001foreign [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] thank you uh meeting of the Amherst School Board together let's uh stand for a moment of silence and
002pledge allegiance please I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all so bored I need a motion to approve the uh agenda the motion that we approve tonight's agenda have a second second all in favor aye aye none opposed all right okay Mr chair lays him on the board uh we want to start tonight with recognition of educator appreciation week and this week we have been providing meals to our staff and we have tomorrow next week we'll hit a few more because we couldn't get them all in one week uh but the main purpose here is just to thank everyone for all they'll recognize all of us all of our staff teachers Drive bus
003drivers mechanics everybody in our division for what they do for our students and for our County it's very important that we take the time to to thank them so at this point I just want to say right now let us thank them for all they've done for us and all they continue to do for us and just want to recognize them for a job well done so thank you next we have the recognition of high school welders so I'm going to ask Larry Johnson the welding instructor at the high school to come to the podium and introduce his welders and for the winning the will or their Weldon Awards competition hello sir I'm Larry Johnson a welding instructor at Amherst County High School and I have the pleasure of introducing you to young men Lou
004Crawford come on come on and Isaiah Pedraza come on up these two young men had competed in-house for the for the right to represent Amherst County High School in level one and level two level one being the first year at the high school level level two for the second they also compete simultaneously with college and professional levels uh both gentlemen scored first place proud of them both thank you [Applause] thank you thank you miss licking could you move to my there we go perfect two three [Applause] so now we have the routine down for the next couple we could do the same thing so all right so next we have the uh recognize our family career Community leaders of America the FCCLA they recently went to Virginia Beach and competed and we have Miss Brooke
005shober Mr Sam Addison to recognize their students all right good evening everybody um I am Mrs schober and this is Mr Addison and together we took 17 students to Virginia Beach a couple weeks ago when we competed and our competitions are very different we placed in every single category that we competed in um today I have Ryan cash Victoria Freeman Reagan Kaiser and Brianna Brown and Devin morkum each one of them placed and Ryan cash is going to Nationals in July to compete at a national level in Denver Colorado along with Brianna and Reagan and then the rest of my team they're not here but like I said every single one of them plays and if you don't know FCCLA is family career Community leaders of America it's a CTE organization it's new but it's
006been around for a couple decades and um we've just we've done a lot this year and so I'm very proud of our team and what we accomplished so Sam will talk about what his team did but what our team does is months before we prepare an oral presentation a visual presentation some of them depending on the category have to do a portfolio they go up they present in front of the judges they leave the judges talk they come back they ask a series of questions and then anything follow-up that needs to be given then they give feedback as well and they're graded on a very tough rubric too so again they could be the state level and three of them are going to Nationals for us so that's my team and I'll let them go
007and and if y'all can stay up here then we'll get everybody up we'll come in front and do the pictures okay all right sounds good thank you Miss Herbert um if I could call up Jonathan Holbrook and Seth Johnson please we took uh seven students um some of which weren't able to be here a lot of them play on the soccer team which had a games tonight and um other head work obligations and so forth um but this was our first year participating in at least 25 years I've been doing this for this is my second year now and so we're very happy to be back in the FCCLA and competing um we actually did not know until about 60 days before the competition that we were actually going and so um we didn't have
008a whole lot of time to prepare but we used that time as well as we could and we were the only school out of uh as Miss Shubert said that had somebody meddle in every single culinary competition and so air competitions were a little bit different uh Seth actually competed in a competition where he did do a portfolio and a presentation board and so forth um it's called a food Innovations competition and uh he did a fantastic job in that he he placed um uh bronze medal uh for food Innovations level two um Jonathan Holbrook so the other competitions were Hands-On so the only they were the only competitions at the FCCLA where actually you went and you just did it right in front of them and that was Classic knife cuts and then chicken
009fabrication so the knife Cuts was how you use a knife cutting potatoes in the very specific shapes and sizes and you know sanitation and all this different stuff and then we had the chicken fabrication which is basically breaking down a chicken into two thighs two legs two breasts two tenderloins and so forth and then we had the kind of like a mystery box which is kind of the ultimate Challenge we have to do three recipes within 60 minutes and uh Isaiah Moss placed bronze in that competition um so Jonathan Holbrook took took silver medal and second overall in Classic knife cuts for level two um William Carver who wasn't able to be here because of soccer actually got gold medal and first overall for chicken fabrication and he had not cut a chicken his his
010family actually owns a chicken farm but he had never put a knife to a chicken before 60 days ago but he's a master now so um so we also had um hamina munes who was their exchange student from Spain who uh placed silver medal for knife Cuts level three season Tweety uh with silver metal knife Cuts level three Miles Davis was bronze medal for chicken fabrication level three and like I said Isaiah who did the the big scary competition um I was just so proud of him for even going and doing that at all because that is just quite an undertaking uh I myself would have even been nervous about doing that particular one I would have been nervous about doing any of them actually but um yeah you know like I said there were
011two of the teachers there one of them from EC glass The Culinary teacher and then one from Heritage and they didn't bring any students to compete they were just there to kind of observe and they had just mentioned to me that they were so surprised that when at the award ceremony just here in Amherst County High School Amherst County High School Amherst County High School every single time over and over and it was just kind of blew them away and so that made me feel really proud of my students and I want to give them all the credit and we worked really hard and and I think we got the results we deserve [Applause] one two three immigration congratulations thank you so moving on next we have the real world design challenge competition winners and
012that's Miss Betty Stinson introducing her team from there good evening I'm Betty Stinson and we actually had two teams that participated in the real world design challenge the challenge was that they had to design a drone that would carry the cargo payload four thousand pounds um let me see 300 nautical miles and at the cruising altitude of 20 feet sorry 000 feet a little bit of a difference there I'm so glad they were up to the challenge so we had two teams and now these two teams they've placed second and third in the state of Virginia and then the second place winners went on to compete in the national International challenge so at this time I'd like to call up our team foft who did the gigachad we have Peyton Jackson Who is the um
013team captain Daryl hartless is not with us this evening but um Brennan Midgley and Carter Hansen they created a drone that would do this and they did a wonderful notebook they also did the business challenge where they compared it to the trucking and as far as flight as well so they had to come up with a business plan as well congratulations our other team which is team albatraoz they created the Molly mock our team leaders Lily Ryder and violet Miller we have Tori Smith Dylan Eno James camp and Jesse Sevilla we did have other members for this team but they did they weren't here tonight team Albatross was second in the state of Virginia and they did a beautiful job competing at Nationals Internationals I think congratulations Corey Victoria you want to get them all
014[Applause] the front doing this there we go one two three congratulations [Applause] and yes this is Miss Vincent's first year doing this with the group so to get second and third place in the State uh first year I think that's a good great accomplishment as well so congratulations right all right order all right so next we have a recognition of our two School Board representatives and uh immigration you had to leave to go to the answer okay you're good completely fine um I also want to say a couple words and and members of the board you may want to I don't know if you want to say something as well I know Fatima Grace does have to leave I think Evan said he could be here the remainder of the evening but um I just
015want to thank them for what they've done for us this year and recognize and just recognize them for their taking their time out of their lives to service student Representatives on the school board um it's a again with school and work and sports and every other activities and things outside of school that for them to be here and commit to this is a great it's a huge commitment but I hope they learned a little bit from this and I wish them the best as they move on to life After High School and their next phase of their life I let them speak to where they're going to college uh when they get a chance to speak but at their place I do want to give them certificates but if y'all want to just say a
016moment about where you're going to be next year okay um I plan to go to Florida Southern College which is in Lakeland Florida and I'm double majoring I'm going to receive a Bachelor's of Fine Arts concentrated in dance and then also receive a master's degree in Business Administration wow [Applause] hi my name is Evan Fink and I plan to be going or attending Dartmouth next year and I'll probably major in Neuroscience with a minor in Business Administration wow [Applause] we also want to give you certificate recognizing you for your time foreign [Laughter] congratulations congratulations [Applause] awesome Lakeland Florida all right that's fun so yeah so before Fatima has to leave I'd just like to thank you for your service um you know we we don't often hear from the students unless it comes through you
017guys so it's great to have you guys you know be the kind of go-between between us and the students and the the information you bring us is so valuable and uh it's just great to see you guys react you know interacting with with everybody and and stepping up uh not everybody would be willing to do that uh because you guys are busy so good luck to both of you and uh good well good luck on your endeavors mm-hmm [Applause] several more chances all right so next on the agenda is recognition of the 25 years of service and uh staff of 25 years of service and so um just to get started you know so to be 25 years of service here in Amherst County that devoted you know a large percentage of their adult life
018to serving our students and our community so I do thank them for all they've done for our students and for our County and for their schools they've worked in it's a huge accomplishment um so I just want to personally say thank you to them and Mr Gallagher are we going to have them come forward okay so the first staff member would recognize is Mr Ernest Penn [Applause] y and we have a challenge coin as well as an acps I think so thank you appreciate it stay right here and then we'll get the next groups up the next person is someone I kind of know fairly well miss Karen Wells [Applause] believe it or not it's been a year this is our first board meeting laughs next we have Miss Jennifer Johnson [Applause] and our next
019employee is Miss Lisa Mays [Applause] foreign ER [Applause] we also had two members that came up with us tonight Mr Elizabeth Wood at Amherst Elementary School Ms IMA is at Temperance elementary school so again [Applause] hey congratulations sir come on Jennifer one two three great [Applause] please that concludes all our recognitions Mr chair great thank you very much it's great to recognize those who've I've done such great work in the schools whether it's students or teachers or whatever it's it's just great to recognize them Chile all right so we will move on got that on record the crowd's lighting so that yeah so we'll move on to uh public comment next and um we have one person listed but we would like to remind those who do speak tonight we're at a three-minute limit but
