second. Okay. Uh,
024all in favor? I I Okay, Dr. Wells 5.0 I know student reps and I know Dasia has a tennis match tonight so she is not with us. So Mr. Carver has has both topics tonight. Yes sir. She's covering for me from last month when I had a soccer match. But uh we're we're proud of our sports too and and representing the high school well the spring sports including like uh guys soccer, girls soccer. Um both I see every day because I'm on the guys soccer and the girls soccer practice right across from us. Um, baseball and softball, always we're always proud of them and um, they do well. Um, as well as outdoor track and tennis, which is what Dasia does. Um, so I'm going to try to cover what she usually does, but I
025will admit she is a lot better when it comes to band and theater and the arts, if you will. Um, but that is a big thing that's happening right now is our um, play uh, Guys and Dolls. It's the final one uh, in this old auditorium. So, it's a big deal and a a lot of people are trying to go to this. They're doing $12 a ticket. Obviously, you can't go tonight, but the next two nights they'll have another play and you can pay at the gate if you would like to do that. Um, we are entering exam season. Um, which you guys know you you've been around the school system and uh it's it's it's it's hard of course, but uh I think a lot of students are seeing this as the finish line
026and that we can see that. Uh so we're excited for that and uh just the opportunity that we get to take the exams because I know um you know they cost money and different things and we've been preparing so we're just expectant for this season. Um as far as some senior things we've done um for our 12th graders um we've had two different senior breakfasts I believe since the last meeting. Um the uh March one they did like a ice cream bar. I don't know if Dasia talked about that last month um which was exciting. you know, you g your ice cream and just go down the line. Just a fun little switching up from the typical breakfast foods. And then we had IHOP um this past week. Uh and that was as well as
027when we took our senior class picture with our gowns and everybody lined up. So, uh the finish line is definitely visible and we're excited for that as we move forward. Um with this season, we also have a couple ceremonies. um the Golden A ceremony which is going to be May 23rd um where we honor students um but as well as profound educators um where each student can uh choose somebody who really left a footprint um on their academic career and helped them get to where they are and uh I think that's um just a sweet kind of giving back moment. Uh another ceremony we have is the golden tassel ceremony. Um this is for NHS seniors. Um so students who have excelled in the classroom but also excelled in the community um getting their hours
028of uh service and doing it um cheerfully and so um they get honored with a little yellow cord um that they'll wear on their cap on graduation day. Um another senior event because you know there's only so many more days uh Dr. Crawford always tells us like it's going to go by and you're there's going to be very little chance that you're going to be with all these people at the same time again. Um and so April 27th we have a senior social which is uh 12th graders just a fellowship thing. I think they'll do we have a soda cart. So I think it's going to be something like that. Not exactly a dance but sort of just a fellowship moment. Um for the seniors there's also going to be a senior sunset coming up.
029Um but the date is to be determined. Hopefully some good weather coming up for that. Um, this is one thing that Donation would be way better at explaining to me, but May 5th there's a band concert. Um, I I believe they plan all year for this, so it's a big deal and I know I have people in the band in some of my classes and they're expecting excited for that. Um, and then May 6th is the spring concert. Um, so I believe this is different than the band concert and that they're singing as well. Um, so our Amber Echos and Bells and all the chorus classes um, work super hard and I know Dasia always talks about all the different things they win and um, we're super proud of them. So they'll get to perform
030for Ammeris and not for these big competitions out in Richmond and whatnot. Um, on May 6th and I think the band is their music and then they're dancing and singing and showing off all their talents. Um, and then show choir finale night is May 13th. As you can tell, this is more things Dasia knows very well. And so I'm doing my best here, but um this is going to be more Amoros and Bells. Um and so they're going to sing and perform and uh I know that I know several seniors um that are members of this. And so um we're proud of them and helping them finish strong and just cheering them on to the finish line. And then May 14th is going to be senior award night. Um just another date in the future
031that uh we're looking forward to as we're getting closer to the end. And um something I was super excited about, the day of giving tomorrow. Um this is one of my favorites events that we do at the high school. Uh it's incredible because um multiple students get involved and it's for a good cause, you know. It's it's not like people are upset, you know, that they get to give back. Everybody's getting connected and and we do this all year with the football team going to the elementary schools or the cheer team, but this is the event where a majority of the school, all the students are going out and giving back to the community. So, uh it's another moment for fellowship and um just loving on each other and serving each other. And I think
032that's something um we're getting to do very well. So, I think that's all I have. Thank you. Thank you, sir. And by the way, your 44 calendar days. I know you probably haven't known the school days left, but it's 44 days on the calendar to graduate. We're excited. We're excited. How many How many school days do you I believe it is for seniors. We have less. So, I think we're in the 20s now, actually. So, getting close. We're excited for that. Be here before you know it. Great. Thank you, sir. Thank you, sir. Yep. Board, anything for Mr. Carver while he's here? Enjoy. Yeah. Well, I couldn't hardly keep up with all the little things you had listed going on. Try to put them on the calendar. That's that is a lot of little items
033there. If I didn't have the dates down, they would also be beyond me. Sure. Thank you very much, though. Yes, sir. Okay. Um, six, we're at six. Yeah. 6.0 discussion item. Superintendent goals. Yes. Yes, sir. So board, I would propose that we find we can find a day where we can get together and discuss those. Um it's five pages of uh items there and I don't think it's something that we'll be able to get through tonight. Um I think it's a good starting point. There's some things we need to add, some things we need to take away, some things we need to polish and uh so if it's the board's privy, I'd like to see Dr. Wells or Miss McNarney send out something to find us a day where we can get together and and
034do that. I'm up for other discussion, but that's I don't think this is something we'll be able to get through tonight and still have a a productive board meeting. So, any other discussion, Mr. Terry? Yes, sir. Yeah, I think it's uh pretty important for the board to get this ironed out and to go through and understand what our expectations are for a superintendent of schools. Um, and I think a session with everybody bringing their ideas forward would be would be something give us a chance to maybe talk to some some other staff faculty and maybe come up with some ideas there also. So I kind of like that idea of setting up a date because it does impact everybody stakeholders. That's right. Yes, sir. Okay. Thank here live. Miss Thompson, if you're looking for that.
035Yeah, Mr. Terry. Yes, ma'am. Um I would just uh tend to agree. Um I'm very appreciative of the start of getting these together. I think they're um very noteworthy. Um but I did have some ideas about maybe some we could combine and like you said, add. I think that's a great suggestion. Um, I would like to um request that we do it in a timely manner because I know it's important to get this rolling because school's going to be over and the new school year is just around the corner. Can I say that? So, so I think it would be if I may, you know, last month you asked me to bring you recommendations regarding VSBA and also recommendations on legal counsel. So what we could do is find a day in May we could
036car cover all three of those at one time and I'd be glad you know we can sit sit some time one afternoon on a Saturday possibly so you don't have to take off and work those you know and because I know some of y'all are you know miss far as being out of town and things during the week and so forth. Um so maybe we could do a Saturday if it's up to you as a board but we can give you some potential dates but I would say a day in May that we can get together and we can cover all three of those at once. So, I'd have to make a recommendation if we did it in May, it would have to be early in May or late in April due to the fact
037that we're hitting graduation season and I know of several of us who have multiple graduations to attend. Yeah. U so that's uh if we could give up a day of the week, but because I'm going to be here either way, so whatever suits you, but I'm fine. Yes, ma'am. Mr. Chair, what about the possibility of maybe doing it after discipline on a Thursday? I I'm game to do that. Um I'm just I'm up for the rest of the board. Yeah. We How about we send you some possible weekdays and some possible weekends and y'all can pick what suits you and we'll go from there? Is that fair? Yeah, please do that. Okay. Okay. Good. Yes, sir. So, Mr. chair. Um I just wanted to say that um you know I I was the one that
038put this on the agenda, asked for this to be on the agenda. Um I feel it's extremely important for us as a board to uh set these goals. We failed to do it last year as a board and you work at what you're looking at, right? What you're monitoring and you know we have all these things where we're monitoring our kids, looking at their performance. I think that's our responsibility that we need to be doing as well. And so that's why you know I um you know came up with with the list that we see here and would love to have a long conversation uh around it to get some good goals. Um, we have a great school system and leadership and great students and I just think we need to make sure that we
039are we are looking at the right things and that way our superintendent can know what he needs to be focusing on and I think that's the sense of urgency that we have is that we certainly want to get this taken care of uh I would say before June uh so that as he's making decisions on who he's going to hire uh we're going to give him some direction on where we think this board this school system needs to go based on these goals that we're going to uh help him to set. So, okay. Thank you, sir. Anyone else? Mr. Chair? Yes, ma'am. Okay. I just want to say m Mr. Childress and Mr. Terry, I really appreciate it um being brought up and um the document that we can discuss and I hardily agree with
040meeting at a separate time um in a timely manner. Okay. Okay. So, Dr. Dr. Wells, you and Mardney work together. Thank you for joining. Okay. Thank you very much. Yes, sir. Thank you. 7 point. So, next we have uh seven administrative and I'll turn it over to Dr. Hoden. Yes, sir. Uh Mr. Chair, members of the board, uh this last few weeks has been uh very uh interesting. Uh it seems like every day we have multiple multiple things happening uh between the uh library caf or the library, the cafeteria, the fieldhouse uh and other items. So Mr. Ro and I have been working to kind of pull everything together and I'll turn it over to him for a few minutes until he can see some of the new uh things that are happening. And again,
041every day uh is a lot going on. So Mr. Oaks, thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the board. Uh Mr. Carver was talking earlier about the excitement of reaching the goal line of graduation, those type of things. We're reaching the goal line here too as far as gradu for just a second. When we talk about graduation, uh sitting back here and looking back and seeing three of my instructors when I came through county schools just a few days ago, Miss Miss Bibby was a second grade teacher and uh Miss Jones was in middle school and Miss Flynn uh was there too. And uh so anyway, it's great seeing them and and uh seeing where I am today as a result of what they did many years ago and they put up with me. So, God
042bless them. Anyway, back to back to the subject on hand here. As Dr. mentioned, uh progress is is changing daily at a rapid speed now. Um the glasses in front of here, the new atrium going into the main entrance of the building. You also see if you look a little bit at the ground here, a lot of disturbance there. They're also working on the uh finished elevation in front of the school. We're getting ready at the parking lot. Actually, today they start laying out the curb and guttering on the side of Lance Lane right there. And that was uh this afternoon as well. So, progressing on that. This was back in uh early March setting the last HVAC unit on the uh new addition that goes over top the uh entrance way, which handles the
043uh cafeteria, the new cafeteria is where that uh unit will be running. They've got that all piped in and all the vent work done as well. Uh this is the new uh the beginning structure of the um seats for the auditorium. The the bleacher style seats if you will. And this is the steel frame that the uh the rows sit on. And also looking down uh so right there I'm standing in the main street looking down to the outside of the building toward the parking lot. And you see the structures all the way down through there. That area will be storage for you know uh theater whatever it may be back there. Be a storage area as well. And um that will be be complete shortly. These are new bleacher style seats. Uh TJ distributors
044out of Richmond started installing these about 3 weeks ago. The bleacher styles are almost complete. Uh there are 660 seats. Uh in these seats right here along the bleachers, the top four rows that you see underneath that metal structure, they are permanent fixed seats. the rest of the rows, whatever it is, seven, eight, nine, 10 of them, they all slide back and like a bleacher in a uh in the gym and they slide back. So, there'll be a flat wall back there with seats and then you'll have a flat space to do various different vents on as well. And this the picture on the left is just the framework when they start putting those in the wood and the frames and structures themselves. Sort of hard to see, but anyway, that's a um what it
045looks like in there now with all 660 seats in there. still put some finish touches finishes touches such as handrails and those type of things. And then uh once that's complete, they will come into the the bottom part in the the pit area, if you will. They've got to clean the floor and then they'll start putting the bleacher style seat. I mean putting the regular auditorium seats in the lower section in the front part of the auditorium and that'll be happening in the next week or so. This is standing up on the seats looking toward the uh stage itself. Couple things in this picture. You'll see up in the top you'll see squares. They're about 8ft squares u all across the 54 of these throughout the ceiling. They're sound uh rectangles and uh basically helps
046the sound throughout the auditorium and they've installed all those as well as the uh sprinkler systems in those. And then uh they've also been painted. This is a picture of about a week or so ago. They've all been painted now and that part is complete. You'll look up on the stage uh some of the fire rate plyboard up on the stage and uh the stage itself and of course the finishing touches have got be put on that as well. This is the epoxy floor in the uh in all the bathrooms and this is also included in the bathrooms out in the fieldhouse and in the um main bathroom and the bathroom in the um theater changing room and uh the the family bathrooms on the main hallway. Very scientific process. The picture on the left
047is the flakes, what they call, of the epoxy that it comes in. You basically have two components. You have the main base, which is the gray, white, light gray, and those type of things. And then we had a bag of burgundy. So instead of spending a few extra thousand dollars and waiting weeks on end, we did a very scientific approach. One afternoon, we met at the high school, Dr. Hoden, Dr. Wells, Miss McMar, and myself. We took a couple handfuls of the gray. We took a handful of the Burgundy. We put it in a plastic bag. We shake, shake, shake and we said, "Yeah, we like this, but we need to add this, add anything more." That's what we came up with. That weekend they installed it. Very scientific process. Uh these are the new
048bathrooms. Uh you've seen pictures along the way of uh what I've shown you as a you know, construction been going on. This week they started installing the stalls on the bathroom itself as well as the sinks. The sinks on the left, there are 16 sinks, 16 toilets in there. These sinks right here. I'm looking sitting in front of the stalls looking out toward the construction area. Um and uh there uh we'll have all the fixtures and those put on shortly. They actually put another layer of CMU or cinder block on top of that today so we can have a soap dispensers as well. And then the picture on the right is what we've always been talking about for the last year and a half is the single stalls. Um you know the safety concerns about
049having open concept in the bathrooms where you know teachers can see into the main part of the bathroom. The stalls all Florida ceiling. They all have the individual lights, smoke detectors, fire alarms, and those type things in each stall. Uh this is one of the handicap stalls. It's not um we also have wheelchair accessible stalls, handicap stalls also on both sides. So, this is just one of the handicap stalls I took a picture of. And just another angle of the front doors. Obviously, this work is not complete yet, but uh they're still working on this. This is the room. Uh you'll notice in that picture on the left they also this week started actually two days ago started installing the bulletin boards and those type things in the room. So again we're preaching approaching the
050finish line. The picture on the right is the uh main street and this is looking up near the the very bottom picture that light part you see is a hallway going to the classrooms and you'll notice that the um grid systems have been put in for the ceiling lights and I think there's like 46 can lights all the way down through the whole hallway. There's seven sets of these grid systems in there. And again, it'll be a cloud system uh where you have openings uh up into the ceiling itself. The ceiling has been painted and uh so that's progressing as well. So hopefully we have main lights in the hallway very shortly. Another thing they've done is actually broke through the uh gym wall down there. Uh that start took about two days to break
