001[Music] [Applause] [Music] see [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] presentation about that a little later on in the uh next board Mee but [Music] tonight thank you so much let us now do the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge to the flag of the United States of America and to the for it stands one nation God indivisible andice for all thank you so much for that at this time board if you have had a chance to VI the agenda and ask for a vote of approval approve agenda thank you m Thompson do we have a second all in favor of approving tonight's agenda sign of I I any opposed thank you so much we have an agenda Dr an at this time I believe we have some recognitions uh yes ma'am I'd like to ask the
002chief human resource officer Mr Jim gallager to uh start the presentation okay good evening Madam chair members of the board M co-chair it's my great honor to be with you tonight uh as we recognize some special members of our acps family uh we'll be celebrating our acps teacher of the year and our acps support staff of the year for 2021 our award recipients were nominated by their peers their principal or supervisor and by their school Community tonight we honor these individuals as true difference makers in the lives of children and for their unwavering commitment to every child every day they are truly valued and appreciated members of our acps family I'll begin tonight with a presentation of the support staff of the year year uh for 2021 this is our first year of that award
003um in our inaugural year uh we have two very deserving recipients for this award as the acps support staff of the Year these recipients demonstrate the following attributes each and every day they demonstrate exceptional skill competence uh excuse me leadership and dedication uh they are admired by and respected by colleagues students parents and the community they possess outstanding interpersonal skills and positive working relationships they demonstrate excellence and consistency in performing the duties and responsibilities of their position they demonstrate Innovation and Superior ability to solve problems they maintain an exemplary work record of attendance and punctuality and contribute to the overall school program in the county public schools by displaying initiative creativity and collaboration so I want to take a moment uh just to say that I'm grateful to have both these recipients uh as part
004of our acps team of Educators and I appreciate all they do for our students for our families and for our community our first recipient is what say yes indeed so our first recipient tonight is Mr Robert Jones a maintenance professional in the maintenance department is our acps support staff of the year and to present Mr Jones is Mr Wayne cofs good evening Madam chair board members Dr honoral STA and guest it is an immense pleasure and honor to introduce Mr Robert Jones one of our inaugural recipience of the support staff employee of the year Robert began his career 41 years ago yes I did not transpose my numbers it's a 41-year career with acps as a custodian at elen elementary school five years later he transferred to his current position working at all of our
005buildings as they make this technician during his time Robert has consistently demonstrated an exceptional dedication and commitment to fulfilling his assignments professionally and properly while remaining considerate of our students and staff always helpful Robert is well-liked and respected by everyone at acps the community where he is active in his church as well as helping his neighbors he also enjoys spending time Outdoors gardening hunting and fishing Robert congratulations on his well-deserved award and thank you for your many years of serving and dedication to every child every [Applause] day not sure all right thank you and our co-recipient of the support staff of the year for Amis County public schools for 2021 is Miss Blair Payne school nurse at Amis middle school and to present Miss Payne we have Mr Kelly Holmes good evening everyone i' first
006of all i' like to say uh congratulations Mr Jones that is well deserve and thank you for everything that you did for amers County Public Schools so in thinking about what I could say about Miss Payne uh this evening um you know you kind of look back anyone that requires a police escort when youever you're in the community it shouldn't be difficult to find something to say however U Miss pay is amazing uh as a young child My grandmother used to sing A Hymn to me count your blessings and at emeris middle school that is definitely what we're able to do each and every day that we get to work with Miss pay she is very caring she is student centered she is willing to do whatever it takes to help our students be successful
007and also during this time of Co she reaches out and she works very hard in our community to make sure that our programs and uh the mitigation plans that we have in place are communicated very well and that they're carried out to keep our students safe Miss P we are very blessed to have you in ERS Middle School so thank you very much for all you [Applause] do all right thank you we turn our attention now to the amris County Public Schools teacher of the the year for 2021 the acps teacher of the year is uh considered to be an expert in her field who guides students of all backgrounds and abilities to achieve Excellence she collaborates with colleagues students and families to create a school culture of respect and success she connects families to
008the classroom to build strong and supportive School Community she is seen as someone who demonstrates leadership and innovation in and outside the classroom that embodies lifelong learning any of these qualities on their own would be indicative of an amazing what educator but for all these to be combined together speaks to the amazingly well-rounded nature of this educator who has seen in the community as a Difference Maker in our world this year's recipient of the acps teacher of the year for 2021 is Miss Ruth methen reading specialist elen Elementary School and and to present to present miss methi this evening we have Miss Kim Scott the principal of elen Elementary school okay so mine is typed out I just want to point that out because there's so much that needs to be said and I could
009go on and on and on so it's on paper so Madam chair and members of the board and all who are are gathered here good evening to everyone um I have the distinct honor and privilege of introducing Amherst County Public School's teacher of the year Mrs Ruth maeni Ruth began her educational career as a classroom teacher uh shout out to Central Elementary School um from 2019 to 2021 Ruth has served as reading specialist for both elen Elementary School and also shout out to Temperance Elementary School however given several changes due to covid she served in person at El elementary school as our Prim primary reading specialist for this 2021 school year Mrs maeni is also known as our canvas learning management system extraordinaire other leadership opportunities include Ruth serving on the acps road map to
010return committee focused on academics helping to create the acps plan to return to school safely following Co shutdown Last Summer she created Co crosswalk documents for reading to help bridge the gap for acps students she also created content for the acps winter project-based learning pbls Initiative for the division and Ruth is currently serving on the acps summer school planning committee at the elementary level for this summer 2021 over the past couple of years I have observed Mrs maeni radiate passion and zest for learning that is reflective in her commendable achievement data and instructional practices Mrs Ma is a beloved stakeholder who eagerly supports and collaborates with her colleagues offering sound advice and expertise faculty and staff have all shared how she has enhanced their instructional practices and made them feel supported her commitment and empathy
011for others is valued not just by myself but also by our school Community as Mrs Saunders elen's awesome new assistant principal mentioned Ruth's student centered approach to instructional practice practices ability to foster a literacy friendly School community and her innate passion for teaching and learning contribute to her success as an educator as another colleague stated Mrs maeni is well respected among her colleagues because of her knowledge and her willingness to share and model she works hard to support both staff and students as well as their families in our division Mrs maeni is always looking for opportunities to help make instruction better for not only her students but for all our students in our division mentioned by yet another colleague Ruth is quite skilled at facilitating growth with individual teachers and teams to consistently reflect on
012ways to improve instruction and accelerate student growth she herself is reflective and responsive in regards to the various roles she has held as a professional over the years she has proven herself to be quite invaluable she is an asset to our school system and to our families although the academic and character components of instruction and learning are noteworthy more apparent is the relationship Mrs mathen has with her students and the school Community she is truly sincere and genuine we congratulate Ruth on the impact she has made on our students at elen elementary and division wide she exemplifies the very best of our wonderful educators in this school division who were also nominated for this distinguished title however this is her year this is her season she has been a blessing during this pandemic and is
013most deserving ladies and gentlemen I am proud and honored to present to you Amhurst County Public Schools teacher of the year Mrs Ruth maeni I'll just wrap things up from this portion of tonight by saying that the acps teacher of the year Miss Ruth maeni her application will be sent forward at the Virginia Department of Education as a nominee for the 2022 uh Mary biku vares Virginia teacher of the year so that's uh we we U Get wish her well as we move her forward to the state level for consideration and to all of our recipients I just want to take a minute to thank you for what you do each and every day for the students for the families of Aris County Public Schools and for the passion that you have and the dedication