020also let's make sure we're keeping it professional and no longer not using individuals names due to the confidentiality of of such such nature so the first name is Miss Rachel Martin anyone okay not here so is anyone else from the crowd like to speak yes sir date your name and address or voting district whichever you like Sam sober District 2 dad good evening School Board welcome Miss Saunders school board if you really want to protect acps students make sure they enter adulthood with a solid education because whatever they do with the rest of their lives whatever vocation they're in or not in being good at English reading and writing it will help protect them and help them succeed in our society acps teachers and staff need your help they need your support and our students
021and families need your support I volunteer in the schools at lunchtime including today for teacher appreciation week it helps them out how about figuring out how to start to get our schools more support with funding and resources so they don't have to rely solely on volunteers to give teachers a lunch break the school Community needs the board to be focused on raising teacher and staff pay to levels closer to our neighboring localities that will in turn help the schools give the best protection by ensuring the teachers are taken care of so we ensure that the next generation is equipped with all the knowledge they can get about language Science History and so on the actions of the board over the last year and a half and Beyond oftentimes sows further division in our community and
022disrupts the business of Education by weakening public faith in our school system you harm the families that most need this system to be functioning optimally for many families home school or private school is not a reasonable option they need your help to strengthen this institution please spend less time listening to divisive rhetoric in the media that's designed to discredit public education and spend more time listening to your teachers at Administration administrators and families about what's really going on and what isn't going on the achievement gaps the Gloria talked about last month the achievement gaps in the system are unacceptable and glaring the fact that African-American students as a whole are achieving at rates drastically lower than the white students on whole it must be addressed immediately how can we tolerate for one day such inequality
023it's not just bad for the families it affects directly it affects the whole school Community negatively all students benefit from their peers succeeding at a high level a rising tide raises All Ships this should be your Chief concern be an ally to the administration and help them give all the students the most comprehensive education possible sometimes it seems like you're getting in the way of our schools being as successful as they can be sorry you're three minutes with your help Hope acps become a shining Jewel of the Blue Ridge let's do it peace and love you all thanks sir foreign anyone else would like to address the board ma'am good evening how are you tonight and welcome Miss Saunders to the school board I'm Bev Jones District Five good evening after viewing the April 7th
0242023 school board meeting again I'm just appalled by the following issue that was being created we live in Amherst County not the aisles of right history lessons are full of controversial issues the Isle of right policy even denies systematic racism that all of you know exists it states there is no systematic racism or bigotry perpetuated in the United States or any government the problem with this statement is that as a school board you cannot speak for what is happening in the federal government you can only speak for what is taking place in animals County Public Schools another one States no one is inherdling a victim or oppressed due to their racial do that excuse me consciously or unconsciously thought that was odd skin color gender religion and the list went on and on but do
025you recall some of the Banning that was put before this board concerning CRT and certain books in our library County public school policy IB INB States Dallas County School Board recognized that preparation for Effective citizenship is one of the major purposes of Education the preparation for Effective citizenship includes the study and issues of con that are controversial such a study is carried out in an atmosphere free from bias Prejudice or coercion tell me what's wrong with that policy very simple very black and everybody can understand it at every school board meeting some members of the board brings up issues that is on a political agenda just like Roanoke school systems policy on book Banning that was bought before you all we don't live in Roanoke either we have qualified administrators to address what is needed
026in Amherst County and we do not need outside influences or political agendas you were elected to represent Amherst County Public Schools this Administration is attempting to move forward and bring our system back from educational losses but some members of this board keeps adding roadblocks and additional workloads children must be taught how to think not what to think also when with this board just come back to every child every day and deal with absenteeism test scores the achievement Gap and discipline I've always been an advocate for Amherst County Public Schools when I taught here for 40 years I was an advocate and I still own is please join me it's a good job to have thank you ma'am anyone else would like to address the board please state your name and your address if you'd like
027good afternoon my name is Smith Levine I live at 122 dulwich Drive in Amherst which is right across from Central Elementary School where I worked last year and I've been a substitute teacher for the past three years in school systems [Music] um school lunches feed a lot of our community a lot of it right but what I've noticed about the school Foods is that they're full of high fructose corn syrup dyes and other chemicals and I wouldn't get into GMOs dyes lead to behavioral issues like hyperactivity and an inability to focus there's some other things too like you know red 40 causing cancer not something we really want to be giving our kids right the medicine that is given to these children to modify these behaviors also has the food dye in it it's very
028upsetting high fructose corn syrup leads to obesity fructose is natural shirts and sugars listen of course it's in sugars it's in Fruit but when it's in the fruit it's also accompanied with proteins or starches and five uh the fiber right all kinds of different stuff so it slows down our bodies breaking it down and gives it our time to catch up high fructose corn syrup is chemically processed and condensed so when that is going into our children's systems well insulin can only bond to glucose can't bond to fructose so fructose has to be processed through our livers and when it's processed through the livers it also has byproducts like fat and you know free radicals free radicals damage cell walls make them more brittle um so all this fructose is in the system and the
029insulin has been released but there's nothing for the insulin to bond to so the hunger keeps on going the hunger hormones are released because that insulin needs to get used up so then we eat more trying to get that glucose for the insulin to bond to kid has a you know Pop Tart and 10 minutes later they're hungry you know this happens every day um I would challenge the school board to restrict dyes high fructose corn syrup and our food just give it two weeks two weeks of monitor the behaviors see what happens I've recently become a certified nutritionist health coach personal trainer and weight management specialist through the international support science Association and I did it because this is a very I'm very passionate about Wellness for all of us because what we eat
030we are what we eat our bodies break down the cells of the foods that we eat and makes our own cells out of it so if we're eating chemicals it's becoming part of us so I would encourage everyone to as to quote a documentary I watched recently eat real food not too much mostly vegetables and then having plenty of exercise is being encouraged which to be fair the schools around here are very good at that so yay for the small blessings um I would love to see dramatic changes in in the intake of what everyone is consuming I mean you have three minutes I am all set thank you um saving our diets will also help to promote sustainable farming and well-being less of a strain on public systems thank you anyone else in the
031crowd like to address the board okay seeing none moving on 4.01 so Mr chair next we have the consider approval for proposed revisions to the public schools policy manual that we presented as the first three last month Dr hoden yes sir Mr chair members of the board you have in front of you the policies that are due for their second reading okay board Mr chair as I look through the policies there were two that I thought that we as a board might like to discuss I don't know if we want to separate those out or whether we want to take these individually I'm fine with separating these out um oh the policy D.A and policy ecba okay so those are d a and ecba d a e c b a yes ma'am just make sure
032we have our notes correct okay I can take that yes board any others on the board okay so can we get a motion you can make a motion to approve the others that aren't been asked to people first you need to vote on pulling those out for that and then if that's they agree to pull them out then you can approve the remaining policies without these okay so do I have a motion Mr chair make a motion that we pull policy D.A on policy ecab for discussion okay is there a second okay all in favor aye Mr I'd like to make a motion that we approve all of the remaining policies okay there we have a sec we have a second okay um any discussion all in favor of the motion aye okay Dr Wells
033Okay so I guess we'll start with questions on policy the discussion on policy D.A we'll be glad to answer the questions as best we can okay um I don't have a question last board meeting I did and and I've gotten that clarified um our current policy D.A has the exact same language as this policy in front of us other than the last sentence has just moved up to the top um in the middle of the policy it does give us the option of whether we as a school board want to keep the school board May authorize the superintendent to move line items within a major category or whether we just authorize him to do so so I went back and looked at our current policy and it says that the school board May authorize so
034I felt like we needed to have a discussion as to whether we want to keep it the way it was or or change it thank you okay and just so that you know my recommendation would be to approve policy da with the option that is presented to us from the vsba and that is to keep it consistent with our current policy School Board May authorize the superintendent to move line items within a major category okay anyone else yes ma'am does that impede the day-to-day if we have the may I mean if it's if if Dr Wells or his staff is able to do it without coming back to us is that what the or if with the May does that mean they need to come back and ask permission I mean I'm a little confused
035I think Dr Walsh will have to address that I'm just going by our current policy keeping that language the same you'll have to let us know what the current policy of people or not within classifications outside of classifications if we had to move from item to item then that comes to you for approval correct like we were talking about the transportation classification being over budget we can't just make that because it's going outside that major classification so we would bring that to the board if there is something that's one instructional line to another instructional line um we the superintendent could be able to do that and so our current policy states that we may give him that Authority so I'm just assuming historically you have given us that we have given you that even though
036our policy says may but we still give it to you yes ma'am okay well does that I guess so I just is that a change that is across the board for the state or I mean what's the reasoning behind it it's really not no change um it's normal for school divisions of the ones I've worked in before that that is something that the superintendents can do within but I think it gives you the language in case the board would would like to prefer to have it come everything come to them it gives you that option thank you uh Mr yes sir so the um the way we practiced in the past the line items that get moved and I'm assuming that's for like a day-to-day all right for example in transportation if at least in
037the transportation example in this applied too correctly if I'm wrong is this more your area of expertise than mine right um but if there's if there's funds inside the transportation classification we can reallocate those to different places within Transportation but I can't pull from transportation to put an instruction or from instruction to put in that Transportation without the board's approval right right and that's the way we we have been practicing that yes sir policy yes sir inside right so what is the pleasure of the board wow so you'll need a motion if you want to approve motion to approve so do you have a motion to approve this is a proven policy da correct correct okay as it is presented as presented okay so there's a motion on the floor do I have a second