051through that. And they've also uh have gone back, the picture on the right is actually standing in the old gym hallway under behind a construction wall where they land the new block up to put a uh support beam linel in there to support the new entrance way into that hallway, tie the two old building, the new building together. Picture on the left is the main entrance looking from the parking lot into the main entrance. And basically there just showing the drywall that's going up in the cafeteria. And same thing on the right. That ceiling in there will be painted white. The rest of the ceilings in the cafeteria on the left and right side will be painted black as well to help hide some of the mechanical equipment in the ceiling. As I mentioned earlier,
052they started working on the parking lot. Picture on the left is the drain pipes coming in tying all the roof liders tying in coming around the cafeteria and they're starting to like say the curving on that side of the parking lot as well. As we move on to the fieldhouse, um these are the sewer line tied down into the woods. The picture on the left is the first pipe they laid in tied into the uh existing main going to uh the town sewer. And the picture on the right is actually right behind the fieldhouse. There's about 900t of sewer pipe going all the way down the hill. Uh the water line is complete as well. They just got to make some connections inside. They also have run the electrical line from the transformer or done
053the conduit from the transformer to the building and we'll be pulling that wire and then waiting for Abco to come in to make those connections here hopefully very shortly. Also in the fieldhouse, you can see the burgundy. The the bottom part of the wall has been painted burgundy and that one wall is a center wall between the open part of the fieldhouse and into the locker rooms. And we decided to go ahead and paint that a dark gray as well. And again, that's progressing. The uh bathroom facility structure um fixtures have been put in and again awaiting the uh stall walls as well on those back there. This is in one of the locker rooms or changing rooms if you will, the water fountains and the sinks. Both of those can complete and again continue
054installation seats, finished installation of glass. Um everything on the back end of the uh the glass is I mean in addition has been added in except the storefront. The main entrance is not done yet. Construction of the parking lot and basically uh hopefully by the time we come next month you we'll be very close to the completed project. So or this part of the project rather. So any questions board? Any questions for Mr. strokes. You can see the finish line, too, sir. Right. I don't know. Somebody keeps moving that bad boy. Yeah. We'll get there. We'll get there. It'll get there. We've had a few uh hurdles this week, but we've uh been rolling through there uh pretty quickly. Next, uh just wanted to let you know, we had talked about last month there's a
055uh construction grant out there for a million dollars. We at this point in time will not be applying for that due to, you know, funding and also um we don't have a project um that exceeds a million dollars right now with everything we've got going on. So, we're going to have to pass on that this year, but we will keep looking at at other grants and I know in the near future we'll have many other things to to tackle. So, we'll move on from there. Um next, the uh Verizon tower. Just want to give you a quick update on that. I did receive a projected contract. However, um we're in the discussions with our attorneys and also um I am talking to a special representative trying to get to review that before I bring it
056back. Um you had asked me to try to uh attain every possible uh fund from that, including if they add to the tower. So, we're looking at um at the wording on that and I have a a special rep that's trying to help me with that and I'll get that back to you as soon as we have those numbers. questions on that board. Any questions? Yeah. Yes, Mr. Terry. Um, so when the contract comes back, that's not the point that we would be voting on it, right? That's just for us to It'll be just next steps. If you agree to that, then we would proceed with the hearing and then we'd let them do the balloon test uh at at Manellison and then Yeah. So that would be where you would go on to the
057next step or not. Okay. So how would we get um public feedback on that before we sign a contract? You could have public hearing. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. All right. Um something that's not on the agenda. Just wanted to uh talk to you about real quick. Dr. Wells and I met with Kim Klein and DOE rep this morning. We had this week we've had seems like this year many federal reviews and um this was the exit interview for the uh federal monitoring for our cafeteria and things went really well with that. There were a few suggestions for finance. One of the things that we do have to come back to though is we had changed the uh policy for the wellness policy and when we changed that policy it went against state regs. So we
058have to bring that back to you and we'll have to change it back. So we will bring you more information on that um in the near future once we're waiting on the letter from them with the followup on that. So once we get the letter from them as far as the what the needs are, what the findings are, then we'll bring that to you. But we know it's going to be a finding. So once we get that letter, then we'll come back to you and try to have a a session on how to clean up and I'll make recommendations regarding the policy. It it dealt with the concessions and the wording that we put in there um has to be back to um the way it was. Our ours kind of suggested that we could
059have concessions at any time. So we just have to clean up that wording. It'll be very One of the things I do want to read to you though, um this is the last part and this is the commendations and I just wanted to to shout this out. So, I'm going to read this uh from the letter from the rep. Said, "The Ammeris County Public Schools trienal assessment was very thorough and identified areas for improvement. The division set excellent goals for the next trianual cycle, seeking to increase staff wellness initiatives, creating new partnerships, and fully implementing a wellness policy. We commend Ammerst for promoting scratch cooking and utilizing local products when available." Kim and her staff reviewed schools were very friendly, answered questions and provided documentation as requested. The staff were very well attuned to the
060students and their needs providing great customer service. All school and staff were friendly and helpful. So that was accommodations at the end and I just wanted to know you to know that uh Miss Klein and her staff did an excellent job during this time and as always they always find a few things for us to to improve on. Questions on that board? Any questions? Okay. Thank you, Dr. Oden. Yes, sir. All right. Uh, next you have in front of you u several policies for first Amber's got to do the website first. Oh, that's right. I skipped over you, Amber. I'm sorry. So, we have update on the website from uh Mica. Amber, I was going right through my stuff. Sorry. Good evening, Mr. Chairman, members of the board. Uh just a few minutes this evening
061to give you an update on where we are with the new website. Um we have signed an agreement with Parent Square. That is the provider that we're going to be going with with their Smart Sites website. And I'm happy to report that the initial build is done not only for the division but also for um the 10 school sites. So, um, what we have here, I'm going to go through a couple of sites just to show you some highlights and then I'll be more than happy to answer any questions. Um, I think this website platform is definitely more modern and more userfriendly um, than what we have had in the past. Um, it has been designed to be more userfriendly and more intuitive um, to help our families and our communities find information quickly um,
062and more easily. There is also a lot of consistency between the division site and the 10 school sites. So once our families get used to one site, it doesn't matter what level their kids are at or which school site they visit, they're going to be familiar and be able to navigate um navigate the to find the information that they need. Um and recruitment and retention is a goal on all sites where we are constantly recruiting um new staff. So, um, this is going to be the board member page. Um, before your May school board meeting, I ask you guys to please come dressed with smiles because I do need to get new head shot so that we can put updated pictures. And I know one question, Mr. Childress, that you had had with regards to
063protecting um our employees and ensuring that we don't have fishing. One of the things we have been able to do is to use the buttons everywhere to hide email addresses to reduce the fishing and the spamming. And so this is just an example. Um we've done the same thing on all of the staff directories, not only on the division page, but also on the school pages and anywhere where we have a contact us type section. I'm making sure to build those website uh the email addresses so that they're hidden um to prevent that. So that is there. Um just to kind of give you an idea. Um the nice thing is we are able to effectively use pictures um and some photographs on the website. Not only the every main page is going to have
064a rotating photo gallery that'll have about six to eight pictures that'll be updated every two to four weeks by the schools. Um but we also have some different components where we can not only highlight some of the important information but also highlight the really amazing things that are going on in our schools um in a really interesting and unique way. And then just to kind of give you an idea of what the school sites look like, um they have a very similar layout. Um we are able to put information um available to parents, some of the quick quick access points for information that they're going to readily be using. Um the popular links and then the call to action buttons. Again, they are exactly the same amongst all the sites. There are um latest news
065sections where they can post information and pictures to keep things at the forefront and really highlight them at the top of the website. Um upcoming events with calendars and we are redoing the way that the calendars are maintained which should make it easier and less cumbersome for our web managers at the schools. And then of course the information how to stay connected with us um on social media as well. And then here is an example of one of the middle school sites. We did clean up some of the colors to make sure that we had we didn't have any um color contrasting area errors um and ADA compliance issues. And then of course the high school site and you can see that those sites mimic each other as well. So to date, um, a preview
066link has been shared with division level staff, um, to the pages that pertain to their purview, and they are currently looking through that. I'm asking for feedback. I'm asking them to help me with edits and for typos because the hours I've spent looking at those sites, I'm starting to go a little fuzzy. Um, I'll be meeting with all of them when we return from spring break, um, to get some feedback to continue to fine-tune and tweak. Um, we did preview the websites with the principles earlier this week at the principal meeting and the Monday, the teacher work day after spring break, we do have a meeting with the school web manager. So, we'll be previewing that with them as well. And then that those similar links will be sent to those individuals so that they
067can put another set of eyes to make sure that everything is fine-tuned before we go live. Um, we will be doing specific training with our web managers on how to actually work with this new website and I'm pretty confident that the web managers are going to be happy. This website is the backend, the editing end. It's very userfriendly. It's very intuitive. It makes sense. There is a site map which is a fantastic thing. Um, so I think they're going to be pleasantly surprised. Um, and we've streamlined a few things to take some unnecessary work off of them and I'm taking some of that lift for them to help them out with everything else that they have to do. Um, we'll also be designing a marketing campaign that will launch probably mid to late May where
068we will start notifying our families that come July 1, which is our launch date and everything is on track for uh July 1, that the website's going to look different. And so we want to make sure that they're aware of that. Um, I've already contacted uh Mr. Golden with it and there are some things that we will have to do on the back end to make sure that that is seamless and we're already making plans for that and I've already been in touch multiple times with the provider just to make sure there's no hiccups on their end either. Um I'm pretty confident that this website I I'm happy with this website so far. I think the committee did a great job in selecting our new provider. Um, I really think that this website is going
069to help us tell our story and really showcase the wonderful things going on in our schools. And I know personally I'm very excited. So, if anybody has any questions, I'd be more than happy to answer them. Great board. Any questions? Looks awesome. I like it. Well, thank you very much. Appreciate your time. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Yeah. Sorry. Dr. Hood, I had my notes all aligned. I didn't put a pause in there for Miss Bleco, so I apologize for that. Uh, Mr. Chair, members of the board, you have in front of you several uh policies for first read and I will add the majority of these are I mean really all of these are very minor little tweaks and adjustments. So it shouldn't be if you have questions that's fine but we'll talk about
070it next month but it shouldn't be a whole lot of cont anything controversial. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Uh next uh just want to talk to you about I've been working on uh first semester discipline. Um couple things that we needed to dig into a little bit more on some days. So I will provide that for you. I'll send you an email for that a little bit later uh this month and then we can discuss. One of the things I wanted to bring out though that was pretty shining. Last year, first semester, there were 603 incidents of cell phones. This year, first semester, there were 246. So although supposed to be in lockers, we still had 246, but that's third. So that's much better. Additionally, the vapes were down, tobacco vapes were down from 78 to
07141. I do believe that those are related as well. So, just wanted to share that was pretty astounding numbers to that. I wanted to bring that out to you. Okay, questions on that board. Any questions? Yes, Mr. Terry. Yes, ma'am. Um, those statistics are very encouraging. What about our marijuana vapes? I'll have that for you when you Yeah, we're still trying to pull it off so it's clean and concise for you. So, what we'll do is uh give you an email with that data in there and then we'll just we can be glad to discuss in more depth at at the May meeting. I've got that in already in there, but I'll um I'll kind of in my notes now, but I can share with you after. I think they were actually pretty close. The
072rest of the numbers were fairly close. Okay. Thank you, sir. Okay. Or Yes, sir. Dr. Holden, the um so we've seen some improvements. Um what's what changed? What do you think changed and what can we do to continue to improve on that? You know, having them in their lockers, uh teachers policing those and you know, they're students aren't allowed to have the the phones on their possession. So, you know, that's improved. I mean, some obviously still are. We still had over 200 incidents first semester, but right, you know, certainly just just continuing to preach that and and um push that forward. Yeah. Is there so we're talking about cell phones that aren't supposed to be used from bell to bell. Is that understanding? Now, are we talking bell to bell between classes or we talking
073from the time you get off the bus to the time you get back on the bus? From the time you get off the bus to the to the time you get go back out on the bus. Yes, sir. So we got a plan to try to decrease it some more some new just continue to police that and you know share things with at home and you know that and I don't have the numbers but you know the first month the first couple weeks of school were a lot higher rate and as a year's gone by that rate has decreased because the first month they were trying to they were figuring out the system right and now they know the system so those numbers have decreased but um we can have those numbers for you. But
074I think part of it is just awareness of for student awareness and just making sure we're enforcing and the consequences that are there, make sure those are being enforced uh with the students, but you know, not being able to have your phone at school um at all is a serious consequence as well. So, right. And you know, there are a lot of other uh things that other divisions are doing that we've talked to and they're, you know, they're all having their difficulties with it. Um, you know, this was a a much cheaper option than some of the others and I feel like it's been as effective as as what some of the other divisions are doing. You know, talking and sharing. I mean, everyone's dealing with it. Just, you know, the phones and vapes. I
075think they're the, you know, two of the biggest biggest things that, you know, discipline wise we're dealing with. Understand? Okay. Thank you. Yep. Thank you. Right. Any other questions? Yes, ma'am. Thanks, Mr. Terry. Um, if we could get a co a copy of what the procedures are as far as consequences. It send the regulation, but I can we can send it to you the same. Yes. Okay. All right. I'll look. Thanks. Sure. I can I'll we'll send it to you again. That way you have it fresh on top of your email. Thanks. Okay. All right. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh also you have in front of you the uh student suspension report for March board. Anything? Thank you. Dr. Oden eight. So Mr. Chair, members of the board, finance miss had a medical issue this
076afternoon and she is not here this evening. Um I'll be glad to try to answer any questions you have. this is her wheelhouse. Um I'm not aware of any red flags or anything else going on. So, but uh if you have questions specific, you can email her or you can get in touch with her and um if or I can try to answer them tonight. Board, any questions for Dr. Wells with finance? Okay, Dr. Wells, I think we'll let you off easy. All right. Thank you. I appreciate it. Next, we have instruction. Dr. Norman. Okay. Thank you, sir. Mr. Chair and members of the board. Uh, the first thing I'd like to discuss tonight is an update on school quality, office of school quality. Earlier today, we had a team that met with um the
