001[Music] he [Music] he [Music] he [Music] he [Music] he [Music] he [Music] he a [Music] he [Music] he [Music] than a [Music] he [Music] he [Music] he [Music] he [Music] he [Music] he [Music] he [Music] he oh [Music] he [Music] a [Music] he he [Music] he [Music] [Applause] [Music] he he [Music] he [Music] he [Music] he [Music] he a [Music] he [Music] he [Music] know he [Music] he [Music] he he [Music] n [Music] [Applause] he [Music] he [Music] he [Music] he [Music] he [Music] he [Music] a [Music] he he [Music] he [Music] he [Music] he [Music] I like to welcome everybody to the uh March amers County school board meeting Dr well is there anything you need to start with okay all right so if we could rise for a moment silence and pledge please
002ALG 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 thank you all righty board we have an agenda Mr chair I'd like to make a motion to amend the agenda I'd like to move the budget presentation to 3.01 and then 3.02 would be public comment therefore allowing the com the public to comment on the budget presentation after it's presented and then I would also like to add a public comment prior to agenda item number 15 I second the motion okay any discussion okay uh there's a motion on the floor uh all in favor I I I okay un oppose take care okay so now can I get a motion to approve the AG uh amended agenda
003motion we approve the amended agenda second all in favor I hi hi okay Dr Wells recognitions Mr chair members of the board we have our December and January students and staff of the month uh we recognize them uh do a little differently since we have two months worth tonight in essence of time I'm going to read out a few of the uh phrases and words that that describe our students for our students excelled in academics behavior and attendance wonderful attitude makes great efforts to get along with peers is a hard worker is motivated demonstrates growth and dedication um always looking out for the people around them always ready and prepared to learn positive attitude encouraging to others hardworking determined always strives to do their best these are some of the accolades that describe these students
004in general so as I call you up yes this is what describes you that's why you were chosen this month for these months to be students of the month so when I call your name please come forward we'll stand here and then once we do once everybody gets up here we'll take a group photo with December then I'll call January students and then do staff the same way okay all right so Landon May is am County High School Darla Anne Evans a okay Tony Mason Amis Middle School all right might be quick brilin Adams melsa Middle School Eden Foster amalon all right [Applause] haror polling Amis [Applause] Elementary Kinsley selles Central Elementary [Applause] Jackson Scruggs elen [Applause] Elementary Camry car mass and Heights Elementary okay Brinley Gunter Temperance Elementary and that is all for December
005all right it's all for December sir okay for January again we had to delay these a little bit we had some weather in January and February that kind of put us behind a little bit so um this is week three of being on time every day and not being closed between Christmas break and three weeks ago we didn't have a week that we didn't either were two hours late or closed at least one day so this is first three working on three weeks in the road now so the high school Adam Goen ERS count High School Kimberly Barker Amis Education Center Olivia Hughes ammer Middle [Applause] School Violet Tyrie monelisa Middle School Owen Foster amalon not here okay I hope I can say this right Isa donu AE ammer [Applause] Elementary I know it okay
006it's okay Owen okay we're fine Aubrey Campbell Central Elementary okay Lydia met elen [Applause] Elementary Jon H Haskins Masson Heights Elementary Perkins Senate Temperance Elementary all right that is it this group all right Mr Terry oh gosh there's just no way congratulations [Applause] so for our staff I want to hit a few of the accolades that were oning for staff um always incredibly positive and his students love being in his class responds to staff and students with care and concern true professional a fantastic leader develops great relationships with students hard work and dedication always ready to support students resilience intelligence and determination encourages our students to be the best versions of themselves inspiring them them to persevere through challenges ability to help her St ability to help students achieve incredible academic and personal growth while
007fostering meaningful connections that last a lifetime these are few of the accolades that described our teachers or our staff excuse me our staff of the month so we'll start with December and want to call your name please come forward Cody Alonzo Amis County High School Kristen brazwell Amis education center Linda zoski Amis Middle School Thurman Henley melison Middle School Lynette Brooks amalon Jessica dowy ammer Elementary Mandy May Central all right thank you Michelle Jordan elen Elementary Jennifer Spence Madison Heights Elementary Karen Fitzgerald Temperance Elementary and then from Transportation Jessica AES and from our office Mane Davis oh just be us and you picture two Miss Thompson can you go just just a smidge that way thank you m one two three [Applause] congratulations for January John Collins Amis County High School Katherine Bowen Amis education
008center Sarah Coleman ammer Middle School Elizabeth Short manelis Middle [Applause] School anat tuille [Applause] amalon Alicia Campbell and ammer Elementary John Campbell Central Elementary Joy KIRO elen Elementary Melody Herman Madison Heights Elementary Naomi Giles Temperance [Applause] Elementary Transportation Dwayne Martin is one of our bus drivers and administration Lori Terry does our tennis and home bounce specialist [Applause] hurt anybody going out the door though don't everybody leave at once right well at least have two people yeah that's right yeah F3 all right so we got budget presentation next okay make sure I got this thing straight I don't think she updated it yeah now so next we have we moved budget to 3.01 yes sir so uh budget presentation please so Mr chair excuse me members of the board um what we did tonight for the
009this person of the budget since we had the formal budget presentation at a special meeting two weeks ago in our work session last week we tried to summarize the discussions of the work session in this presentation that you have at your place so you can look we looked at the Personnel changes things that are highlighted or the things we change um so under two is frees and stiens as percentage of pay to be Frozen at the level they are this year we went down under number 25 um we struck the CSR instructional assistant for class size reduction but we added a full-time teacher to Madison Heights Elementary uh under best Labs line 30 we added a best lab for El Elementary but we cut the best Labs at amris elementary amris middle school and Amis
010County High School on line 32 we uh left a teacher at Amis a we cut that so that teacher stays and 33 the teacher stay that was projected to go through attrition at amalon was kept in the budget um line 36 was not part of our discussions um but Mr L conage can speak to line 36 good evening board um line 36 when we we actually received after the budget Retreat the um planning tool the C tool from the general assembly's um proposed budget and it did provide an additional $76,000 I think it's $317 um what this is this proposal is to take an additional position out of the all-in Virginia that way instead of having four that need to go into the operating next year you would only need three and that also frees
011up the Allin Virginia funds so that we can expand the um summer school program um initially it was with the um available funding they were having some issues getting everyone in there so this would free it up so that they could have their robust program so the Y program was cutting funding but this allows us if we do this it would allow us use nland Virginia funds to do K K through five and middle school and then middle school as opposed to three through middle school so that allowed us to do summer school for kindergarten first and second by using those all in Virginia funds Mr Terry yes ma'am ask a question um Dr Dr Wells in the past what has our participation or Interest been in the K through three I think right for
012summer school nor can speak that okay last year we had right at 37 students in our K through two and we had 129 in our three through five in middle school we had 7879 and then High School of course is all credit bearing so high school is going to vary depending on who needs it for Recovery or who wants to get a hit thank you very much so those were the addendums we made to the budget from last week's meeting again the only thing that wasn't discussed from last week's school meeting was the extra 7 6,000 and we did that to move that position um but again that's a perview of the board but that does free up money for summer school through all in Virginia that we felt that our kindergarten first and second
013graders would benefit from that as a so we could we could fund that program yes ma'am um can you share with us what all in Virginia funds are being utilized for I think it was about um $1 million a little bit over that and will it carry over into I'm assuming it carries over into next year what are we utilizing that for besides just summer school okay so um there are three parts of the all in Virginia one is the um deals with the learning um second is your literacy act and your third is chronic absenteeism so for The Chronic absenteeism we are using this current year we have um the homebound coordinator as well as the the attendance officer um in the literacy we had the0 five of the reading specialist and then for
014the learning acceleration we had two literacy teachers um an instructional math specialist that also um funds can be used for summer school um also for the literacy that also helped with the textbook adoption I noticed on the textbook it was like 375 yes ma'am that was being allocated but we're spending much more than that so you're using all in Virginia funds for that it did pay for some of it but also we were using current years um textbook fund with the state and local match um so we weren't needing to pull the whole amount out of the reserve okay can you share with me about the learning loss funds is the learning acceleration no aren't we having some learning loss funds that are being allocated about to say Grant you mean are School Improvement Grants
015no it was under the allocations for tonight's meeting which one that's the learning acceleration learning acceleration and what are we utilizing those funds for um our intent is to use it for summer school this year as well as next year and we are currently funding um positions this year as well as next year what positions are we funding this year so currently right now we have our um we're trying to protect that learning loss or pick up that learning law so we took two of our um teachers at the high school who were working with our struggling uh ninth graders that were in eighth grade last year and those two literacy positions are being paid for to uh remediate to actually work with our collab classes in regards to our English and reading and writing
016so it is two positions that are based at high school that help with pulling those kids up from where they were at Middle School Mr Terry yes ma'am okay so did I understand correctly it's about a million dollars for the all in Virginia funds okay and that's funding basically five teachers two teacher specialists at the high school to help remediate the the high schoolers who were in eighth grade last year two lit teachers and one math teacher Plus 375,000 for the curriculum te no no ma'am so it's paying for two of our literacy teachers at the high school working with those struggling ninth grade students it is paying for one elementary math specialist that is based out of Central Elementary helping our federally ided schools in the area of math and then it is paying
017for a 05 for the required reading specialist that we have to have at ammer Middle School of course then of course your 375,000 for this year summer school of 2025 and then 200,000 set aside for 2026 so the allum Virginia funds aren't helping with textbook offset textbook costs it did we we have the second the second um I like say pot of money was the all in Virginia literacy act and there was an allocation I think it was like $260,000 that that went to that textbook adoption last year last year we paid for it we received it in July and um it came so it it's coming out of this year's budget and so approximately um how many students are we serving through the teachers is that like 40 students 20 students no probably about
018115 120 okay thank you for our two literacy teachers and then our reading specialist at the middle school school probably about 45 awesome thank you I can get those numbers and make sure that they're correct for you but I'm ballparking that right now that's about um 10% of our uh middle schoolers would you say about okay thank you and about 10% of our high schoolers they right and the other reading specialist at manelis and middle school that's already in your operational budget but both of those are required fired under Virginia literacy act okay thank you so it's three teachers not two not five sorry I said five correct okay okay board anything else okay thank you so moving on to 3.02 I believe I want to do public comment first and then come back on
019the to approve or not approve the budget is that 3.02 is public comments correct yeah yeah so do we need uh a motion to go into public hearing you need to do a motion okay so motion to to move to public hearing for the budget okay second all in favor I I okay so anyone who would like to approach the board um for uh public hearing to discuss budget items only uh please step forward yes sir than your name sure okay um I'm Jeff Porter 478 Woody Lake Road Madison Heights I'm in uh District Five and I have just a couple of comments to make um one are a couple of questions for you as a board what are you most pleased about in the budget that you feel will best help the uh students
020of our school district and the same question in terms of that you feel will B best help the teachers of our school district I think oftentimes we think about gee I wish we could have boy we really wanted to but I think you also have to acknowledge what you've done well and what is going to help so I hope you will do that and I hope you will make that uh public uh secondly was there something in your putting together of this budget that you were pleasantly surprised actually happened that you didn't expect and if so what was that okay fair enough uh the other comments that I would like to make are I am really gratified and appreciate your efforts to get public input to be able to First have any changes that were
021talked about to The Bu budget happened before public comment on the budget really helpful secondly that you had that special meeting just on the budget so we as public could look in on that if we weren't able to be here very helpful so thank you for doing that and I'd also like to specifically highlight uh Kim lukanich uh she makes herself available to help the public understand the budget uh I'm not a person of figures or of numbers but she does a very good job at doing what she does and I would hope that people who are looking in on this meeting will see her as an asset to be able to better understand what this budget is about there's a lot of work involved and for us as public to be educated about it
022is important so thank you very much thank you sir anyone else like to speak to uh the budget okay I'm seeing none so the motion to close motion to close Shar I move that we close public comment for Budget okay second okay all in favor I okay all right let's see Dr Wells where does that put us number four a special presentation well we going to come back to approval of the budget later you want to do that now we do that at six that's at six but okay so now we have special present ation from leadership Lynchburg and Katie Mayo I'll ask you to come forward and you can present and just a little bit of information on this um her group kind of asked if they could I don't want to Ste under
023her too much but her group kind of asked they could survey our staff to get some input from our staff and then share the information with us so this is basically the results of that finding so Katie I am Katie Mayo I live at 26 5 Christian Springs Road here in Amherst I um am a proud graduate of Amer County high school and I currently have a second grader at ammer elementary but that's not the capacity that I am in today um my group and I and we will present ourselves to you here to Second um we are in leadership Lynchburg with the Lynchberg Regional business Alliance and we were um all placed um by our ranking on the education group and that is what we are here for tonight um but I will ask
024that you all come up and introduce yourselves and then we'll get started good I am Kimberly cook um as Katie has said I am part of Lynchburg leadership 47 I up to the mic please yes I am an auditor with brown Edwards and Company I do not do Amor's audit just about that I do not work on that audit um and I've enjoyed my time time um with lynchburg's leadership and just working with a great group of people and i' I've learned so much hello my name is Graham Brooks um I'm actually a former Elementary School teacher in this County um as of a few years ago I am now in project management at Southern air and also a proud participant in the leadership Lynchburg program thank you hi I'm Eden eldrid um actually only
025five years into being a Virginia resident um and I am the director of property management for Rush homes I don't know if any of you have heard of that uh I've had a great time with the leadership Lynchberg we have a great team they're stuck with me forever now and I am very interested in what we're doing with your community and with your schools thank you yes I should say in my formal capacity here I am representing f um but we wanted to say thank you because you'll see later um well we would like to say thank you to all the teachers and administrators that took our survey and we'll get to the results of that and that's what we wanted to share with you all um here is our whole group not everyone is
026here tonight um but a little background on how we got here so I said we were we ranked um Community initiatives on our first day with leadership lychburg everyone here and the rest of our group put education as their Top Choice and then we were all placed on the group um we are uh we all had different reasons for choosing education as I said I have a second grader uh at amers elementary we have others that have children in the school system Graham being former teacher um we all just had a great interest um so our project was very high level we didn't get a whole lot of um what to go on there so we all sat down and started brainstorming and um it became very apparent to all of us that we don't
027know what's going on in the classroom and so we came up with a very simple idea to send out a survey um I had been exchanging emails with Dr Wells about a couple of things and so uh my email made its way to him and he graciously allowed it to go out to all of the schools um in ammer County Public Schools and overnight I'll look 118 survey results in about 24 hours um lots of great comments great feedback and um we are going to present that to you all um we gave we sent out a second survey to get follow-up information last month um we have scrubbed that data um so that there are no um identifying uh comments in there um and then we will be sending that information over to Dr Wells
028and his team as well but our our project started out being how can we be a resource and then from this survey we realized that giving the teachers a voice to you all and to the administration is probably our best way to make a change and um give them a way that they can give a sounding board to these things so I will turn it over to our team do you want me to sure so like Katie was saying in October we sent out our first survey and we kept it brief at the time because we thought we were just gathering information this ended up kind of becoming the focus of the project but those three questions were what do you consider your biggest challenge as an educator um if you could change one thing
029in your current school or school system what would that be and then not picture it on this slide but it will be coming up um as a reg as a um educator what resources are you available are available to you that you would know of um if any and so we wanted to share the results of those for you now and so for the first question if you could change one thing in your current school or school system what would it be um briefly the top five as pictured in the graphic of more time compensation more staff more support and more resources on the next slide you'll see the results of what do you consider your biggest obstacle in being an educator the top five being more time behavior and discipline parental support lack of