038okay okay so I don't have a second I'll give it a second okay what motion did you just make I mean what makes we're approving uh d as as as it's written presented to us but no changes of the May and all these funny words no and from there we had no the policy has written does not impact our daily operations and it would not negatively impact us okay it just reworded the the paragraphs a little bit correct so well question though um if we revise as or leave it as it was how does it impact compared to has it been as it's being changed what's what's the impact either direction if you pass it with the verbiage is authorized we are going to continue as we have already always been doing we would bring
039it to the board if you're transferring outside the major classification area okay but you're saying in the in the past where we've had May author we may authorize the board has been giving the authorization anyway correct okay so the May will be an absolute now there won't be there wouldn't be they're not coming to us for right asking for permission to do so Within the same designation so that's basically with the wording we allow it to happen at any point we could remove that power by putting the new words in the superintendent would have the authority to do that without coming back to the board I guess that's what the real change is correct so as it's being tried as as it's being presented it would be already has The Authority where's the way it
040was there was we may Grant The Authority correct and there is still some limitations because this still has to go over to the Board of Supervisors because whatever we do on our side has to be done as well on on the county side and there is limits in place that if it's over twenty five thousand dollars even if it is within the same classification it has to come to the board now that's not our policy that's what's required for the county standpoint so there is a limit of twenty five thousand dollars on that okay Mr chair yes ma'am I believe we have a second we're in discussion is that correct that's correct um and it's my understanding Mr Rossi recommended that we pass the policy as stated what I need clarification on before I were
041to vote is that in this policy it says that boards that do not authorize the superintendent to make transfers should delete the sentence that's in the middle and so you can either keep the sentence or you can delete the sentence so I guess in order to vote accurately on this I need to know which one is being presented in the motion Mr Rossi can you clarify and if I may I think Mrs laconic said it very clearly for me at least at the beginning is if we keep the language the superintendent may be authorized by the school board um to make line item transfers within a major classification if we were to keep that as our current language is we are not changing anything in the way they do business the only thing that we
042are doing is maintaining our Authority as a board if in the future the board would so choose to have that discretion if you'll notice the last line that's moving to the front says the school board manages and controls the funds made available to it for the public school and incurs costs and expenses my concern is that I don't want to hamstring this board or future board from having the authority to manage and control their funds to me if we keep it with May then we still give them the authority to do that it just doesn't hamstring another board down the road so those are my thoughts on it but I in order to vote I just need Clarity on the motion so if I may so our current policies has this has a term superintendent
043may be authorized by the school board to be client and transfers the new policy scratches may be authorized by the school board and and stills is authorized to McLoud I'm transfers so I guess the question is you need to what you Mr Rossi if I if I'm correct you you made the motion to do the new pilots did you make the motion for the new policy to keep the motion to keep us with the existing policy I guess that's my question so as presented which would be the new policy which is is authorized correct okay so the motion was is authorized is adopting new policy which takes out the May and just leaves puts it is authorized gotcha okay so the motion on the floor that has been seconded states that we will revise the
044procedure and it will go to the is authorized language is there any other discussion on that Mr chair yes sir yeah I would like to still keep as as written but also as written keep the May as the line that should be deleted but should not be so I think that okay yeah so since it's been seconded you need to vote yeah on on that motion okay and then if it passes it passes if it doesn't it doesn't and then you can make a second motion if it doesn't pass okay so is there any other discussion on this motion okay so all in favor of accepting the changes as presented to policy d a anyone in favor all in favor aye the last thing hold it just say what you said again you said I
045mean Mr Rossi yes just read it I'm reading the superintendent that's probably out of order the superintendent is authorized to make line transfers within a major classification that's where we both know yes ma'am yes the new as presented the policy as presented and as you as you scroll down you will also see that it's removing the sentence yeah put it at the top right okay so what we're saying is SDA is in front of us that's what we're voting to accept yes as the one that's as presented yes because you said with certain classifications he has to ask I mean it has to come to us anyway right yeah yeah okay I'm straight I kind of knew that I don't know why they changed it but anyway okay I know more questions what's what's next
046okay so the motion out there is to accept the policy as it is presented um we're calling for the vote so all in favor of the motion all opposed I okay so the motion fails so we would like to know it make another motion to put it back the way it was I guess that's where we are now if that's the so do I have a another motion that we'd like to so entertain if I may yes so do you want to before you make the motion do you I guess the question would be do you want to keep the wording as is in the new DA and just change the is authorized to maybe authorize and keep the rest of the policy the same or just not pass it at all and go back
047to revert to our original policy that'll be Mr chair I was going to make the motion but I think you said it well that we keep policy d a as it is other than we changed that sentence the superintendent may be authorized by the school board to make line item transfers within a major classification okay okay so basically you're going to keep the everything has been lined out as lined out underlined is underlined it's set forth maybe replaces is authorized yes sir that's my motion okay okay I need a second to that second uh any discussion any further discussion okay so I'll call the vote uh all in favor of the motion hi anyone opposed okay D.A has been approved as as amend amended yeah okay next e c a b a b c a
048b any discussion on ecab Mr chair just for informational purposes as to why I wanted us to talk about this one is the only change in this one is it strikes policy jfc-r or the regulation so standards of student conduct does this board voted to keep jfc-r regulation as part of our policy manual when the states or when vsba suggested taking that out since the board voted to keep that in I felt that we may want to keep this reference since it's part of our policy so if I would make excuse me I would make a motion that we pass policy ecab as it is but keep jfc-r which I guess is our current one that's our current regulation so then I would let me restate that I make a motion that we do not
049approve the new cecab policy and keep our old one okay do I have a second second okay so discussion of this um are there changes in there that we are going to make except for the reference or just leave it as it is is what we're driving okay so there were no other underlines or deletions in the policy it just struck jfc-r so the policy itself would stay the same you would just be leaving jfc-r and our policy as opposed to deleting JFC Dash or okay so there's also a change in school board Shale to school board insurers not an EC not an eced yeah okay sir all right it's just the cross reference is the only thing that that was changed in that one and this would become an acps policy because we're keeping
050jfc-r into policy okay so any other discussion on leaving the policy as it was without amending it as presented so we have a motion on the floor we have it seconded uh we'll close discussion call for the vote all in favor aye aye anyone opposed no so we will keep e c a b as it was Prior without the revision so we will not revise not revise thank you thank you it's a roundabout way of getting there but we got there okay so next 5.01 consent agenda or 5.5 consent agenda Mr chair I'll make the motion that we approve tonight's consent agenda okay we have a motion do I have a second second all in favor aye not opposed all right thank you so Mr chair next we have the administrative Dr hoden foreign Mr
051chair members of the board it's been a busy week with the construction project we have received approval for the site plan as well as the approval from VDOT so that's good news the bids were as you know shifted to close for this past Monday May 1st during that process we received three bids our goal would be to move forward with the lowest bid and Dr Wells is going to follow up on that project so Mr chair members of the board we did receive the bids on Monday um they came in above budget so we do like to go with our lowest um real I guess our lowest bid on that which would be a Jameson Lewis and inner negotiations to see if we can get that price at a price that is more uh closer
052to our budget line and so it is not uh require us to enter into any type of contract it's just we can't negotiate with anyone until we identify the firm we want to negotiate with because we can't play one company against the other company say oh you do this and back and forth so we have to identify one of the firms and then before we get into negotiations some of our requests tonight will be one we have if you have any questions about the process uh Mr Bauer from CRA is here to answer any questions we have but then also to be get a consensus on us moving forward with inner negotiations with Jameson Lewis so we can see if we can get the price at something that is we feel is uh more in
053line with our budget okay board any questions for Dr Wells on this Mr chair yes the uh The Firm that we're going to be Consulting with I guess they're going to be handling the contracts between the contractors is that what do you want to speak to those specific questions regarding it easy there we go bring them up expert yes sir so you do the Consulting between contractors or are you I'm just the architect so you're just the designer right right so uh what what does what the process is is that um we have in in Virginia there's a general contractor okay who's the one who oversees all the contracts within the project itself um so what the law permits is that if the uh but the if the bids that came in are greater than
054the out the allowable funds then we have the ability to negotiate with the lowest responsible bidder and that's what we're asking permission for is to negotiate with them to discuss process uh schedule materiality uh and things like that in order to be able to get us back within within the budget itself that's what we're asking profession for oh I understand now okay that makes sense and accountability how does that rank accountability with with pricing and say the uh the bid comes in you go through and discuss the bids with other contractors how does that take place right so we can only discuss with the lowest responsible bidder okay so so that would be the general contractor and then underneath the general contractors you're Plumbing your electrical your mechanical contractor the the players would not really
055change what we're looking at is opportunities to save dollars through different processes or different materiality or modifying the schedule you know the you know we gave them a schedule to say okay this is the first phase second phase third phase correct they're going to propose different processes uh so again they propose it back to us we review it you know both us as the architect and the engineer the school division does and we have to agree to that process so nothing nothing moves forward without the agreement that what we believe is reasonable and that we're accepting of of the of the pieces we don't just because they offer it doesn't mean that we have to accept it very good all right any other questions yes ma'am I'm new so I apologize but we're also in