077Virginia Department of Education and Dr. Martha Powers who is our state liaison for Ammerst County Public Schools along with Dr. Judy Cox who is um another person at the state level who goes through the school improvement process and turnaround schools in regards to federally identified um what we did is we had um Miss Natalyia Cecil, Robin Wheeler, Josh Neighbors, Dr. Wells, myself, Ruth Matheni, um that are on the federal team here at the division level, um along with Miss Jill, who was absent today, um meet with the team to go through each one of the schools who are federally identified, Madison Heights, Central Elementary, and Menllison Middle School. And we discussed what the process is that we have in place for school support plans um that are required from the state. And then what we
078have seen so far in regards to their data, what that we have done in regards to professional development with the principles as well as with staff and then how we've seen that impact student success in the buildings where it gets right down to the nitty-gritty. The best part about it was talking about our next steps. What are the things that we saw were working? What are the things that we were able to prove by data that are working? and then what are we going to continue? What do we know that isn't working for this group of students and we need to take two steps back and figure that out? And so we had a very good conversation. Um we'll open it up to Miss Wheeler and Dr. Wells and Mr. neighbors if they'd like to
079comment. But it was a very good meeting that we were very transparent in the needs of the school division and the needs of our students and what we need as a division to move forward with student success. And it was a um productive to where um we actually opened up the dialogue for them to come in and um attend one of the schools or all of the schools, meet with the principles to kind of share their experience through school improvement and their experience as working in federally identified schools in case we may have missed something along the way and to give us some um next steps and initiatives that we as a division can support our principles and our teachers. Dr. Wells, I just want to thank Dr. Norman and uh Robin, Ruth, and Natalia
080for their work on this and getting everything ready for this meeting. I felt the meeting was very positive. Um they had very good things to say about the work we have been doing as a school division that our principles have been doing, that our teachers have been doing, and you know, trying to look at what we can do next to improve. Our goal is to continue this momentum moving forward. And so that that's what we're going to be looking trying to work on as we move into the summer. And but I just wanted to say it was a very thought conversation was positive and um I was thankful that it went that way be quite honest. It was an hour and 40 minutes but it was a very positive conversation with the state uh our
081reps at the state and again it was all due to the work that our staff has been doing from teachers all the way up to central office. But um just thankful that every all the work that has been put into this and we're looking for more improvement moving forward. Yeah, Mr. Neighbors. Wheeler. Okay. I would say that we would not have had such a positive impact without the support of the teachers in the classroom that are on the front lines with our students. They've done an excellent job this year. Um and they always do. And it's just the little tweaks that we asked them to do along the way. And they've done that and we're we're seeing success and we hope to see those success continue to grow especially when our data comes out in
082end of May. Okay. And we'll take any questions that you have. Okay. Born, any questions for uh Dr. Norman? and and we will get a um follow-up letter from the state regarding positives, strengths, weaknesses, growth, or whatever you want to put it, where we need to focus on moving forward. So, that'll be within about 45 days. So, by the time we get into the end of May, 1 of June, we should have that information for you and we'll share it once we get it. Great. Board, anything else? Okay. Thank you, Dr. Bman. You're welcome. The next thing is just the regular monthly laser report. If I can point out a couple of things in regards to laser. Um the system right now is down again. So it the state has had some problems updating regularly
083daily information. So attendance as well as our discipline. Um some it has to be hand entered at the state level as well as some in our own uh division here. And so what we've done is we've tried to pull it as close as we can to the date so you see um on the specific day each month what that looks like. Um we have seen a decrease in our attendance rates. Um across the division we have some schools that went up maybe one or two points um that we saw that was based on the flu uh that we saw in the last uh 30 days or 40 days. So, uh, our discipline has actually gone down as well, but we're in and out. And so, our discipline numbers probably are a week to 10 days
084behind. So, I just wanted to kind of let you know based on what the state's doing with the laser um, system right now. And I'll take any questions. I don't know if I can answer them, but I'll try if you have any. Port. Any questions for Dr. Norman? Just a quick question. Yes, if I may. Um, looking at the division overview, um, I know the EWS overview shows that we have a small percentage of our students on track, but I think I understand that that's built on several different multiple components. Yes, ma'am. And is it the three components to the right of that? Yes. So, looking at behaviors, we have good com um, results there. Coursework about 62%. So it looks like attendance is what's holding that down. But what I I don't understand is
085if only 34% are on track, the attendance, behavior, and coursework. None of those are that low. Correct. So I don't didn't understand how that those numbers pull together. You have the three layers. You have the on track, then there's the middle layer, which my brain is not working. Early warning. Early warning. Early warning. But those early warning could be like from so perspective could be from 375 to 450 range, right? So they have that early warn they could be still on track as far as passing things but not be above that criteria they have set. So from think thinking so standpoint 400 and above 400's passing so but and how they're setting these standards up that is not considered on track on track is well is above 450. So that same think the same concept
086can be used for attendance and for coursework course work. So with the coursework it's just the four core classes and not all of our students actually take the all four classes like if you're a 10th grader you may not take a history. If you're a ninth grader you may not well you would take biology or science. So well I guess I'm just asking about the metrics that's here in front of us. If the overview percentage is built out of attendance, behavior, and coursework, how do we get 34% on track when attendance has 49% on track, behavior has 89% on track, and coursework is 62 on track. The overview actually is the culmination of everything from the beginning of the year and our year actually goes the year for the data on this goes January to
087January. It's not a school year. So we actually that's why this they're trying to revamp the system. So it's from the first day of school in August or whenever the school system starts to the last day when and it goes by your grading period. So that's that's the concern. So attendance behavior and coursework are just for these last 30 days but then the early warning they track it for the whole continuous year which is January to January if that makes sense. And are they going to continue to do that or are they working to we've asked them to make it so it's school year versus the other. So right and that we would be able to go back on the three areas attendance behavior and coursework that we could be able to do a snapshot
088of I want to pick in the month of January January 1 to February 1 this year to January 1 February 1 of last year. We can't do that right now because of the way that the system is set up. I can't pick a piece of time. I can only look at the data for this particular day and what it says on this day and it's for the full it's the past 30 days and it's for the full year for the early warning. So, we've asked for several changes. the state started to make those changes and when they did they did not sync with powers school nor infinite campus and I can't remember the other one that's a student management system so last question is this report used at all in determining how we remediate our
089students or what actions we're going to be taking from this data this year no ma'am I use very specific. We use mastery connects which is common assessment that the teachers build. It's division level assessments that we build and it's very specific. It's got the new SOS updated to it. Um we do use this well we use Swiss for our discipline data because that gives us the location in the building. It gives us the time of day what has happened. Um, this is it was great when we started out because it only did the 30 to 45 days, but as you go longer into the year, it has not been what we needed in the division to do what we need to do with kids. So, we have open court and the assessments that run weekly
090through that. Um we've put in through our SIG grants, school improvement grants, um progress learning. No, yes, progress learning and dream box for our math. So to make sure that we have dipsticks along the way to that we're on the right course and all of those are aligned with our so the new SOS. So does this report have any value? Not to me Lord. Does this report have any value to you? Little I mean it's well I'm sorry Mr. Ch. It's well explained. That's not what we're talking about. But it was a good question, Miss Thompson. What are we using it for? I guess we would it us snapshots in time so we could say where we are now, where we were last month at this time or it would be a lot easier. And
091I'm hoping to get to that point. It does give you your green, yellow, red as far as that aspect of it. That's a snapshot too of where we are like right now for the that you know for that month and where we are today. But I can't compare I can't go back into the database and pull okay where today I'm here January I was 10th I was here. It doesn't let us do that. But it does let us kind of see as a snapshot where green, yellow or red. Right. it. I will say that this would be a report next year when the state works everything out that the board should receive monthly because it will let you see the gradual growth and progress in each of these areas. At this particular time, it does
092not do that. and and for this particular month too due to the the issues with the state that some of the data is not up to date. It's not not saying it's not accurate but it's not up to where we it's about two weeks off. Yes. Well, I know that we've met on 2 by twos that so that we can have a better understanding of how the division utilizes their data. Um, I know that there have been board members that have asked, is there a way that we can have monthly reports or at least quarterly reports um that indicate how our students are progressing. Um, we have people from the public that come and and say to us that we as a board that that should be our number one focus and I agree. So
093my question is is this if this report is not giving us as a board the data we need and this is a conversation we've had in the past maybe we could look at getting a different report that would be more reflective of how our students are progressing especially in reading um and math but you know in all the areas attendance and behavior as well. Yes ma'am. Mr. Sure. Okay. Yes, ma'am. Um Dr. Norman, um when you compare the same time frames that this report is covering to what your testing is showing, are you seeing a correlation? Are they is your um Dreambox and Master Reconnects and Swiss are they those numbers are they trending with this? But when you use the same when you control for the same time period, right? So I can do
094that with attendance and I can do that with behavior because those incidents are the same. Either you're here or you're not or there is a referral or there's not. I cannot do that academically with coursework because the academic piece in coursework is the actual gradebook grade. And what I pull in regards to student progress is not a grade in the grade book. It is a growth measure using either the platforms or small group instruction in our PLC's. It can be a common assessment that could go into the grade book, but every classroom or every grade level or every school is different. And so that's why it's very difficult to say every elementary school, third grade, you're going three times a year. I can do it because we do student growth assessment at the beginning, so
095test at the end, and a benchmark assessment in in December and January. So I can tell you those quarterly but weekly like I need to me as a instructional person that is I can't use this report. I can use it for discipline. I can use it for attendance and those numbers are the same because what that does it pulls from the grade book. It could be for example a student didn't do turn in assignments like daily assignments but they may have mastered the content right they may take it take a so type equivalent test or benchmark test and make 100 on it but because they haven't done their homework and they haven't done this didn't turn this paper in or do that that's what that's pulling as opposed to the assessment aspect of it. So
096you could be doing grade on the assessment but not turn all your other assignments in and got zeros on those and it's going to reflect in that grade in that report. So laser is going from the grade book. Yes. Okay. So like in the previous 30 days are you able to print off the report that's there? Okay. So can we do a comparison that way? If you print it off each month then that will at least show you what the trend is. Right. That's what we've been doing. Yes. like they're all loaded up on board doc so you can go back three months and pull the one we did three months and we can show but yes ma'am we pull each every month that you get we we we save and we have that so
097we can compare I don't we don't I don't run it every day no monthly so so right we can use that data then so it is giving us it is giving us real time data but it's not com it is not keeping track of it um continuously that you can access that data. So to correct to have that data you have to print it and compare it that way. Exactly. And so your report like on attendance on that second page it talks about central saw a 4% increase in students on track while the others elementary schools also showed some gains except for Ammerst County High School and Ammeris Elementary. So that's comparing what we saw last month to what we're seeing this month. That increase or decrease that we're seeing in either attendance, behavior, and
098coursework. But I wanted to remind you coursework is all grades in the grade book. It's not what we use to determine mastery of that so standard. Mr. Gilders, Mr. Chair, I have to express my disappointment. I've been on this board for a year and four months and for a year and two months, I've been asking for a report and when you laser first came out, that was supposed to be the answer to it. Yes, sir. And my frustration is is twofold. It's it's part of it is because I feel like we've been wasting this board's time by going through you do a 10-minute 15 minute presentation every board meeting on laser. Please don't waste our time anymore. Okay, with that um the second thing is is I understand our teachers frustration because you're asking them
099time and time again to compile data to look at the data. We heard, you know, from a speaker tonight talking about it. I've brought it up multiple times. We expect them to do that. But that when the board asks you guys for reports so that we can make our decisions, we can't get a report. But y'all asked for laser. No, we did not ask for laser. When I asked for a stoplight report, okay, that will help us in determining where our students are. And what we just heard is that your own admission laser is useless for academics. Yes, sir. I don't use laser for academics and I haven't for the last two months because it doesn't give me daytoday information. And I can use it for attendance, I can use it for discipline. And right
100now I can't even use it for discipline because the state's system is not up and running correctly. the what you're asking for 4,000 students or close to 3,812 I believe is what we have is doable and I can I have given you permissions to go into the document but it's student specific and you said you didn't want student specific information. Yeah. Yeah. And again, as a board, we don't need student specific. We need a sir. That's all I deal with. Student specific, student success. So, I can collaborate and I can pull it all together and I can put it in this nice little package for you. The problem is that doesn't tell me that doesn't tell you how that subgroup is doing. And that's what I have to concentrate on. I I have a academic
101tool that I have given every board member access to and you can go to the very first page and it lists by grade level what the different areas are and how I track it through the year. That's how I track the data. You have access to that. You have had access to that since the beginning of this school year. Mr. Chair. Yes, ma'am. Um for me, yes ma'am. Um if we had a way to compare the number of students quarter 1, quarter two, quarter three um that you can that teachers have considered at risk or mastery or both. So that we can say at the beginning of this school year we had and I'm going to make these numbers up we had 60% of our students at risk in reading. In the midyear we had
10250% at risk in reading. Yes. You you were given that two months ago in the vows data for K through five six seven and eight. We have the um academic tracking tool that we did student growth assessment and that was given to you in the board report. I mean in the board presentation for data. I understand. But for me you and your staff are professionals and you look at all this data every day. As a board, I just want to know whether our students are improving and are they improving at the rate that we think they should be improving that it's going to benefit them. So to just get basic numbers, okay, I mean I I don't understand why that would be extremely hard to get the number of students that are considered at risk.