014to acps so thank you appreciate it so to continue with the recognitions uh we have two young people who have uh given their time once a month every Thursday night they are very very busy young people and they're currently both I think in the tennis season and so they're they're very active right now and yet they've almost made every meeting we've had I think and so what I'd like to do tonight as this will be their last meeting is recognize their service their perspective to uh what goes on in the schools and to to be able to provide that uh to the board the student uh perspective on on how things went this year and they did a great job this year um when they give their report later they're going to tell you a
015little bit more about what they're going to do and their future plans and those kinds of things so I'm not going to step on any of that other than to invite them up and I would like to to come up here fellas go so for service as student representative for the ammer County school board for the 2020 2021 school year Amber County School Board hereby recognizes Mr Coulson Davis and Miss Reagan Buie [Applause] and of course they'll have more to say here um shortly during their report wonderful news wasn't that wonderful celebration ladies and Gentlemen let's give everyone another celebration good to be recognized for those great achievements uh we appreciate everything that you've done for um our school system here not just our school system but our community and our family give me a
016minute computer just went away okay here we are now we're down at public com comments am I right yes okay keep me straight at this time is there one anyone in the audience who would like to have a public comment to the school board at this time please come forward you will state your name and residence as you approach the VCH my name is Ona mcclinon I'm a resident of Madison Heights first I want to honor the memory of Dr Nichols for in addition to the many gifts he gave our school system his open support made it possible for me to transition where here where I work which was a huge gift and was incredibly important to me and for that I honor all his work but that specific step good evening it's been an
017incredibly challenging time for you and for me but our school systems modified non-discrimination and anti-harassment policy is set to be distributed at this meeting so it's time for me to come back and to visit and to speak I know you're feeling pretty put upon right now if it's not the federal government telling you how to help transgender students it's the state government and if it's not the state government telling you how to help transgender students it's me and if it's not me telling you how to help transgender students no it's just me we can help transgender students emotionally and academically by protecting them from discrimination and harassment we can improve their attendance we can lower their risk of suicide sadly I proposed policy does not protect the rights of transgender students to a public education
018free from harassment and free from discrimination in fact you need to know upfront that our proposed policy does not in a meaningful way meet the legally required minimal standards set by the state policy model first our proposed policy will only be covering what it calls protected categories we're going to let the state designate who gets our protection how strange this is to me when so many of us don't welcome interference by the government and how dehumanizing it is to call a gathering of persons a category who Among Us wants to be called a category I can't see anyone it sounds to me like we're hoping some future government will end the state level protections then categories like me who some don't like will automatically be dropped from protection by our policies if we are claiming
019gender identity is a protected category in our community we must say so if we are removing persons like me from protection we must say so if we don't have the courage of our convictions this policy won't mean much no matter how good it sounds our proposed policy defines harassment based on sex based on race based on national origin based on disability and based on religion but our policy does not define an act of harassment based on gender identity how are we supposed to protect a child from a harm if that harm has not even been defined for the child the child's family or for us an investigation demands evidence Witnesses patterns and dates of occurrence and yet under this proposal we will have no means of identifying an action by someone as an act of
020harassment based on gender identity our proposed policy promises equal educational opportunities what does this mean there is no definition in our policy I can tell you it does not mean an alternative activity through which the transgender student is isolated from classmates here's what equal opportunities does mean no student on the basis of sex or gender shall be denied equal access to pro programs activities services or benefits or be limited in the access of any right privilege or advantage or be denied access to educational and extracurricular programs and activities this policy says equal this text is recommended by your own School Board Association so why is this text removed from our proposed policy we are claiming to protect against discrimination and harassment without defining either of these words even worse we are claiming to protect categories
021without defining the members of those categories are we serious this combined document has 53 pages of words that might mean means something to those who are harassed based on disability or national origin or race or sex or religion they do not as written mean anything to those discriminated against or harassed on the basis of gender identity they do not as written support those persons nor do they protect them and they do not as written meet the legally required minimum standards set by the model policy of the Virginia Department of Education we have a lot of work to do before we are ready to embrace our new policy you and I will own the policy when it's passed we can't ask an attorney to do the work for us it must be someone like me who
022has lived it it must be persons like each of you persons who care it must be school professionals it must be mental health professionals this is for the children you and I will be obligated to support and enforce its Provisions our policy is not where the state expects and it's not where you and I want it to be but all of us in this room can get it there thank you thank you for your comments is there anyone else in the audience at this time that would like to make a public comment to the board if not I do have a letter here that I was asked to read I'm going to pull my mask down just a little bit there this this letter says uh good evening I am writing this email in support
023of the proposed scheduled change for 20 21 2022 school year I believe that allowing Elementary School students to start their school days earlier and secondary students to start their days later is a tremendous benefit to both groups of students elementary students generally speaking are ready to start their day earlier than secondary students with Schools starting at 8:00 a.m. this year elementary students have come in wide awake and eager to learn there's also been a significant decrease in fatigue at the end of the day in previous years with elementary students ending their day later many of them were extremely burnt out long before dismissal it was not unusual to walk into a classroom especially the primary grades and see children struggling to stay awake or struggling to manage their emotions and behaviors due to them being
024exhausted on the other hand secondary students again generally speaking seem to do better when they start their morning later I've heard from secondary educators and personally witnessed middle and high school students falling asleep in their first period classes truthfully I cannot say that I blame them secondary students usually have many after school activities they prevent them from going to bed at a reasonable hour whether it be evening jobs or athletic events or finishing up homework I can remember being a high school athlete and not going to bed until well after midnight some nights as I tried to finish up homework after away away games sub consequently I would then be so tired during my first period class which was a Calculus class that I could not focus to learn any material as someone who played
025a sport every season and took all advanced classes lack of sleep was my biggest obstacle and extremely overwhelming at times if we had a schedule that allowed us to start later I cannot begin to tell you the difference it would have made for me personally I've heard several uh objection to the proposed schedule from various members of the community and I understand where they're coming from however many of these objections seem to be centered around lack of convenience for parents I understand many parents unhappy with the fact that their older siblings will no longer be able to get their younger siblings off the bus in the afternoons however however these are obstacles that were able to be overcome this year with the schedule furthermore there are dozens of families in the community with only elementary
026students and no older simar and they have been able to make arrangements throughout this year to make things work I have also heard the complaint that older students who get out later would have issues being able to work after school jobs or that they would be issues with other districts creating game schedules however early work release and early dismissals for athletes on game days are both already in existence these are extenuated circumstances that have been worked around in the past and if that re really is a concern then I would even be in favor of elementary schools op operating on a 7:30 to 2:30 schedule and secondary opening on the 8:30 to 3:30 schedule so this letter comes from Paige Breeden and she asked me to read that tonight okay I do have another letter
027that I will bring more uh it was not asked to be read but just some things that we'll talk about when we get to the times so if there are no more public comments we should move from that and we're into 4.01 um this is another exciting event here you got a copy of that I'm getting together here y'all work with me a little bit oh yes superintendent as superintend of the year so Dr you come on over there in the hot sea where is in order to ensure the health and safety of all Virginia school across the Commonwealth closed on March 13 2020 due to the covid-19 pandemic and most have provided virtual instruction since then as inperson teaching and learning evolved and individual School divisions retain the autonomy to decide whether or not