056the middle of doing a building um for the Eda and so do y'all have any deducts that you can try and get this bid down I mean because from what I can understand it's highly over budget so are there some ways that I mean because is it plausible to go forward that's what I guess I'm yes ma'am so uh so what we have is that in with the actual bid received we have a base bid and then we have 18 alternates that we ask them for um and that was part of the basis of bid um I said the next step is to vet those to say okay you know they offer this much and is that is that the value that is appropriate um and then also to get a little bit deeper into
057this which is to talk about some materiality and other alternates to say these are some options that you have to be able to move forward you know different types of fencing different types of brick uh you know again our goal is not to diminish the project our goal is to look at different processes to try to get us within the budget foreign any other questions okay so Dr Wells what do you need from us so I need a consensus from the board to give us the authority to move forward and enter negotiations with Jameson Lewis since they were the most responsible bidder and then from that point we will enter that phase and then we will report back to the board once we have gotten to a point that we have a what we feel
058is a a good number from them and then we'll move forward from there okay I'm in in agreement anyone else anyone opposed okay I think you got consensus from the board all right thank you all right thank you very much have a great evening thank you Josh thank you uh let's see so next week go back to Dr hoden with the Child Nutrition corrector Plan update so miss Klein had to uh present to the state um back in December and she just wanted to note that most of the Virginia districts had to do so um the biggest thing that um she will be doing because of that excess balance in the cap should be looking at replacing outdated equipment continue with the 4p foods it's a vendor it's a pilot program basically it adds more
059locally grown produce so she's going to continue that she's going to look at employing students student interns through the CTE program replacing more outdated equipment increasing food costs and labor costs for school year 2324 increase the fruit and vegetable tastings she'll be increasing the salaries and benefits for her employees in 23-24. and also she has asked me to look at pricing for replacing the Child Nutrition van and I'm trying to do that which as you know vehicles are pretty difficult to come by but I've reached out to a few people so I don't have an answer on that yet but that's one of the things that that she's trying to do okay thank you sir yes ma'am did I hear you say that one of the things in the plan to correct excess balance was
060increasing food cost in 23.24. yes ma'am um because the uh it's kind of complicated so basically through all right so through covid okay we actually produced more meals and we got reimbursed at a higher rate and we didn't have as many folks working so through doing that that will kind of more streamline those costs I know it's kind of complicated but that's that's kind of the the the the reason over the last few years that that the costs are the that she has a a cap on this yeah I guess I have a hard time understanding why we're increasing food prices when the when we have a surplus and they're concerned that we have a surplus and they're telling us we have to go spend well because all the other things so if if we
061don't then we're going to be the other way so are you saying I guess inflationary reasons this year we may have to increase because of the cost but yet we still need to spend down the money into reserves and the balance so that puts us needing to refurbish we buy new equipment but again um I guess what we can do is have Miss Clan come speak to you directly because it was her budget and she's the one that had the right to get the plan approved by the state so if you'd like I can have her uh address the board directly regarding that that question because it does seem kind of uh yeah it sounds weird it sounds weird I did ask that I did actually ask that question so that's what we were going
062through so back the the big explanation she has to increase to kind of maintain um she's reimbursed at a certain rate so but the the food costs are also increasing so she's increasing only to to kind of to stay steady and then they'll be by doing that and and then increasing her salary for her employees they'll kind of be at a better place if that makes sense I think that everything made sense except the increase yes I mean of course if you got a lot of money we got to spend it which is unusual so yeah buying equipment and buying trucks and and and find different foods but I'm with Miss Thompson I apologize chair for not asking oh sorry um the last part of that I read this couple times how did we get
063this I think you explained it in your first sentence how did we get this balance like this so it comes over the cost of time but and again almost every division had this but one of the big reasons is we produced a lot of meals through coven and so understand the way that the cafeteria budget works is we actually get a reimbursement for the meals we serve we served a lot more meals during covid but she did it with a very minimal minimized staff so her costs were down her meals were up and she got a lot of reimbursement right providing meals for students and that was very successful which is a great thing so the income is based on what we sent out and normally you would need more staff to do that but
064we did it with minimal staff so that extra income we got per meal would have covered the extra staff that we did not need and and plus her pay is below standard that's why we're trying to kind of get that up to the area average gotcha well Mr chair yes ma'am um Dr Wells has offered to have his client come talk to us about the food cost you know I understand she's doing what she's being told to do by the government but it may be helpful for us to understand and for the public to hear so if they increase food costs but know that we have excess money they may not understand without that explanation so we can have her do that in the June meeting if that would suffice the board yes I think
065that would I think that would help there's enough okay yeah yeah uncertainty there though yeah no problem we'll add that to the June agenda thank you very much ah all right and then next uh we will go on to 6.02 student suspensions uh you have in front of you the student suspension list for April thank you Dr anyone any questions for our code all right thank you thank you drone 7.01 so yes Mr chairman of the board next we have uh 7.01 Finance Mr Carnage good evening Mr chair members of the school board for tonight are your financial reports for the period ending April 30th and while there's really been no change from the prior months um I do want to mention two items and then see if you have any questions and they're both
066surrounding the school operational Revenue so I know the last meeting I was I was asked about the state revenue and at the time we had not had an official calc tool and we were doing a lot of projections and looking at a lot of memos and just trying to figure out what that what what that was going to look like and the good news is we did get an official cap tool and our projections were right in line so we are in good shape with what we've we've been using for our spin down plan um so that was a real positive now there's one other thing though that we are seeing that we wanted to bring to your attention and that is in the area of sales tax so when we first had our budget
067passed the state had estimated about 5.9 million dollars in sales tax and when it was adjusted which is something they do they'll raise the sales tax lower basic Aid the current is showing 6.5 million dollars in sales tax projected revenue and that is not guaranteed so it's really important that divisions monitor it to see how it's coming and we have been trending um higher than the same period the prior year and until the last couple months and it is it started flattening out and now we are behind and if it continues we will not be meeting that 6.5 million dollar Mark um and it does fluctuate so this may be a premature but I want to bring it to your attention and when you think that you know this is April so we still just
068have May and June it is for us more than two months because we're on accrual accounting and we actually recognize the following two months so we have a third of our sales tax revenue at this point that is unknown and if the trend continues we won't meet the 6.5 in that will negatively impact in a year in funds that we will have so I just wanted to bring it to your attention and I will give you an update you know every month as we as we continue to Monitor and maybe it'll change but right now it is trending down great thank you ma'am do you have any questions any questions Mr College okay thank you ma'am uh 8.0 Dr Wells yes Mr chairman was it aboard nice to have uh construction of Dr Norman good
069evening members of the board um I have several things to talk to you about the first one would be our just a review for you of our sr3 plan and um with miss lucanage our ARP spending plan these are posted up on our website at the they have been for the last several years what I've sent to you last time we updated the board you requested that the plans be redlined so we did strikethroughs and then the red is what would change we had probably um 13 or 14 changes into the actual Esser plan itself going anywhere from updating this testing data when that comes available to moving out the information from vdoe about Bridging the Gap because they did not Implement their plan so that put us on hold with our plan also the
070community the school Community grant that we were awarded the 324 000 that is now placed into this plan and I'm specific for Amherst County high school and then again our services that we've moved from our map assessments that we did during the pandemic over to our performance matters which gives us regular Benchmark testing as well as the teachers in the classroom can use it on a regular basis those are the bulk of the changes that we had if you have any questions I'll be more than half happy to answer this then this will go posted tomorrow or Monday probably back up on the website with the changes corrected as well as the link is still in there for any Community member to comment on the plan at any time from the last time we presented
071it to the board till yesterday there had been no um no information that was sent through forms in regards to that link so we have not had any Community feedback um if you have any questions I'll be more than happy to answer regarding that okay board any questions for Dr Norman good question yes we did make an adjustment today and thank you very much the um the contact tracing I just forgot to strike through that we do not contact Trace and Miss Patron is very excited about that okay question um there's a reference that we have a school Community Grant from vdoe for grades 9 through 12. how much is that Grant 324 000. and will that start next year actually it starts now we've already started um our day of giving has been um
072supported by that Grant we will we're in planning mode for for next year yes ma'am well I mean it looks like a very worthy cause that re-engagement of students is important thank you that's it anything else for Dr Norman thank you Dr Norman thank you the next item I'd like to talk to you about is the just some changes in regards to the accreditation and accountability and cut scores and this is just to kind of give you a heads up on again things that video are changing Midstream one of the things and I just got this information so I wanted to provide it to you new science tests they're given for the very first time this school year they're taking them next week I believe typically video he actually adopts new cut scores with each
073test that they take they have determined based on the state wanting to do a revamping of the accreditation standards that they are going to use the old cut scores for this new test and then which will allow them to equate across the state which means that our science scores will come in on a delay and so we'll get them back later than than we would normally have and I just needed to kind of give you an update on that also vda will pull together a committee over the summer to talk about cut scores for the current reading and math test those are new tests they anticipate that that will not actually happen until April of 2024 so the data that we're getting from these new tests we're not really sure how they're going to calculate
074that at that they haven't told us yet but as soon as they do I will let you know it's one more change the next the final change that the state came through is just in giving us some clarification on student growth so last year we were allowed to use student growth growth for grades three through eight in reading and in math and we were able to use any growth that met the range for students whether they failed to test whether they passed a test if they showed any increment of growth from range 1 to Range four we received the the kids received a pass or points to it and we received points into accreditation they have changed that this year in the memo it states that a student must have failed the test in order