103Let's just stick with that risk. Okay. Um I'm sure when you meet with PLC's, you look at your teachers and you say, "How many students are at risk?" And and if you don't, I'm sure they could come with I have every teacher five at risk in my class and easily that could be tallied and totaled. And I know that that happens what weekly, twice weekly you have PLC's. Yes, ma'am. So, you know, they're tallying how many students they have at risk twice a week, and I applaud that. I would like to know how many we have at risk. Let me just say monthly. I don't know. That sounds reasonable if we're asking teachers to tally it that we ask the division to tally it even at the division level. Um, yeah. So, and maybe this
104is not the time to continue this, but I share um Mr. Childress's frustration. I want to know how our students are doing. And I'm thrown with so many reports that are very complex. It's difficult to be able to interpret and know and with the expertise that you guys have to be able to know how our at risk students are performing is what I need. I don't need a lot of I don't know. I just need the basics of how many at risk kids do we have and and if the teachers can pull that together, they're the experts at how that happens. Maybe we don't need a fancy um uh data software. Maybe we just need to know how many in each of our schools is at risk. I don't know. Okay. And if I'm the
105only one who feels that way, then don't waste waste any time on that, Mr. Terry. Yes, ma'am. Okay. Um, Dr. Norman, when you are um getting that data from your teachers through the PLC's, is that inputed into like a living document like I'm not sure if it's Google Sheets or Google Docs that reflects immediate changes? They do a PLC document once a week where they list what they're focused on for the week, math and reading, and then they group their students. So, it's not a tally. It's they list every kid, a pretest, a post- test, what that kid needs interventions on, and then they list the interventions down at the end, and that's discussed at grade levels or content specific areas. Do you have a document that shows at this school there are this many
106students at risk in reading? At this school, there are this many students. Just the basic number. I do. You do? Okay. And that is in reading. That is the vows document that was presented to the board two months ago where we I think it was two months ago where we explained this number of kids at fourth grade are above reading performance. This is where they were at the beginning of the year. This is where they are midy year. This is where they were at kindergarten. This is how they transferred into first grade. And it's list out every grade level at every school. And the number of kids and the percentage of did they go up, did they go down? That's for reading. And Val, but Val isn't a monthly thing. Val is not a monthly
107thing. So it's quarterly. So quarterly you get that information. So quarterly you find out where the kids are at. Yes, ma'am. And then regularly once a month depending on the unit for reading the teachers K through five do their common assessments through open court and that data is put in the PLC's. If it's a common assessment, it's done in the school academic tracker data tracker that we actually can pull and it gives a number and it gives information that that school utilizes and that we go in and support. Dr. Norman, would vowels be considered a lagging or a leading indicator? A lagging or a leading indicator? Yes. When you're looking at data, the two types of data, right? There's a lagging and a leading, right? I would say that it is more of a leading.
108I c I know where kids I know by the interventions that I do with those kids and the tests that I give them how far they're going to grow between now and the end of the year. So, it's leading me to determine their performance at the end of the year. Is that what you're asking? No. Um but so it's it's it's not giving us information about where they are today, right? Because it's done quarterly. Yes. Right. So it's a lagging indicator because it's in the past. It's what their performance has been. Uh and so we're trying to predict where they're going to be based on that. Right. Right. A leading indicator is what is their performance today? Uh and we can make assessments and judgments based off of those indicators. Those are the more informative
109type of um of data to look at because it it tells us we're not looking historically but rather we're looking at where the students are performing today so we can make those adjustments to move on forward. That's what is used at our PLC's, right? And and and I don't I certainly don't want to you continue to to beat a dead horse. Um but I guess my analogy is is that um you you said that we have access to all this data. Um to me it would be like you asking the teachers for all this data and then them saying well you have access to my gradebook. Go get the data yourself. Right? And so I don't think it's quite fair to to ask the board for us to go look through all of the student
110data individually when we're simply asking for a summary so that we can make informed decisions ourselves which is one of our primary roles. Right. So So this is the packet we're referring to this thick packet. Yeah. I think we're looking for something simpler. At least I am. Mr. Chair. Yes ma'am. Uh question. What grade is the vows? It goes K through fifth grade. K through five. Well, K through three for vows and then we do our own four and five. Okay. So, when I'm talking about at risk, that's K through 12. So, ma'am, there is a a large population that's not included in those vows. So I guess I would appreciate understanding the number of atrisisk students that we have. Yes ma'am. It can even include at risk for graduation. Um as opposed to just
111saying well we were given the data from vows right we need it and I'm using that as an example that we have data K through 12. It just depends what what that data is. Like if I I know that at the high school I am tracking science and math specifically because those are my areas of concern for those schools. I know I track CTE. I track dropout rate and graduation and if they're ready, if they've taken all their tests. Um we are data rich. I I I guess it's and when we brought laser to you, I guess it was in Decemberish time frame. That's what and we were in agreement. I thought we were in agreement that that was something now we're looking at it maybe it's not giving you what you need. So that
112is something we will bring forward. But we we are tracking our at risk students. We know who at the high school is at risk of not graduating. We know the the I don't have the number on top of my head right now. 15 16 kids that still need to pass a looking at it right now. You know, we're we track that. So, if that's what you're asking for, then that's Yes. We live in a very complex world. Yes, ma'am. And we have a ton of data at our fingertips. I don't know about the rest of the board, but what I want is just the simple basics. Now, yeah, maybe by subgroup that's important, but I'm not going to ask for that until I can just get the totals. You know, how many at risk? You
113know, if we can have a quarterly report on how many we have at risk for not graduating, how many do we have at risk for right now? We have 12. Okay. So, we ask, but yet there's this dialogue is continuous and I don't understand why. So I just want simple data so that as a board we can be accountable for whether our students are improving or not. And while six or 12 pages of data is important for us to look at, it's very difficult to discern whether our students are improving throughout the year at the rate that they need to be. I know that we have some gains that we need some ground we need to make up. Um I know that our teachers are working hard in their PLC's and that they are collecting
114their data um trying to bring that to the table and that's all we're asking is that you can bring us some data that's simplistic enough for us to understand. And I don't dismiss the complex reports. Those are important because we do dig into those. But just the a simple overview of where they were for me the beginning of the year, the middle of the year, now um but you know that might be something that the board needs to talk with Dr. Wells about and get a consensus of what they want. I don't want you to create a report just for me as a single board member, but I do I I do need simplicity to help me follow it through the year. Um, and I need the complicated reports too so that I can dig
115into the subgroups. But I think the point that started me with this conversation is the report that's in front of us doesn't seem to be giving us much. And therefore that caused me to feel like I'm missing what I needed. So maybe the report's not every month. Maybe it's every quarter. I don't know. That's something we can talk about. But so that there's not a ton of work. Well, I just want to everybody understand the work is being done on our end. I don't question. I'm I don't want people thinking that we're asking teachers to do things and my staff is is not. We spent Well, I'll say this lady right here and Natalia spent the past three weeks working 60 hours, 70 hours a week preparing data for the state review. And so I
116don't want people thinking that we're asking teachers do something we're not doing. Now, are we giving it to you in a format that you want it? That's a question we can discuss and how we get it to you. But don't feel, please don't think that my staff up here is not busting the rear ends to analyze data because we are and we can give it to you. I can we can sit here all night and give you everything you want and we sit here till 3:00 in the morning if you want to. I can give everything we have. I don't think that's what you want. But don't please don't feel that they are not doing their job and we're asking teachers to do more than we're doing because that is not the case. So, I'll
117just leave it at that and I thank them for all they do and we will get you what you want next month. That's all I'm going to say about that. Thank you. So, I will speak to that, Dr. Wells, because I was the one who made the comment that that spurred that is I have no doubt your team is doing the work and the comment about giving us all the data. Again, that's what we're saying we don't want, right? As some of these reports are this thick as a board, we can't use those really to make informed decisions. Um, but what we would like is, you know, some data that tells us where our kids are now so, so that we can make informed decisions as a board. That's fine. I'll have that for you.
118We just now that that's out and the laser is not if what you want, then we will make sure you have what you want. Mr. Chair, can I just chime up chime up in here? Yes, ma'am. It depends. I mean, everybody's right. But every board tells them to do something different. Let me just help things out here. I have heard where we wanted this much that because this was too less so they gave us this much. Whoever it might be, not just them. Some board members like to have books and books of data to compare or not compare from ever and ever depending on what they're looking at. Some people want to know about attendance because that was one of the uh issues for uh federal accreditation. So we said okay we give you that.
119Some people say I want to know about behavior. So I'm just being real. They g they gave us that. I might agree that we get a lot but there was a board as one time and we just have to understand how we change that said give me everything. I want to go home and look at everything. I want to look at what other counties have what we have. I'm talking about discipline and I'm talking about attendance and I'm talking about behavior and then I know we are dwelling on and it's good of achievement. So really and truly in my closet at home which is I don't have any clothes in it. I have all this in it. There is all of this stuff. I'm just being I laugh but I'm being real. I have all
120of this stuff that we've been asking for. But it is reasonable to say don't give it anymore. But truly another board member someday will come and say you're not giving me enough. I need to compare more. I need more numbers here. I need more state numbers. I need more country numbers. And that's where it came from. I was sitting right here one time when somebody said, "This is not enough. This is too too simple. I need more comparisons." So, your point is taken, but don't speak for everybody when you say, "Don't give me stuff." I think the board needs to have this conversation one day of what you really want. Is that all right? I just think that you said, "Don't give us nothing else." I didn't say that, but I like what we all
121tried to say. Let's see what this board at this time needs. And that's a conversation to have. I don't you know data I went, let me just be through. I went to a class on data at the VSBA and I almost died up in there because it conversation was very real that data means different things to different people. And right now we want data to mean something to us that will show us about student achievement. Am I right? That's what Miss Thompson's talking about. Somebody else may want data to look at discipline. And so we did have this laser. I know I got something at home that's colorcoded with just about everything on it. Subgroups because I used to get mad. Y'all remember I used to get mad. I said, "Why are you putting subgroups
122and telling me who's at risk?" So, we stopped doing that. Then the state said, "Oh, you got to show subgroups." We have even each school somewhere in my closet, each school is divided into what situations they have an achievement. I know it's out there on what it's called, but each school because I used to say certain certain school and you would say we're not going to put it up there cuz we don't want to upset anybody. So in my closet, uh, I have every school broken down to at risk and all of that in a bag of chips. Now, I didn't say we need to not do it. I'm just giving my opinion, too. I I hear what both my colleagues are saying, but don't speak for me by saying don't give me too many
123more. Let's see what the board wants to do. And that's all I got to say. Mr. Saunders. Dr. Norman, I've got I'm a packrat. I pulled mine out. Um, and so it's got the fall recipe, but we don't have midyear. When can we expect any of that or are we maybe we're not getting that? But and is that the vows or is that data tracking? It's the vows vows data 24. So I didn't know when it said midyear wristbands. There's there's no the Excel spreadsheet there. The formula is funky. So there's nothing on this one. Yes, ma'am. We shared just a screenshot of that last month, but I can send out that exact copy with the updated Yep. mid year and spring will be there by the end of May. Cool. That's what I think,
124you know, for me, I have to deal with a lot of Excel spreadsheets. So, it does help me see if we've moved across. So, for me, that was it's a lot, but it is what it I I have a one pager that's an overall summary by grade by grade third grade reading third grade math fourth grade meeting fourth grade math history science that shows so I'll give you an example um reading third grade um 287 total students 51% of those at the fall were um at risk and now we are at 89 students, 31% at risk. And so we've shown growth in moving them over into wellprepared, which is your green. Um, and this is a document, but this is a document that I discussed that it is the school's document that lists by students.
125So, I can print this summary that dumps everything into it that kind of I can I can print one so you can see it tonight to say if you want me to print it out, I I don't I can give it to you electronically, but that's the one that has every kid in the entire division listed. And that's what you said you you didn't want that. But I can give you the initial summary page so you can see it's a onepager that lists the four content areas and what each of the things are. And it's fall growth, winter growth, and then what we'll have at the end of the year. But it is not the it's that lagging or data. It is not the things that I'm using weekly in PLC's. I don't keep that.
126That's at the schools and that's why we're in the PLC so we can hear those discussions. Mr. Chair. Yes, sir. So, I do want to correct one statement that um my fellow board member said when I made the the comment about not providing it to us anymore was based on Dr. Norman's comment that yeah, the laser report is useless. So, if board members want to get information that they that the administration themselves feels is useless, by all means, continue to ask for it. Uh, but I don't think we need to be receiving information that's useless. And I stand somewhat corrected, sir. I'll take that. So, but I wouldn't I really don't even like to hear the title. This won't you I'm just talking useless information because somebody's doing all this stuff here. I don't know.
127I mean somebody is doing all this so it's not useless to somebody but as I said before and I think for Mr. Chair and can you you being advising Mr. Chair could look into this that each board chooses what they want. I remember in superintendent Dr. Arnold wanted us to use the word growth. You remember Abby? And that's how we kind of got into a different way of looking like we used to look at these things but each person wants to do something different. And so I'm just saying that as a board we come together and tell them what our expectation is. I like that word summary. She just used a sheet of that nature. You see, but if they don't know that, um, they'll continue. They being the people that supplied. So, you know,
128I I try to read the stuff at midnight. You know, I just try to look at the best I can. You know, that and a good drink. Are we on on Facebook? Yes, sir. We're live. Miss Terry. Yes, sir. So, there's a lot of data collection going on. And I appreciate all of the data because you're not collecting it necessarily for the board. You're collecting it so you guys can make the decisions you need to make every single day in those classrooms. And I appreciate that 100%. I don't understand all of it. I'm not even going to try to understand all of the data you're collecting. But sitting up here as a board member, what would be useful to me would be grade, subject, and how are we doing? We get those once a month.