028to new instruction would continue and the format in which instruction would presented and whereas stable and consistent leadership by Local School Division superintendents has been vital in serving the children through this pandemic and where as School Division superintendents are responsible for the health the safety the welfare and the education of each child while creating School cultures even within a pmic that serve all children regardless of their circumstances and whereas Public School superintendents utilize guidance from the Centers for Disease the Virginia Department of Health the Virginia Department of Education the local health department and local case data and fulfilling leadership responsibilities in their communities like no other time in their careers and whereas local superintendents work collaborate with their school boards Educators parents Community stakeholders and providing technology resources curriculum content emotional support and meals to
029Children during the the pandemic and whereas traditionally the Virginia Association of school superintendents of the year have been selected by way of a diverse panel of Education associations after reviewing an individual superintendent's ability to demonstrate leadership for learning communication professionalism and Community involvement and whereas all 133 Virginia Public School Division superintendent have extraordinarily exhibited these qualities while leading their School Division and communities join this 2020 21 school year and PR as the Virginia Association School Board directors agreed in January of 2021 to suspend the traditional selection process and determine of determining a single superintendent of the year and unanimously agreed to recognize all Virginia Public School Division superintendents as superintendents of the year for 20221 and whereas this organization is appreciative of the Virginia School Board Association supporting this resolution ution and the honor provided
030to each division superintendent by having his respective School Board present present this resolution to the superintendent to be recognized within the community for which he serves ladies and gentlemen I couldn't have said it any better here as schol superintendent of the Year Dr Rob all right it's all good y'all heard everything we said about it right all right no ra yet no ra yet all right that resolution will be uh placed here in am County and um where the Press go they need to get these sort things but we get with them in a few minutes we're now moving on to action action Adams okay we're down at number five what oh we have to accept that boy can I have a motion to accept that resolution so move do I have a second second
031and all the board should say I anyos apologize you in in 10 years from now nobody will know that all 133 received it well I I was [Music] okay here we are um more num have we all looked at 5.01 and 5.02 and 5.03 mam chair made a motion that we approve the action items from the consent agenda thank you Miss Thompson do I have a second second all in favor thank you so much uh and I did we do have a copy of that perk plan for us to keep Contin toie let's move down to 6.01 uh update on administrative Services yes Madam chair ladies and gentlemen board uh we'll start with administrative services and the uh first slide to talk about is the school construction at Mass he Elementary and AMR middle school
032and we've been in contact with uh CRA and they are uh notified us they're we're on track to begin construction around July 1 and construction we completed uh before students return to school uh the scope of work was not quite as extensive as they anticipated initially there still a pretty large scope of work but we feel we can get it completed in the time frame that uh we need there by the time school starts so well let you know that uh mass and Heights will be the most extensive work they have to come in and do some uh securing of putting pillars under the under the foundation to secure that but a majority of the work should be able to be completed and uh get things pretty much back on track there those two schools
033before students return am Elementary School we they're scheduled to get the restrooms renovated over the summer and that work will begin as soon as students leave for the summer so around the 14th 15th of June we'll start work there and theyve ensured as that work will be completed before students return as well uh any questions on on those two items okay thank you so uh we received a some of the information regards solar know in the past we've had the board has indicated they'd like us to pursue solar and our and our facilities and we've been talking with the company uh we have another meeting next week to look into that a little bit more in more depth um so we're hoping we can maybe be to move forward with some solar options um for
034the School Division in the near future again this is all in the in the discussion stage at this point but we are talking with uh some solar uh Distributors and things of that nature to uh see if it's feasible for us to move in that direction so hope to have more information for you at the at the June meeting and moving forward from there but it is something we're interested in and know the board has given us your desire for us to look into that so that's what we're we're continuing to do that and have the a the appos side of the state is uh they've loosened some of their restrictions it allows us to move forth that previously the app a side our side of the state are mainly the folks that get our
035power from uh we not we're not really working with schools in those areas but now that theyve changed some regulations on that so we're able to start moving forward in that direction little bit better the bus Grant um we have just got received notice this week that our buses the four buses for this year are currently under being built at this time and we should take good delivery of those buses in June so they will'll have those four new buses through the bus Grant to us then but they are they are under construction at this time being built on the assembly line as we speak uh something to hit all of us this week it hit me kind of hard Tuesday night I was trying to get back from Northern Virginia my daughter's college graduation
036is a fuel status so I want to update you on our fuel status um right now as of this afternoon we had 3,900 gallons of diesel fuel at manela Middle School in those tanks we had 3,700 gallons of fuel the transportation department of diesel and we had 2,000 gallons of gasoline at the transportation department uh on average we burn about 580 gallons of diesel per day and about 97 gallons of gasoline per day so right now looking at our numbers we should have enough diesel to last 10 working days and enough gasoline to last 20 working days and we have placed orders for refuel and we're on a waiting list but we anticipate getting that prior to it being an issue for us so we don't anticipate being an issue um but that's where we
037are right now so we have enough fuel to last you know a couple more weeks before we had to really start worrying about it with our transportation Fleet any questions there okay and uh the next part of this part is cares three so we are we've notified we're going to receive around $7.3 million in additional cares act funding uh We've also been notified that we can use about 80% of that to go towards construction projects 20% has to go towards uh instructional needs and things like that of students but 80% can go towards uh construction and so we met last night with the CIP committee and we we Dr Ron had now spoken about that and we feel that we'd like to consider moving that in towards the auditorium projects we talked about at the
038high school and this would cover a large percentage of those costs as remember from the CIP the cost of those projects is estimated to between 6.5 and about 8.9 million for that project depending on the scope we decide to go with and this will give us about 5 three 5.6 of that would go towards that and there's also some other caros act funds and there been may be able to use then we would have to go again to the Board of Supervisors to ask for additional funds of any additional costs but we do feel this will put a big dent in the initial cost estimates of of the project so we're kind of we're trying to move forward with that uh the big picture on this is the funds had to be spent by September
03930th of 2024 so this isn't something we can kind of wait around on so we're starting to uh we've had some meetings with the state some webinars of the state and M K may speak to that more um her when her time is up but uh we are doing those webinars I'm trying to make sure we can use the money in the way uh in this in this fashion but everything indicates right now is that we will be able to I think one of the things it's a grant so we have to make a Grant application and as part of this Grant application because I I guess it's the amount of money and and making sure that we're accountable to that that uh as part of our grant we also have to have public uh
040notification public comment uh public feedback on this grant so this is something that we're not going to just say hey we're going to do this and we go it's going to take it'll it'll be a process that we'll have to go through to make sure that our community gets to hear what the plan is what the what our intentions with this money is and that way uh they can be a part of that process as well yes ma'am um I think that's a good idea because we've talked about if we going to go forward aori type of project that would be something that the community would definitely have to weigh in on um is there any update on the committee at the high school that was looking at use of the older Auditorium and how
041that might it's happening in this group that they're they're they're discussing so when when we a lot of things have to get in place with an architect and those kinds of things to kind of start talking about what we want them to show us and then they'll have to they'll whether they show us just an auditorium Auditorium and cafeteria Auditorium cafeteria and old Auditorium so there's there's going to be levels to to see how much they can do and at how much money they can do it in but yeah that is a because Mr grer is representing that thought process on that committee I think that we talked about you know the instructional use of that area if there's a way that we can use that you know to improve the C opportunities would be