075to receive growth they will have had to for grades four through eight determine that they at least have to move up one level or one range so it cannot be any child who's passed the test and shown growth it's just those that have failed will pick up growth points on that also in grade three because they did not take a test last year and this is their first assessment that they will have taken they will do the same exact thing and they will use growth from the fall growth assessment to the spring Sol test and we'll get points on that but it's only for any child who failed their Sol test at the end of the year if they showed incremental growth from Fall to Spring they'll provide us growth points on that and any
076questions in regards to the calculations on that it clears mud yeah I don't particularly like I mean yeah you have to fail in order to get that well yeah right and yes ma'am but anyway no I understand what you said thank you um the last thing that I would like to talk to you about is our summer Academy our summer programs this year it's a little bit different because we have a budget restraint we our cares funding for our summer program we spent that we have a little bit left over and we're putting that towards that this year but we went back and we had um our um our teachers and our principals gave us list of those students who were below grade level struggling and were needing that summer program and those were the
077first students that we actually handed out invites to their parents and we've contacted them and they have been given an invitation to the summer academies we do have because we have lots of families who want to have their children experience their summer programs we have a wait list for those students who we have invited and choose not to attend we have a wait list for those that have not been invited because they are above grade level or on grade level that are on a wait list for that program currently we've invited 206 students that's in comparison to what we have done over the previous years which last year we had right around 700 students participate and the year here before I think we were close to a thousand I have to check on that but
078it was it was high up there it was more than 700 and we have only um 22 families who have actually signed up their their students that had been invited to it so we're actually making phone calls not just from the schools doing it but at central office we're calling into each of the families asking them to register their child for it explaining the programs and what they're all about we also have our middle school programs as well as our high school programs for credit recovery and those are going on as well and the numbers I've kind of given you a chart which Dr McGinnis has put as well as the information of when those programs are going to be taking place and I'll be more than happy to answer any questions on that any
079questions from the board yes ma'am half a day again yes ma'am okay okay back home now there is a bus am I right yes we do provide transportation um and previously we had we had not done that up until the pandemic and we started at when we did it the summer programs during the pandemic anything else on the board Mr Terry yes sir have we tried to collect any data saying maybe finding out why parents are not signing up for this program or hopefully when we start making those phone calls when we start um Monday in regards to that that's one of the questions that we'll be asking them as to why they have not taken advantage of that or not did they not know about it we've we've had emails go out we've had
080alerts School messenger social media posts letters went home with kids we've mailed postcards out so I'm not really sure what that is it is a um that the half day it's a little bit more than half day it goes from 8 30 I believe to 2 30 so it's a little bit more and transportation is also on that so yes all right anything else from the board okay thank you Dr Norman that's all I have thank you okay thank you Dr Norman next we have student services Mr Neighbors yes good evening Mr chair members of the board I wanted to up to you all this evening on a little bit of program relocation we're going to have for next year after significant deliberation speaking with our Administration other staff we've made the difficult decision to
081move some of our programming for a lot of different reasons so I'll get into but just to update the board our Pre-K programming so two classes VPI VPI inclusion at amalon elementary school will be shifting to Madison Heights Elementary School for next school year in addition we have a program at Madison Heights that serves some of our adapted curriculum students that will be shifting to Amazon so we're doing a little bit of a swap of programs there to explain to the board the thinking behind that ultimately we were looking for alignment of programs and allowing our teachers our staff and those programs to have maximum availability of collaboration resources in the building to support those unique needs and being able to ensure that we're provided adding all the opportunity we can for our students participating
082in those programs the addition of the two Pre-K classes at Madison Heights will actually bring them up to six Early Childhood classes in that building so that is developing quite the Early Childhood hub for us there at Madison Heights in addition to that at amalon we already have three existing classrooms dedicated to adapt curriculum this would be a fourth and again allow a lot of sharing of resources staff as well as students based on their needs and what they might be bringing in to that particular school again never easy to make these decisions we have already spoken to the staff in these programs or in the process of speaking individually to families to explain kind of how we got to this point why we feel like that's going to be beneficial moving forward but as
083a part of that we wanted to ensure that you were also aware of those changes and why we had gone down that road I'd be happy to answer any questions the board might have about that thank you Mr neighbors anything from the board questions and I did have one additional update uh if you've permit me Miss Albert asked me to do a quick plug for our early childhood registration for next year we have events coming up on May 11th and 12th we've added an additional date on June 5th so at each School the current school that has Pre-K programming I will have in-person slots available for families to come in and register we have received 120 applications today which is up significantly from the last time I was able to update 47 of those students
084so far have met criteria for the program the remainder or most of the remainder there we're still waiting on some income verification but very excited about the numbers you already have and those events usually bring in quite a bit more so no trouble filling our slots for next year is the anticipation thank you all thank you sir next thank you sir so next we have Mr Gallagher Human Resources all right Mr chair members of the board good evening I have a few informational items for you this evening the first one is the vacancy memo that he had before you kind of giving the outline of where we stand currently with vacancies as we report each board meeting so I'll take any questions on that I will make a a quick note that two of those
085positions we hired today so they would come off and that would be the elementary teacher and Elin and the math teacher at the high schools of those you won't see those on there hopefully next board meeting if I'll take questions if you have any anything from the board thank you Mr Gallagher you're welcome Additionally you have a memo at your place regarding our classified and licensed Personnel work calendars that kind of outlines who is represented by all four of the calendars that you that we have posted this has provided you also informationally each year so you have an idea of the workday calendars for the different variations in our in our staff and how that's comprised of 250 day calendars 220 200 and 190 and the memo just outlines who follows within each of those
086areas and outlines that the teachers do follow the acps school calendar and are on a 200-day work calendar work contract so any questions you have about any of that I'd be happy to feel anything from the board okay okay thank you Mr Galler you're welcome and and lastly and maybe most importantly we have an opportunity coming up in two weeks from tonight uh to celebrate our amazing retirees at a a dinner celebration at Sweetbriar College Pro throw I do put down that that's at 5 30. that's usually to get everybody through the gate appropriately we will start promptly at six over there I highly encourage and hope every one of you will participate and attend that event it's a fabulous event an opportunity to reflect on our retirees to present them and have a nice
087night to get together in celebration so that'll be coming up on the 18th so I look forward to seeing you all there hopefully uh one one change for a while we had the Gatehouse created kind of a dilemma getting through we will no longer have to stop and you know provide information to the Gatehouse so you'll be able to easily flow through there should be no hold UPS there so and that's all I have thank you sir look forward to it thank you Mr Gallagher next next we have information from Evan our student representative what's crazy is I think this is the last time I'll be talking to this microphone but uh uh just a little update on what's going on at the high school there's a lot of stuff that's happened recently and ongoing
088I have a list here of just the ceremonies the scholarship awards ceremony the GoldenEye ceremony the golden tassel ceremony that already happened for all the early college and dual enrolled kids you have the college graduation the high school graduation the athletic pictures were today it's a lot and frankly I think we're all just a little bit ready for it to be over with I enjoy it but I'm also looking forward to summer so yeah I besides that I don't really have much to say but to thank you all for all the opportunities and the candy you've given me and it's a blessing thank you sir so again I want to thank uh Evan and Fatima Grace for their time serving this year and we wish them the best as they uh as he moves off
089the Dartmouth and uh future endeavors there so that's a great accomplishment again just thank you for for the commitment because I know it takes a lot out of your out of your time to show up these meetings sometimes until 10 o'clock at night going somewhere longer night so uh we'll try to make this a little better for you tonight yeah I'll see if I can keep it that way no drinks just all right uh next I have superintendent matters okay so the first thing I want to bring up to your attention you have us at your place and it deals with uh student discipline um as you are aware the city and our discipline committees uh we've had a pretty big uptick in uh drug cases this year mainly THC and CBD based um drugs
090whether through Vapes or gummies or actual marijuana or Etc typically we average between around 16 or 17 cases a year in a division this year we've had 40 so far not counting um I don't know if the ones from tonight were were on there or not so we've had around 40 cases this year for uh students using THC or CBD based products um I think that can be attributed to multiple things one you can't drive five minutes to mass and Heights without seeing a a vape shop the legalization of marijuana through the state for those over 21 in their house not at school or anywhere else may have made a difference too and the access to certain things are the I guess the acceptance more more so but we're seeing that this is across the
091state this isn't just an average County problem I've talked to some tenants across the state and they're having the same problem with you know seven or eight students uh every two weeks coming to school board discipline hearings because it's happening everywhere um I'm not going to diminish it but we do need to come up with something else to figure out a way to help work deal with our students and work with our students that are using these types of drugs so what we're proposing I'll give it a 30 000 foot view can you have the written copy at your place but what we're proposing is next year as we start into the school year that students who have a possession or a use of a of a or a THC vape or something along those
092lines that they still come to the school board for 10 days they still come to the board you have the option of giving them the option of going through a treatment program through Horizons which they'd have to complete with their family if they choose not if they choose not to do that or they don't complete that then they would go oftenly place or get other suspension dependent on the severity of what they do this will be for first-time offenders people who distribute or second-hand offenders or possess other drugs other than the THC would not you know be different for certain other drugs if there's a heavier drug but for a THC type offenses I think everybody had to go through the treatment but this would allow you as a board to direct these students after