129Where are we at? Now, let's say we see an increase at risk grade three math. Okay. Now, I might want to ask for some information and look at some of the other data that you collected. I'm trying to put less work on the teachers, less work on your staff. I just the high note highlights, you know, how many how many students we got that are at risk in each grade, each subject, and we could track that monthly. You're already you're already collecting the data, so there's no extra data to collect. And then if we start seeing a trend, we may request additional data based on the trend that we're seeing. Now, you're going through the data all the time. So, you're going to see the trend long before we do. And hopefully, we won't have
130to ask for more data is is kind of what I'm understanding from sitting on this side. So that that would be useful for me to go through and see third grade math at risk students. Okay. Last month, this month, next month, and then I can make a decision based on that. I I think if you're good with me printing it out for you and not giving you all the students, I think this will this will do it. But remember, it's just quarterly that we're seeing that because if I pull weekly, monthly, that's that's what I listen to with teachers when I'm in the PLC's and when my staff is in the PLC's. But yes, sir. Thank you. So, do we collect that every month or do you only collect it at the school level? I
131have access to it. Okay. But it doesn't fall into one big data spreadsheet like the academic tracker does for the division. Right? So it has to manually be placed in. Right? I don't because we allow teachers autonomy to uh or the school's autonomy to use the tracking system in the PLC how they track their tiering groups of of interventions and what that looks like. That's that's up to the princ building principal and the teachers on how they track that. Oh, absolutely. It's very important. They're the ones fighting the battles. They're the ones that are using it. So, okay. So, the one that I keep at the division level, all that data dumps into one spreadsheet that I can summarize that, but it's only quarterly that I can do that. Is that a software thing that
132only allows you to do it quarterly, or can it be done monthly? Can there be a data dump every month if I gave the common assessment across the board to every third grader monthly? Yes, sir. Okay. All right. So, we're talking about different matrices. I don't do that because one third grade teacher may be on unit two while another teacher may be on unit four. Correct. And so the common assessments are different. Understand? Yes, sir. By different schools. All right. So, we can get a quarterly assessment. Yeah. Yeah. General assessment every quarter. Yeah. And I'll try to figure out how to do the monthly. We do open court every week. We do K. It depends on but what unit you're in with open court. So I have a teacher right now who's two units behind.
133We're trying to get them caught up, but they're two units behind. So if I give it a common assessment, it's not the same. So you have a teacher that's two units behind. and how many other teachers are teaching that unit. That's just an example that I know of right now this week in PLC's. Well, that that's what I'm getting at here is if you've got one teacher that's two units behind, how many other teachers are teaching the same topic, they're two units ahead. How many teachers are we talking about or how many classes are we talking about? Oh, well, if I'm talking about third grade, I have three or four teachers at every school except for Temperance. So I'm looking at 17 18 teachers and they all may be at different spots. Some might be
134ahead, some might be behind. Gotcha. Okay. Yeah, it's difficult to keep track of. Hard to give a number to. Yes, I agree. I'll take any more questions. Any one final question. So the the lazy report isn't really that's not one where people are gathering the data that comes directly out of powers school. Correct. Exactly. So that's not our teachers having to put extra work in. Correct. To generate those. That's generated directly out of the data that's already in P school. Yes sir. And it's only as effective as the data pool. And when VTO the VDOE does not have their system talking with the other information systems across the state then you have lags in data. Right. Yeah. And Mr. Rossi. So what you're asking for was what I asked for last year, which was we
135talk about the stoplight. What what I was asking for is, you know, how many of our third grade kids are in math? What are they doing? How many are are green? How many are yellow? Meaning uh how many do we think are are struggling that need? We need to start providing them some interventions. And how many do we know are failing behind? Those would be our red students. Right. And that's what laser was supposed to help help us do. And I know we certainly had hopes that it was going to do that. Uh and it's no fault of the administration that laser uh isn't providing the data that we had hoped it would. Right. But the fact of the matter is is that it's not Yeah. providing the data that we need and so we
136need to look at alternatives. Right. We've actually asked talked to Kevin Harrison. he's our um student um systems manager and he or supervisor um to see how we can connect the common assessments in open court the what we're doing with Dreambox or Progress Learning and how that can be put into um Power School so it can go into the coursework because if we do coursework through grade books like this it it still isn't going to help us track student progress. ress. It will help us track student progress with grades in a classroom, but that really doesn't tell me the mastery of skills. And so, we're trying to figure out how to do that as well. Almost like a um a report card that is standardsbased report card. We have that at kindergarten, first grade, and
137I think maybe second grade. Um but we don't have that for other grade levels. Okay, board. Any other questions for Dr. Roman? And I do have a wonderful little document where I put and this is only quarterly. It's just a sample. Well, it's accurate right now. Um, but it gives you information on what happens at third grade, fourth grade, fifth grade, sixth grade, seventh grade, eighth grade, all the way up. and high school has its own wonderful spreadsheet um that we can make copies and give to you to make copies of it and give you a copy of this tonight. I have a quick question. Yes, ma'am. Are those reports that you're giving us the summary page is that just for this past quarter? Yes, ma'am. Is that a can we possibly have it for
138all three quarters so that we can look at results over time? This covers October testing. It covers January, but we haven't done May yet for the Okay. So, it's not a a quarterly report for this that quarter. It has that tracking on it. Yes, ma'am. Perfect. Thank you. So, you'll have this momentarily. Anything else for Dr. Norman? I'm not finished yet. Two more things to go on on laser. on laser. I'm finished. Okay. Finished. The next thing I have on my list is um the testing calendar. And this is just to provide you information so you know when our May our spring testing is. I know that some of you stop by schools, you want to see what's going on. Um if you'll make sure that those days that are in for testing, if you
139want to contact a school, if you'd like to talk to Dr. Wells. Um, you know, normally testing is finished around 1:30, 2:00. You're more than welcome to stop in and see how things are going. Um, but the morning time for getting testing taken care of and all in the same that's a busy time. So, just if you'll let us know, we will make sure that that administrator knows and then you can come and go as you as you please. But this is just for your information. So, if you want to go to a building, I would just ask coordinate with us, make sure this we don't we work out any conflicts. Anytime after 2:00 is fine, but during the testing window time frame, just talk with us to work out any conflicts we may have
140so we can make sure we're not having any testing issues or testing regularities or things like that as we go into the buildings. Okay. Board, any questions? Yes, ma'am. And if you have a teaching license and you'd like to be a proctor, we'll take those, too. Okay. Um the last thing I have is I'd like to um first of all thank Miss Wheeler um and Miss Justice. Um Miss Wheeler um pulled together our textbook book committee. We now have the secondary literacy textbook um underway uh and uh Miss Justice was kind enough to sit on that committee for us as an observer. And I will turn it over to Miss Wheeler now. Thank you, Dr. Norman, Mr. Chair, members of the board, um at your place tonight, you have a copy of the memo um
141just summarizing the results um and the discussion of the textbook committee um as well as a presentation um with some of the findings that the committee reviewed from survey data collected. Um, and so I'll be happy to answer any questions you have, but at this time, uh, the committee does recommend, um, that the board approve or consider the adoption of HMH into literature. Um, as the core program for grades 6 through 12, um, this decision or recommendation is based on a consensus of the committee members. Um, and the committee does recommend a five-year purchase of that, um, program. I'll take any questions you have. board. Any questions? I have one. Yes, ma'am. Um I know that uh Dr. Hoden mentioned that there are quite a lot of federal reviews that we seem to be getting.
142Um some with findings, some not. Um so with that, what assurances do we have that this series that you're recommending is in compliance with federal civil rights laws and any related court rulings? Okay. So, um the state has not come out and said that it meets those guidelines because the [Music] um the materials and the book publishing companies was done after that um law went into effect. I mean before that law went into effect. So what um Miss Wheeler has done is actually go through the units uh that are there. We do have um there is I think one um dealing with diversity um that is one of the themes that are there but the book that we have right now does that same theme. So I don't um expect any concerns um and I
143would treat it just like we have in the past where that teacher has the autonomy to pick and choose what they want to use out of the textbook. It shouldn't be I go from page one to page 300. They still have that ability to use it um in what we as Ammerst um people would like our children to learn and read about. Um, and I appreciate that. But you just said that there was a unit on diversity, and I don't know that that's a bad thing. That's a good thing. Um, and I don't think that that's what, you know, the federal civil rights laws and the court cases, right, are about. Yeah. So, they're very specific. So, how do we as a board before we vote on this? I mean, I I don't want to
144take away from the book of things that we need to keep, right? I I think the law is specific to the availability of allowing or saying that I have to have a percentage of the minorities in this class. I have to have I have to open it up to um I I can only have nine Hispanics or I can only have six black on the information we've received from council whether it be um local council or state level council from VAS and other from Sans Anderson and from other state level folks on this and legal counsel on this is it is making sure you're not putting in um quotas, so to speak. Having a a section talking about diversity is not violate the executive order. Um having a thing on equity does not violate the
145executive order. It's just are you using those to put into place like quota systems where you have to have certain numbers of people in a of a race or of a sex or whatever into a a into a class or into a job area or whatever. Um which we do not have. So, and our conversations I've had with council, um, they feel that what we have, what we're doing right now is well in compliance with that executive order. And so, again, I can't sit here and I mean, I can say that based on what we have read from them that everything we have is in compliance with state mandates. They have, the state has not the state has to verify what they're giving us is within that same limits, too. And the state has not
146pulled anything from this off that list. So this is on the state approved list. The state has the same requirement we do. And so they had if they had reviewed it and they found something that was not they would have already pulled off already pulled it off the list. Well, I I have I think that's what you're asking kind of, but I was thinking that the um it the civil rights went a little further and it wasn't just with what you're talking about with like having so many representations in in a classroom, but it went to the um content, I think, of maybe some of the coursework of where maybe it promotes one race over another. Um, and I know that the previous board even addressed that. Um, that, you know, we don't go into
147teaching that one race is better than the other, that we look at the equality there. Um, so I want to make sure that that component is being adhered to because I think that's what the title N is talking about, you know, the non-discrimination piece there. So if the state put the book out and understand that if there's something that's inappropriate and they're not meeting Title N that they should have removed that. Correct. But I also know there's some type of a document that we have to send assurances to the feds tomorrow. I think they do. Well, so I don't I guess my hesitation to coming in and just adopting it tonight is that if you have to sign that tomorrow and the state is has not caught up yet, what happens if we adopt it
148and we put all this money into it and then the state decides to pull it and we're sitting there. Uhoh, I guess we could do what Mrs. Wheeler is already doing and if there's any that's not in compliance with Title N that we could pull them individually, I guess. So, I was just trying to understand. Yeah, I I I do believe you're right on that. It's it's more than just the um quotas. Um Right. I didn't even understand that piece. I didn't know that was piece of it. That is and we have removed that from our um our different comprehensive plans, our gifted plan because we did have certain and this was from years ago in plans that were submitted to the state. And so those that verbiage has been changed um open to everybody.
149We used to have a a cap on certain like early college we had a cap um so we can check with the with VDOE tomorrow um and send them an email and ask them if they've had any time to review before the board adopts. Um I just think that would be wise. But but in the same vein, I guess if that's an issue and they pull certain things, we can all also do that. Yeah. And and short-term, there's also it was announced this afternoon that due to a lawsuit by the ACLU, there's been a stay on the enforcement of that um requirement for schools to to turn that in for the states to have to report it. So, right now, it's in it's in a legal battle. And so until April 24th is the new
150time frame waiting for that to go through the courts. I just received that like an hour before we had our board meeting tonight. Um so there is some time there. Uh I've been again I've been in contact with our council and uh they said that we were everything we have were in compliance. So this he didn't feel there's any issues. They're looking at what we do here in Ammeris County with that um executive order. But again, it is a stay on it right now as far as the enforcement of that executive order. And and I just want to say that I don't want to leave anybody with the impression that I don't value diversity. I do. That's not what I'm asking. I don't want that to be removed, you know, just for the sake of
151well, let's get rid of it so that we apply to this executive order. But I want us to be very specific about the civil rights and title N. Yeah. Yes, sir. Mr. um so they recommend five years the fiveyear adoption now how long have we had the current one 22 years okay exactly exactly and the reason we're through this all and I don't I don't want to prolong it because in the world we live in today things are happening exponentially fast data, information, learning. I I would I would rather see a three-year versus a fiveyear because there's a lot going to change in three years, four years. You know, I I don't want us to be 20 years before we adopt a new program is what I'm saying. I don't want to wait 20 years.