042tremendous I didn't know if there was any information on that we're so so short into I mean we haven't moved very far we just found out two days ago that we could actually use the money for that purpose but it was it was brought up we said that we and I think uh Dr wills and M Maddox are working on trying to identify because you know the whole complexity with the regional piece that we uh you know just trying to identify what we need locally there that that discussion is going on within the committee but like Dr arold says we just found out that we could even use those funds specifically so keeps any further questions okay so I'll move on to 6.02 covid-19 vaccinations covid-19 and vaccinations so right now our status is we
043have four staff members who have tested positive in the past week or so and we have uh 23 students are currently quarantined of those 23 students 17 will return on Monday so that gets us in a pretty good number again so we had a little bit of a uptick there about two weeks ago but now they star to settle back down and our staff members they're coming off they'll come off their quarantine here in about another those four will come off about within next week we'll be should be back to normal uh back in back in the school setting but we did have four test positive um these are individuals who opted not to get the vaccine and uh they have since tested positive um but again we're we're in pretty good shape compared to
044where we were in December and January yeah we're pretty good you're not getting phone calls to me four times a night um stay that's been a case so we're we're doing pretty good right now uh we have our next shot clinic on April 21st that'll be our last shot clinic that we're hosting uh this school year right now uh we will do about 150 second doses of madna and some fers and this again is second dose uh shots from our last Clinic we had about 3 weeks ago four weeks ago so we're trying to get those finished up then we move forward we just haven't had the community need as much to to operate the clinic as at the size we've been had to operate it to make it feasible again 20 25 people eating
045a shot does not make it where we can really operate and and set that up so uh we work with the health department and with Public Safety and we've opted to uh discontinue the those clinics for the time being if a need arises we can always get back into the uh Clinic the vaccine clinic uh game if we need to but just this point we don't see that being a need so when when will you discontinue the 21st will be our last Clinic of May of May yes ma' I think said April okay yeah I'm sorry May 21st I did say April that's okay I you but I just want you're correct sorry y May 21st is our last claim okay um the vdh uh yesterday announced it's uh anyone 12 or actually it's federals
046the 12 and over can get the receive the fiser vaccine now through the CDC and the fda's approved visor for those 12 and over um right now we did not anticipate operating a clinic for 12 and overs through am County Public Schools we are directing people to the health department website and there will be a clinic uh in Lynchburg on Saturday from 4:00 to 6:00 at the TJ Maxx the canler station the old TJ Maxx at the canler station Max pod Center uh for any1 12 and overs fiser and I sent a link to staff and I sent a link to all parents after afternoon do a through school messenger about that so they can go on that site and register if they so choose but at this point we did not anticipate operating the
047clinic to Aris County Public Schools unless their need in the community is there as we start before school begins into the fall there is also a uh Virginia Department viry management has fill up a van and they'll be going throughout the community to sites in the community I'm working with the S right now to identify some sites that we may need um they've asked if they could use a school par working lot for example for the van have people come to that site but they'll be doing a 50 Johnson and Johnson single dose vaccines per site and that'll be part of our they'll be in our community but it's it's for the region it's not just amers County so it's kind of the dates are kind of sit but more to come on that but
048it is going to be an option for our for our community that there will be a uh a vm's van that be going around to get shots to people at certain locations throughout the county not necessarily at our schools but throughout the county any questions regarding our Co numbers and our vaccine information all right so next is graduation and natal if you can pull up the map of gradu of the Williams Stadium Maps there so graduation this year is May 28 700 p.m at Williams stadium so what you see here just the first picture this is some Liberty University Maps there's Williams Stadium um the areas highlighted on the left hand map or the Gates that we'll use to enter the stadiums we'll be using three gates for the general general admission so gate one
049and I can't see that far anymore uh what the gates are but those are the three gates and so we'll be enter be using those gates to enter the ENT the facility uh right now uh we're anticipating about 10 guests plus per uh graduate uh we have to be under 5,000 is our Max Capacity we can have and we do you know we'll be well under that so right now participating 10 might be a few more but at least 10 guests per graduate will be allowed and we may be to increase that sum as we get into it uh guess we have families have to stay six feet apart from other families but they can sit together as a family but they'll be six feet apart this the the stage if you can go to
050the next so that's this is an event they had at Liberty um yesterday that's how it be set up so you'll see the chairs are on the field they're seat they're seated 6 feet apart there's 20 chairs per Rose we have 18 graduates and two uh staff per row staff on the end graduates in the middle and we'll be set up in that manner uh the stage is to the end there and we'll have the stage I'm not sure of the size of the stage yet for school board where yall will be seated you may be seated on the stage but if we have to maintain our six F of distance per the governor's order and Lu's requirements so we may have to put ask you to sit in in an area to the side
051of the stage on the turf and chairs there versus on the stage we'll have to determine the size of the stage and what we can do on the stage just want make that clear uh you'll have parking for the Schoolboard members will park behind the stage area is a parking lot down there uh we can we can operate Vans if you want to ride with us there limited parking I think there's like 10 to 12 parking spots that we'll be able to access there for school board and VIP type situations but if you need a ride we can give you a ride if you want to drive we can do that too we also have a room uh at the stadium up in the on the far Saturday out there with that press boxes and
052the glass and there's an area there we have reserved for us to for the school board to uh have some area before the graduation ceremony for to to relax and have some snacks and discuss things a little bit there so then we'll move you down to the field for the graduation ceremony but again we're talking about estimating 20 students uh 20 chairs per Row 18 students and two adults per Road and that's what it will look like uh when it's set up for us at that event so we'll get out a a an email to you guys to just to tell us whether you would like to be taken by by van or just go on your own but we'll get that out and once we determine who wants to go together we'll we'll set
053up the arrangements for that and we'll have if you decide to drive there we'll give you we'll have parking passes TR it so you can get closer to the state versus having to park any any other parking areas but we'll we'll work on that number of gr 280 of which we're not sure how many some of those again are AR may not wish to participate but we we're sitting up for 280 yes' th do we have plans for R well if it rain rains uh we had we Run for Cover underneath the cover of the stadium and wait for the storm to pass and LU does have uh their mitigation factors had to put in place their crisis plans they have in place so we would have to follow theirs they would make an announcement
054the S will go off and we'd have to evacuate the stadium 30 minutes after the lightning strikes the lightning strikes been 10 miles would have to hide um through their plans uh if it's a rainy day umbrellas and ponchos and do the best of what we have um there's no other rain dates available there and there's no other sites in the area we can host this this ceremony with the number of people we have so we're kind of are at the mercy so um um say your prayers and hope it's a nice sunny afternoon Madam chair ma'am I know you'll continue to monitor the situation but if you can increase the number please do so many milestones and celebrations have been missed this year that I would like to see as many people that want
055to come be able to come well 5,000 is the max and a typical graduation even nonco years we were averaging around 3500 to 4,000 people at a graduation 79 so we feel confident and if a student one student may have 10 but one student may one bring three and those the those passes can be redistributed to other people we do so and I think Dr Brown has has made the students aware of that in his um information sent home for example I'm probably going to have two for for my child so that opens up eight more for other so that's that I think that's I don't think we're going to have a problem with that but uh he knows to to make every effort to get as manys as he can any other questions on
056graduation so move on next to zek order 72 on some new CDC guidance so about two hours ago we received notice that the CDC is restricting is diminishing some of the guidance and restrictions on mask wearing uh if you're vaccinated uh I've briefly had a chance to read over it uh don't really have a lot of information on it yet however we're still under executive order 72 and all the governor's executive orders which uh under that guidance they released this afternoon says we're required to follow so until Governor Northam changes his executive orders the mass mandates will still in place in the state of Virginia and amers County public school so I just want to make sure we're aware of that I'll go and once we get more information on that I'll be I'll update