093the trans suspension through some type of treatment program as opposed to just um 10 days or alternate place we would recommend based on this proposal that if they go to the treatment program if they're in the program that they'd be allowed to return to their base school as long as they're in the program and are completing the program as prescribed by the medical mental health directors there if they don't participate in the program then it would be alternatively placed again that's a 30 000 foot view that's Patron if you have anything to add you feel free to add to what I've just stated yep thank you Dr Wells the only thing I would add is the process at Horizon is to do an evaluation of the student and kind of look at what exactly the
094family needs so this could also be a way that parents and siblings and other household members get linked into treatment and it could be a lot more than just this treatment this would just be the treatment that we're Contracting with them for so they could offer other services that would really benefit the families that we see in the discipline meetings um and the evidence-based model that they're using for substance abuse service it's um Acra which is adolescent Community reinforcement approach and it is um you know there's there's research out there about the effectiveness of it working in as little as seven meetings so depending on the case um it could be a lot more intensive than seven they do have the ability to do drug screening with parent permission and and things like that but
095so it can be very intense for some kids and for others it could be very light and only seven you know visits but that will be determined by Horizons as they get the the in processing is what this that individual may need based off of their history okay okay thank you sir so uh you know we can bring you more if you have more questions I can bring you more information next month if you'd like um but we would like to move forward of this next year but I think maybe we'll come back in June I have further discussion this is again just a first view of it but we are entering into negotiations with Horizons to be able to provide the service if you don't have any major concerns then we'll go ahead and
096move forward and then we can also discuss it in more depth at our June meeting if you so desire okay any concerns from the board uh Miss Terry it's it's not really a concern um this plan has been offered by a horizon and I've sat through some of the discipline meetings and I know there's services that are already being given to certain individuals and would this be an addition to those services uh the cost absorption because obviously we're seeing an uptick in it this would be an additional service so this would be most of our students are not already Linked In with substance abuse services and this would be specifically substance abuse services now they could also access Mental Health Services if they're not already linked with those but those would not be things that
097we would be Contracting with or following that would be on the family to you know do on their own time and we wouldn't have any release to talk about those Mental Health Services right but we would have information about the substance abuse Services because we want to make sure that they're complying with the services and going to their appointments and doing what they're being recommended is done that way they're safe to be in our buildings and we're not concerned about them coming to school high or Distributing anything like that now there are some Employment Services out there now that do offer uh screening to I guess screen for the current or recent use of THC within two hours is that something that the school has thought about looking into also well we've I guess that
098would be a question with legal counsel because there are some questions about that and can we can we mandate a person take a screen right a previously Council has stated that uh we cannot dictate that we can recommend to parents to do that right as part of I I'm trying to understand what it's going to look like next year I mean obviously you know there's there's something happening you know things have changed and with the legalization of it we're seeing more of it and it's affecting our school it's affecting our students however just turning our backseat students is not the right thing to do so one positive thing with things that the state legislature is they have start in July 1 certain like Delta eights and some of those things are not allowed to be
099sold in the stores those will have to come off the shelves a lot of the stuff now some of the the vape pens and stuff like that that are being sold those will be illegal to be sold at some of this in in Virginia so they are tightening the regulation of of the synthetic marijuana so some of those synthetics will be coming off the shelf because July 1 the new law goes into effect that will be a positive for us right because I think it could be less over less than the access to that but um but just still around yeah I mean it's it's always been been there uh so next year we're thinking that they'll come in front of the board yes and we have certain protocols we have been following so that'll
100change over to they'll go over to Horizon so they would they would come to the board um if it's a first offense you have the option depending you still you have the option to do either of either saying parents you need your child has been we would like your child to go through this program if the family refuses and they would obviously go this way if it's a major case then instead of going to that program we will still send them to that program because we feel they would need that treat the treatment they get you could also ultimately place as well as the program depending on the severity of what they do but we would recommend for first offense based off of this change that if it's a first offense for a minor infraction
101that do the 10 days they go through the treatment program but if they're doing if they're completing the program and what's supposed to do they'd be allowed to come back to school versus being ultimately placed for the first offense all right and what uh just like they do with some employers now Services volunteered Services you know they have a choice whether to or not to that's their choice um what about testing as part of the choice option maybe to get them into school sooner or again I think that would be I know if with parent consent Horizons can test but I think we need legal counsel to weigh in on whether or not we can mandate that they'd be tested I would not want to give you that answer right now about talking with legal
102accounts okay the the way Horizon is looking at doing this program is that the drug testing is actually a therapeutic part of the program so it's just to help for accountability um in in the therapeutic process not accountability like we would have in the court system so I think for this particular program like the Horizon part of it it would be separate like I don't think we would even want to know about the drug results we want to know that they're being compliant doing what they're supposed to do they're showing up for their sessions and even if they're still not clean they're doing they're making progress and that's what we want to know that way we feel like they're safe to be in our buildings and where they need to be does that make sense
103well I think part of being safe is to make sure that they're not endangering other students yes I I agree it just it takes a while for some of those things to come out of their system so I think doing these things therapeutically and letting them like part of substance abuse treatment and I say this because I used to do substance abuse treatment is is it's not just cessation right away it's cutting back and so sometimes that's not something that happens immediately so it's not like in 30 days you're clean right um so as long as they're therapeutic and complying and doing everything they need to do then they would be complying with our part of the program but if they again if they aren't or they do bring things to the school that they're
104not supposed to then obviously we deal with that as we need to deal with correct correct yes ma'am can you tell can you talk to me a little bit about the funding that would so yes we're looking at a few different Grant options um so there are opioid abatement funds that were distributed already to the county but the state also holds a pot of money and they have Grants open that we can apply for and hopefully be selected for and that would cover the cost of the clinician at Horizon Horizon has also applied for a samsa grant and they said if they were to get that grant that they would pilot the program under that Grant so we have two different viable options for funding this and the only cost that we have to incur
105is the um the clinician at Horizon so it's it's not an enormous cost we would be one full time um well we wouldn't be paying it the the grant would pay it and the grant would actually have to go through the county so the county would be paying it so would that clinician be designated just for Amherst County depending on the caseload so they will yes they will be our clinician just for Amherst County but they will also probably have to do some other work until their caseload is built up because otherwise they would just be sitting around not doing anything so Horizon will keep them busy because what'd you say we had like 40 to a full time it potentially could fill up very quickly but I don't think we would send all of
106those 40 cases right now I think we'd be starting with kids next year but they would have the intercessions with them and the back work and background work and things that go with it so it's multiple events that take place but we have the uh and the grant we're looking working with the county now we have the option of the full-time funding it full-time we're trying to fund it part-time and so we're talking to the county about that and how they want to how we want to move forward with with that okay well I will say that I think that it's a good extra tool to have you know it may not be right for every student but I do think that it could be right for some and I appreciate you having some insight
107and ways to help us to have more options well you know we get to a point where we keep doing the same things and it's not so let's try to do some preventive work and some counseling work to try to fix somebody's help some of these some of these students as opposed to just United school for a matter of time we're just offering a place that doesn't change the behaviors we need to figure out ways to try to change their behaviors and address those behaviors and that's I think that's what we need to start focusing a little bit okay the parents don't I heard with everything I mean I'm gonna read it again tonight but the parents are in a major part of this yes ma'am I think if if that's not understood somebody's listening
108to us tonight uh this can't be a solo situation I mean it's got to be everybody on board uh otherwise it'd just be another service that failed correct but I like it like Ms Thompson said we have to do something because I was one of the people that told you that's getting out of control just vaping and bringing things to school and using things on school property and it's just a mess and the bigger picture is when these children are suspended for 10 days or what have you uh the uh achievement level goes down the classes suffer not everybody but we can see that that's happening so my word out there is just we got to turn this around and you're right it's all over but we're just talking about right here right here in
109this candle we have to turn it around that's right yes ma'am okay thank you sir thank you next so the next one on my discussion point or our contracts and I spoke with most of you during the past month regarding discussions again with other superintendents across the state and trying to be uh having some some fallbacks so the state has net to approve the budget the skinny budget is what we have the skinny budget does not fund us at a level that we need to be that we built our budget off of um that most of our budget is in salary and so what I recommend to you tonight is what we would recommend doing is taking our contracts we have to issue contracts because there's that time of year to issue contracts even though
110we don't have a state budget um we had been saying seven percent pay raise and we still intend to do a seven percent pay raise but I need to have the funding from the state to do a seven percent pay raise and right now off at a skinny budget we would only have funding four or five percent pay increase so instead of issuing a contract for seven percent and then we don't get the money from the state if the state does not do anything and they keep the money as it as it is in the skinny budget I'd be taking money back and writing contracts I would much rather issue a contract for five percent with the information that we intend once we get funding from the state to increase to re-issue contracts for the