152You know, there's a lot of stuff that happened in the last 20 years. It's not in those books. Yes, sir. And I'd rather three years is is pretty good for as fast as everything is changing in this world. So I don't know if we want to go to a fiveyear and make that last another 20. I don't think that's where we want to be. Yeah, I will say that the reason that the um that the committee and Miss Wheeler, you can discuss this um chose the five-year because that's what was chosen for the elementary and we wanted to keep it within the same time frame. Um was I Miss Justice, you were there. Was I mistaken on that? No, you're correct. And the other thing to keep in mind is that it takes a few
153years, right, of implementation um with the program. We're seeing that with our open court implementation. And then also our standards change every seven years. So knowing that this is aligned to our 2024 standards from the companies that are being provided to us to be able to have access to the resources. And so part of that three-year versus fiveyear adoption is access to the instructional resources, consumables, that kind of thing that come with the program. So the textbook is the textbooks once you have it, but then you're renewing the support pieces within that program is why the the five-year recommendation, right? And so you're thinking you're going to need additional support after three years. So it gives access to the online the digital pieces. So we're the committee is suggesting a classroom set of hardback books,
154but students then have access to the digital platform, the testing platform. So we're asking tonight for those quarterly updates and reviews. this program would be able to provide that if we have access to the digital platform to do the assessment pieces with it. So that's the five-year request is to give us access for at least the five years to be able to use those resources that we lose after that contract expires and we're just left with the textbook itself. Right. But we can also at the end of the three years add on another two years. You could so we can decide whether or not we want to keep it or not. I'd rather I mean personally I I just think it would be more valuable to do a three-year because who knows we may not
155like the program and want to change it all in in a year, two years once we get to know it. It may not be what we're looking for. It may not be what our community wants. So I just I want to I don't want to get us roped into another five years of of something we don't we can't gain. And I believe the recommendation for the five versus three was just the cost savings associated with the five versus the three. Right. Right. And and you know knowing that knowing it now it's something we can budget for three years. Right. We can budget for expanding it if we want to. But that's a number we have today and in three years it can be in the budget because I know the county was all about us
156planning for things and not just saying, "Hey, this is what we need." Isn't that what I heard in the meeting? Basically, don't be reactive. Yeah, I know. I know. I feel your pain. But at least we can have something for them saying in three years from now, we may want to expand this. Okay. Yes, sir. Dr. Do we know what the renewal cost would be in three years? No, but we can find out. Yeah, it's usually a price per student for that because it's the digital piece. We'd have the hard copies. We'll have the books, right? Yeah. It just it's a peral expendure the time value of money. You're talking $100,000 right now for for two years. So, in three years, we need to be renewing it and 200,000. We also know that the cost
157goes up as time goes on as well. And so instead of spending 100,000, we may be spending much more than that. So yes, sir, that would be my concern to wait. Okay. Okay. Board, any questions? Any more questions? If we're going to figure out the cost difference, uh let's find out if we uh get rid of the program after three years if we can be refunded that difference also. I mean, why not? Always good to ask. keep it or get rid of it. Doesn't hurt to ask. Buy it or sell it. Okay. So, what I'm hearing is you want us we'll bring you we'll find this out. We'll get it to you um during the month and I guess at the May meeting. I would I would like for us to due to the ordering
158and all the time frame to get materials in that we if we could order if you can come to a consensus in May that then we can order so we have the books before in the in July so teachers can have a chance to look over materials prior to the school year starting. If we go into June then we won't get the materials in time. Oh yeah. Yes ma'am. Mr. Harry. Um, so a couple of the things that I heard when I was in the committee meeting, um, one teacher that I was sitting next to, um, she had used it in remedial and had seen her class grow exponentially as far as content and performance. Um, and several teachers commented that one of the reasons they preferred this curriculum was that it was a little
159more concise. They felt that the other programs would be overwhelming and they would be like, "Okay, no, I'm done with that." Um, another a third two more things. One is that the other um programs um had one of them had like 14 areas of so limitations. Um this one had the lowest. It had six I think or was it three? Yeah. So this had the lowest um and that was um evaluations from VDOE. Um and then the final thing was that um a majority felt that um the that this program included more of the classics versus another program was far more limited as far as classics. Um and in in general people felt that the scaffolding for special needs and adaptive was more supportive. So, that's what the some of the things that I picked
160up from the committee. Thank you for that insight. Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. Um, I'd like to thank all the teachers and staff that were on the committee and all the hard work. And I'd like to thank Miss Justice for representing us and giving us that feedback. Um, and I understand the timeliness of this. So, you know, I know that we're going to pick a date that we're going to get together to work on some board, you know, the superintendent's goal. So perhaps if that information was available by that time, we could address it even before the board meeting. Just something to think of. Mhm. Yes, ma'am. So I want to make sure I'm got this correct. We're going to find out from the state at the books meet the criteria under civil rights laws and
161the new um legal piece of it to get the additional cost in regards to what it would add to if we go two years. if we go the three years and then we add the two years on um for supplemental and then what the refund would be if it's available those three things. Did I get everything? Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Norman. You're welcome. I am so done, y'all. Thank you, Dr. Welcome. Dr. Wells, moving on. Believer of the human resources we are, Mr. chair, members of the board, happy pre-spring break Thursday. Anyway, um we're looking forward to that and I'll start off by wishing you all an upcoming happy and well- earned spring break along with all the amazing employees in Ammeris County Public Schools. Um the first item we have this evening
162uh is the vacancy memo for this month, which again outlines current vacancies, which are, you know, fewer and fewer thankfully, and uh vacancies for next year. Um few notes that are worthy. Uh the music position has been hired. It has been hired for next school year. We had it open for this year being hopeful, but it has been hired effective since this memo was posted for next year. Um two of the CMP assistants have been hired. And down below we have our list growing for next year. Uh interviews are set for elementary tomorrow. We have eight or nine candidates there. Um school counselor is in process. So hopefully offers shortly there for Manellison. Uh interviews are set for math teacher for AEC as well as um pending offers for science teacher. So there's progress daily.
163You know, this comes out Friday and we're actively working. So I'll take any questions you have about the vacancy memo. Or any questions for Mr. Gallagher. Okay. Thank you, sir. Happy. Welcome. Thank you. Uh so you'll be receiving a medical insurance survey coming out on April 23rd. We have that completed and ready to push out and press send. Uh we're going to send that out after spring break to make sure nobody loses that uh in the wash over spring break. But uh the reason for that, as we had talked about before, over the past decade, uh as you're aware, we provided our employees with excellent medical benefits and have made it a priority and you all have made it a priority to eliminate or minimize u premium increases. we've absorbed those uh those market increases
164as a division. So, we've kept that flat as far as increases for employees. We'd like to take um you know another step in that same direction by making considering uh making our benefits even more affordable and regionally competitive. Uh the survey that you will see uh on the 23rd, we'll be seeking employee feedback regarding possible reductions in our medical benefit premium rates along with mild increases to deductibles which would make our benefits uh even more affordable uh and also more regionally competitive. Uh so that will be a detailed and informative uh and hopefully uh well explained survey that will come out uh and we'll give an opportunity for people to respond and we hope that you know it'll help our efforts to continue to be competitive uh with our not only our premiums but our
165medical plans for our employees. But I'll take any questions you might have. Yes, sir. Mr. Children. So Mr. Mr. Gallagher, are you you suggesting that by decreasing the rate and for the medical insurance but also increasing the deductible, correct, is going to be a good thing for our staff? I do. And and here's the reason. We have amazing benefits. I'll give you an example. Um and this is just an example of of one of the proposals. We have a $300 deductible plan. Um, if I'm on a family plan for that, I'm paying over $900 for the plan per month. Um, that is not nearly competitive with our region at all. People have left because of things like that. If I increase it to a $500 d annual deductible, which is a $200 increase, but reduce
166the premium by $200, and all this balances out, it's not going to cost us more money to do this. um that offset is going to help me quite a bit with $200 a month for 12 months whereas my deductible is increasing by $200. Um that's an example and there might be you know potentially slight increases with a co-pay here or there but it'll be well explained in the survey so you can understand how it will be beneficial. It's broken down in the um survey uh exactly how it benefits um the offset you know the increases in deductible compared to the reductions in premiums. But like in your example with you personally, like the $200 deductible, that's per individual. So it would be potentially 200 for you, 200 for your spouse that you may have to
167pay if both of you incurred the need for medical attention. And then the family, the overall goes up as well. Well, we've evaluated all those things and we we're going to show the actual offset benefits which are clearly laid out in in that when it comes out. So rather than dig into that now certainly when it comes on the 23rd um you'll kind of see where that lies and um it we we've evaluated all those things and vetted that with finance as well so that it shows where the benefits are and it's more benefits for some groups than others based on whether you're family individual and so forth. So we'll share that with you Patterson staff just you can see it but we just want feedback from staff. Yeah. This is not a predetermined thing
168we're doing. It says we want feedback from staff and see if that's something they cons they they would be in favor of doing and then we'll take that feedback and bring it to you for further consideration. Mr. Chair. Yes, ma'am. Um when is the last time that we offered them uh a different plan in order to save money but cause the deductibles to go up? Was that a year ago, two years ago? No, we've put surveys out before, but and it was and it was relatively maybe a 57% uh response with a low response rate um to making the changes, but what the feedback we got was that people didn't understand what we were proposing. So that's why you all had asked us to pull a committee together and we did do that uh which
169was an excellent committee and people felt like it just needs to be clearly explained and the committee realized the significant potential benefits but we're not going to make that decision without getting feedback and input from the employees but but the last time we we have not made changes change was prior to going selfinsured the last time we had a percentage increase or adjust the we have let me just say this um and I apologize we've not changed the plan since I've been in this position as far as No, but we changed the deductible. We went to higher deductibles. I don't recall actually making that change. I remember considering that change. I don't recall making that change. If anything, it will if I have to pull the numbers, Miss Thompson, but I know it would have
170been before we went to self-insured, which would have been at least That's right. It would have been at least three years. Three years ago. I just don't recall. So, I apologize. I don't remember the connection. I'll get with Mr. Congress. We'll find out. Okay. I have for you. And maybe that was a the purpose of that was to not pass along increases, but I don't recall. So, we'll have to look into that. That's not in my memory. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Forward. Any other questions, Mr. Galler? Okay. All right. Just a couple of announcements. U one is that we have set the date for our ACPS retirement reception, which we love the opportunity to reflect upon and celebrate our amazing retirees. That's going to be from on May 20th, which is a Tuesday, and that's
171at 6:00 at Sweep Brier College Prothrow, where we've held that in the past. So, I encourage all of you to particularly want to get there a little bit early so that everybody gets past the gate there and we're we're prepared for that. Um the other announcement is that our national educator appreciation week is upcoming and that's going to be May 5th through 9th. Uh our typical practice has been to provide lunches for all of our amazing educators in all positions across the division and we will follow suit with that. Um so I would hope that we we will ultimately remind you of that. Uh I know Miss Lian and others have been out in the schools during those days. will give you the schedule to help um you know either distribute lunches and kind of
172thank our staff for all that they do each and every day. So, we'll get you that schedule about probably a week out. Make sure it's locked in timewise and then uh you're welcome to join us. Approximately when is it? It is the 5th through the 9th. Okay. So, each day, so there's different schools and departments that'll be on the list for each day. So we can get that we can pull that feed off. And this year it's uh Chick-fil-A. Well, we haven't we haven't announced that yet. I was going to hold that surprise. So it's going to be a local. We know, but we're going to wait. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Good evening, Mr. Chair and board members. I have the pleasure of sharing the impact report from our February
17317th sharing our strengths of day of peer learning. Um we surveyed all the participants. so they could evaluate since this was the first time of us implementing a PD in this manner. What you see are the highlights and I'll just touch on a few things um listed. We had multiple pathways that um participants could engage in their learning instead of it just being one face-toface. Some had options of doing online learning as well as some type of hybrid learning together with others as well as face-toface um classroom um instruction. We also were trying to be very responsive to what we had been hearing from teachers that they wanted PD that was relevant and that gave them choice. So that was the whole focus of this implementation of the PD being done this way. Um from
174the survey results um everyone felt like they were getting something that they could actually use, they could implement later and they thought it either met or exceeded their expectations. Um, we got feedback on things that they appreciated about it like the hands-on learning components as well as learning from peers. Um, some a different voice than just hearing from central office members. And they thought the organization and the structure was well laid out. Uh, we did pick up on some points where we know we have to improve and they want to see more for K through two. Um, I had some conversations with instructional assistants. We even had instructional assistants show up even though it was their day off because they wanted to engage in the learning. So knowing that we need to add that component
175for our instructional assistants is in the plan for next year as well as um sessions that are more tailored to groups like school counselors um school psychologists even people like bookkeepers and secretaries. We're starting to think about what that might look like next year. Another great component was the shadow experience. um that had a wonderful representation. I think we had about 54% of our um CTE fine arts teachers that participated in it. And we know that percentage seems kind of small, but it was kind of like a soft launch. Some were un certain about who they would engage with, how to make those connections. So, some did choose to do the inerson or online classes. Um what you see there are a list of some of the organizations and businesses that our teachers connected with.
176and I've been going through some of their reflections and they all felt like it was a well worth experience. They picked up on things that they could actually embed in their classroom experiences with students, created new partnerships and networks. Um, having people from the organizations come into their classrooms and help expand on the learning experiences that they're providing students and it just gives them a different fresh perspective. Um and you see from the testimonials that were listed there. Um a lot of them had tangible outcomes that they were looking to get out of the experience. So that was broken down in the chart as well. And many of them had immediate actions that they were going to act on. Some of them have more long-term plans that they plan on implementing at the end of
177the school year and then to prime their thinking for how they're going to um plan instruction for next year. One thing we did pick up from the feedback is that they would like to see this happen earlier in the school year. So, we're already underway to see how this might be able to be pulled off in November, which will be putting some things in place a lot earlier than later like we did this year, February. They felt like it was the learning if they had gotten it earlier, it could be more followup and support um and implementation throughout the year. And then also um they want to see bigger sessions. So, I'm hoping with the new um construction that's going on at the high school, we'll have an even better location so that some of
178our sessions topics that were really popular would not be limited. Um so, the team is already thinking about how this is going to look next year and making it even bigger and broader for our staff and I'll be willing to answer any questions you might have about that day. Okay. Uh board, any questions for Dr. Rose? Okay. Okay. Thank you, ma'am. I say people really like the artificial intelligence class. Did I give them? They sure did. Those instructors, they were really top-notch. Yes. Um the last thing I have to share is a memorandum that we give annually about our professional development plan. What you see here is a synopsis of how we identify needs and the implementation of professional development not just for teachers but also for specific positions as well as our leadership team.