030support and money and funding and then as a teacher and educator are you aware of any free and paid resources available to you and as you can see it's it's almost split down the middle for what 52% said yes and then another 48% said no so then when we went back to it in February um the results changed changed a little bit so in February which clearly just happened um what do you consider to be your biggest obstacle time a lot of them said they don't have enough time to do their jobs effectively in the amount that they're given uh behavior and discipline that's not the teachers um they do need some help with behavior and discipline with their classrooms um 177% said lack of support and then parental support came in lower than that
031if you could change one thing in your current school or school system what would it be more staff and that goes to the time right so if they had more staff or at least had some part-time staff they would have the ability to do more uh paying salary more time and more support from Administration and oddly enough to me those are all combined those all kind of go together and then which resources do you consider a top priority for you as an educator support from Administration benefit benefits through school system parental support grants and funding mental health support so again you know they all kind of go together and that is it I'm gonna hand it back over to Katie so thank you all for allowing us to come um the first the first survey
032had 123 um total responses and then the last one had about 57 um and like I said we'll be giving all of the data over to Dr well and his staff and we have also um agreed our group to uh continue to stay in touch with Dr Wells and his staff and if we could host focus groups or um send out other surveys because uh I'm in the HR world and realize that um Anonymous surveys can be really great tools and allow folks to say things that they might not always say or feel like they are heard so we would be happy to continue that on thank you any questions for us Bo any questions yes Mr Terry thank you so much um for taking your time and skills to support ammer and get in
033there and help teachers which helps students so um did you control in respondence between teachers and staff or was it all teachers it was Anonymous so we don't really we it was sent out to every one so we did not control that nor did we ask any questions to try to figure out uh what group they were in okay thank you yes yes ma'am so why ammer why not lynchb bur well I think I started it out um I we used our internal Network and I have a lot of friends that are teachers in the county so I was like hey if we get 20 we'll be doing really good um and then um like I said I have been actively involved in my child's second grade uh education this year and so I had
034been sending some emails to Dr Casi and so I thought let me just give it a whirl and see if my internal Network can work on this and we were I think I can speak for everyone on our team we were astonished by the results um some of the con the comments you could tell very passionate about what they do and um so it really pushed us to try to get this information in your hands and in Dr wells's hands because as Outsiders we realize that there's not a lot that we can do to support um but we wanted to try to do that anyway we could so what would you like the outcome for us to do um I think we uh so our original project uh was going to be a website with
035resources um we also were we just had an education uh session in leadership lychburg last week and it was told to us that there are over 10,000 links on the Virginia Department of education's website so we're really thankful we didn't add more links for people to try to find things so we were saved from ourselves on that one um what we really want to do is is feel like we are giving teachers a voice and and maybe giving them a chance to say things that they are unable to say or feel that they cannot say um and so I I really hope that you all will look over this and it can help influence uh decisions in the future and we are also doing a teacher supply Drive totally forgot to mention that um we
036realized that a lot of student Supply drives are done so on the last survey we asked teachers what they needed lots of Expo markers needed in the county and Expo brand specifically because the others don't work as well we were told so we will be um asking our leadership Lynchburg group as a whole um to help support that and we will be delivering that in about a month thank you Bo anything else Mr Terry yes ma'am thank you um have you done focus groups with any other districts or helped to facilitate that I have done them in my own capacity as HR in my world um so we're used to that uh we have also done them in in our group or anything else thank you very much thank you all for your time thank
037you Katie okay thank you all all righty 5.01 Public public comment okay so we have two people who have signed up tonight uh Lauren balant can you step forward please good evening um I'm Lauren ballant and I live in Forest Virginia um my name is Lauren valent and I am an art educator at elen Elementary in Temperance Elementary and I'm also our F Fine Arts Lead Teacher um I first want to wish you a happy youth art month and a music in our school's month and a theater in our school's month I know that many of our Amhurst art Educators share my belief that the Arts provide a limited list benefit to all of our students research gathered by the art education Pro uh partnership shows that participating in the Arts cultivates skills for learning
038boost students academic achievements enhances the educational experience of traditionally underserved students and also boost attendance the art strengthen critical thinking skills encourage students engagement with schools in general and fosters creativity um sorry I skipped um students from low income backgrounds who have a high level of engagements with the Arts are more likely to complete High School have a higher GPA and attend college at higher rates than their peers with low Arts engagement also their civic engagement increases with participation in the Arts I urge our County to continue funding supporting and providing Arts opportunities for our students of all ages uh at this time I usually provide uh brochures um but Ruth Miss has previously uh emailed out to you our youth art month Exposition um invitation and a calendar of events for the musical performances
039um going on this month um across the street we have a few hundred artworks right now um displayed at Second Stage we will be hosting the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts artmobile in the parking lot on March uh 27th and 28th at second stage and we're hoping to have a few field trips um going on on those days and then the invitation was for the um Arts reception that is happening on March 28th so I encourage you to visit and see the wonderful artwork that our students have produced and to go to one of the musical performances um and enjoy thank you great thank you thank you very much okay next we have uh Jeff Porter I'm Jeff Porter 478 Woodies Lake Road Madison Heights District um first of all I appreciate you adding the
040the comment period at the end of the meeting that gives us as public an opportunity to give you some feedback uh so thank you for doing that feedback is important for you but it's also important for us when we make comments and we don't hear any kind of response whether it's a clarification or a question or we think I heard you say this just to make sure um we're not sure whether we're heard or not and I think uh communication is a two-way street and you could help us and I think that it would reinforce to people who would like to make comments that they're actually heard um so if you could help us out with that that would be um I think uh a good step forward one of the I've been attending these
041meetings now for about three years and I know I've missed a few of the meetings but one of the aspects of this meeting that I would really like to encourage is that every so often we hear from the uh ptas in terms of what they're doing and uh hold them up as examples of ways that parents and public can be involved in the school district um I think that the more Avenues you provide the better possibility and probability that you will have more public input I know it's a struggle when you you don't have many people who sign up or who give public comments but I think if you reinforce the comments and you help people who give comments to know that they've been heard I think that creates a better environment so thank you
042very much okay thank you sir that is all for the ones who have signed up is anyone else from the audience who'd like to speak okay all right and seeing none we will move on 6.01 Dr Wells yes sir Mr chair members of the board I bring forward to you tonight uh policy jcf uh for approval you received an email on February 19th with the Amendments as as uh preferred at our uh January at our February meeting and in that on page two the addition was under food sold outside uh during time but anyway we had that line during the school day excluding concessions that was the that was at the request of the board so that has been added to the updated policy and I would ask we move this before approval okay make
043a motion that we approve policy JH CF a second it all right board any discussion on that okay um all in favor I I okay Dr Wells thank you and uh we just received our March packet and you'll be getting a whole new list of policies in April thank you sir yes sir uh 6.02 is discuss consider approval of the 2526 School operational budget I'll turn it over to meet you Mr chair okay board any questions comments Mr Terry I do have a question about the policy part we were just at how do we we approved it totally nothing think about that but how do one of our jobs is to make certain we review all of our policies at least every 5 years how do we keep track of that vsba does that as
044part of their policy reviews so as part of the part of the vsba every five years every policy is is gone through so they come to you as either not needing the it comes to us we we get it to you as a board to review this and so do we note on the policy reviewed on such and such a date yes at the bottom of each policy it states when it was updated oh okay thank you very much okay okay board anything um on on the budget just yes sir um all right there we go sorry about that um I want to just go over line 21 one more [Applause] time I know we had discussion on it and I'm just tried to to justify the return on investment so communication grants and websites
045yeah grants websites and I you're talking about adding a position here what positions one we added last year right it was not in the operating budget and then of that um I can't go we're in open session so I don't want to get bit too deep into this but um I'm just trying to figure out what I can say in Open Session regarding that position so I could be glad to talk offline or in close session but I'm not sure what I can say in Open session it was initially Grant funded I know that position has written grants overseas grants well over a million dollars that we that come back into the school system right and I know that was for for Grant rating I thought we had a part-time position for that that someone
046that person left that person left okay all right that's all I have okay thank you board any other comments questions okay I do but I don't want to monopolize so trying to not leap in right away um so one of the things that we had talked about that we had mentioned was about um lawyer um the lawyer fees and whether or not the board wanted to look into some Alternatives um we spent in the 2324 year we averaged um $53 an hour as far as billable hours um if we had been going so we spent $ 44,5 62.50 had we been going um hourly even at 350 which is above our billable rate right now I believe correct I think our billable is like 275 unless it went up 285 285 okay so that would
047have been um a cost of $3,450 which would have been a savings of 14,000 in this year um when you divide the 148 hours that we did we paid 63,800 $460 for that would be um $429 an hour um if we had just done it straight at $350 an hour um we would have had a savings of about $1,000 that's a part-time um teachers assistant um so I don't know board if that's something that we want to look at as far as fiscal responsib ility and then the other um item that had been brought up in the work session was um vsba which we spent about 16,000 for and if you break that down between seven board members that's about 2,000 that's more than $2,000 a board member um I know that when I looked
048at our policy manual we had at least 10 policies that had not been revised in over 5 years um so that's why I was clarifying as far as what our process is for that um I know that we've talked about spma as well as other organizations I know that a couple districts they paid 2,900 for the policy side um and then individual board members can choose to be members or not vsba you have to be a membership to take advantage of the legislative piece um so I'm just bringing that up again since it's budget time that would be a savings of at at least $112,000 even if we still spent $3,500 on conferences um so board is that something we want to discuss yes sir can I ask you a question why why didn't you
049bring that up last week I did bring bring it up I didn't hear that I was going to say that would have been the right time CU I did bring it up we didn't discuss it then we it was brought up okay Mr chair yes ma'am um I do know that we did discuss it I mean Mrs Justice did bring it up at our work session um I will say that I just think it I agree that it's good due diligence to look and see if we can find attorney fees that are less than what we're currently paying um I know that there's a lot of school divisions north of us that are using one that according to Mrs Justice and and it could be some significant cost savings but I don't know that firsthand
050that would be something that I think you know the school administration can look into I don't think that that hurts it could even be some negotiation way room and wiggle room with the current one that we have um so those are things that I think will make some small differences and I do think that we need to be looking at ways to to tighten what we're doing um our enrollments down so we've got to find ways to hone it in I know uh preco we were um operating with a lot less staff than we have now um and so I I know that the staff that we have added are doing good things instructional things and they're not not things that we want to let go of but we have to also be able to
051justify that with academic improvements um so I'm not quite sure where we start to analyze the results of adding those new positions but I do have concerns I do know at our work session I mentioned and I asked are there things and programs or things that we can cut not just from what's been presented in the budget but things that we just do every day that maybe aren't actually needed but I don't see any of those changes on here I only see an additional one okay I know that also I don't know how to handle um I know I discussed with you Mr chair and with the superintendent um that if we can get the Medicaid reimbursements coming in then that would help best Labs become self-sufficient and it's my understanding based on just some
052simple conversation um that if those best Labs become self- sustaining then that would be the previous I mean the current best Labs as well as the new ones that we have not been able to put here on our budget so how do we handle that with having to present the budget next week on to the board of super supervisors because that's going to be a pretty significant amount that we can discuss Dr Wells anything on that well that Mr neighbor speak to the best lab and the yeah so you are correct as time that would apply to the current best lab positions as well as what we're talking about with expansion all of those positions would apply to that um and based on what we understand about Medicaid reimbursement Dr Smith is well versed in
053that it would be self- sustaining and potentially even then some to look at even further expansion down the road um we do have our first claims in in regards to the ABA services that we've provided in schools thus far of this year so some contracted services that lives in the same area of Medicaid reimbursement that's our first test balloon so to speak that's in right now it's pending previously that had been immediately denied it's been pending for about a week at this point so as soon as we see that return and know that we're getting those approved that would then be the jumping off point to know that we've got got something to work with in regards Medicaid reimbursement so it's sort of a moving Target at this point so Dr Wells how do you
054suggest we handle that so my thought on this would be that you know once we know what it's going to be since the Count's going through their process that we could always if they say they're not going to fund at a certain level if we could if you do a $1.2 million ask if this budget passes you approve this budget as we go through negotiations trying to figure out if they can't fully fund that then I think that's something once we know the funds are coming in then we can always say okay we can allocate for that and pull back and that's something as we go through the process between now and may when the county has to finalize our budget that we could have this conversations that once we know what it is I
055I wouldn't want to go in right now and saying I know we're going to get 50,000 or 100,000 additional without seeing it first but once we know it's coming then I think we could easily do the math on that to figure out what that would look like and we could put the into our formula as we go through if we need to make cuts to the budget but right now I don't have that number Mr conage I just concur it's a little too early until you actually see that to project it to be into your budget um you want to see it go through the process and start seeing that Revenue coming in on a um stable regular basis but it is something I think we can keep working with throughout the County's budget process
056and if we can find savings there that we go and say look we can cut back X number of dollars for this because we're we're able to get this through this funding source and work it through there and again I've had decent conversations with Mr briyan I think you know we can have those conversations as we move through the budget process if needed that's something if we find that money is able to help sustain that we can have that conversation and pull that money or that request yes ma'am back okay yes ma'am thank you okay Bo thing yes sir Mr chair so I have a question on it's more of a general question but I'll reference items 54 55 and 56 as what I would call onetime purchase items typically you don't see those in
057a continuing budget they would be in a CIP budget so my question is is do we have any of these onetime purchases that were in previous budgets and if so where is that money being reallocated towards in the future the previous boards had asked us to put this into the operating budget to ensure it was there every time so we do um for example grounds equipment we have a heavy year and a light year we budget for that so this year was a heavy year for the mo next year will be a lighter year um maintenance truck and plow that's that year and then there's a year we don't put that in the budget Mr conage probably has to book in front of her so she can speak to thaty out years so you're saying
058so like this year we're adding 24,000 on top of what we would have for lawnmower replacement no we only do we only buy more once every every other year Mr raches do you want to speak I understand that that process but my question is is but once you put that dollar amount in the budget it's in the budget for next year as well well we Al when we alternate we will actually the next year reduce it you'll decrease it by 24,000 correct okay that's what I was asking and we are trying to build theirs up because the cost of everything has gone up oh believe me I know and it they are they're buying what they need to buy um I'm not questioning what they're buying and I know that but it you know from
059a budget standpoint I I'm CH it's a challenge because you know it is tipping is getting close to his budget so um it is something that those that's areas we need to look at um if you go and I know you probably don't have it with you but um in the budget Retreat um presentation there is a section that is the um maintenance budget and that's in your operating and that was where we were taking the painting out and so usually year by year we look and see all those different pages what the net needs to be do we need to increase it or to decrease it um so that's one of the things that we at least for one year only um are want are requesting to move the painting out and these are