111seven percent as opposed to doing a seven percent and having to take money back from staff we've been told it could be June July or August before the state approves a budget um so we can't wait till July or August to issue contracts so we need to issue contracts based off of the information we have and the information we have right now is that we think we feel very comfortable well not very comfortable we feel comfortable enough that we can issue a five percent raise in their contracts and then as funding comes in from the state and that gets verified that we will issue a amended contract for the seven percent pay increase as we discussed in their budget any questions from the board so what I intend to do is uh tomorrow morning there'll
112be an email going to staff and then next week I'll be scheduling faculty meetings at all the schools to discuss this with staffs they have a clear understanding of the why and what our intent is but again we need to make sure that we're fiscally responsible and I hate again I hate to promise somebody for example two thousand dollars and then three weeks later I say nope I can only give you fifteen hundred or a thousand so I don't want to do that um I'd rather give them the insure the five and a week now we will go up when the money gets appropriated Dr Wallace sir uh so you're saying it could be a couple weeks could be a month before they approve it we'll be signing contracts and whatnot will the difference if
113we do get the approval for the seven percent will it be retroactive back to the original contract it would go to the July one start date okay so what would you go back to that correct okay so we're just waiting again we're at the mercy of the state and until they approve a budget that they've been in negotiations with for the past two months we really are just kind of in limbo Dr Wells got a comment sir all right thank you and I know Dr Wells has met with superintendents from around the state this is not an Amherst County specific situation is what I wanted to highlight that um most if not all divisions across the state are in the same situation and are in fact doing the exact same thing and I know that
114our local region divisions are also doing this as well so I just wanted to highlight that that this isn't specific to Amherst and we are continuing to be hopeful that as they continue to work towards agreeing on an appropriate budget that that will come through and we'll be able to then reissue the contracts at the seven that's been approved by our board and we'll also add that the the additional one percent for transportation and so forth that will still go forward but the general contract instead of being a five seven a seven is five for the transportation folks instead of being that extra one that comes down to a six versus the eight so that's kind of how we're going to work it but the general contract will go from seven percent to the five
115percent okay anything else support and that's not the conversation I want to have tonight but I think we need to be again responsible I think that's where we have to be yeah the next on my list is the mental health RFP so we have signed a um an mou with the Madeleine Center and to provide uh therapeutic day treatment services for us next year so we will have that it won't look exactly like it has in the past but I'll let this Dr Patron speak to that she needs a new name tag too um I wasn't prepared to speak on this one so yeah we did enter into a contract with the Madeline Center they are going to do Outpatient Therapy therapeutic day treatment and some crisis services in our buildings which we're very excited
116to have some crisis Services because that's been missing here over the last few years the day treatment will look a little bit different it will still Provide support to our students but it won't be in as needed type of service it'll be more of a scheduled service where a student receives a day treatment service maybe from like 9 to 9 30 and so one day they push into the classroom with the student and the next day they might pull them out and do something therapeutic and but that's their scheduled time period and at other time periods that are with other students so they're not necessarily on call all day as they have been in the past so that's the main difference that we're going to have to communicate to our schools this year foreign thank
117you sorry to put you on the spot that's okay I'm used to it so next for for me is the best conference I attended the best conference um last Sunday Monday Tuesday it was a good conference for the state superintendents across again across the state and it uh our new state superintendent Dr spoke to us on Monday morning that was a very more of a most a very positive uh conversation that we had so I feel much better about the direction of where we are now given the feedback we've gotten there so it's just a good experience and uh have some good feedback but again the main thing was I was able to kind of talk to other superintendents and get some feelings about them regarding what's happening in their divisions and they're seeing some
118of the same again a lot of the same problems we're facing across the state from the budget again to the THC issues and so forth but um that they treatment in some parts estate they're not that didn't exist so I commend Dr Patron for working out with Madeline Center and getting us something because some school divisions aren't even able to have what we're doing next year so we're grateful for that um date reminders I do want to go over a few date reminders with you so the 18th Mr gallagheri talked about that's the recognition ceremony retirement recognition ceremony at six o'clock a few other not events you may want to try to attend would be the Golden Age ceremony on May 8th at 6 PM that's at the high school we have senior Awards on
119May 10th at the high school at 6 30 P.M uh on May 15th we have cbcc's graduation of several of our students and the other Pro in the early college and other programs will be participating in that program so if you can be there for that that would be good I know this league will probably have to be there so I know we have one rep there I'll do my best we're going to try to attend and then our big night um for us is graduation and that is on the 26th we will I will need an idea we'll send email out to you regarding who wants Transportation if you want to ride in the van I'll have the van meet here in Amherst here at the Public School Board office as well as the
120Food Lion in Madison Heights and or Amazon whichever y'all prefer and we can provide transportation to take you to graduations you know to fight all the traffic and then we'll get you there around six we'll have uh light Refreshments for you and the server the sermon will start at seven and uh we'll have around 280 graduates hopefully um make it across the stage and get their diplomas on the 26th so those are some of the big dates the other ones you have at your place I believe so you can kind of look at any other thing you want to go to but those would be the the major events that I would uh recommend if we can have you attended to be wonderful but graduation I won't say is a requirement but I'll work for
121you but I would highly recommend highly encourage you to attend if at all possible so that's on date reminders the the program banking time I'll send you an email about this and it's basically uh a pre-k through third grade and it works with building relationships and activities with students we want to look into this and just see if it's appropriate it's a pilot program through the UVA and so we were like we were planning on just speaking with them to see if it's something that is appropriate for us or not and if it is uh bringing more information to you but I want you to be aware that uh we are going to speak with them about that and just see if it's something and look into that a little bit more to see if
122it's something we can do and I will say um if it's not right for Amherst County we're not going to do it so I I trust me if it's something that I don't we don't think is right for our kids right for our staff we won't do it but I think it is something worth looking into and so we want to take the time to look into it to see if it's something that will benefit our students and our staff so I'll be glad to answer any questions probably offline if you'd like to ask any of a further conversation on that but I think it's worth us investigating anyway at the least but again if it's something that we don't feel is appropriate or does not meet the values Amherst County we're not going to
123do it I just leave it at that um next on my list it's a trout release um this is something I hold near and dear to my heart it gives me an opportunity to actually instruct our kids a little bit so all of our uh some schools did third grade some schools did fourth grade but every school in the county every Elementary School participated either the third or fourth graders and we take them up to Peddler River and this was one of the sunny a couple sunny days we had that didn't at manels in middle school and AUC on uh earlier this week and it was 49 degrees and miserable but most of the days for the elementary schools at least it was in the 70s some days 80s I was you know my weight
124are sweating to death but it was a great day good event we we do the trout release we do the trout in the classroom project as you know we released over 700 trout with her that elementary kids raised but part of that also was learning about the environment and what it takes why do trout live in Peddler River or in the Mountain Streams what they have to have and you know the the ecosystem and so and so forth so we hit that we talk about the macro invertebrates they have to know what is a macro invertebrate and what does macro mean what is an invertebrate that we start with that and then they we go from there actually talking about then they have to find a classify them identify them classify them and then they
125do a little bit of math to determine the water quality so they have to identify the insects how many of those insects they found do the math on that there's a chart they use and come up with the water quality and so that's part of the project we have them there for about two hours but they get to go through that and uh we as controlled at first and at the end we give them some unorganized chaos so you can find the stuff on their own and uh some kids tend to fall into water on purpose and so forth but they have a good time while they're there so it's a great day and it's a good a good activity for our students so uh something I enjoy it pulls me at the office a
126little a bit but sometimes that's not a bad thing either so anyway do you have any questions or comments yes it's like therapy for the yeah superintendent right it is yeah so so um Dave giving the last thing about this day of giving and so the high school participated in day of giving the Friday before spring break and Mr Crawford's here I'm just going to speak to that versus me speaking sure good evening everybody um so on the day before spring break which was April 7th we had the opportunity to participate at Amherst County High School in the day of giving for those who don't know the day of giving was actually started by Dr Wells when he was the principal you know several years ago so we've tried to continue that haven't been able
127to do it the last couple years due to covid but we were excited to get it back off its feet and so initially we sent the notice out to our faculty and quickly realized that there was a lot of Faculty that weren't here when we did the last day of giving in 2019 and so we had to explain it a little bit more had a few questions um slowly but surely they volunteered to to go to different places and then it exploded into just about 700 people within our building participating in this event we went to 30 different locations throughout the county we did go to two locations in Lynchburg every school in the division participated we had students that went to all the elementary schools both middle schools and and they did more projects
128than just outside work they did more than just spreading mulch pulling weeds planting bushes they got in to the classrooms and worked with our younger students I had the opportunity to talk to several principals they were thankful that our students came to work with their students because that's where they were you know that's where they came from many of our students signed up to go back to their schools where they got you know their Elementary education or their middle education I did have the opportunity to go to Temperance just near and dear to my heart and I can tell you that at Temperance elementary school there were people out in the pouring down rain working on the garden Miss Jeanette Mears who's an instructional assistant there had those students out there working in the garden
129pouring down rain and I loved it you know it did rain it was a little chilly that day but for the most part everybody stayed they did everything that they were asked to do kids had a great time and the best thing that I saw the entire day was we had we had students that you typically maybe they're not always friends maybe they're not best friends but they were working together different grade levels you know just it was it was really cool to see they didn't sign up just to go with their friends they signed up for places that they wanted to go and for people that they wanted to go help and so it was a great event I think the people that participated really appreciated it I think the people that um you