179Um the last thing that you see linked in there is a document where I track professional development that is being delivered at the division level to specific schools. Um many of these implementations are being requested by principles to get their staff skills up at a better level so they can um impact student outcomes at a stronger point. If you have any questions about that document, I can answer them as well. Okay. Board. Any questions for Dr. Rhodess? Okay, thank you very much. Next we have Mr. Neighbors and student services. Yes, sir. Borox, you have a copy of your monthly utilization report for the best labs. Uh you will notice that the number of visits has significantly decreased in March. I would love to tell you that's because that intervention is so successful. We cut the
180number in a third. Unfortunately, the flu is real. It hit this particular population very very hard. Several of our workers or excuse me, some several of our best lab staff as well as a number of our students that are frequent visitors to their respective best labs were all out for extended periods uh in March. Uh what we did notice in the data and I've talked to Dr. Smith will be working on a report for the board uh to be delivered either in May or in June uh that some of our most frequent visitors to the lab, we are beginning to see a significant decrease in their need of utilizing that particular support. And that's exactly the data that we were hoping to see this time of year. So that'll be coming to the board. So
181you can see that uh as it has played out with some of our students there. But unfortunately for this data point, the flu was uh heavily impacted what we had this time around. As always, be happy to answer any questions for the board. You will notice even with the lower numbers, we still have that same uh same large population in our earliest grades using this resource at each of our schools. Okay. Board, any questions? Thanks, sir. Thank you, sir. All right, Dr. Wells. Yes, sir. Mr. Chair, members of the board, Superintendent Matters, not on the agenda, but we have a new state superintendent of instruction, Emily Anne Gullixson, the uh former state superintendent of instruction uh resigned and Miss Gullixson was appointed by the governor to be the new state superintendent. Um, on top of
182that budget update, the governor made recommendations to the general assembly for the budget. The general assembly opted not to take any of those recommendations up and return the budget to the governor as was and no changes were recommended in the general assembly. So now the governor has until May 2nd to either approve that, do line item vetos, veto the whole thing, or he could not sign. and by not signing it will still go into effect. Those are his four options. Will no board by by May 2nd, but right now um that's where we stand on the state budget. Um so until that happens, even though we have approved ours and the county is doing theirs, um once until the we have a state budget, we will still have to monitor what's going on in Richmond.
183So, just letting you know that um the day of giving is tomorrow and we'll be out now. It is supposed to rain. I think most of the rain now is pushed off to the afternoon. So, hopefully get our morning in and we can we only have three sites that are really outdoors. One is at the Dixie youth fields for baseball and softball as well as a cool park and but we will keep buses on site there. So if rain does come in, those kids get on a bus and I can take them to one of the one of the schools and they can just help supporting students in the schools as opposed to doing the outside work. Um, a lot of our elementary schools are doing some type of activity with the students outdoors. We've
184asked them to move those indoors. So uh just in case of the weather, we'll be there. You're more than welcome to come around to the schools tomorrow. That's we'll be getting started around 10:00 and go till around 1:30ish and bring the kids back to the high school for dismissal. um CES reading event. Uh many folk we had a lot of participants had 28 participants I believe at central reading to students. Several of our staff went um some local business leaders went and also community members went there. It was a great day. Appreciate everybody that was in the community that came in and appreciate all the staff here and the county who and you that were there to uh read to our kids at Central. Um the education foundation student showcase lunchon was held in March
185and that was another good event. We had several people come to the high school to hear about the education foundation. Uh we had some good conversation, some good food and they got to tour the construction as well as the CTE site with that. Um smart start and kindergarten registration is April 23rd and 24th. We will start that and uh we'll see where we go with those. Um trout releases and we have some people in the audience tonight. So I'm just going to mention this. So uh we have Marilyn Gilbert back here and Don Glasser and Be Jones and some other people who were mentors of mine when I was just like Mr. Rog said earlier. Um Marilyn's husband Marvin was a great mentor of mine and part of this travel stuff. I'm going to devotional
186here for a second. Um, part of this trip stuff is because of what they did with me when I was in sixth, seventh, eighth grade. So, I do thank them for all they've done and roll the [Music] video. So, what we do, we do trout in the classroom in all of our schools. And for the elementary schools, I take all the ele elementary students up to Pedler River and we do the trout releases. And it's not just releasing the trout. That's part of it, but a lot of it deals with what we do with our students as a result of that. We do some environmental discussions. We do macro and vertebrate searches. And you can people say, "Well, fourth, third, and fourth grade students, they can't figure this stuff out." I'll tell you, they can.
187They can identify what lives in the water. They can use that and they can tell me what's there. And then they can come back and identify it, determine the water quality by looking at the macro invertebrates that live in the stream. So all of our kids go through this. It was kind of cold that day was the warmest day, but I tell you what, when we went up there this week, it went Tuesday, it was 37° and the kids jumped right in and did it. So, um, it was kind of cool up there on Pedler. What our job is today is to see what's in our net. The little ones like this stuff we put in here. Crawfish. If we catch a minnow, if we catch a white cat, we'll put them in the bigger
188bucket. But the little ones we put in here now. Um, so it's part of the Miwis. Uh, and they do the truck with the water quality testing. We talk about it. We talk about just the environment in general and make sure they understand that what we do up here impacts everybody downstream from us. Um people don't realize that the James that Amoris County every drop of water that runs off of Ammeris County goes into the James River wershed and so it goes on down and affects everybody downstream. We were lucky enough on last Friday with Amalon students to coordinate with the game department of wildlife resources and they brought a special trout truck down and they put they let the kids see some of the larger trout they stock as well as some of the
189smaller trout and the assistant hatchery manager actually talked to the kids about each type of trout species, what they do, how big they get and stuff like that. And the kids, we didn't let them touch them because they didn't want to damage the fish cuz I can see our kids now trying to pick them up and drop them on the ground and stuff like that. But they got to see them and it was a a great day for them, too. So, thank you. [Applause] So, that's what we do with that. Um, again, it's a great activity for our students. I It gives me a chance to connect with our kids and actually teach. the teachers that go up get to see me actually teach and not just sit in an office making decisions but actually
190engaging with our students and working with our kids and it's a great experience for me and I do just want to thank them for all the support they gave me a few years ago about what 40 45 I don't know I think I was 12 13 14 so few years ago but again thank y'all very much all right um moving on VAS spring conference coming up April 27th, 29th I'll be in attendance. Golden A ceremony is April 23rd. That will be at the high school. That'll be in the gym because we won't be able to get into the new part yet. Um STEM senior internships will be the morning of April 30th. We'll have staff there. If you want to attend, you're more than welcome to. Just let us know. The National Honor Society Golden
191Tassel is April 30th at 6 PM at the high school. I think that'll be in the gym or cafeteria. probably the cafeteria. Um seat. Yeah. Yeah. So, probably the gym. We're in the middle of the construction. We'll be somewhere at the high school. I'll let you know. Um CBCC graduation is May 15th at 700 p.m. Our graduation is May 23rd at 700 p.m. at the Vine Center. We will work on schedules and transportation and stuff for board members if you so desire as we get closer. Um, I do want to make you aware of something. Miss Lian is aware she's getting this award, so it's not a surprise, but I've been asked to invite the board and my staff to attend this rep this recognition of Miss Lian. So, Miss Lian is being awarded the
192humanitarian award by the Virginia Center for Inclusive Communities. And this will be held at Lynchburg College or the University of Lynchburg on May 22nd at 6:30 p.m. And we've been I was asked by the uh for that team to invite our staff and our board members and I will figure out more on that as we get closer. But just be aware May 22nd and it is to recognize Miss Lian for humanitarian award. I think she's one of four or five people to receive this award this year. So congratulations to Miss Lian for all the work she has done in understanding. So and I believe that is all I have for you this evening and turn it over to Mr. Chair. Okay. Okay. So now we're at 13.0 which is uh closing public comments. So is
193anyone from the audience like to approach the board? Yes, ma'am. Good afternoon, evening. Gloria Wit, 432 Browntown Road, Amherst, Virginia. Uh, just a few comments. Been a long session today. Some things just don't change, huh? Um, been a while since I've been here. Um, first of all, uh, in listening to the comments, um, the website and there's a decision to blank out email addresses. How will citizens be able to email their representatives? I don't know if you get a response. I'm just asking these questions. If that's okay. Okay. So, what we did, you click on the you click on the button and it automatically goes to that site without posting the email out there for people. So, you click on it, you'll get be able to do email. Perfect. Perfect. And um I know you're
194tracking um behavior suspensions and there was a time when it was okay to track by demographics, boy, girl, white, black, etc. Cuz we have a history in Ammerst of some inequities. Bad word in today's uh times. But, uh, I'm hoping that we'll be able to get reports, um, regardless of the EOS and what's happening under this Trump era, cuz that's very important to understand that we are being fair, which is a better word, I guess, than equity. Um, and, uh, third thing, uh, while I have the mic, congratulations, Miss Lian, on your human, uh, humanitarian award. We're so proud of you. And the final thing I want to say is when I hear the board tentively discuss uh purchasing books and the question came up about where are we in alignment with civil rights. It's
195actually a paradox, a a paradox when this board inquires about diversity and civil rights because under the Trump era and with uh mega supporters, human rights and civil rights are being attacked every day. Every single day, we're getting our rights rolled back. But we knew that because project 2025 told us. And so members of the MAGA party constantly uh are inquiring about what's going on with civil rights. I would like for some empathy to be shown to people of color and black Americans when it comes to civil rights and really understanding what that means because we're under attack every single day as well as women. And so now it's invaded the school system and we are afraid to even mention the word diversity. Diversity is a good thing. We need to learn how to appreciate
196and respect differences rather than erasing and ignoring our history. And I would like to see a little bit more empathy coming from this board and have a spine to stand up for people who happen to be nonwhite. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Anyone else? Yes, ma'am. Barbara Prior. Not sure my district, Pleasant View. I wasn't born here, but I can tell you basically all my roots are here. I live very near my fourth greatgrandfather who was a Revolutionary War soldier. Um, I'm sure I have multiple ancestors that owned slaves, had children that were determined to be mulatto. I went to school in Maryland, right outside of DC, coming down here all the time for family. But in the 10th grade, I had a biology teacher, uh, gray-haired old crouchy woman. But she taught me about
197blood. And she taught me, and I had heard this from different people. But I have to say I never heard it from my parents. I won't take blood from somebody of color. And they use the N-word. And so the concept of blood became very important to me because I would imagine in this day and age, each and every one of y'all sitting at this board would not question if you were O positive and you needed blood that you would take it from wherever you could get it, even from a person of color. And what is this society doing that we are turning on one another instead of protecting our planet collect uh defending what we have created over generation after generation and now we're going to divide it and go back to the hatred that
198was there. It is despicable to be doing this in this century. And I was born in the last century and I never thought I would see the hatred and the violence being created by people that have no self-respect and little self-respect for others. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Anyone else? Yes, sir. Mr. Terry. Yes, sir. I'd ask that the speakers keep things to school matters. Okay. Well, it's been a long meeting, but I appreciate the opportunity to take a three or less minutes of your time. Sam Soer, District 2, parent, community member. So, we're at this place again with the uh the textbooks and so that we went through this I don't know that was like over a year ago with the elementary school textbooks and I can't help but being reminded at that time
199that one of the objections in my estimation was that there was too much Greek mythology in these elementary school textbooks. I even remember I think it was suggested that there was a concern that Christian children might become confused and start worshiping the Olympians. And I I really struggle with that, you know, as someone who's into academics and stuff like that and interested in Christian scholarship and, you know, world history and stuff like that. So, it just seems like a similar type of comment was brought up tonight that was that the textbook might be promoting one race over another and that just that just can't be. I mean, that's you know, I I I went in and reviewed those elementary school textbooks and just sort of like my sense of academia and stuff like that. that's
200just that's just not something that's being done right in a high school reading textbook. So, I really with peace and love would love y'all to think on that and and really look into that and I'd like to maybe have some feedback of what it is actually being said there because maybe it's just the optics of it. You know, the the way that that feels is at best a bit offensive even. You know what I mean? Okay. Thank you all for the extra time. Good night. Peace and love. Thank you, sir. Anyone else? Okay. Well, seeing none, we're going to move on to 14.1 or 14.0 and for 15.0. So, um we'll do committee reports and individual reports together. So, Miss Anders, we'll let you kick it off. Not so sure I want to go first
201this time. Um, well, I've been a lady about town here last month or so, couple weeks. I went to the education foundation lunch and that was great. Um, had a nice lunch from chef. I appreciated that. I got to have more bread pudding. So, that was always a plus. Um, we I did go to the art show, drug drag my husband to that and it was we have some very talented artists, young artists, and I encourage that. Um, a parent I'm an artist myself, so that's something near and dear to my heart. And then Miss Legan and I, we went to the regional Virginia schoolboard meeting and the main reason I really wanted to go because I wanted to see the school and I definitely had school envy. Um, and I'm hoping that they will
202come and see our school and then they'll have school envy. But what we did find was some really great collaboration. Uh, we learned some different programs that I'm going to hit Mr. Maddox up because he knows I love my CTE people. But it was a really it was a that was my first one. So, I was it was very enjoyable and I'm glad I got to go. Um, I'm glad that the school is doing the day of giving. Giving back to your community is such an important um factor of being a good citizen. And I'm glad that we're teaching that because some people are not going to learn that at home. And I'm glad that we're setting that example. Okay. If I was in charge of the world, this is what my best friend and
203I say all the time. If I was in charge of the world, budget for children would not be an issue. But unfortunately or fortunately for you all, I'm not. So, but I want you guys to know that the reason why I set up here, the reason why at 9:00 at night when I've been up for god knows how many hours and I go to all these meetings is because of the the kids. That's the only reason. It is not for that $200 I get every month. Trust me. But they're the reason. And please never doubt that that's why I set up here. Okay, y'all have a great spring break. rest and enjoy your family. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Mr. Rossi. Yeah, it's uh last month or Yeah, this month. Last month. This month. The