057you as so once I get that information right now it's kind of where we are I did want to talk about executive order 72 a little bit uh as it affects Recreational Sports as it impacts Recreational Sports there been a lot of concern about the number of Spectators we can have to sporting events and things of that nature right now uh we are under e72 Amendment Six which expires midnight on the 15th of May and that kind of has us at 30% capacity of an Marine that has a seating capacity sit um or 1,000 people if you can maintain 6 ft of distance between those thousand people at our baseball field if I have a th000 people there I can't maintain 6 fet of distance they' be on top of each other I like to
058say we have a th people come to our baseball games but historically uh we don't I think the last time we had close to that number was when we were in the state playoffs a few years ago but we don't even get and we're close to that however but we do have to maintain 6 fet of social distance between families and between individual guests at at the event so right now we set our number 221 which allows eight guests per home home player and three guests per visitor again if one guest if one student athlete only has three guests and those other ones can be redistributed amongst the other players on the team if they so desire and we can let people in based off that number but 221 right now is a number for
059baseball softball and for soccer it's 500 because the football stadium the stadium has a different seating capacity uh than the other fields so that's where we are right now we have our first home RC game uh this week and if we see we can fit more people in then we'll do our best to pick more people in right now our numbers at 221 for baseball and softball so 221 can watch baseball game and 221 can watch the softball game that's kind of where we drew our numbers up looking at the amount of capacity we have at our state [Music] okay once we get into Amendment s it goes to 50% that starts again at midnight on the 15th and then hopefully June 15th um there going to be some different restrictions different things released and
060he'll loosen it up a little bit more after June 15th where we won't need to have as as many restrictions there at all so that's kind of where we are right now any questions all right so the next I have is policy updates um so in in board dots you have the policies about 42 I believe or so policies for first read um major 95% of these policies are grammatical in nature for example changing the chairman of the board to the chair of the board that type of stuff or changes a reference or cross reference or a legal reference but but there are a couple that do have some other uh I guess more more verbage that's changed and changes through the policy itself so we'll ask you to this is first read we'll ask
061you to read over those policies over the next couple weeks if you have questions regarding those policies we ask that you let us know we'd be glad to try to answer those questions regarding those policies uh and then we'll come back into that their June meeting for a second read and then you move for adoption if you see if you see fit uh we do have a way to allow people to read the policies and be more aware of the policies and let Miss Cil is kind to kind of talk you through what we're doing there so as Dr R mentioned there will be a way for Community to comment if you go straight to the front page be refresh at the top of the front page website you see policy comment form here giv
062a summary of what the form is supposed supposed to do um there are three links attached um one is a summary of the proposed revisions as Dr R mentioned they're 42 so this link provides um a summary just the the name of the policy and then a quick summary of the revision the second link takes you directly to the policies on board do so that they can read the attachments and the verbage um the red line and the third link takes you to the comment form um where they will be able to click the policy that they would like to comment on and then provide additional comment they can resubmit this form as many times as they would like um and it is open to everyone and I can answer any questions to have so
063will anybody be able to will anybody be able to the comments not at this well it's actually coming to you guys right so we will collect it we will to do you want people to do the comments I guess that's the other question I wouldn't be agree we're going to have to work on the technology behind Google form I don't know how I don't know um we might be able to just maybe print down the the comments and and post it I guess that might be it'll be a little Cluny but but that's that's up to to your discretion but the main the main point was to get it to you guys that you had e to help personally I wouldn't care if they post at the end only I don't like some social media
064back and forth because I don't think that's productive but genuine comments I don't I don't have a problem with um I also I I know that we have been looking at our uh non-discrimination policy before and um we have uh put on the table again um and I know that um we've had citizens come and speak with concerns and um Mr mclinton I know you you've come and speak to tonight um I think speak for the whole board and and I don't speak up but um you know we have great respect for every student um and we don't tolerate any discrimination within our School Division um so you know the point was made tonight that we have not spelled out particular groups um in class of of people that were transgender or whoever that um
065our discrimination policy would speak to so I know that's one concern I know that we also have citizens that are concerned about if we pass the policy how will we handle um female sports um locker room B so I feel like we owe some transparency to our citizens um I would like to see us maybe have a a a time that public can come and comment on that um I know that they can they could come tonight but I don't know everyone is aware um so almost just think you might need to do some due diligence on this a little bit more that's my own personal opinion and you know that the laws that were just passed in the general assembly and there was model policy guidance put out we have not seen that yet
066it's not come as a policy that's more specific to the exact things that you're talking about I mean I just I guess I just hesitate to just you know pass it or not it and then we have all these unanswered things I feel like we owe it to the public to be clear about yeah I think it's important to make sure that we separate a harassment and discrimination policy from a transgender policy I think I think that's what we have here this is this is about making sure that we assure that we don't discriminate or harass against anybody right that's what these policies are in place for the why we categories we just have a blanket policy that says no bullying no harassing that's that was the change that was made what about the new
067ones that are going to be coming out well we haven't seen those yet that's why we we don't know what the VBA is going to give us but yeah yeah that's that's a that's something that we don't have our hands off right now this is a this is a different policy that's because we've had the harassment and a non-discrimination policy for years years and years because we talked about that last time you that we really do have that policy in place we're making adjustments to it you can make debate about whether we should or should not but I guess what I'm hearing you say that is that this policy is just a global policy that we will not discriminate I gu all protect classes and then I know that those other questions going to come
068up so how do we handle those questions that comes up in when we start discussing the actual transgender policy Madam chair um so hold on let me do I was just going to feig back on what she saying um and Echo a lot of what Thomson said U anytime anybody public comments I appreciate it and um you're always so diplomatic and thorough and I appreciate that so what's going on is my understanding not a lawyer so is there anyone here from the school that is any of the legal I walking around question but um you know it all started with a court case with gender and that kind of things so we're talking about policies right now that are just um about bullying and harassment discrimination and that's right you know that's not going to
069be allowed regardless of any law we're not going to allow that to go on and then there uh the Department of Education is working on model policy specifically for transgender because that came out of the delegation and I believe it has to be effective by July 1st unless they keep picking the can well at this point I'm not sure how that can happen if we're not seeing any policies right so my legal question is about the word model policies that come out because everything that I've read from the vdoe has said these are what we're putting out for school boards to implement or whatever you're going to do break it down so what is Our obligation under that model policy once it comes out is everything that Boe said say we have to adopt we
070have any wiggle room we have any any any comment there I guess since you're here you can just come on up so everybody can hear what you have to say identify yourself those who do not know welcome and I just can't see that far so I didn't know who was back there Hi how are you hey um my understanding based on the review of the statute and of course part of the problem at this stage is it's so new that really the attorneys don't have a lot of certainty about it but it does at least appear that the requirement is that we would adopt the model policy or something more stringent at least that's my understanding okay um you know that's not to say that you couldn't go more stringent but at least as I