060just the other adjustments that'll bring you back to the totals that are in that presentation so like next year the 60,000 for the maintenance truck and plow we'll see a deduct of 60,000 let me see what we have next year and it might be that that goes to um a truck in the for the mechanics but it's just part of that maintenance plan that we have and it goes out to 20 28 29 but how would we as a board know that that 60,000 next year is going to go to another vehicle right because in here it's a onetime purchase kind of thing and next year it's loose money is that am I saying that correctly in the project I'm sorry I can't talk well tonight but in the projections it should show out the
061next four or five years and it'll say one year it's going to be at 60,000 one year it's going to be at 10,000 arbitrarily making those I don't have it in front of me but yeah I wish I had P right so in that example Dr Wells this year we're adding 60 next year you're going to if you need a 10 you would subtract 50 from the budget deduct so you would have the 10 you would need for that budget item yes sir right so um it was 60,000 is being added to the maintenance for next year the following year you'll see it go up to support vehicles for Vans trucks and SUVs so it it is part of the plan you may see it shift into a different function just to keep it in
062the area where we're purchasing those vehicles but for vehicles is one but more it does up and down we had gear from yes yes correct so I'm sorry I didn't and I apologize if the other board members already understood this but it does get confusing yes normally those type of things would be in CIP because every one time and you don't have it in a revolving budget okay um the other question I had is on 64 what what technology software are we getting rid of well we did have a large reduction um in the one sof software that was for surveys um but this is and it's offset with some we had some softwares that the cost went up this is the net of everything um performance matters that that was eliminated and that but
063then we picked up another Master connect correct and we're still saving because yes I mean this is my wheelhouse I know right and normally we don't see cost Savings in software right okay that was removed I got you okay performance because I honestly I would love to see our teachers um be able to use a program we use Gog Guardian uh and it would really benefit our teachers to have have access to that in classroom management but that's a different conversation yes M thank you okay board anything else Mr Terry um I'd like to make a motion that we um discontinue our membership with BBA and that the board consider directing um the superintendent to look at alternative policy services okay there's a motion on floor second any fur any discussion Mr chair um I
064would be open to having the conversation about you know changing or dismissing the policy services from VBA but I hesitate to do that until we have done the research and asked the administ to look for the alternative I'm not comfortable with just saying I'm going to vote to leave it but yet we don't have something in hand I think it's something that I think that research should be done and presented to us as a board um just the ordering of it okay okay I agree with Miss Thompson okay board anything else no I'm I'm just on the same agreement um you know I'm not I'm not sure this this whole vsba story keeps just dropping in the Hat and never discussed and now here we are at budget and we say let's get rid of
065it uh so thank you Miss Thompson and others for just saying that that should be a conversation and I don't remember there being a conversation of Pros cons if ANS and buts unless I missed it maybe it was one of the Friday conversations or something but to to dismantle and I didn't say I would agree or disagree or vote against or for but I think to dismantle something of that nature it would call for some conversation I think I havee since I represent it I brought it up multiple times over the last four years and right now we're looking at a very tight budgetary season we just had a presentation that said our teachers want more time in the classroom they want more support and that 16,000 could at least get half of an instructional
066assistant into a classroom which is something that our teachers are asking for I don't and in our I don't know that many of us actually take advantage of the vsba and we're paying a lot just to have that and as I said earlier there were 10 policies that I found hadn't been reviewed um since 2019 or older some were 2013 that means we're not in compliance as a board which means vsba is falling through the cracks on that so and we've discussed it a lot and I haven't brought it up for a vote and well I did I did once before and it failed and that's okay it's the board's Choice can I add on the policy they're all all reviewed but they're not all brought forward because there's no need to change or update
067because they're in compliance with code so the yeah the bat you just are receiving they're reviewed but they were no changes because there was no need to change so the enacted date would go back to the date that it was enacted initially so somewhere we should probably have a note that says it was reviewed because that on the perception perception is that we're not doing our job that way so okay M Terry yes sir yeah we've had um I know my time here on the board there have been conversations about it but the that's where it ends it usually ends with well okay great and that's the last we hear of it no research is done nobody reaches out to any other things and it's you know there's been more than one board member that's
068brought the vsba and I think that the more I look personally into the vsba I find it more of a lobbyist group and if you really dig down deep into it they're the ones controlling the legislation that's why they're up up on the policies and to look at Alternatives that are less expensive and not necessarily the Monopoly of of Virginia schools I think it what serves us serves us right to explore other options you know there are other schools that are using other programs other than BBA and I and I know they've been on our side for a long long time I'm not saying that's bad I'm just saying that we need to do our due diligence and look at other options and and I I say the same for our legal representation you know
069now there may be enough leverage to renegotiate terms and contracts I'm not saying we have to we have to dismiss our lawyers I'm just saying that maybe it's time to renegotiate you know look at other options out there you know the world changes every day and this might be part of our change and if we review it and we don't like it then we stay where we're at I do agree with Miss Thompson that yes we we need to have somebody else in place before we just drop that that's not a it's not a good move but I understand uh Miss Justice's frustration as it's been brought up in in front of the board many times and it it ends with this conversation and we need to move forward and and it's frustrating it really
070is and I think it needs to move past the uh the board having conversation and and seeing some action you know it was brought up it was brought up in budget you know to look at other things to maybe reduce the budget did that happen no the easy ones were done the ones that may require a little more work I understand we're in a time crunch I get that we have to have something to put in front of the county I get that part and I'm okay with putting this in front of the County right now I have no problem with that but what happens when the county says we can't do this budget decisions are going to have to be made and I think Miss Justice brought up some points that are very valid
071and cost savings and it will affect students and if we can give them more teachers and more time I I think we need to look into it at least we that's what we're here for okay thank you sir any other discussion sure yes so I think the if I'm correct the the current motion is to move out of esba right now right well it doesn't that's what the as far as the budget true so we can't get out of it right now because the contract is good through June but if we were to make a decision as a board that that is the way we want to go it would be removed from the budget for next year and that would give two I mean what are we we're in March that would give two
072to three months to look at other options before we actually don't have their membership because it's a year-long membership you can't just withdraw but the motion on the floor though was to remove from the vsba so I think you have to vote on that first correct and then if you want to direct my me and my staff to look at all Alternatives that'll be a decision of the board as well but the motion of four was to pull from the vsba so I I'll just State um you know I have no ties to the vsba understand you know the how they tend to um push legislation there you know certain agendas I'm open to looking at others for sure I don't know that we want to jump ship before we really investigate it for me
073I would rather make a motion that we direct the administration to to start looking at Alternatives and then make a decision if there's someone we want to move to and then uh do a way with our relationship with vsba I think that's probably the the wiser move and something we haven't done has said Administration look into this and bring it back at the future board meeting so I think that's where I would be okay thank you bordon anyone else okay all right well seeing no other discussion the the motion on the floor is um Britney can you state it again okay so we have a motion we have a second we've had discussion so all in favor I I okay all opposed I I I okay so we will continue for now um M Mr
074chair I'd like to make a motion to uh ask the administration to look into alternatives uh to the vsba and uh bring us some suggestions to the um June meeting you might want to do it a little sooner because the contract I don't know contract we need a second yeah okay bring it to the March meeting Maye or April can I pick me May May's good May yes okay thank so the mo okay say the motion again uh to direct the administration to look at alternatives to the vsba and bring those suggestions and recommendations to the May Schoolboard meeting okay second okay any discussion I appreciate the board hearing this and considering um giving some direction there okay so any other discussion all in favor I I all opposed I'm just going to have to
075stay okay here yes ma'am I'd like to make a motion that we ask the um Administration to research our options for cost-saving benefits for our attorneys such as we're doing the vsba and maybe bring that back to us I don't know when the contract for them would expire but I would have to look I don't know either but we can find out better prior to prior to yeah the the um renewal of the contract second okay so we have a motion and a second uh is there any discussion on the attorney um motion okay we hearing none all in favor of getting the uh Administration to look into that hi hi hi all opposed okay okay we still need a motion on the budget yeah that's yeah everything but that so board we've had discussion
076and uh We've looked at the budget the proposed budget um do we have a motion for anything Mr chair I make a motion that we approve the budget as presented by our superintendent okay we have a motion second and the second any further discussion on the motion okay we're hearing none uh all in favor I I all opposed Dr Wells thank you so I will present this to the Board of Supervisors um I I me with Mr Brant spoke email Mr Bryant some today regarding that presentation will be at 4:00 during the work session on Tuesday the 18th as opposed to 7:00 during the regular session he asked that we present that I present budget to them at 4 p.m. and be able to have some discussion with the Board of Supervisors on our budget
077so just give me notice of that Mr Terry yes ma'am I just want to say thank you to our superintendent um you've worked really hard on this and your team has worked very hard on the work session was very valuable I really am encouraged that we retained we we added two new teachers um to our budget and um I just want to say that was really encouraging not too many districts are able to say that right now that they're adding teachers and positions to their budget thank you thank you sir all right Dr Wells moving on seven s okay board you have the consent agenda motion don't move Mr Terry okay second okay all all in favor I Dr Wells next we have information from our student reps I know Mr carber is at a
078soccer game tonight so he cannot be here so uh then Asia is going to speak for better than Asia good evening good evening so I just want to say that at the high school our winter sports have wrapped up and we have started our spring sports girls and boys tennis and soccer outdoor track baseball softball and we are doing spring pictures tomorrow our ACS band attended a district assessment last Friday where they ranked Superior that's like similar to like an so for the band and our show choir our bells and amoros will combined next Thursday for their District assessment and our competition season has started as of the end of February and for the past two competitions the amoros has placed first place in the triaa division and the trouble choir bells of amers has
079placed second in the AAA division next week we travel to patan high school and that's a really good accomplishments so congratulations thank you last week was read Across America week and students from the high school went and visited um elementary and middle schools and read some of their favorite stories our AC HS theater visited melison middle school during this week and they acted out the characters from the stories and also performed their award-winning show Romeo and Juliet last month we celebrated Black History Month we celebrated this month by recognizing historical figures and shouting out local blackowned businesses on the morning announcements we also had a successful Spirit Week to celebrate this month is women's History Month similar to the celebrations from last month we have been recognizing historical female figures on the TV screens and
080the morning announcements we also have another spirit week coming up in honor of women's history month and our day of giving is also coming up in April which allows us to learn the value of giving back to our community as well as making connections with the community last year I visited Central Elementary School where I got to help students with their math work and I also played some games with them in the the gym and last but not least next week our Juniors will be taking their writing so thank you thank you D great thank you or anything for our student rep it's so nice to hear what's going on and especially after all the discussions up here it's very encouraging and congratulations to um the performances and good luck on those walls next week
081yes please and seniors hang in there we're getting close okay thank you um Dr Wells so next we have nine administrative items uh first we have construction update Mr Roes uh speak will speak to that good evening board uh as you're well aware construction continues at the high school that's the most recent drone picture uh actually just this week early this week from uh Jamerson Lewis so that's the um the project as it sits pretty much today big difference than 14 months ago uh this is a front edition the most of the glass is in around the cafeteria we're waiting a little bit of Glass on the far in next to existing cafet to come in and then I believe it's next week they're supposed to be uh installing their the glass and the atrium
082part where he goes into the cafeteria and across the top part of the cafeteria and then also On The Backs side which is not pictured here but the glass is already on the Main Street side of it um uh interior as you'll see here in just a few minutes again another panoramic rev viw uh sort of going down to the gym going to the gym going down to the auditorium and uh and the main front entrance there uh in front of the school the as sort of hard to see in these pictures also one thing they did this week is the uh install the lights on the exterior of the building over top of those doors it's those little black specs if you will right up top all the doors they just install them I
083tried to go by there about 6 this morning to get a picture of it and uh they have the breaker on so um but they look pretty neat now let's travel through the school here we're going the left picture is going through the uh the main just back there into the cafeteria yes it looks quite a mess right now uh but we're going looking into the existing part of the school the picture on the right is actually uh standing in the almost at the entrance of the school the old entrance looking back out through the main part of the cafeteria where the new entrance will be so you're looking down the main aisle of the cafeteria this is standing the same location looking at through the windows uh going up to Lan Lane there the
084big open c that we'll have the picture on the right you're looking up where the serving lines will be coming out um of the uh the new cafeteria part the new serving lines of course will be start doing the kitchen this summer up there as well we now sort a transition going up Main Street on the left hand side there you can see actually the glass has been installed uh above Main Street above the the new uh bathroom the bathrooms there at the lower part of the picture and going up the Main Street all way to toward the end of the hall uh you see paying has begun at the hallway as well uh sort of a light grade to match the main part of the school as well as a burgundy line and then
085I H on the Main Street have what I call a cloud ceiling so about 4ot off each side of the wall is going to be able to look up into the ceiling itself and you'll have some breaks throughout the hallway there and uh so it'll be somewhat of suspended ceiling with with ceiling tiles up there and lights throughing the hallway and everything same thing will be in the cafeteria you'll see an example of this in in the classroom in just a minute the other thing you don't see these pictures and the um first and second floor in the gym hallways back there they've already got it braced up we're going to probably wait either one weekend soon or over spring break we going go through those two doors that you see will tie the new
086addition into the hallway into the old gym so we're ready to do that uh we're just trying to find a a quiet weekend or moment that uh we can get in to do that as well things a lot of people don't see you see the big picture you see the glass you see the outside of the building you see all the the beautiful stuff going inside um but over here on the left uh that's two hot water tanks there's one behind you can't really see that will serve the new section will also serve the cafeteria as well well but all the copper lines the returns and and valves and things like that to control that's the things behind the scenes a lot of people don't see um looks like a pretty fancy steel doesn't it
087so uh it's an expensive one on top of that as we move to the right we're coming that's the uh like said the um custodian room and and mechanical room for the water aspect of it right next to that um you'll see a this opening in the hallway there that's where a water fountain will be you see the tiw is up on that it's been painted around that as well tile looks really good this is the the bathroom the new bathroom concept you can see the the the front part right there is where all the sinks will be there'll be 16 sinks eight on the front eight on the back and uh and then on the back back there of course it has it's been painted but um probably within the next week or so
088um the epoxy floor guy will be in there to do the epoxy floors on that and then after that we'll come the fixtures and those type of things and stalls go up after that so moving on down and actually hanging the right right there across from that is the auditorium uh on the left hand side all the lights are up sort hard to see in the picture but also all the the black ceiling Tils in it so all the just like the ceiling tole here all that's been installed as well and this picture on the right is looking from the stage out into the auditorium and uh all the can lights on um last time you may have may not have been in there they had plastic covers of them so all the lights are
089working now um and they're they finishing up the electrical aspect of this as well actually today um I was there about 8:00 before we came to staff meeting this morning they started putting the lvt tile on the flat part of the auditorium where the uh the bleacher seats would be going they started that this point at 8 and by this afternoon they were all way across the floor had a crew come in from Maryland to do that and they put all that lvt because on Monday um they will start installing the bleacher style seats you know they they Auditorium seats but on a bleacher mechanism where they roll out and uh pull in and out uh they will actually start installing those on Monday as well this is from the auditorium I'm sorry uh from