204open house at Manellison was incredible. Had a lot of parents out there. A lot of people showed up for that event. Uh it was nice to see all the teachers and staff and the community coming together, sharing a meal, fellowship. Um, I did take a lot of time reviewing the science and going over every single board. I don't know what it is about bath bombs, but there was a lot of experiments going on with that. Uh, yeah, but uh some of the some of the works really uh stood out. The soil and water conservation uh were the ones that I really kind of gravitated toward. um runoff waste. You know, you don't think about it, but as Dr. Wells alluded to, all of our water does head downstream and you don't think about, you know,
205how pesticides can affect and just throwing that plastic cup on the ground or, you know, just looking around your neighborhood and seeing, you know, some trash and just picking that up could make a difference later on. And uh yeah, I was real real pleased with the amount of effort that went into those projects. And I know that there was 10 of them that were picked that were supposed to go on. I don't know who ultimately won the the championship there, but it's not that important. It's the fact that all those students participated in it and they put their effort into it and it showed in the boards and I was very proud and impressed by our middle school students there at Benellison. What a great school. What a great school. And I think uh as
206a school board member, you know, I was told that our main objective is budget policy and keeping Dr. Wells in order to sum it up. Um and that's what I try to focus on. And I think everybody in this room is number one focus is children and their learning. Um, you know, there was a comment made about the VSBA and the they're the go-between. They're the middleman between Richmond and policy and then it gets to us and I look at it like this. Let's say you got a shopping list, okay? And you need to go to the store and buy these things. Do you go to Kroger or do you go to Walmart? You get the same chicken, you get the same coleslaw, you get the same barbecue sauce. One's a little cheaper. We're on
207a budget. And if that budget can buy me a couple education assistants and teachers, I'm going to put some teachers in front of those students. And it may not be much, but that little cut there and that little cut there in the budget, which is what I can control and put students in front of teachers is why I'm here. And if I can improve their learning, that's what I'm going to do. So, I I know people are very comfortable with everything that VSBA has to offer, but you know, sometimes you got to go for discount chicken sometimes. It's still chicken. We're still getting the same policies. And if we choose to change it, then we do as a board. It's not going to be one board member. It's going to be the entire board making
208that decision. So, just have faith in the people that you vote for because we're all voted up here and let's see where it goes. But policy is nothing more than what Richmond puts out and we got to obey and that's what we're going to do. Now, whether it comes from VSBA or somebody else, it's still a policy. And the same same with the lawyer, you know, we have a school lawyer and whether we want to pay that amount of money and we could buy a teacher with that, then maybe we need to buy a teacher. That's where that's where I'm sitting. And um I think that's about it. And um happy Easter everybody. Enjoy the holiday. It's my favorite one. Okay. Thank you, sir. Miss Justice Yes, sir. Thank you. So, um it has been
209very busy. Um the Central Virginia Gov School did not meet this month. We meet kind of quarterly. However, um the personalized letters were mailed to all the applicants um giving them the division's selection decision um whether they were selected or on the waiting list. um by March 28th. Um students must accept their position by tomorrow, April 11th. So parents, if you're listening, go check that bright student and say, "Did you apply? Did you get the letter? And are you accepting or not?" Um because we don't want any missed opportunities there. Um there will be a registration meeting for the new juniors and their families at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, May 7th coming up. So those are things to be aware of with the gov school. Um I did participate in the curriculum committee. It was
210a very enjoyable experience. Um we have amazing teachers who were thoroughly engaged in the process sharing their opinions, experiences, concerns and vibrant discussion. It was very fun to watch people who there were the hand raisers that were really good at the hand raising and then there were those that were very expressive at right interjecting there. So it was very fun and um enlightening. It was a privilege to participate as an observer. I encouraged the committee members to contact their schoolboard members and share their opinion and experience. Um we want to hear um from everyone. Um, I read at Temperance in mid-March in the library. I got to read Roa's Rock Hunt to these great kids. It was a joy to be there with Mrs. Giles and get to go into the different classrooms. I happened
211to show up a day early um on St. Patrick's Day. So, I got to see all of that. That was really fun. And then I got to come back the next day. So Roa's Rock Hunt was all about this little girl going on this hike and going camping with her family and picking up these different rocks that were special to her and then getting to the lake and wanting to pick up her bag but she couldn't and she had to face those choices which ones are important and we all have to face those choices. Um so it was close to my heart um as I love rocks. Um, tomorrow I get to attend a professional development se center seminar at the victims of communism monument in DC. I will be reviewing a free curriculum, networking
212with other board members, and then getting to meet with Secretary McMahon and ask questions to better understand the changes affecting districts from the dismantling of um, US uh, Department of Education. I welcome any questions, things people want to hear or want to be said. Um, I want to end on the trout release. My first spring in Ammerst County schools, I got to go and discover Peddler River. I got to meet y'all up at is it Long Mountain? The Long Mountain. Yeah. Um, which I have since explored all the way up that road to the Parkway, which you can get up there, and then all the way down and around that dam and avoiding trenches in the road where it's been carved out by the rain. and then seeing the campsites and fishing. It it was
213so astounding to me. Um my father got to go the following year and the the science the kids learn the opportunity to go in with that net with Dr. Wells in the cold. Some even fall in. The teachers try not to, but um to pull out those mats and then separate them out by the different categories and classes and then put them in little egg crates, little egg crates with drops of water and then they pull out their magnifying glasses and those kids have learned more in that two hours and probably in a semester. It's applying everything they heard and then doing it in the hands-on environment. And so I I feel like that's just an example, a picture of what Ammerst attempts to do in every classroom, you know, whether it's the art teacher
214who is doing murals and I'm talking way too long. So sorry. Anyways, so I just I'm just very thankful to be here in Ammerst and have a great evening. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Miss Thompson. Thank you. Um, uh, CVCC, we had our meeting this, um, this month and, um, for the STEM and just want to report that all four slots are filled. Um, so that's good news and graduation coming up in May. Um, and I just want to make a a quick uh, comment. um some of the folks that um the public that came and spoke here at the end um I just feel as if maybe they have just misunderstood my intent of what I was asking um you know coming in tonight I learned of the compliance that we had um
215and it did affect us with our textbooks so I wanted to ask questions and to be smart I don't want to spend um you know a large amount of money just to turn around and a month later find out that we're being jerked from one end to the other. So, why not ask some of those important questions upfront, know what we're dealing with before we make a board decision. Um, you know, one of the speakers said, you know, that you know, if you have one race that they're more important than another, we just can't be we can't have that. And that was what the speaker said. Well, exactly. That's what I was trying to say tonight as well. So, if I didn't say that correctly, I apologize to anybody that heard that that did not
216understand that. Well, I do value diversity. That's why when I heard that a lesson had been taken out for diversity, I disagreed with that. You know, I don't want us to do knee-jerk reactions. I think that we need to investigate where we are um with the requirements that we have and to make the best decisions that we can in the use of our money. So, I'm hoping that uh the public will understand that as a board member, I need to do my due diligence to ask good questions. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, ma'am. Miss Lian. Okay. Laurel has not had a meeting since we saw each other, but they are having their prom tomorrow. Oh, so um I'm working, but I might roll by there. Wear a gown, but I may roll by there. Um
217yes, we did enjoy the foundation lunchon and the culinary department was awesome there. But the information was good. But I learned some things that I didn't know uh that culinary arts did. So we had a good time with that. We enjoyed going to Rusber Middle. I work with some of those people and yes uh we're envious but they will see in May how envious we will be when we invite them to come up here. So we just having a good time. Um I wanted to go to community dinner, Mr. Rossi, but we had a track meet at the same time. So it was easy where I had to go you know I was at a track meet but I did hear great things about that. So these the community dinner school is about to end
218but has been great. It's been good uh good fellowship with everybody and uh I always think it is fun sometime to disagree uh Rev. Okay, it's not personal but just the way I I am but to end that conversation sometime we get a little tight and we don't need to but I'm not going to apologize because that's the way I I think. But I do want to say that we also have the opportunity to and I I haven't done it to go one- on-one with uh Dr. Norman at any time she's offered to us to come sit down and she will go over all of those things that we need to know and I think you've been some time. Um so you know I will tonight look in my closet one more time and see
219what's in there. So happy spring break. I'm not on spring break but y'all are so I've had mine but I got two more weeks for exam time and thank God for that. We are excited about CBCC's graduation for our early college students. Sometime people don't know that but we do have a lot of early college and I can report back on a personal note that Talia has uh enjoyed her time at Georgia and she has said many times the early college was a great thing for her. She was ready and she's not struggling with her classes. So anybody that's considering it uh going forward from a personal standpoint, me and my family say early college is great. So happy Easter to everybody. Good. Thank you ma'am. Mr. Childress, Mr. chair, members of board. Um I'm
220happy to report that I am also on spring break next week. So I will be enjoying some much needed uh time off. Um I did just want to kind of recap a little bit about our budget process because it doesn't appear that everybody really kind of heard a lot of what our budget process was like and the things that we were advocating for uh in our budget. But uh as a board we um we did all um push to have uh salary increases uh for our teachers. Um in fact we were asking for a 4% increase for our teachers. We were asking to uh fix some of the um the tiers uh for our teachers. Uh we were asking for special increases for our classified uh staff. Uh and so when we talk about the
221you being short 1.2 million um that is part of where that came in is we were trying to make those adjustments that as a school division we felt like we need to make to get our teachers um closer to where they need to be. Um and then also in that proposal we had um we had said we want to have um instructional assistance in every kindergarten classroom. Uh in this particular budget, we did get approved uh six additional IAS, one for each elementary school. Um I don't think that's enough. It doesn't go far enough. Uh but it's a good start. It's six more than we had. Uh and I think it goes to show that our um focus as a board is on instruction. Uh where it it certainly needs to be. And so I'm
222I'm proud to be a part of that and to start helping to move the needle forward. uh with that piece of it. Um you know, it's no uh surprise some of the concerns that we heard tonight mentioned about uh teachers frustrations with, you know, data, PLC, um planning times. Um and the other thing that I think a lot of people don't understand is that a lot of our teachers and planning times have to fill in for other teachers, right? And maybe some of our board members don't understand that that because of of the lack of subs uh and things that are going on in our buildings, a teacher who has a planning period, that's how they fill in for teachers that they don't have a sub for that throughout the day. Teachers give up their
223planning period to go fill in for that period. And that happens um more often than I think we would like it to happen. And so we certainly want to be respectful of that. Um, and you know, we talk about motivation for our teachers. That's where the whole thing came up at the last board meeting. And I still would like for us as a board, as administration to figure out how um we can better motivate our teachers. Um, you know, we we talk about pay. I'm for pay. I've proven that multiple times. I've brought it up here in our meetings. But what else? How else can we do it, right? And I'd love to hear from our public on what we can do as a a school board, as administration. I'd love to hear from teachers.
224We talk about uh our teachers and I've heard it directly from teachers unfortunately about the distrust as far as them coming to speak to the board. Um uh so I would publicly like to say I would love for teachers to be able to come and talk with us directly in the meetings, share their thoughts, uh without any fear of any um uh comments or lashback uh to them because it's an important part of the process uh for us as a board to be able to hear those directly and for us to be able to help make decisions to to make it better. Um, beyond that, I I do want to say if you missed the uh art show, you you missed uh a great opportunity uh to see the the work of our uh children.
225Um it's just it's phenomenal. Um and to have it all displayed so professional. Uh it's a great opportunity. And then uh I also um got to attend the Amoris Middle School's um um Sound of Music Junior uh play and that was phenomenal. I enjoyed it so much that I literally had to go home and watch the the actual movie um because I wanted to compare and they did a great job. The students, they did all of the from what I understand they did all the work themselves. that did the set design, built the set. Um, and it was and I'm not one to really go and sit uh for that type of stuff u very often, but I thoroughly enjoyed it and I would en encourage them continue to do that and uh to do
226it more often. So, thank you. Okay. Thank you, sir. So, I would like to um you know reiterate a little bit what um Mr. Childress said talking about the budget. Um, we would be remiss if we didn't say that we were we were aggressive when we went to the county with um the numbers that we were looking for. Now, if I'm not mistaken, a couple years ago, we got turned down for a um a grant that we put in because our county was not our county was too fiscally responsible, I believe, at that time. So, our county was managing their funds appropriately, which got us in trouble and we couldn't get some of the funding that we really hoped to have gotten from the state. It's kind of backwards if you ask me, but we
227did we were aggressive for the with the numbers. If the money is not there, the money is not there. Then we've got to get creative how we can make still our priority things work. And I think we did a pretty good job of sticking with our priority and moving things around as we could. So, anywhere we could cut a little bit here or there, we did. Anything we could was true and and near and dear to our hearts, we kept where we could. Um, off that box. Now, I I look at the events that are coming up. I mean, I just blew my wife's calendar up just loading things up tonight, just putting stuff on there. Good luck, seniors. Keeping up with all this. This is this is exciting time for you guys. I'm going
228to try to make it to as many of them as I can. I can guarantee I won't make it to all of them. But I I look at all those events. I'm coming to the play tomorrow night, seeing, you know, the kids go out there and do the plays, do the sports, do all the activities, show off their the things that they've accomplished. We got Day of Giving coming up. um all these things, the trout release and and several people have already, you know, expressed how important that is. We are creating great citizens as they leave Ammeris County. They will not be students any longer. They will be citizens of Ammeris County. And I think we were going through here. All of these little things are instilling the values that we see as a community
229into our students and are reinforcing that on a day-to-day basis. And I think that's what we're here for. Teach them how to be successful. Whether it's go to college, whether it's do CTE, whether it's just go straight out and get a job, whatever we are teaching them how to be successful um valuable citizens in our community. Some will stay here, some will go on other places. And hopefully those that go on other places, people will be able to say, "We know you came from Ammeris County." And I hope they look at it and go, "That's that's a great thing." So the last thing I do want to do is congratulate Miss Lian. Miss Lian, I can't count the number of awards I've heard you getting over the number of years, but you deserve them all.
230So thank you for all that you've done for Ammeris County Schools. I don't be boasting either. No. Well, let us boast for you. I'm thankful. Let us boast for you. So, um, with that, uh, you guys, I'm I'm what's between you and spring break. So, uh, I am going to call it here. You guys have a great spring break. We will see you next month, Mr. Chair. Yes, sir. Uh, make a motion we adjourn. Thank you. All in favor? I [Music]