071read the requirement you cannot go less stringent okay that that's basically what I was asking right and you finish that's okay um so yeah I just wanted to clarify that um it would be difficult for us to really uh start the conversation or engaging on these changes we're making right now to our normal discrimination and bullying policies because we don't know yet what's coming down from vdoe correct okay that's all I had um for the model policies that are going to be coming up what happens if we don't pass them or do anything with them well I mean that's probably something that I should advise you all in close session I don't know that that's something we' want to discuss in Open Session no you can but let me just make clear right quick that
072um this gentleman who our attorney was here for a different reason but we didn't mind entertain M and Miss B but yes ma'am Miss Thom but we don't want to get off course of things that we are uncertain about to get everybody all railed up so I hated putting him on the spot but since you asked the question I and he was here to answered so we want to be careful of what we're asking at this point in time not trying to hide anything but we don't want to just make him come up with stuff that he has not prepared to review with but Miss Thompson feel free to ask your question well I'll put this forward instead of an answer today um based on what I'm seeing and hearing from the Virginia Department of
073Education it makes me wonder why School Board member why do we have a local school board where does our authorities reach where are they limited and sometime if you can share with us the background of school boards why we have them what our um Authority is and because I'm at this point that I just feel like we don't have any Authority it's just you know we're being told you might as well wipe us out and have a state board of education well I mean because we can't represent citizens or their concerns and that's a common issue that we hear from Lo localities in Virginia I will tell you I've heard that many times uh and Virginia is what's called a dyrol state U and so what that means as a dyrol state is that all
074authority of the localities is derived from the state legislature's grant of authority um so for example a City typically has a charter that is given by the state legislature and and that spells out what the authority of the city is to pass specific laws they are not permitted to pass laws basically above and beyond what's permitted by that Charter um or it's considered beyond the scope of their Authority and that's essentially true with the school board as well that um you know ultimately your Authority is derived from the state government you are created by the state government and so you are answerable to the state government now of course in certain cases they have given specific authority to the locality and and within those specific areas you have complete Authority but it's only where there's
075been a specific grant of authority maybe we need to know what those are yes and I I'll be glad I mean that's fairly lengthy discussion but yes I'd be glad to do that Madam chair ma' um so thank you for that information I just really wanted to clarify where we were in our process on these policies but also um again agreeing with Miss Thompson um I just want to make an announcement I guess or information that the a lot of this starts enrichment and trickles down to us so please be in contact with your delegates whatever your side you're on you need to be in contact with your delegates because we're going to be Shackled by whatever is coming down out of Richmond we I mean from what I've seen this year we with covid
076and everything we we're not going to have a lot of wiggle room so please stay in contact with your delegates on whatever your voice is on whatever issue you want to speak out on it doesn't even have to just be education I just want everybody to realize that um School boards can't override law we can't skirt law we're we're Bound by it as far as I know where were we well we have we have first read policies on the table they're not they're not acted on right now and so so I would as chair if I would I would encourage the board members to continue to review all the policies that have been given to us for the first reading if there are questions if you would direct them to that division whether it be
077Dr Dr Dr Norman or um I would like to request a clean copy of it please what do you mean clean copy with the changes already taken out a clean printed out copy for so would you like what we are proposing so without like strike through so take like you have already adopted it that yes of which one to all of them up there 42 of them mhm any other questions theard Poli when we get a copy like that I don't mind we have to be really careful if we bring out a copy with everything corrected and it gets out we Haven approved it we can put a water mark we put yeah put a great big draft over top of that I'm just saying I'm careful with that in my own business that a
078copy that we thought somebody had adopted and we hadn't that's the reason we usually get it in this form but we show do whatever the board's pleasure is are we moving on any other questions ladies and gentlemen on the policy that we'll take to have yes ma'am come back ma'am so again that was a first read uh we'll bring it back to you in June and if you have any questions in the meantime please reach out to us and we'll be glad to try to answer them as best we can the last thing I have was the student suspension 6.06 and if you have any questions regarding that i' be glad to try to answer them at this time Madam chair yes ma'am I don't have a question about the suspensions but um about discipline
079board I'm afraid I'm going to miss it I'm on it are we still not we have had a year this year where we have not had any I'm going to knock on some hard wood real quick and we haven't had any cases to bring to the board okay so and uh if things hold out the next three weeks we won't so hope will be but I've been reassured myself that that cuz I I y'all going to send me they said we will send you something okay I preset all my reminders that keep telling me I'm like I will reach out directly if there's a case uh just because we haven't had any cases this year than thankfully but if there is a case that we have to go Reach Out directly to board members who
080need to be involved in that process okay that's good news yeah very good problem any no further questions that's all I have tonight thanks so much moving yes ma'am Madame chair members of the board you have at your place information regarding April 2021 Financial reports enrollment information budget summary by object code I will be glad to answer any questions we are still doing good for the end of the year uh air enrollment right now or ADM right now is at 3897 that's pretty close to their number we had right it's it's been pretty close for the full year we did Budget on 396 at the beginning any other question for yes do we anticipate any additional cost with the fuel is that going to be a mediocre difference or impct it will be within our
081budget for right now we're still in the black and their fuel budget with the year that we've had uh and with about four weeks left it may impact us as we go through summer school but we can use some of the co money to help offset that change um so they're supposed to keep um price gouging from happening so we're hoping that will happen question we all ask right yes ma'am it is madam chair and members of the board I have several things to discuss tonight in your um packet you have a m regarding um the Virginia Department of Education standards of implementation uh there it's their cycle what I tried to do was pull together uh this year as well as the next two years so you can have some information regarding what standards
082are being revised what the crosswalk information is and then basically what new standards are coming out um this was based on a request earlier at a previous board meeting um and some discussions with Miss Thompson and I had had um so if you'll look down one of the things that I do want to point out is we have two that are newly developed standards the first one is for our English language Learners um those standards just came out this current school year they are being implemented next year uh and we are piloting the utilization of the new weda assessments and then in the 2022 2023 school year will actually go full implementation with those newly developed standards and the newly developed weda assessment the second one that I would like to point out is this
083year actually April the 23rd and you have this superintendent memo in your packet as well we were provided information from the depart Department of Education on their new 20120 social emotional learning standards in draft form what we have done already ready is placed that information up on our um amers County web page because the state has placed them in a draft uh proposal they are asking for comments from the um Community around the state so we have a link that will take our community members to the state comments page where they can make comments regarding the new uh social emotional um standards that are available now this was just released to us in April um and we got our first draft two weeks ago so do you have any questions regarding the standards mam yes
084ma'am um I don't have a question but I do have a comment um I would really like to reiterate what you said and let the public hear clearly that they need to go look at those standards yes ma'am there are things in them that I feel are very good and there are things that feel can be very controversial so I want the public to make sure that they do look and they go to V vdo's website and they make those comments and what was it May 24th May 24th is the deadline for those comments is the deadline for those so um now is the time to speak thank you because as we heard from our attorney tonight we may not have choices this is our time parents need to be aware thank you um also
085along with our standards I have um asked Miss Wanda Smith our supervisor of math science and gifted to bring to you a presentation tonight regarding the ma Virginia math Pathways initiative now if you'll remember the math standards have changed they have been revised and we are implementing those math standards this is not dealing specifically with the standards themselves this is dealing with the pathway of how math courses and the concepts are pull together um I thought it would be uh important for you to hear this so you can answer any comments that you have from your constituents Miss Smith good evening I'm going to summarize this information as quickly as possible but I do encourage you to dive into them yourselves and I'll give you the mechanism to do that a little bit later on