090the auditorium looking back up onto the stage itself picture on the left is the dressing room um for like we're doing theater things or whether it be band or cor choir what may have you they now have their own um dressing room own bathroom instead of that being sort of combine into existing bathroom off the hall I don't know if you ever been in there across from the stage this is a significant Improvement for what we have today um they home they have bathrooms they don't have to go out and mingle in with the public while they're doing uh different events up here in the auditorium on the right hand side that the existing gym Lobby or what used to be the gym Lobby U that wall right there you see um you ever been
091in the gym that used to be four uh glass four sets of double glass doors back there it's down to three now that wall um is we took out one set of double doors and but used to be behind that um was about an 8 to9 foot area as well as the concession stand behind that before you get to coach's office so that area right there will now be storage for gym classes and gym equipment and those items as well moving on into the uh educational aspect of the project uh the classroom on the left is a um theater class you can see the Black Walls the ceilings up the lights up see they haven't put the panels in yet uh they finished the lvt tile on that today the room on your right is
092the band room I'm standing at the back of the stage looking through the double doors looking through the glasses out to the backs side of the school toward the baseball field the room on the left is for band equipment storage and uh course equipment storage as well and uh they've actually finished the floor in there they finished they were supposed to finish the floor tonight in the choir room and they finished the floor in the um theater room as well today in addition to those wonderful things we also continue with the Fieldhouse um there were some issues with elevation changes on the SE line so they pulled off that and start doing working on the road going back to the Fieldhouse cutting some trees down and getting an access road sort of laid in rough
093late in this week the water line and fiber optic line has been laid from the Fieldhouse back over to the um weight room area and so we have all that ditched in closed in and we'll be tying the water line into to that uh probably uh tomorrow morning on Monday also in the Fieldhouse uh this is the big open area where they'll be playing you know practicing soccer if they needed to baseball softball those type of things you can see the plyboard up on that back wall that wall right there is a wall between the um the changing rooms or locker rooms and that end of the building that has a concession stand so I'm standing at the end of the building closest to the softball field looking back across the uh the Fieldhouse there
094they will be painted and uh that'll help protect the uh insulation in the building itself right there but uh all that's installed too room on the right you can see the drywall went up in there this week so uh the locker rooms have been all that's been drywall the concession stand has been dry wall which is the picture on your left here I'm sing in the back of the concession stand looking out toward the baseball field so that's where you'll come get you hot dogs and potato chips and drinks and stuff that bigcoin on the left and then the room on your right is is one of the bathrooms on that side the CMU center block walls are up and they're in the process of actually painting this whole area uh the last couple days
095what's coming up I told you about the installation of seats for the uh uh next couple two to three weeks they'll be installing the seats in the storage area in the back of the auditorium once they finish that they'll go to the main seats in the sloped area of the auditorium finish in the installation of the glass area um actually on the beginning and the middle end of the next week in the first part of the following week on the 24th uh we've already started the process you'll see a lot of construction stuff leave the back parking lot of the high school we're going to move Jameson Louis trailer back just toward the baseball field in the grassy area mois trailer is coming out of there and that whole parking lot's going to be cleaned
096up and it will s the construction for the drainage system and everything for the new parking lot as well s line at the Fieldhouse like I mentioned that's going to start happening next couple weeks in that road to the build house as well as of course the typical HVAC electrical you know trying to button up things as we move along any questions Bo any questions yes yes sir so I I was there last week taking a look around and very very impressive it I mean the clubhouse is pretty incredible just to walk inside there I mean the pictures are great but stepping into that building it is massive it's like college level stuff it's it's going to it's pretty amazing and uh the water line was that resolved yes sir we've got that resolved good
097yeah we're going to take care of that tomorrow Monday I told you not to lose any sleep over it didn't I I lost many sleep over these things uh but no and really Mr Rosy uh really the whole project you know seen this thing from the ground up uh but you mentioned the Fieldhouse but even the pictures of the auditorium and those type of things it's just and even talking to contractors uh the folks are doing the stage rcking out of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh stage uh they come in here when they were doing all this stuff to talk to them look at this from a high school project these guys do these things all over the eastern part of the United States and they're just like it's astounding amazing what you know what we have here
098in amers County now and he just talking to other you know contractors up on a day-to-day basis what we have is is absolutely amazing so we thank you of course we thank the school uh board supervisor for the support because without that this couldn't happen yeah it's definitely an amazing project and you guys are overseeing quite well I appreciate you and everything you're doing all day every day cuz I know it's Way Beyond the full same job thank you it's fun keeps being out of trouble most of the time it just finds you right trouble finds you absolutely the board I I will put a plug in for Miss emerit U if you've never been to one of the plays they are phenomenal and I can't wait to see them in this new facility it's
099going to be awesome so thank you Mr Rooks right next we have Child Nutrition excess balance corrective action plan so um due to the exx balance but we do not need to do submit of the plan because we've made progress on spend it down plus the funds from this are going to be used to purchase new equipment for the new cafeteria so they said we didn't need to submit a a new action plan based on what we we're doing so they were fine with that um questions on that okay board okay good uh student suspensions for February 25 they're at your place and uh if you have questions you can see me offline I'd be glad to try to discuss them with you and then next we have 9.03 discussion to staff attire and I'll
100turn it over to Mr to the chair okay so um board we were asked to uh bring the attire um to discuss that about um given the principles or the option of being able to use uh for the teachers to wear jeans so uh so if you like I'd like to go ahead and say what we're doing currently sure and that way you have that as background information and then I'll also just say also that we have an employee recognition committee so if anyone have you would like to serve on that committee I'd be glad to have you as part of that committee as well um but currently right now the principles have the autonomy to uh allow genes as they see fit um a lot of principles when this was brought to them they
101do some recog days and to do some things like that where uh like at the high school has to the flower fund and you pay a dollar to wear jeans on Fridays or whatever um but the principles do have the autonomy I know like for example at the high school Mr Crawford um when the Eagles won they got to wear jeans all week because Eagles won a Super Bowl things like that um but anyhow so I told the principles they can use it as they see fit I don't need to get them permission to do any of that but it's at their discretion how they choose to utilize that for their building so that's kind of where it is right now okay so Dr well so if one of the schools decided that they wanted
102to allow jeans the rest of the year that they would be okay with that I have I told him they had the autonomy to use it as they wish so I did not say I had to approve any of that so I left it to the principal to building based on the needs of their school yes sir so I'll just say I was the one that that asked to to bring this up um for a couple reasons one I think by our own admission [Music] um do Gan we use genes as a reward for teachers correct right we use it as an incentive and so again my thinking is I we' had lots of discussion about the budget obviously we saw in the results of the survey from Lynchburg leadership that you know pay is
103their number one of their top things right well unfortunately as a board we've had a lot of discussion around that there's very little that we can do to move the needle on pay um but what else can we do to improve teacher morale and I guess it bothers me a little bit that we kind of dangle a carrot out there for teachers that say you pay a dollar so now we're charging teachers to be comfortable in their schools these te these are the same teachers that are having to buy their own school supplies to help their kids these are the same teachers that are already underpaid and so we're saying hey you pay your dollar you can wear jeans or if you achieve this goal you can wear jeans so I have a real problem
104with that we're treating them almost like a child a 5-year-old if you're good this week you can get your ice cream and um so I I have a problem with that I have a problem with allowing one school to do it and not others because now we're potentially saying if this school says the rest of the year you can wear jeans the rest of you say they can't well now we're pitting one school against another school and so think about what that relationship is going to be between those schools uh those teachers and administrators um when I started working back in the 90s uh I was a technician for United partial service and I wore a suit and tie to work every day as a technician I was working on the ground under desk um
105and today that's not our standard anymore so the dress attire has changed over the years I mean we see lots of what we would say professional people uh come to work not wearing what we would call business casual today so I guess my question is is why in all that we talk about supporting our teachers why would we not give them that flexibility to be a professional and come in in jeans because to me their professionalism isn't about them wearing jeans it's about how they're performing their job in the classroom are they meeting the needs of our students are they engaged in instruction and I from all the studies I've ever read and I think we you mentioned it tonight it's a reward our teachers want it so why wouldn't we give them that and
106wouldn't that boost their morale even it's if it's a little bit would it not boost their morale so that they would be happier and if our teachers are happier can we not conclude that they would do a better job at their work okay board any other comments discussion um questions Miss Terry yes I professional clothing you know um there's a certain thing with uniforms that we don't require in private schools uniforms are required and it's mainly so all students are considered equals right they all wear the same color shirt they same color slacks or skirts and it keeps them away from well they've got the latest shoes on they've got the best jeans on so they're better people because they've got this or they've got that and I don't have it um in the realm
107of teaching you know being a educator a professional I believe that attire says a lot about how you teach and it's a visual thing and I know it seems Petty sometimes but I I think there's a certain standard that needs to go with it I'm not sure I would be comfortable getting on an airplane with the guy would cut off shirts or shorts and cut off sleeves sunglasses I'm going to fly you to Hawaii I I I kind of probably would be a little uncomfortable if he wasn't in a pilot uniform also when parents walk into our schools and they can't tell the difference between the teachers and the students you know teachers are there with authority and I saw up on the screen today when they did the audit that discipline was a problem
108and how many of those teachers are trying to be students friends instead of Educators you know it's I saw it on the graph I saw discipline is an issue if you don't know the difference between the students and the teachers how do you control that and and I'm not saying that the principal shouldn't have the ability to decide whether or not their staff can wear jeans I'm just saying that that we as a board should uphold a certain standard for our teachers they should be proud to come to come to amers County and be recognized as a teaching professional and I think they should dress the part that's all that's just my personal take on it okay s yes ma'am oh I mean I did hear you mention this um Mr childr and given respect
109um I I don't don't particularly go with the phrase of dangling a carrot in front of someone um I've been working for a minute and and different organizations we have a Friday where you can wear jeans uh for Cancer Society and you give a a donation for that that's just a personal thing for organizations um you might dress up a pajama day or you may have something in these schools that the principles which I like in the first place is controlling that uh but I don't think we're dangling anything in front of anybody to make you feel better I mean I I just don't know what that was all about and I I think I mentioned this to you and I'll be consistent I don't believe it's our place to to even deal with this
110attire um I think we have a superintendent and I think we have a principles uh who see fit of what needs to happen in their building I I don't think if we we we got other fish to fry here let me just use that and I respect what you were saying and I heard when you said that we want to boost Bo somebody we want to boost morale and make our teachers feel better did you say that something of that I mean wearing jeans and how that going to do anything about boosting anybody's morale I mean you know I mean kind of like when Mr rosi the world is right now everybody's doing what they want to do everybody has their own mindset I mean you could say look I'm not going to wear any
111jeans I'm not going to wear any shoes I'm not going to wear any socks it's me I do what I want to do but I think amamos County just got a set of precedents I don't think we're asking people to come in three-piece suits and or high heel shoes if you so desire but I think if we get too close to this situation where we the school board are saying that you can or you can't wear this that that's just a little bit too much going on I I respect your thought on it we want to and I'm going to talk about this in my comments very briefly uh we want to make the teachers let's just say everybody because we say teachers everyone in the school could wear jeans secretaries and everybody um but
112I don't know if that if we need to say because we want you to feel better you can wear jeans if we change if the principles and the superintend change dress coat from what he said that's fine with me too but I don't think it's a definite I want to boost your morale by letting you wear jeans and I don't think we should say that we think we're dangling something in front of Grownups to make them do anything all companies and I know fron bwx do these sort of things uh because I've been down there you have these days where you can be reasonably dressed for a for a cause let me put it that way a walk for heart and everybody can wear a red shirt um I observe in October Cancer so they
113say you can wear a pink shirt today but you can't wear it every day I mean it's just the way it is that's all I to say about that yes sir yeah so obviously I respectfully disagree with with a lot of these comments um I think we've already said it it's it is a reward and that's why they do these things and that's why I said it's kind of a that's where I came up with the phrase It's we dangling a carrot out there because it is a reward uh for the teachers when they um you know get to do that and that's why you know as a board the reason I think it should come to us uh you know I brought it to us is because our number one thing is how do
114we recruit and retain highly qualified teachers and I think the workplace environment is a huge part of that you know second only to pay and if we can change the culture some that's why I think it would help uh improve uh our teachers satisfaction that they could come uh to work and be more comfortable but I've I've said my piece on it and obviously we can hear what the rest of the board has to say about it but I think it's um I think it would be a positive move for our teachers I think it would be very well received uh by our staff and um I would highly encourage us to to look at that so because again I think our our goal is we need to focus on how else we can improve
115um you know morale and and the atmosphere of the culture within our our staffs okay so I did have a a few conversations with a couple of the principles about this and um the kind of the gist of the conversations that I got is that they you do use it as a morale booster but they use it as their incentives also and it's it's it's things to help them um I guess show their appreciation when there's something going on to help the help the teachers out but it's it's not an everyday thing so that it's not their normal it doesn't turn into their normal practice um unless it's a teacher who's on the floor a lot with like a like a pre kindergart pre that that kind of thing that kind of thing um now
116the ones that I did talk with they did like that they had the option of how they utilized that but that it was an option for them to utilize it so and that's just the indication that I got from the principals that I I spoke with so again that's where I came up with the carrot thing is that you know it's an incentive for our teachers and my goodness haven't our teachers done enough to earn that reward permanently every day they're in the trenes okay yeah yes ma'am I heard something okay there sorry I had it off um I think one of the thoughts that comes to mind for myself is that for our students our students are spending a majority of their life in the school setting and it's establishing norms and I think
117there is something to be said for dressing the part I know in um our small business we don't have any employees but when I go to work at the office I put on professional attire does something to my brain um and I like the autonomy of our just our um building administrators being able to um decide what is best um for their school culture because even though all our schools are similar they all have their own unique culture and Val and values I would say I one concern that I have is that it is a pretty simple in fun thing to do that doesn't cost anyone anything to do with fundraisers in school spirit and um so those are some of my thoughts I appreciate the morale boosting side of it and um a a
118desire to say we value you we respect you we trust you to dress in the attire that is best for your classroom and your work ethic and and I hope that our teachers know that that is how we feel about them um so those are some of my thoughts thank you for bringing it up okay yes ma'am Mr chair um I appre appreciate the intent to improve teacher morale and satisfaction I think that's all of our goals every single one of us as a board member the principles the administration sitting in front of us and those that are working and watching us from afar so I think that's all of our goals so I do appreciate that um I know the Administration has sent out a survey just was it this week or last week
119about teachers want more time and as a former educator I know that valuable you know aspect of needing more time um and so I appreciate the administration sending out that survey I don't know if you have results yet or not but um not closed yet it'll close next week and we 168 resp good um because finding ways to give them more time is a challenge so um I'm excited to see the results um and I'm excited to see what kind of um creative ideas that you guys have um so I think we're all working for the same thing I am with Miss Lian and that I don't think that it's necessarily our job as a board to say whether or not this they wear jeans or not I don't really care whether they wear jeans