130know were at the locations that we went to appreciated us being there and it's it's something that we definitely want to continue doing so it was an awesome event thank you Mr Crawford so I just want to add that you know we speak of the county you know we're here because of the county taxpayers and the county provides the funds for our school that in the state that is important for us to remember that you know we need to give back to our community as well and for them to see our students involved in community service it just shows the the caliber of students that we have in our school system at our high school so I just think I just think all the folks who sponsor the students appreciate the students going out but
131also we want to thank the businesses and other locations in the county that allowed us to come in to participate and I think it just builds that connection with our community and that's the vital the vital link that you know we need to they need to see our kids in action and see that they're you know we have some excellent students and you know it's not all typical people hear about the five percent let me know the five percent I'm speaking of they don't hear about the other 95 percent do the great things so it's important for them to see the 95 of our students who are doing great things and participate with those so again I think Mr Crawford for organizing that and everybody that participated so that's all I have unless you have
132any questions for me important anything for Dr Wells I do have a quick question when did we start doing day of caring uh 2017 17 yeah was that the tornado well it kind of started unofficially at the tornado and then the following year okay we ramped it up okay that's what I thought thank you sir so let's see moving on next to committee reports from the school board members and we can lump that in with individual School mem School Board member reports um so well I'd like to start off and and welcome Mrs Saunders and you can lead us tonight if you would like if you would like we can come back to you we don't mind we don't want to put you on the spot but I'm okay I'm gonna make it short and
133sweet there you go I'm all about it I mean I'm looking at my watch going whoa [Laughter] got a little large when they said 10 o'clock at night so but I would like to thank you all for pointing me to the district one as representative I appreciate it all the students left all the teachers left I was really disappointed I wanted to give a big thank you for our to our teachers I think they do an awesome job but more importantly we have a great group of students don't we I mean I have to so I I'm a little biased but it really makes you proud when you see this room as full and of all the accomplishments that they've done so good job to everyone so that's all for me thank you very much
134Mr Rossi yeah it's been a very good night recognizing the accomplishments of 25-year teachers welders the Foodies is that what we're calling them nowadays but I it's just incredible and just to hear Amherst County showing up and and being at these events and the students and and the teachers that put in the hard work to get the students ready you can be it's incredible and getting the name out there to making this Amherst known and more desirable for people to to want to be here and it is a good Hometown feel and all the teachers put forth so much effort you know the faculty the staff here you know Administration continued to surprise me every every time I come to a meeting as all the great things that are happening you know and you see
135the hard work you know I see little signs in The Yards where people are doing uh you know accomplishing good things for students and showing up to the events it just gives me a good feeling that that's why you know my family moved here was because of Amherst you know it was a long long time ago but we moved here because of Amherst and it's still true today and moving that Legacy forward you know it's great to be here and I'm happy to be a part of it and I know we're just seeing little glimpses of of what we're looking forward to next year we've had our challenges this year and it's not over yet but we're we're still moving forward I'm excited to hear about the building and the the stuff going on at
136the high school and I think we're going to meet those challenges and move forward I'd like to thank everybody for uh putting forth all the effort in the world because I I know it takes a lot it takes a lot of dedication I know we're not doing it for the pay so I mean that says a lot it really does and that's all I have thank you sir Miss liggin well I'll be short as well but I welcome Ms Saunders and I think you'll have a lot of fun we have fun you know in due time we have a lot of fun well we had a law board meeting this week and we approved the budget there and uh on the contention of what the state does with uh with their budget but we went
137with what LCS has and right now it's seven uh so things went well there we say goodbye to Dr Johnson from Campbell County this would be his last long board meeting and so we'll see who will come on board um in August we have see Mr neighbors we have four students there five four students there and things are doing well under Dr Lewis's regime they're having graduation at the end of May we don't have any graduates from Amherst this time but we still uh try to participate with that if we can so things are well at law we'd like to congratulate everybody tonight it was wonderful the month of May is fun everybody's coming and going little people registering for Pre-K and and people like Evan leaving so I can understand it's a busy time
138but trust me you'll look back on and say I wish I could do it again maybe not but anyway still fun to just enjoy we did enjoy the golden tassel last night Dr Wells did a wonderful speak of speak speech to the to Evan and to others and so it was good so we're just excited and getting out doing some softball and some baseball and things are very good right now in the month of May so once again just congratulations to everyone who received things tonight good Miss Thompson thank you I'd like to just say thank you to Mr Johnson Schubert um Mr Addison and Mrs Stinson for the work that they've done with our students I mean I think it just really uh showed their commitment their dedication to their students and just the
139awards the camaraderie I had a parent come up and just say thank you so much for this program after school and of course I didn't have anything to do with with it but in the same vein it really met the needs of their child and so I just want to say thank you to them for the time that then the dedication that they've given and to all the students that you know did the hard work themselves and made such great strides and received great Awards I want to say thank you to Evan and Fatima for being with us and putting up with us for the long hours we always enjoy having you and listening to you and and all of the input that you have and Fatima is not here but I will say one
140of the first football games I went to I think I had met her once and I was it was crowded and all of a sudden I felt someone tug on my arm and there was Fatima Miss Thompson Miss Thompson and I just want her to know what a a special moment that was for me because she made me feel very very uh special I want to say also thank you to our 25-year veterans that have been working with us and I just want to say we do 25 more you know you don't want to hear me say that but you're valuable and we hope that you continue to work with us and the day of giving it's just uh warms your heart to here and I wanted to know is there any place that we
141have a list of all the things that our students have done with the day of caring do we have that documented big part of it's a stock was there I guarantee you she's probably got a list of every business and school and everybody there maybe we want to put that on our website or something but I did check it out really quick here before I asked that question um but you know just to see all the work that you guys have done and um I just think that is uh just the pride of of our our schools and our community and I want to say thank uh welcome is to Saunders um hope that you will enjoy working with us we know that we will enjoy working with you and as I finish up I
142would just want to take a minute to thank you Dr Wells I know that you lead us and you lead the division and you have the big picture and you deal with all of that big crazy stuff but you always take time to do the important things today you were cafeteria cafeteria monitor I believe um you're at the streams with the kids doing the trout fishing so you understand what it takes and you do it all and I just want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart okay thank you ma'am so um I'd like to start off um and I I'd like to reach out to Lynchburg City Schools from the beginning just because I know they lost another student this week to gun violence and luckily our county has not um
143been a victim of that yet but I'm hoping we never are so hope we don't have to deal with that so um just want to keep them in our prayers but also um you know it's great seeing all the students come in when you hear Amherst County winning all the awards that they do and it's it's for the external the extracurricular things that These Guys these kids got going on uh it's not just keeping up their grades it's doing the extra things going the extra mile we love seeing uh seeing their their expressions as they get their Awards and knowing that you know they've done this whatever it was no matter what which program it was um I didn't even realize some of these actually truly even existed but like Miss Thompson said you know
144not every kid is about sports so it's it's great to you know give them some things to do after school and let them be a part of these extra extracurricular things um our student reps so Evan Tina Grace you guys like I said you guys put in the extra hours uh and sit here and endure us and hopefully you can get some homework done and that kind of stuff while you're sitting there I understand but um Good Luck to both of you as you as you go on off into uh into college next year and good luck to good luck to you um I did get to go to the uh dedication of the baseball field um for Mr procopio a couple weeks ago that was a a very uh touching uh presentation it was
145great to see him and so many of his players past players uh other coaches it was a great night to be out um yes seniors are very busy all of them are very busy there I know they along with all the other students will be glad when the school year is over it gets to that point everybody's tired and ready to uh let's let's check this one and put it behind us but stay strong it's almost here so keep it up guys um we do have a busy calendar coming up in May so everything we can attend we uh we'll try to be there like I said it's it's great to see the the kids getting the uh the senior Awards and the graduation and all the stuff that comes with it um and and
146Dr Wells your your trout release I know that's like you said that's always been near and dear to your heart um it's something that you know a lot of kids don't you know if they're not from Amherst County a lot of them don't get to go out and play in the Stream and uh those who do live in Amherst County who don't go out and play in the Stream this is their chance to do something fun like that and remind them why we do live in this County that uh that's the stuff that's here that we want our kids to know about and be a part of um but mostly the the day of caring you know that is that goes right back to where we started the beginning of the year the uh show
147up Amherst you know we're going out we're putting our students out there getting them to be uh ready to move on to the real world and being a part of a community hopefully it's this community but we know they all move on and move to other a lot of them move to other places we want to know that when they do move to other places then people go well where are you from because we love how you interact with people that you know they're proud to say they're from Amherst County and what they got from here so all that is you know it just it's it's very crucial to our County so thank you very much for encouraging that and influencing that and like you said if we could get a list of all of
148them it'd be great to be able to show you know this is what our kids have done and put that out there so it's awesome thing so um I don't know I'm sure I left off a couple things but oh yeah the construction project you know I know it's maybe not where we wanted Dollar Wise but you know we'll get it looking a little better and I think there again that's another project that's going to go toward extracurriculars and just enhanced opportunities for our kids and so the the more opportunities we give them they're you know the better so thank the board for all that we've done and thank you guys for helping us get everybody get there thank you thank you okay so so thank you to motion I think I need a motion
149I make a motion that we adjourn tonight's meeting okay we have a second second all in favor aye aye all right thank you thank you [Music]