086in the presentation the whole purpose of the math Virginia math Pathways um it began in about 2016 2017 and it is and built out of conversations not just in the state of Virginia but Nationwide based on Research that's come to higher education as well as through the Council of teacher of mathematics and it's part of their decisionmaking and preparing students to be lifelong math Learners and to create Pathways that work for not just one select group of students but for all Learners throughout the Commonwealth so what does that mean here as far as our background and purpose well like I said it's a conglomerate of groups of people we're talking about higher education Virginia Community College we're talking about businesses in the workforce CTE um connections as well and with the vooe they have come
087together to make sure that instruction is changing and the outcomes that students are looking for for postsecondary careers and opportunities math instruction has to look different at the K12 level in order to prepare students for that change what does it not mean it does not mean that the r and the standards is going to change at all students will still be able to take Algebra 1 geometry Algebra 2 those courses will still exist it will involve a reorganization of some of those skills to make it more um accessible for students in retaining the information that they're getting from this these courses and I'll explain that as well calculus and highered courses will still be in designated offerings as well for students who wish them and it will also provide additional courses open to students that
088weren't in existence before that will um be more tailored towards the pathways that some students might be interested in and local divisions will still have flexibility in the types of courses that they would like to create at the local level so those are some great things that I thought would come out of it the biggest um push is that everyone is a math person and the way that we're teaching math right now does not always allow CH children to see themselves that way the progression of the concepts will move like this um and foundational mathematics Concepts will be the focus for K through 7 with the focus on learning through inquiry and Discovery students seeing themselves as knowers and doers of math and also working through non-routine problems that put them in situations that are
089very much linked to real life situations and how math works in the concepts and that's when they focus on Big Ideas a lot of the big ideas that you see in grade 8 Algebra 1 geometry and Algebra 2 they would be meshed together and interwoven and layered in the courses that would be taught in these grade levels so that they can have experience with some of these Concepts at an earlier age so they can grasp them in a deeper understanding right about now the the big thing in math is that math is a mile wide and only an inch deep we want students to be able to go deeper into the application so they can transfer apply what they're learning in numerous situations then it would lead into advanced math concepts and we haven't gotten
090as much information on this end this is going to be part of the conversation they'll be putting out on May 25th but you will see they still have the advanced course offerings but it will also open up to a broader scope of offerings that you see in the middle there for half credit offerings and these are just samples of what the courses could be nothing is mandated these are all considerations these are all thoughtful processes that they're seeking input on and feedback to make sure that the direction that they're going in everybody every stakeholder sees value in it and we want to create situations that work for not like I said one group of learners but for everybody so they can see themselves in math and continue on with further um um math experiences Beyond
091just stopping at geometry when they get to high school this is what our typical math Pathways look like right now in that grade eight we kind of start with grade eight and students move through algebra one geometry Algebra 2 if they're on advanced track they would move into pre-calculus and calculus and then possibly on to dual enrollment this type of pathway has been in existence for over a 100 years and this is the pathway we've been following Across the Nation it's becoming quite Antiquated and it's not serving the purpose of students in that a large majority of students when they graduate high school they still have to take some form of remedial math when they get to college college or retake calculus or they're taking um math courses that are not directly in line with
092calculus but more in line with the major that they're pursuing so that is part of the reason for this type of revision that we need to see an example as to why we want to see things better connected this is an example from a grade A course if a student wanted to do a survey to dive deeper in a question and they wanted to get a gap data on it to kind of analyze it they could graph the results they could create a linear equation and function to make predictions about how the data is going to change and Trend out they can also make connections in different GE geom geometry and Algebra 2 connections that could be something that could be taught in a great Aid essential one course right now we teach them all
093separate they don't have some of these experiences until they get to Geometry or Algebra 2 whereas they're all interwoven and interconnected and they could make so much more retention in regards to these kind Concepts if they're taught in unison rather than isolation in separate courses that is what the essential concept courses are designed to do so as you see the current standards as we have it are grade 8 Algebra 1 geometry Algebra 2 they're looking to update and reorganize all the information and Concepts that you see in those standards and update them in essential concept courses one two and three they're not losing anything if anything we gaining a better understanding and one of the questions that was posed during the recent Community is how are these courses going to prepare our students for advanced
094cours workk and the calculus one teacher actually spoke directly to that saying it actually makes the students better prepared for the calculus Concepts because they're able to get earlier connections and experiences with it so it makes more sense to them once they are in the higher a courses um this is also in support of the 5c's um it requires us redesigning the the current mathematical curriculum and focus on core skills to deeper mathematical thinking they have to go deeper into thinking when we think about our current situation with Co think of the amount of data that's been put in front of us think of how we've been using Trends in history in regards to Medical advances a lot of information is coming out to us but the average citizen may not be prepared to be
095able to see that data and be able to work through it we need our students to be able to be strong um knowers and doers of quantitative data and statistics and that's part of why the changes are being implemented finally we're still in the early stages of this like I said many states are involved our timeline for revising standards for math comes every seven years our seven year will be 2023 so the standards were going to be Revis and they're following along with the VD standard policy and how they do that right now they're just seeking feedback and consideration I've actually had conversations with our math leads here in the division and asked them to give me input in regards to what are their concerns as a teacher and what are their concerns as parents
096so that I can kind of stay in front and be able to answer questions directly that would affect not only them but our large community here I'm very much in agreement with with what Miss um Thompson had said earlier about being transparent in that tomorrow there is going to be um an addition put on the website in regards to all three of the community webinars that they have held and there will be a link where parents or anyone in the community can give feedback you can actually post a question there and they will directly answer it on the next webinar that comes up on May 25th so we're on we're in the beginning stages of all of this I'm also going to have my eye on what other states are doing in regards to this
097pathway we have the Virginia math Pathways there's a North Carolina one there's a Pennsylvania one it's Nationwide but I'm very much interested in what other states are doing as well so we can see what we can make what we can pull or glean from it to make our job here a little easier if you have any questions in regards to this I will be my pleasure to answer them Miss smth can I add one thing before you start so the the three math concept courses that that gets students through the 10th grade in Algebra 2 and what we see with students who don't believe they need any more math they stop at Algebra 2 with two years left in high school and what these are going to allow us to do there if you if
098you saw it was a very small small writing of those courses yeah on the far right there are things that are more in line with the skills that students need when they go into the workforce so that that data and that that modeling of U of data and and those kinds of things are courses that are added that actually make the end of high school more relevant for our kids that are going to go out into the workforce as opposed to say saying I don't need any more math because I can graduate with algebra 2 and they don't really continue to build skills that are going to that are going to lead them to um success in a career so that I just wanted to get that out there I know this has been aot
099topic yes Madam chair okay so um I understand you're passing along information you didn't create it neither did ammer so this is coming from higher level but there was some information out recently that um Virginia was doing away with the advanced math courses so I want to clarify that that's not true that's not true you can still take AP Statistics AP Calculus all the advanced courses will still exist and it still is recognized on your diploma as yes we haven't received anything regards changes in the graduation requirements and those were questions that will probably be posed at the next forum and there will be no throttling of students who we're not going to throttle back the a student who is on a advanced advanced course to even out the odds of someone that's not as