120or not I just want them like Mr orasi said I want them to dress professionally I think that um if they dress professionally and they present themselves professionally then our students are going to benefit um but I know that you can dress professionally with jeans you can dress unprofessionally without jeans so I really don't care about that but I do trust that that would be the job of our Administration um if it's an issue and it comes to us then I think yeah maybe we as a board would have to address that issue but at this point I think where I would support would be encouraging the administration to continue surveying teachers to finding what they want and if they want genes then the administration can work with the principles to do that and present
121results to us you know that kind of thing I just don't want to preclude that as a board member I actually know what that teacher what those teachers are going to want um so I would be happy with some type of a survey I'd be happy to hear from teachers and I'm happy as a board member to support those things that would improve morale um like I said I don't care whether they wear genes or not um whatever y'all decide you know as the administrator um but I do care about our teachers and I do care about their morale and their climate and um whatever that takes if that's jeans then I'm right there with them but I I would like to hear from them and the administration and Mr chair again on the employee
122recognition committee that's that's run the HR and we have teachers and other staff on that committee so if you would like again um if one of you would like to be on that with them that's more than welcome to or I can have Mr Gallagher report back the findings from his committee as he meets with his staff to the board um but it might be good just so if board member wanted to be on there to have conversations with the teachers and say what you know what would you like and how can we support that as well so I'd willing to again if you want to do that to to you know enable that a little bit and you could be a part of that committee um that's up to you but or we can
123have the the committee report out either way you want to do that that's fine with me any board member wants to be on that committee right now you think about it if you let me know yeah okay that's let that's just a side regardless of what have a conversation guys do think that would be a good way for you to hear from staff and some other things that are going on so just a thought Mr car yes ma'am I I was going to ask this in my comments but I just throw it in here now uh be's gone but she would be able to help with this or not there used to be a teacher liazon or whatever the word was called what is that we don't do that anymore I have that committee that's
124my I have a committee where I have staff from the schools come to me and we discuss no it was a person you know what I'm talking about I forget what it was there was a person who would always come and talk on behalf of teachers oh aea education we stop education um I was just asking cuz I know that that's where we used to find these sort of things out your committe is replacing that that's all good though no no the Education Association is totally separate they're independent group but um they haven't had the leadership the the person who was the president of that and a representative for the has left our division right I know that so I'm just saying they they didn't replace them no ma'am okay yeah that that that was
125a good tool I just say need to go back to that was a tool where that person spoke on behalf of what we're trying to do here is is just everybody speaking but that was a person who would come to the meetings or come to the superintendent yes ma' with what the teachers were feeling and and we would look at it like we are tonight and and then we didn't have you know just a whole bunch of stuff going on I wouldn't say go back to it but Dr Wells you say you have that committee so to speak I have a a group I'm aware of that of represented from each school and they come still bring you ideas and all these classified staff has one committee and and uh professional staff is a separate
126committee I have two different groups to meet at different times and and you used to or you or somebody of these concerns Mr chers we still friends that's just the way I operate no I'm saying that that committee would talk about genes and all these scenarios am I right if that was a port of emphasis yes they yeah that's how that's how that would be how all the teachers felt and so forth so that was good information for the board having one person come versus a thought and surveys are good but you know I'mma leave that alone surveys are Goodtime but but that leaon or that committee that Dr Wells has is I think would be a better that and would be a good source of information for us and you can even be a
127part of you when you having the policy commit I mean you know y'all see what I'm saying one person is talking for the teachers okay okay board anything else okay all righty um Dr Wells 10 bance Mr conage good evening again Mr chair members of the board before you tonight are your updated financial report through Fe February um on your object Co report um we have finally with that supplemental appropriation taken care of that textbook overage that was on page three on page two um we did have a heating overage that I wanted to point out that is actually going to be resolved next month the company had a name change and so a new purchase order was opened for that and the other the old name was closed out but it was closed out
128in March so that will resolve itself that is not a true overage there is an overage in the transportation supplies um that is one of the areas we did ask for additional fundings for next year because things are costing more uh we will go through their open POS and just make sure everything's cleaned up but any any overages they have in there can be taken from the fuel account so they are fine um we are currently awaiting some crucial information for you know closing out the year and that's our March ADM which is our funding ADM and just the go the general assembly's amendments and how it may impact our current year but that's not known now but as soon as we have that information we will bring it to you um have you had
129a chance to look at those reports do you have any questions board do you have any questions for Mr conage okay thank you thank you good thank you Mr chair next we have uh Dr Norman with instruction thank you sir Mr chair and members of the board I have with me tonight um three of our members of of our instructional staff um one of the things that Dr Wells and I spoke um regarding was just an update for the board on how do we know what we're doing is working in our schools how are we monitoring that what does it look like what are our expectations what are the mechanisms and the systems that we have in place to determine um how we kind of move students forward in a more rapid Pace than we
130have in the last um several years so I have um miss Robin wheeler who is our supervisor of literacy and federal programs she's going to be talking to us about um some data as well as um it just left my mind HQ thank you very much um and then I also have Miss Ruth maeni who oversees is supervisor of math science gifted elective programs but she's going to speak specifically about Ma Math Science and the data that's been collected and then of course I have Miss Natalia Cecil who is our coordinator of school Improvement um that oversees all of our school Improvement for our three schools that are um federally identified this year as well as our three schools that have um accreditation in level two or level three um and so they're going to
131be joining me in the presentation um what I'd like to be able to talk to you about tonight is just to give give you a couple of um background items and then we're going to kind of move through how we know what we know the first thing is I just want to remind you about our new accreditation system it's brand spanking new they gave us some information on it last year they gave us a tool to use to see where we would be and how our schools would do with the new accreditation system so we're going to give you a reminder about that um we also have a process that we're using that we're required to use called the Virginia support framework those are all the mechanisms and the systems and the processes that we
132have to use for those six schools that are in some type of warning or ID and then we're going to give you information straight from the principal who how they think that their school is doing and how they see what they've done to move forward the next um thing I want to talk to you about really is just the the framework so you kind of understand the new accreditation system it's broken down into two into four different areas um these are the performance categories that we actually have uh there is a needs intensive support none of our schools using the new system um for accreditation fell into that category we do not have anybody that meets that right now we have three off trck schools that we currently we working with those are amalon Central
133Elementary and Madison Heights we have five uh on track schools that have when you calculate all of their areas they're between 80% and 89% and that's ammer Elementary Elon Elementary ammer County high school ammer middle school and manelis middle school and then our distinguished school we have one distinguished school that is when you calculate those out they're above 90 90% And that's Temperance Elementary the next thing is these are the indicators that make up those percentages and there are three different categories um that come to 100% except for in high school so you have growth Mastery and Readiness in all three of the areas but in high school you also have the indicator of graduation rate um because that is a federal requirement that we have to meet certain graduation rates this is the um
134slide that kind videoy wanted us to have an example to provide to the public and this has been up on our web page we've presented this to you before but this is just an example that kind of shows you the percentages how they earn the points the number of students that were tested what that rate looks like what the index value is and that changes based on the number of students as well as what it what it weighs on the on the um leftand side all of that is tallied up for an overall percentage rating if you'll notice the elementary school and these are not ours these are um examples from the state the first one is Off Track by two points it made a 77.2 and to be on track you need to have
135at least an 80 um the middle school that has shown same calculations that are used and that is an 82.6 S I think it looks like um and that is an on track and it made on track by 2.67 points so as Dr Norman stated good evening board um this is the Virginia support framework and so this is year one of implementation of this process and really what this emphasizes is um the combining of these four systems right the school climate um professional learning supports Staffing supports and really they're all working together to support academics and our student outcomes and the emphasis of this framework is really on the use of evidence-based interventions using that datadriven decision making so that we can make adjustments that best fit the needs of our school in our division
136and it's moving away from um a compliance um a compliance system to a more responsive system and support system um there was something else I was going to say oh I did want to note that this is what we're doing at the division level and in addition to that all of our schools are also doing their own support system support plan at the school level as well good evening Mr chair members of the board um as Miss Cecil said just as the schools have their own support plans we have a division support plan as well and so that's just a snip of that plan um on the screen but within that plan as a division we've done our um needs assessment looking at data to develop our action steps and our goals to be able
137to support our students and our schools and our administrators and meeting their individual goals within their plans um and so we meet as a division team with representatives from each of those domains that Miss Cecil just talked about um to look at the goals that we have look at the action steps and just as she said really do progress monitoring of those action steps making sure that we're using the tools that we have available to us and really focusing on implementation our key words this year are implementation and impact we're doing the things that we've outlined that we said we were going to do but are they moving Us in the direction that we need them to move us and so that is really really the focus um at the division level and at the
138school level as we look at data together tonight um with each of those support plans we're really focusing yes can I add one thing just to kind of make sure you understand the support framework is four different areas we are only talking you to you tonight in regards to the academic domain one area okay yes ma'am thank you um now I forgot what where I was that Dr nor that's okay no so within that some of the major goals that we've identified um are related to our high quality instructional material that you guys adopted as a board last year um also PLC implementation and then 45-day plans which is our specific mechanism um as we move into so testing for interventions for students and so kind of those are the data pieces that we're going
139to Spotlight for you tonight um in regards to um open court um we continue to provide support um at the division level um is honestly we do face limitations with this core program um and our capacity to be able to support teachers with it um we um have had issues specific with so alignment of the materials making sure that um the hqm is giving our teachers what they need in regards to standards and overview documents um as well as um just adjustments with some of the materials and so I believe at your place tonight you have an updated memo um with some of those um status updates as to what we have concerns about um as a division we continue to meet monthly um with the Open Court um implementation specialist to get um access
140to the things that we hear our teachers needing um in order to have implementation um one of the things that we do at the division level um is a Weekly Newsletter out to our teachers with best practices as we learn um as far as implementation um we have open Office hours during common planning times for our elementary teachers where we offer Google meets either with u Miss Hutchinson our lead support specialist or open court um support coaches as well um and then we also have some of our administrators in the classroom seeing what it's like to teach um from this HQ and so there's Mr Demari at Madison Heights um who recently went into a kindergarten classroom um to kind of see from the teacher perspective what it's like to implement ment um this curriculum
141in the classroom with this curriculum we do have access to data specific to um weekly assessments given within the Open Court assessment platform um these are weekly but then also every six weeks they have a unit assessment that kind of pulls all of the pieces together um we are currently focusing on making sure that we're moving to all online um access for those assessments again it's been a learning curve um in year one of implementation um you can see there with the data uh specific to kindergarten that's our kindergarteners learning how to take a test online um and so we're having some Growing Pains there um but we're continuing each week to pull this data and make sure that those bars are continuing to move to the far right um with third grade I think
142some of our concern there is there's a big jump from second grade content to third grade content especially when you look at new um standards that we have um with the 2024 implementation the complexity of Texs that they're being exposed to um and so I would again with that grade level also say it's a learning curve as far as what the expectations are as I move from a second grader to a third grader um with year one of implementation um of this material and so in addition to hqm we are also prioritizing the support of our professional learning communities our plc's and so in the fall we were able to visit schools and provide that targeted support for our teachers in our grade levels um and so what we were also able to do is
143not only provide that targeted support but provide some unified language for expectations as it relates to this process what is what are the components of the PLC process and what are we trying to get out of the PLC process in order to support our students in the most intentional way and so there you'll see some feedback as it relates to those teacher consultations and some of the needs needs that we identified um and are plan to support uh in our schools for plcs on a consistent basis so as part as our monitoring system to see if what we were doing um was working was to utilize this tool um this PLC Continuum and so what this tool really helps us do is to monitor our teams and their development in this process and so we
144have schools across the division that are using this tool and in several ways some are using it um some teams are using it to self-evaluate some administrators are conducting reviews and um having that consistent feedback with their teams um but again it's can also be a tool that really collects are we implementing this process with Fidelity um and so I do want to note there that you'll see a highlight there at the bottom is that our um superintendent of Public Instruction Dr kums actually most recently highlighted a school in Danville if I'm not mistaken um and their use of the PLC process and how that made such an impact their strategic use of that PLC um made such an impact on the critical needs um of that school and that Division and so to give
145you a little bit of data here um what we do at the division is we are also progress monitoring every month um to determine how we can best support our schools um and so you'll see that in our most recent instructional rounds we collected some data to determine um the impact well the Fidelity of implementation and the impact on that and so a majority of our schools this data shows do have PLC documents um that are being used so they are committed to discussing student data and this process um we are still focusing and prioritizing our progress monitoring here um and determining um some longitudinal data for there um but what our other data also suggests is that where we have prioritized our time our ferally identified schools those teams are showing significant gains in
146this process so we've talked to you about hqm which is required um under the Virginia literacy act um the PLC process which is strongly encouraged as a best practice for us to use to drill down to specific specific student needs and addressing what interventions we do with those students the third part of this whole system is really um the big punch at the end um in second semester which is our 45-day plans and a 45-day plan really allows us to Target specific um instruction and show meaningful progress is what we're looking for what's the impact that what the teachers are doing is working in our is working for our students um one of the things that we wanted to kind of show you is our 45-day process and how we use it here um they
147developed their 45-day Pro um plans um in December and worked through that in February from February 14th to May 5th that's the time frame um they our principles reviewed all 45 Day plans for their um principles um by January 31st and then us as a division the team here um reviewed each of the 45-day plans for each of the schools um and came up with a monitoring um process U of that one of the things that we uh determined if you hit the next slide thank you was that when we looked at the 45-day plans we looked for two things um was it completed did they go all the way out in the 45 days right up to testing day addressing skills that were very specific to the needs of the students that they currently
148have in the classroom was a skill assigned that they wanted to remediate intervene on or enrich um at our elementary level 78% had that um intact and in their 45-day plans and at secondary that was 93% um which is astounding because this is like the first year that um all teachers at the secondary level have done a 45-day plan um tiered intervention though uh we dropped off this is how they determined groups um looking at their data specifically identifying students in those groups what they were going to do with those students so we're at 38% um plc's have been going along on a long time at the elementary level and that's where they talk about grouping small group instruction and what that looks like we've just started to turn Turn the Page at our secondary
149where they're developing groups they're splitting between teachers um it's a beautiful thing to watch it secondary but we're just on the Cuffs of doing that so we're at 12% of those 45-day plans that feedback was given to the teachers who have adjusted and made those and we'll do another review the 24th of this month um what I would like to Target for you or for you to look at is that samp intervention tracking tool so as you know teachers are putting in data they're looking at it they're developing what intervention they they actually did what skill they associated with that did the child progress master that or do they have to do something else um a tracking tool as VOE says if it's not documented it didn't happen so that is huge for our three
150federally ided schools this is not a we want you to do this this is a video is going to look for it and they want to make sure that it's there um and so the same thing with our schools that have accreditation issues um one of the things this is key mechanism for monitoring student progress so they can make the informed decisions about what they need to do next with that child and it's individual where they identify the kids they do a pre and a post test they determine what are the skills that are deficient and then how do they move forward with um interventions on that um and so this is here this is a commercial break to remind you that um you have your monthly laser update um at your place under executive
151content um and so again just a reminder is we're talking about tools that help us progress monitor this is a tool um that has been provided to us by the state to help us really make those data driven informed decisions um determine Trends across schools and across grade levels across the division um so that we can best support our students good evening Mr chair members of the board ma'am on the next couple slides we're going to talk about specific content areas data that we have for those and the supports that we have in place so starting with reading we're seeing some moderate improvement with our growth assessments overall and as a reminder in the fall with the exception of third grade students were tested on previous grade level content and in the winter they were
152tested on current grade level content meaning that the winter test was much more difficult than the fall and it also tested the entire Year's worth of content versus just what had been taught however when we look at our vows data for K3 we're seeing a more significant gains there with about 10% Improvement in those foundational reading skills which aligns with where our schools have been focused on during that intervention period that U miss wheer and miss Norman talked about this growth um in that foundational skills also correlates with our Lexia data for elementary where we're seeing uh more Fidelity and use of the program we're seeing more gains in use uh across the board especially in K3 where we have the highest usage and that's where we're seeing the most gains for for example in
153kindergarten they've grown from 20 7% on grade level to 89% on grade level and in first grade that increase was from 29 to 71% at middle school we do offer uh Lexia usage but that usage is not um as consistent or with Fidelity as it is in elementary school but recently both of our uh English departments at Middle School have received training about how to better incorporate Lexia during that English remediation period so that they can um um use that program to help support the interventions that they're putting in place for students that's a question so the comment about improvement from 20 something per to 89% yes can you explain to the board what that really means because I it sounds like a phenomenal number yeah right but it's based on the one test where
154they really hadn't had any instruction so could you explain yeah so so that was about our Lexia usage and so at the beginning of when students log into that program at the beginning of the year they're given a placement test and that assessment kind of looks at whether they're on grade level above grade level or below grade level expectations according to the program and so that comparison is where they started in the fall was 20 that 27% where they are at mid year is now 89% on grade level so that's a pretty significant uh growth there for that grade so can we expect the so scores to kind of see some similar growth you have to wait three years because they don't take an so to yeah no I get that but I'm think that's
155I'm talking long term yes I mean and I guess it's really a serious question are we are we saying that we're really going to start to see these long-term gains as a result of what we're implementing I think one of the things that we're seeing especially in the primary grades which is to what you're asking for where we see this in the future even in English and in math we're seeing those our grade levels at those primary grade levels are coming in stronger and we're giving them more gains as we're going through so I think we're going to see that in the long term if the program is used with Fidelity that's that's huge if teachers buy into that this program is going to work it's it's considered an a high quality instructional material it
156has research base where it's proven that it works if teachers use it they are seeing the success with their students and a lot of these students really enjoy that aspect of it too because it's self-paced and they're and they're doing it on the computers kind of but they're doing then but they'll come in and say I got a a tin today or whatever when I come you know so they'll they get excited about growth on there they can see it they can chart it as they go along so thinking back to the presentation we had earlier again from Lynchburg Leeds the two top things were teachers wanted time back and they wanted support in their classrooms whether it be administrative support or instructional support how how does this align with that and that's one of
157the Beauties about Lexia is that it has an online component where the students are working individually at their in particular level but it also contains offline resources and lessons that are scripted that teachers can use the program identifies you know this student might benefit from a lesson for the skill and it gives the teacher the resource right there that they could do during that intervention time with them and we hope that they're not spending all of their time on the computer The Good the good thing about this is with those lessons a they can be on the computer for the fir for 10 15 minutes or whatever and then as they switch groups the teacher can then have scripted that bring them to the small group and say okay Johnny you did this let me
158teach it to you a different way or let's rework that problem so does it allow the teacher to differentiate based on what they're seeing right and I think part of it too is teachers get use more you exposure to the programs how to use it more how to implement more they'll see them probably we should see that growth there as well but right now it's still kind of new and people aren really sure how to use yeah and that's part of what my question is is are we seeing these gains because we're really just learning how to implement it and use it and so it seems like a Fantastical go you know gain yeah but is it realistic that that's really what the gain is yeah and I will say that we've used the program
159at elementary for longer than we have at secondary secondary we started with the all-in Virginia last year last January basically and so that's still a relatively new program for our middle school students and teachers to get familiar with right Lexia was the first program I put brought in and I brought it in from Madison Heights Elementary School 11 years years ago oh no Madison Height Madison Heights um 11 years ago because they were getting ready to be taken over by the state because there they had never passed accreditation for reading it is a solid program but it has to be used in the manner that the program calls for uh just a couple other high impact supports that we have in place for reading uh we have that protected intervention time for uh both middle
160school and for for elementary and an elementary that includes a flooding of support Personnel during that time so that those intervention groups can be more targeted and tailored for the specific student needs uh as missil talked about those progress monitoring tools for interventions are in place and that is helping our teachers monitor what are the are what are we doing for students and how is that working we do have support for reading specialists at both the elementary and middle school level and as part of the Virginia literacy act those students that were identified as high risk also have a reading plan specifically tailored to their individual student needs and so those plans are being monitored by classroom teachers and reading Specialists as they put those interventions in place and then lastly for reading as Miss
161wheeler talked about that professional development and coaching support for our implementation of open court hqm in our elementary schools as far as math is concerned most of our grade levels are seeing uh significant yes ma'am can I ask a question about the reading before we move to math um I I see a lot of programs that we have like see a textbook is being taught in the classroom where the I don't want to say the textbook but the reading curriculum is being taught open court yes maam open court thank you I EXL vowels we have 17 Reading specialist and we have a set aside interview vention time yes ma'am and teachers also have set aside PLC time in order to have analyzed data to look at these tiered interventions that I'm assuming is taking place
162during intervention time so my concern is going back [Music] to where we were talking about I think it's slide eight no about the 45 Day plans yes ma'am so on the 45 day plan which you can't find right now um it says that 38% of the plans at elementary have tiered interventions and 12.5% at the secondary level why is that not higher if we have set aside intervention time and we have all these programs these are the 38% tiered intervention is d documented on their tracking um their 45-day tracking plan so I would say that so in a PLC you have questions that are asked by um the facilitator of the group in regards to students in regards to what they do getting them to understand um that they can say yes I feel that
163that kid's got it but the data that backs it up so they're starting to ing the data they're starting to talk about the data um then they are starting to we've gotten them to the point of what is it what's the intervention we're going to use getting them to the part of bringing that back regrouping their students determining whether or not it worked or not that we have a um we have handfuls of plc's that have done it for years that do it very very well but I couldn't say that 100% of our plc's are at that particular part on the Continuum of where I started at one school who had never done a PLC to where they are um learning about it and getting where they need to be that's probably my secondary if
164I give them three years they'll have it all in place and it'll be very specific but moving that along on the Continuum to get that it's supported it's in place it's just natural for them to do it and have the discussions and come to an impact that's going to happen for students is um not in every PLC and Miss Thompson too I think part of it also is not that they're not differentiating or doing teor interventions say they're not documenting it in a way and so that might not be showing the evidence that's there but they are pulling them apart and doing you differentiated instruction and tearing them but it may not be documented in a way that meets the demands of the right the the demands of the VOE how we have to show
165that so they're talking about students they are determining what they can do differently for each of the student groups they are pulling data but me coming in and saying how do you know that kid got it show me the data the evidence that proves that that's where we're struggling that's the next step for our plc's some get it and some do it very very well some do not so the 45-day plans get reviewed yes ma'am by building administrators yes ma'am do they not require them to document what type of tiered interventions will be taking place during that 45 day plan they should yes ma'am but only 38% have them correct initial riew on the initial review they were given feedback they were updated um we'll review them again in March so they're giving them feedback
166yes ma'am and I assume part of that would be that they needed to have that documented as you said if it's not documented it's not happening I'm not saying that's true but I know that was one of the slogans a few minutes ago yes um so that is being okay yeah all right did you want to add anything no me I think that's just the point and we're continuing to go into those plcs too and trying to help with some of those processes expectation is is5 plans will utilize that intervention with tiered interventions right and one of the things that I want to make sure it's not just our teachers who have not done PLC the way that the state is requiring or the way that we um look for that impact to be we're
167training our principles as well and so principles are in those PLC meetings they they should be in those PLC meetings and so we're actually we only have seven more plc's to go before the end of before we start testing and so my team um put a calendar together and we've all signed up to make sure we're in every single one of those plc's and are sitting with the administrator side by side modeling making sure that they ask the questions making sure we get teachers to the impact of what it looks like so um one of the things that we do know we did this at the beginning of this of the year but when we remove ourselves from the school to go to another school to help that school it kind of all the other
168things kind of happen on a principal's plate and we understand that we just need to be in there and supporting them as much as possible and and I know that there was a point while we were on the board that not every school had an assistant principal and one of the reasons that the board at that time saw fit to put assistant principles into the buildings was because the principal was the instructional leader of that building yes ma'am and the assistant principal could take some of the load of those daily demands off of them so I'm hoping they're utilizing their assistant principles yes thank you all right in regards to math uh most of our grade are seeing um sign significant gains when we look at fall versus winter in particular uh kindergarten at winter
169testing 91% of our students were meeting those winter benchmarks in second grade 75% were on or above at that winter testing in third grade 86% were showing Improvement between fall and winter and at seventh grade that was uh 73% that were showing Improvement there uh one of the notes about fourth grade in particular um with our new math standards this year we are seeing that grade level out of all the grade levels um with the most rigorous uh components as far as it goes with being able to use models to represent problems contextual word problems were more heavily emphasized in that grade level and then also having students be able to explain and justify their answers was more increased at that particular grade level so that is U one of the things that we are
170trying to work with our math Specialists on as well as our math lead teachers to kind of see how can we support in that particular area however if you look at EXL usage which is one of our supplemental programs it's not a mandatory program but it is a program that is very widely used by many of our teachers who assign specific skills for students to practice and those skills could be either foundational skills from previous grade levels or current grade level skills if we look at fourth grade for example they've practiced 42 skills this year and have demonstrated proficiency which is 80% accuracy on 26 of those skills and then 21 of 26 of those skills have been reached uh Mastery which is 100% accuracy so one of the things that we're seeing there is
171that they are um making those progress especially in those foundational skills one of the things that we would like to see probably moving forward in the next you know seven weeks before so time is more proficiency across a wider range of skills rather than Mastery of a smaller targeted set of skills so some of the things that we have in place there that same protected intervention time in Elementary is there for math a secondary intervention is a little bit different it varies by schools some offer that one day a week of intervention others have a remediation block and then others have uh that intervention happening during a portion of their core block every day we have those same progress monitoring tools for interventions for math um for math we also have one division math specialist
172who is supporting primarily at our two federally identified elementary schools Central and Madison Heights working primarily with third fourth and fifth grade as they prepare for their so test and then we also have a secondary math coach who's working with our secondary schools in that same capacity uh we also continue to have access to supplemental programs like ISL zern and DreamBox and then our professional development related to math this year has been strategically targeted to support evidence-based interventions and that's looking at how to incorporate visual representations or those models into instruction with manipulatives uh how to provide explicit and targeted instruction for students and those targeted interventions and then looking at science again we're seeing growth in some areas versus others particularly at the elementary school level where we're seeing an 85% improvement from Fall
173to Spring another tool that we used at the division level during our most recent instructional round was the vooe science classroom observation tool or Scott tool and that tool is a useful tool because it helps to look at indicators for lesson plan alignment but also student and actions and teacher actions the behaviors that they see in effective science classrooms so when we looked at that uh data that we collected during this last round we were noticing that full alignment continues to be an area of uh Focus for us and when we say full alignment that means the lesson plan the activities the materials are fully aligned to the intent and rigor of the standard um so that you can see overall is a low percentage for us 20% but when we look at how many
174were fully aligned and partially aligned that was a little bit better and when we mean partially aligned we could be looking at a teacher who has identified you know six or seven standards that they're going to cover across the week uh but needing to identify that particular standard they're focusing on for that lesson for the day it could also be uh lessons that might be topically aligned but may be missing an important component of the standard one of the other things that the Scott tool looks at is uh those teacher and student behaviors and so when we looked at those um we want to see more of a 5050 ratio with that the some of the the practices that we're seeing are good practices that we're seeing our teachers using including direct instruction scaffolding questioning
175techniques and asking students to explain their thinking which are all good things um when we look at those student interactions that were mostly observed that was where we saw students being able to explain their understanding of a concept in their own words and so one of the things that we'd like to see moving forward with that in the next couple of weeks is more opportunities for students to actually be the ones to plan conduct and and do those Hands-On investigations um because those are the things that are going to have students be able to understand the concepts and explain them in a better way um because right now we're seeing more of those teacher-led practices versus those student experiences and we need students to really be the ones to participate in that inquiry and sense
176making um if you look at the two data points there uh and compare them it looks like with Elementary we're seeing much stronger lesson plan alignment and more of that 50-50 ratio between student actions and teacher actions and that may be contributing to the growth that we're seeing at elementary as far as high impact supports there again that progress monitoring for interventions we also have Partnerships with the James River Association for life science and biology to help uh provide some more student centered experiences in terms of science we've been focusing on professional development for the 5e model which really emphasizes that Hands-On investigation and sens making for students and then for our federally identified schools all three of those have access to stem Scopes which is a supplemental program funded by their school Improvement Grant
177and that aligns with the 5e model and provides them some lesson activities lesson plans that are aligned to the Fabby model but also to our Virginia standards of learning and so what we wanted to show you here um is provide some information related to the progress monitoring and student performance um that we received from our principles and so you also have access to their individual summaries under executive content on board docs but just to summarize some key takeaways um from their summaries there is absolutely notable progress in the in the PLC development um as noted on their PLC continuums we do have many teams moving toward the developing stage um as far as admin support in those plcs they are providing feedbacks they're facilitating uh professional development sessions as is appropriate for their teams um
178that are focused on that specific analysis and those instructional strategies um that are going to benefit our students um so thinking about the tools that they're using and the data that they have access to that we just heard many um components of there they have access to data like so growth assessments um and other platform um data that they have available too um and so we as a division are going to continue to provide some support as it relates to this PLC process so continuing professional develop as it relates to consistent use of data and how that collaboration is structured in order to get to action there and that intentional support for students um and so always continuing to refine those data analysis practices and again making sure that it's being implemented um with Fidelity
179and consistently um and as always providing just as we expect our Educators to do providing that targeted and intentional supports for teams um specific teams um wherever they are in their stage of development one of the things I do want to remind you when you're looking at the principles each of them have their own slide that they determine or they tell you what each of those areas that they feel their school is remember some of the schools have this is their first year of doing plc's they've never done it themselves didn't do it as teachers haven't done it as administrators and so they're actually on that they started the school year as pre- initiating stage and you go from pre- initiating to initiating to developing to sustaining and so where they put their Mark um
180is them going just from pre- initiating to initiating is a good thing we want to get everybody into developing and sustaining we have some schools that have been doing plc's for a very long time um and have are already we're already in developing stages and we wanted to we want to move them to sustaining we want them to be able to carry that load all on their own without really needing that support that they need this year um we ended out the presentation just so you know what supports in each area that have been um provided this year um you can ask whatever questions you want to we will take those now if you would like to board any questions for these great ladies there yes um mrry okay so I'm just looking at the
181division level data on monitoring and supports in regards to the science and I'm looking at the ratio of student interactions observed um student engagement isn't anything new you guys have been observing that as long as you've been here I have no doubt um if you compare this percentage here um in your Elementary and secondary to your observ ation in your instructional round two or one has it gone down for student engagement um is that what you're asking yeah has our observations on what we're seeing for student engagement it says instructional round three and then it has standard alignment full alignment full and partial ratio of student interactions observed that one there have you guys seen that go up in those schools or is it going down and if so why I will let Ruth answer
182this because this is specific to the Scott tool am I correct on that for science yeah so this uh we did not use the Scott tool during the first couple rounds however we do have instructional round data with um data that we've collected for engagement and I think Natalia correct me if I'm wrong but we have seen an increase in student engagement in those particular areas thank you I appreciate that board any more questions thank you ladies thank you sir thank you next we have Mr neighbors and student services good evening Mr chair members of the board I goes entr transed by that presentation there to took me a minute to get my microphone apologize um I have two items for you this evening the first is our best lab data summary because of all
183the snow we delay bringing this to you uh with January not being a full month so what you have uh in bardocks this evening is both January and February so for those two combined months which put the days together a little more than a typical month there we were're able to serve 102 students uh for a total of over 3,800 visits um obviously combined number that puts us pretty much on par with what we've been seeing other months um again this is all based on visitation to those best Labs at the five locations that we currently have uh based on our conversation last week we are beginning to work and by us I mean myself and Dr Smith on beginning to triangulate some additional data I know the board had inquired in regards to its
184overall impact thinking about things like attendance thinking about things like grades thinking about discipline data that we can also pull uh that'll continue to be a part of what we're exploring now but my hope is uh before we get to the end of the year we'll be able to bring some of that data to the board so in addition to the basic visitation data I've been bringing to you we'll be able to see that overall impact at each of those five schools as well uh as always we see our youngest Learners uh benefiting the most in regards to getting those visits in uh second grade continues to be the winner and that's been the trend pretty much since the beginning uh and Madison Heights and Miss Spence who is one of our employees of the
185month earlier to today uh is the one who was servicing almost 800 over that course of those 2 months so a lot of work being done uh at those early grades but certainly madis Heights continues to stand out with overall visits to the best lab uh we have seen or continued to see I should say that increase in students where they are coming on a regular basis those 10 plus visits over the course of a month period uh so nothing big change wise in the data from what we've seen previously in those combined two months but definitely getting our usage out of those five best Labs as always be happy to answer any questions the board might have board any questions for Mr neighbors okay all right uh my second item this evening is relative
186to our 6B annual plan so it's that time of year again we're submitting our Grant application for title 6B what I provided the board in board docs is a memo outlining the key components of that annual plan and going through how we're utilizing that as we've kind of come pre from pre-co into this postco era we're seeing much more success in working with the state uh being really focused on Staffing so having individuals that are working directly with students uh there's been a lot of change with how we get those reimbursements how we're able to utilize the grants uh and in conversations with M conage we've really looked to go that direction there are some other peripheral expenses and supports that we're able to utilize the 6p Grant four and a list of those there
187for the board's reference but as is typical the vast majority of those expenditures will be dedicated to Staffing uh what I've also given the board this evening at your place is a copy of the actual uh sheets that I complete uh the application packet itself I wanted to be able to give a little more data than typical I know historically that isn't something we've seen in its entirety uh but I wanted the board to really have that full picture of what that application looks like and how those funds are being delineated uh what I would like to be able to do is give the board time to review that certainly if there are any questions uh tonight I'm happy to answer those as we kind of progress um until the next board meeting I'm happy
188to answer any questions in the meantime but when we get to that next board meeting in April uh would be looking for the board to approve that annual plan and be able to move forward uh there will be some numbers that adjust with that um I was late printing it for Mr mcney today because I was hoping the state would get back to me uh but ultimately the body it what we're going to be using it for that will not change between now and next month and again if you have any questions happy to answer those yes sir Mr neber so my question is is of the positions that are in here so the eight teachers and 11 in instructional assistance are those positions in our current budget so if if you don't get this
189grant funded are those positions in our current budget that we could still afford them or yeah so I we'll double check here with Miss Lan to get her to jump on the mic as well we do have those represented in the budget being funded by the 6B Grant ultimately this is not money that I've ever seen able to be denied US unless it's misused in some way uh so we certainly can count on these funds coming in but miss Lon I'll get you to double check me on that no you're correct it it is in the budget book it's under the grant Federal grant section um so they are funded but they're not funded in the operating budget they're funded in the the Federal grant budget okay that was my question thank you board any
190other questions thank you sir thank you sir all right next is human resources and Mr Gallagher and Dr Rose are not here tonight so I'll take care of this so first you have the vacancy memo and if you have any questions uh be glad to answer or you can wait and email Mr Gallagher and he can answer okay board any questions okay thank you next next we have uh gbma the hearing officers and so we needed to update our hearing officers so we've uh talked to two Mr Gill well well as two other additional uh former superintendents who have agreed to serve as our hearing officers we have Dr Robert Johnson former superintendent from Campell County and Dr Roger Collins uh former superintendent Nelson and he was also super inter superintendent in Bradford City school
191so we wanted to add the those to the list but y'all need to approve that list so if you will approve that I ask for your approval on that list Bo can I get a motion so moved okay second okay all in favor I I okay Dr Wells and that's all from Human Resources tonight okay and that's my dad calling sorry I run the Rings it's my father so sorry about that um next next we have superintendent matters and first we have the 2526 school calendar and so at a request of the board we did add the inclement weather day so to speak the ti days so you can see those were added um one day was added in February uh February 17th and one day was added in April on April 13th so if
192need to go inclement weather days we could pull those teacher work days back and make them inclement weather days uh but they are now they'd be teacher work days up front if we didn't miss the time you need it they would stay a teacher work day but if not we could also make those instructional days and that was the only change to the budget that uh to the calendar that was requested by the board so I'd ask you to approve the B the calendar at this time okay motion will approve the calendar second is I he that okay all in favor I I Dr Wells all right thank you next one the vsba Southern Regional form on March 26 the registration closed yesterday um and so we have Miss uh Miss Lian and Miss Saunders
193had signed up and so that'll be at the rber middle school on March 26 we are taking the C bus there to kind of show that off to the southern region and so we'll be there for that also is the art contest for our students and we'll be taking Student Art there to be voted on uh regarding the art contest we had read Across America last week uh some of you joined me at at elen to read the students there and some of you others read at other schools and we had students from across the county and adults and people from across the county come in to read um we also have on March 28th at Central Elementary School they have their day and they've pushed out and ask people come and read there on
194March 28th so you're more than welcome if you want to go to Central on March 20th and read you can do that as well just let us know and we can get you on the list any questions there okay um just to let you know trout releases are coming up we lost a couple tanks oh as far as some fish didn't make it through the winter um but we're still doing the the activities the stream activities with them um M mcy will send you the dates if you would like to join us so any of those you're more than welcome to but we'll be up on pedler River doing those week or so before spring break and a week or so after spring break but you're more than welcome to join us and bring you
195waiters and jump in the creek if you want to the vsba business honoral um we have a resolution was actually three different resolutions for local businesses um we'd like to get those approved tonight and then we can send it in to get it to get them recognition and then the last is showcases for ESS and we went to the CTE bus with that and break a showcase and that would need a majority of the board to agree to but first I guess we the resolutions for the approve the resolution for the uh businesses I just need a consensus from yall and y'all all have to sign I'm saying you support them but okay um I think you have a copy at your place Johnson's Health hickey and the Chamber of Commerce the three organizations that
196we recommended [Applause] yep do you need a motion or you just need a need a cons I need a consensus and then y'all would have to sign the original one in color gotcha yeah okay okay say no we don't have to sign I'm on board I'm good okay okay sign when we're done okay okay and then for the VBA showcase I do need a motion for us to submit the CTE bus for that we'll do all the background work on that that's need a majority of the board so I need I do need a vote a majority vote on that okay okay okay all in favor I I okay and then the last thing I talked about to to earlier with earn a budget is are presenting the budget at 4 p.m. on Tuesday according
197to talk to Mr Bryant from the county and so I'll be presenting the your budget uh your your your past budget tonight to him on Tuesday we also share a copy of the presentation with the board of supervisor so can have it in advance um I'll talk to him tomorrow about that and so we'll move forward with that on Tuesday okay that's all I have great any else you have any questions for me board any questions for Dr Wells is the luncheon coming up the educational luncheon the 24th yes ma'am 24th March 24th I'm sorry we got it home but just went refresh March 24th had to move it because of the teacher workday changing from the 17th to the 24th yes ma all righty what public comment you add to the agenda okay do
198we do that now or okay okay I wasn't sure where we were on the okay so um we were going to open up the floor again for public comment so if there's anyone from the audience who would like to address the board please step forward okay hey everybody Sam soer District 2 parent I just have some questions about the getting out of the Virginia School Board Association I would love for there to be some real discussion about this I think the community should be involved I think the administration should be involved and I guess just as a a audience member I am kind of taken aback by this stuff and well would love to know more about it but as always you know what I say I just really concerned about the education quality that
199students are receiving and that the school system has the resources that it needs and I'm not moved by the $116,000 when we think about you know where we could cut the the funding you know um you know to I I think these uh sort of lowest rung of the ladder positions that are educational supports in the schools are really important and that if we were going to think about well where can we sort of scrap and save that you know membership in Virginia School Board Association doesn't seem like necessarily the area you need to Target and I would also say that uh we really shouldn't be considering getting rid of those educational support resources you know I I hope that we can look in other areas and also work tires tirelessly to acquire grant money
200that's out there it seems like there is a money enrichment available for this stuff and we have to be aggressive and I would like you all to be aggressive about figuring out how to fund the school children's of ammer needs thank you very much thank you sir is there anyone else who would like to approach the board yes sir getting your steps in I was told that long time ago that if you ever went to a public meeting that the most you should ever speak is twice because by the third time people have kind of grow numb uh I apologize for that back in September our student Representatives talked about a new mindset instead of of people just saying well it's just Amor that we have a sense of amor proud that we're proud to
201be here that we're proud to be a part of this particular Community for its values for its lifestyle for being a resident here and that has really struck me and I think that as we conduct business that keeping that in mind is really important to have that goal of being Amor proud and I hear that through a lot of your comments but I want to uh keep that in the Forefront of your mind the second comment that I would make is when the Lynchberg leadership or leadership Lynchburg um reported their findings they talked a lot about teacher support and I guess what I don't quite understand is when I sit in these meetings I hear a lot of teacher support being given by our our school district so I'm wondering when they say teacher support
202do we have a clear idea what kinds of support they need I don't know but it seems like through all the times that I'm here you all are out there in the schools you're talking to the principals you're talking to the teachers what kind of support isn't being offered that they're concerned about thank you very much thank you sir anyone else okay seeing none we're going to move on um Bor if we could do our individual reports and then I know yes ma'am miss saers you want to kick it off I'm gonna kick it off you go girl okay um I do want to thank all the schools for their gifts and their cards for the school board appreciation month last week after that budget meeting I went home and read the cards I needed
203to read the cards and it helped to remind me of the why why I do this why it is important why I sat there for six hours um I want to let all the staff and teachers and administration and students know that we appreciate you or I know I do appreciate you everything that you all do so thank you um the and saying that the cosmetology lab gave us a free coupon which I used so big shout out to to miss Tyrie and her students they did a great job they were very professional she's got them in whipping them into shape and it was it was a great experience so thanks for that okay for a moment I'm going to talk about the b word budget so parents and Community if this is important to
204you you really need to reach out to your board of supervisor I don't envy them for this budget this is going to this this is the year next year will be a little different when the when the tax assessments come up but this year's tough and I appreciate all that they've done but they need to hear from all of us on how important it is to take care of our youngest community so please reach out now Mr Porter what did I find that was um the best thing we' done this year I think is that the question you asked I want to say best Labs because I look at the laser um um data and I look at the best lab data and they you can see where the behavior is going down and it's
205individuals but it's also for that classroom when I had my kids in um in the classroom it's hard to learn when there's a lot of disruption and it's hard for the teacher to teach when there's a lot of a lot of disruption what did I find most surprising um I think that we all have the same goal and I don't know if that's the surprising part but we all sort of reach it in a lot of different ways but our main focus is to make sure that our kids and amers get the best education that we can give them the best start for their future so with that I pass the torch to Mr arazi so miss Anders I like the tensil I see that as my husband says my Christmas tcil that's right yeah
206that's right Mr Rossy go ahead wow what a night uh we have an approved budget and that's kind of exciting but there was a lot of work into that I know there was a lot of work into that and being able we got to back up a whole year because getting us into the position where we could do the budget this year and I remember hearing other districts having trouble and struggles we were actually put in a pretty good spot this year to start off with and you know Dr Wells and your team the the ability to put us there it mattered and it showed up this year and you know the adding being able to add teachers is great for any District but especially for ours because we needed it we we our student
207body is shrinking but our need is growing and to get students prepared we need Educators there and we need quality Educators and I think with the things that the education department is doing locally within our group we're putting ourselves Above the Rest we're standing out with the addition at the high school and all the great work going on there it's going to want to it's going to be a destination high school for some of these parents they start looking around and seeing what's going on at our high school and I think with the data that I'm seeing with what we're able to show with student growth we're going to be able to say we can get your student there this is where they need to be to learn and I think if we have enough
208data to back that and we can show proof that we can do it nothing's going to stop Amherst we're only going to grow and better and thank you for all that hard hard work putting that presentation together that was that was a lot of work and I definitely definitely appreciate your team absolutely and that's uh that's it it's been a long night Dr Wells I hope you feel better soon okay Miss Justice thank you sir um so uh went to gu school meeting and we talked budget much simpler um so um the gu School tuition is increasing for the first time in a number of years um to 5,000 per student um one of the things that Dr Smith really wanted to get out there was um that the go school pays for all of
209their premiums and benefits it's not Lynchburg City doing it they pay for it through their budget um the um Dr Smith got uh did some shopping around and found a savings of 30% in their premium for erors and emissions plus equipment and material materials in the building so in a time of insurance hearing about an improvement in Rat is like not heard of so um the really sad thing is Dr Smith is retiring June 30th of this year so he's going to be switching things up he has a good plan on um how the transition can go well for the school um our students are continuing to be involved amest is using up all their slots and even when someone had to step down we filled it right back up so um it's very exciting
210I think one of the things that also came out was just a reaffirming that 100% of the students at go school are going on to higher learning these these students are working very hard there's not the behavior issues because they've got a purpose they've got a goal this is where they're going and they know that this is um an opportunity that is rare and so um it's just a really great environment um Miss Saunders is going to be going in May for me when I'm out of town and I know she'll enjoy it um so as far as um our meeting you know one of the things I appreciate about ammer is the genuine respect in um dialogue over really tough issues we all have the same goal of benefiting the children we have a
211variety of views and what that might look like I think everyone is Unified in supporting our teachers and our kids and our programs and and that is shown through our budget um you know I'll bring up BBA real quick you know one of the things for me is I don't see it tied to um our teachers or our students so that is something that I'm like well is that really so necessary for our kids um I see that as far as the credentialing that our um State listened and reduced correct me if I'm wrong Dr Wells but they reduced the impact of chronic absenteeism from 33% as far as weight to 10% which is very good um because they still aren't differentiating for those who may not be at school but are doing very well
212so um I've done um several um professional developments I was a part of a seminar today on Mental Health in the schools and how we can um get services that aren't necessarily costing our district and what how can we um invest that way and so I'm just really thankful for I mentioned earlier and Mr Rossi brought it up that we we save three teaching jobs in our budget session last week for a district this size that's huge that's huge that's our neighbors that's our kids and um we also expanded best practices best labs to an additional school and we sustained what um we invested in last year and um I continue to think Amis county is one of the best places to live and and work and I think that's why you see people coming
213back year after year that went to school here coming back to um teach here and raise their kids here and even tonight in the Lynchburg leadership you have people that either have kids in the schools have taught in the schools here or live here so thank you very much okay Miss Thompson um I just want to uh thank the Lynchburg leadership as well as the staff here for trying and uh Mr childr you as well for reaching out to try to find out things that our teachers may want or need or would find that it could help them in their work that they would have a better work experience and the more we look at those and the more we ask those questions and seek for things Beyond just finances um I think that our
214teacher satisfaction and our teacher morale will improve but it takes us to reach out and Lynchburg leadership has done that I know y'all are doing that and um I look forward to continuing to do that cuz it's not an easy task um also want to remind everybody about the art month um lots of opportunities going ACR um on across the street from us with the events and the um the mobile um uh art show as well as Performing Arts I thought that was uh something going into spring that's really important and right here at our fingertips um also want to thank everybody for the work on the budget um I know it's not easy um Mrs lonic just thank thank you um for the formatting that you did this year um I think that for
215me that was very helpful um and you're always very helpful in answering any questions that we may have so thank you very much um also want to say that I'm excited about the budget I know that the Board of Supervisors will have some tough decisions to make but they have been very supportive of our schools and I know that they will continue to be supportive of our schools so as m SRE said reach out to them talk to them let them know what's important to you as parents as teachers as staff um but parents especially you know reach out and let the board supervisors know um we're here to work together for your children and we value your input um and I know the Board of Supervisors will as well um also know that with
216the caliber students we have have and the excellent teachers that we have the support that you guys have shown us tonight that we've always known that you've been doing that but the presentation tonight on the academic supports was so clear um it just hit the target to let us know what you're doing every day and the supports you're providing teachers in the school and I think that um Mr Porter hit it on the head if those supports aren't what they need then what do they need because it was quite extensive um and I just know that with all of the expertise in the buildings in the classroom here at central office with our administrators in the buildings that and and I even want to say with all of the grant funds that you you have
217utilized and brought in have provided additional extra Staffing such as the reading specialist and the math specialist to help really tackle some of those issues I'm so excited that I just know we're going to see some great results this year because there's no way you can put this much into a concerted effort to improve our students education that it's not going to show and shine so I just um am I'm excited I'm looking forward to it um if you sat there and said well we're doing our best and that's all I knew I'm going to go well I'm not quite sure but y'all are working hard I know the te teachers are working hard I just want to encourage everybody to be team players and to do your part and to let's communicate about what
218we need to get over the finish line so that's about all I have um you know is the important thing is that our students can read and they know how to do math and they understand history and science and so we're just going to keep the main thing the main thing at least in my book um that's the priority thank you thank you Miss Lian I Abby said some great things that I was thinking about so I'll just move right on uh first I just want to just clear to slate that I'm not that old person stuck in the mud on new ideas um about the vsba I I think it was Dr Daniels my first superintendent who sat me down for about two hours I'm be quick and he explained to me why we
219went to those meetings and thanks be to God I have to say it that way I haven't missed a meeting uh in 25 years but he explained to me um um which I was thinking about something he said Miss Justice that this was PD for me this was to make me a better school board member this was too because I didn't know a thing about budget I didn't know a thing about Title Nine I didn't know any of that and he said uh Priscilla when you go to these meetings you're learning how to be a good school board member now things have changed we can Google anything we want now we have choices of other organizations but that's why for me personally that that taught me what I needed to do I think I did
220pretty good with it and so every superintendent would would drive me down and somebody still doing it uh and and we'd come back with um uh we'd had to tell somebody what we learned back in the day said what did you get out of it and how can you be a good instrument for amher County and it it taught me about SOS it taught me about discipline it taught me OCR so when we faced that here I had been to a class on it so I'm just giving my personal opinion of why I'm not going to be the stick in the mud if the board wants to move forward uh but I do want you to know that it's been a great asset to me I have never looked at as a political organization I
221go there I listen to the classes I listen to the speakers I jot down some notes usually the um main speakers are are motivators uh they read books they're motivating us to motivate uh our staff in amers so that's my point on that and my second point is that I would never uh say keep something in the budget when I know that we are very lean this year um whether it be vssb attorney uh I just think we need to have more conversation about it before we do it but what probably will happen and we hope not is that when Dr Wells presents this if they don't like it uh we'll have to come back to the drawing board and when we come back to the drawing board that's when we can tear this thing
222apart uh but we're hoping that he can go in there now that doesn't mean we won't have the discussion about the attorney fees or vsba but uh we give him a shot at it and see how he comes back so I just wanted about to know I'm not about spending money unnecessarily and I'm not about saying You must stay because everybody has the right to do what they want to do I just want to do that and my last comment uh for Mr chair and everybody else concerned um I go to the convocation is that what it's called the opening like everybody else we go to the new teacher lunches the new teacher breakfasts all these s people seem to be happy to me I must be looking at this wrong everybody seems to be
223happy nobody has come up to me yet and said I hate my job I wish they would tell me if they do so I could help three words that has stuck in my mind support what are we talking support from whom these people here surely is in the school I I'm was going to say this she not listening my daughter who taught here uh she is listening but she moved because she's she moved because she moved to another location well let me tell you what she said this School Division gives you more support than you could ever reach off from other school divisions not not where she is now she loves where she is uh we have administrators in the building we have principles practically laying down on the ground to help folk we got
224all of these um as you were talking plc's OCR when I first saw that I got nervous I was like OCR oh no I had to sit down and work and read but here's what I'm saying we got if it's support I'd like to know what we're talking about I just like to be clear what's support from whom for what resources I think someone mentioned that we have packed the bus and all these things for the children um I took for granted and and this is I think I did learn this in Williamsburg that teachers do sometime buy things for the classroom but do we need to look at that is that something that we missed I didn't I didn't know that they didn't have what resource do we have computers we have all these
225things you work with we've had all this stuff they put up there that's a resource for me in my business when people give me those things I use them so we and then time what can we do here I mean I wrote those three words down what are we talking about time do we have lunch time do we have planning time I thought some of the AIDS helped while you had you had bus Duty time so when we get through the budget maybe we can break that sort of thing down if we really want to I know this is your baby if we really want to help I'm messing with you we want to help morale then I don't know what we're supposed to do cuz no one has come up to me yet and
226said I hate my job I don't want anybody to you know I want them but if these are three big points resources time and I'm through and plan no resources time and um support I like to know what we can do because somebody must be doing something here there a lot of support on those pages right there if you're not utilizing them that's more than I get it I've been cbcc 36 years and we have support but I I have to do a little something myself I have to do a little something you know they give me everything I need but they expect for me to use it I don't want any teacher mad about the jeans I don't want the teachers out there flattening my tires because I'm like I'm like you if you
227want to wear I'm fine I just said it was not my my place to do a dress code I want that clear so help yourself you know but I am about professionalism and I always will be I just cannot as I conclude m I can't lower my standards all the time just because so uh you know jeans cut up with little holes and things in them I don't know but maybe we won't see them maybe we see designer jeans and it's all good but like Miss Thompson said as I conclude that's not my place I'm done thank you okay Mr chers Mr chair board members um so I first wanted to say thank you for the many gifts uh in the month of February it was uh it was awesome you know I uh wanted
228one of them was a little airplane and so I thought that was uh very unique for me and uh I certainly enjoyed having the personalized uh cards uh in there that you know something different when it's written to you specifically it has your name on it so that was very special so I'm I'm very thankful uh for that um I did have the opportunity uh this past month to U visit amalon Elementary uh I did get to go in and um see all the classes uh throughout the day and um I have to say it was very exciting as I went into uh kindergarten first grade uh to see our teachers uh reading to our our students and and teaching and how they were helping to break down the words and some of those vocabulary
229words they were doing pretty big words I was like what what grade are we in and uh so it was it was it was a great experience um and then recently the read Across America event uh last week so I did get to go to um elen Elementary and I got to read a book that I wrote uh it's still working on and getting published Zippy goes to the moon and so that was exciting the kids loved it they gave me uh all kind of scenarios for uh second and third and fourth and fifth book uh for Zippy and um but the most of the theme was is they really wanted Zippy to go to the moon in the in the book so we'll see how that goes um and then um you know what
230I will say about the teacher retention piece is that um I think it's it's very plain to see that when we look at how many teachers leave our School Division in a year right and people teachers aren't leaving Amis County over $1,000 or $2,000 difference in Pay right they're not going to Lynchburg they're not going to matics they're not going to Nelson County to get $1,000 or $2,000 or $3,000 more in Pay right nobody's going to do that um but what they are doing is they're leaving for U maybe because a spouse or something like that um but they also leave because they're not happy with their jobs right and they're they're not necessarily going to come tell Schoolboard members that they're not happy they're just going to be disgruntled they're going to start finding
231another job maybe they find it in a different industry or or what have you and that's why I challenge us as a school board I challenge you as administrators to figure out ways that we can improve um you know that uh the workplace culture uh for our teachers um we hear all the time I mean even with the uh leadership Lynchburg they came up with the same things that I've said I've heard other board members say what are our teachers complain about they complain about pay all right there's not a lot we can do with that we've already had that discussion I'd love to give I'd love to double their salaries if we could but that's not a real it we can't do that so what else can we do theyve complained about time uh
232I can tell you they do not like being uh having to be in all these plcs they do not like all this data collection uh because they don't really see the data as being useful and so I think we got to change that Persona and those are a lot of the supports I think we're providing them and they don't see those as supports they see those as hces because our teachers want to be in the classroom teaching right that's what they were called to do that's what they want to do they want to be in the classroom teaching not writing up some report not writing how they teered instruction they want to teach that's what they have a desire to do so that's what I we got to figure out how to help them do
233that right and I think if we can change our culture Little Steps at a time whether it's a tire whether it's whatever it is um then we can start to build that culture where our teachers want to be here and that way there's not a lore for somewhere else or you know $2,000 or whatever to go to another school division so that's what I want I would like for us to do as a board I I respect every board member up here again we all have the same goal we we really want ammer uh to be the best is I'm born and raised here in Amis County I grew up in the school system um I go through a lot of trouble to come to these board meetings to come to these events I have
234to take uh personal leave from my job to do that and I don't do it um because it's fun I do it because I care because I really want to contribute to uh amers County and to our community and most importantly to our students because I really want them to have the best education to give them the best opportunities they can and I think it starts with making sure our teachers are the best and that they're happy coming to work every day thank you okay thank you sir so there a lot been said I can't say a whole lot of that again but um you know one of the things I'm most proud of is we got this report today this came to us today and and I like this little graph right here this
235says um if you could change one thing about your current school or the school system what would it be and it says the number one was more staff and the number two was more pay and that was already a focus of ours so we didn't have this to go let's do this we've been listening to people teachers talking to us telling us things and we use that so um yes sir I think we hear you so I'm just want to want to pass that on um I did get a chance to do the read Across America that was uh that was the first time I'd ever done that so uh that was that was a lot of fun they uh they hold you to the they put you to the test um the trout release
236um I think that is one of the neatest little programs we have going on here because of the the things we have in our County that our kids don't get a chance to take advantage of you'd be surprised how many kids don't go play in the Stream and you know it's here it not only it's not only our stream it it feeds the other rivers the the bay the ocean it has such an impact on so many different things we I really encourage the kids to participate in that um I Heard the day of giving date coming up what is that date April 11 April 11th okay um that is another big thing getting our kids out there getting them involved in our communities showing them that there's a bigger world than just what they've
237got going on there's other people out there that could use their support Dania thanks for bringing that up because I I hadn't didn't have that on my radar and and but one of the things that I I I am most proud of and that's not just not just being on the school board like Mr Childer said I was born here I went through Amis County Schools I graduated from Amis County High School I didn't live here after college for a short period but I bought land here expecting to move back so that my three kids could go here my parents went here my grandparents graduated from Madison Heights High School so not only is I am a great place to move to it's a great place to be from and I can look around and
238I can see people who are in the same boat as I and that is what I'm most proud of so with that I am done Bor there's one thing left to do to Second all in favor I oh we got a son PR [Music]