100working as hard or as advanced right no no there won't be any type of okay so what do you think um the point is for the half credit options those would be like manyi manyi courses they won't last as long like right now we have courses that last a um semester these might last a grading period so could some you do two in the a semester could someone get an advanced math degree okay so I didn't take advanced math but it's my understanding when you before when you would get a degree there were bars to be met you hit this bar you hit this bar you hit this bar in a category or course and you do and those details have not been shared as far as how remember those are sample courses and they're
101going to go deeper in those on the 25th to see are they classified is Advanced do they weigh heavier than others how do they fit into the graduation requirements okay so someone wouldn't be able to get an advanced math degree in sort of a cumulative effort of just take a bunch of many courses and achieve the Same by not that I'm not sure I wouldn't feel confident ask answering that right now okay all right is is is the shift theoretical or is there evidence to show no there is evidence to show there's research is better than yes yes and that once they get to College the remediation that takes place when they're in college or the prerequisites that they have to meet that they are not able to achieve causes them to repeat a lot
102more coursework than you would think so what if it's for those that don't go to college it doesn't help is there evidence to show it helps them well the hes that and I didn't show no these there more of a break down I didn't want to overwhelm you but there are other cours work that are more tied towards CTE type if you wanted to be an entrepreneur and open your own business they do kind of deviate to say certain courses that you see in the middle section there would be more geared towards the medical Sciences you know those types of things so that you can see if that's the pathway that you would want to go and get a chance in the high school to get access to that type of math curriculum as opposed
103to just going straight for the G omry pre-calculus and that route but I can look for that so we'll have a dance placement classes then throughout the school experience for the child not just later on in the high school 11th 12th advanced placement you mean like AP or you mean honors or well honors more advanced pce FP math classes for the students acceleration will still exist okay acceleration will still exist MH M Smith I appreciate your explanation of that I saw when I saw you know the news that came out initially I said surely you got to whether you like or not you got to govern as a doctor how in the world they going to endorse having a la you know so I'm I really do appreciate your explanation of this and I I
104actually think it's kind of neat that whole combining of Concepts in one course like that I think I could see some benefit in that but I'm just curious I keep an eye on it and see how it comes out in was but but thank you I will I will definitely do that if any other questions please email me and just let me know or um I I have a few um sure I have taught math secondary math and have a have a degree in that so I know what it takes um and I've also taught it for many years and I have great respect for a holistic approach an integrated approach and I know that can be very helpful um I do have some questions struggling a little bit with this um can you first
105tell me what type of flexibility we will have as a pH we can create any type of courses that we so desire that would still fulfill like we can still keep the algebra 1 course we can still keep the algebra 2 and geometry courses but then we can create other courses like the essential Concepts 1 2 and three and even at the secondary level we can create ources we still have that type of flexibility the standards will be lined up differently so things that you would normally see in an Algebra 2 course geometry and algebra one course you'll also see them meshed and reorganized in the essential skill courses in a way like Mr rer was appreciating that makes more sense and has causes layer of a better understanding for students so I'm hearing you
106say that we will have the essential mathematics Concepts and those classes will be layered differently and those Concepts will be more integrated which I know some states have done for a long time um if we so choose we can parallel alongside of that our advanced classes the AL BL yes geometry that's going to have to be the case for auding those right okay and then um that can go all the way through high school that is correct but we have some students right now that are coming in on that track so we don't want to pull that away from them as they as not being available do you ever see that being pulled away from them once those students have left and graduated I don't see it but I almost see like an appreciation of
107the essential skills will come out once you see the essential skills in action and I think the results that we that we hope to get from it I think it will gradually open people's eyes that this might be a better way of um teaching math to our students students and that the algebra one is not doing everything that we desire it to do when you we have the essential Concepts two and and or they could be 9 10 11 they could be the arrangement could still be accelerated students in these different students it could be follow an accelerated track essential skills could be at seventh grade or it could be at eighth grade so we potentially see an essential concept one in seventh grade from what I students started in e8th grade e8th grade what
108would they be taking in seventh grade in seventh grade they could take the essential skill that that's what they I said you can do the foundations K through 7 but then there is an ability to do an acceleration meaning you might be ready for an essential skill in seventh grade um if you're moving at accelerated rate you can take it a little bit earlier okay so if the students are in concept one and they're not doing well would they advance to the next grade level or would they repeat that course that's a question I would have to pose when with the B to see what they would recommend because I don't know what the course Arrangement is right now so I can't say defin what would that might be a good question in middle school
109there's some tendency that the students press grade wise and not look at passing course it and it probably depends on whether there's a hospital Credit attached to it or not because then that that answers that question if if there's a hospit credit attached they don't pass it they got to take that again so it looks like based on this document that maybe the essentials one would look more like a middle school course as to whether or not uh student would be you would have to go through the the retention process for that thank you we appreciate that because that's been out there I thought that was very good clarification for the first go around miss apprciate that and boy feel free to contact her I think it's best go to the source we contact me
110Smith we had more matical question that all right with everyone Abby I got you a m teach that might come in quite handy CU I wasn't but I deal okay where are we now we are looking at we are going to talk about kindergarten and Smart Start registrations oh yeah ma'am in your packet you have amendment that just provides you information regarding our uh April registration for kindergarten uh we registered 126 new kindergarteners we screened 179 that difference of 53 are students that are already registered in our system under our Smart Start program um we last year at this uh our current en rollment in kindergarten is 302 last year of course we didn't do any screening because of covid um but the spring of 2019 at this same time in the April registration for
111kindergarten we were at 214 so we're a little down but um we're getting information out to our families about making sure that they register their children for kindergarten also on the second page of this I just wanted to point out we do have screening that is coming up June 4th and June um June 3 and fourth in regarding our Smart Start program we have already to taken 74 applications and we have confirmed eligibility of 56 of those applicants last year at this time we had 113 applicants that were received 78 of them eligible and 17 not eligible so we're pretty much in line with that um moving forward I'll bring you back a another update in July closer to the start of the school year so you'll know where we are in regards to our
112registration there and I'd like to turn it over to Mr neighbors all right good evening Madam chair members of the board uh I wanted to bring to the board tonight an update on our efforts of student record maintenance I've included a memo in your packets for you to review and talk about about our progress thus far um I did want to give you a list of who is involved in that process it's not the most exciting thing to talk about student record maintenance but I do appreciate the folks that have volunteered to be a part of that team we've uh taken to calling ourselves a task force just to try to you know spice spice it up a little bit but we're we're working on that part to make it a little more exciting for
113folks uh we have been heavily involved in planning and research so going to VOE going to the library of Virginia looking at Virginia code ensuring that are starting from that strong Foundation of being sound from a regulatory perspective we have all those components of our students records that should be there and that's really our our starting place and trying to build that as we move forward um talking about our Focus areas we have and I've delineated those for you separated out uh three buckets we're calling that we're going to try to fill with this information these processes procedures that we need to develop to ensure that we are maintaining Student Records in a way where we're just not compliant but also that there are are they are resource for our teachers to be able to
114utilized often times those are an afterthought or something we have to use we really want that to be an instructional resource for our staff in the buildings to get to know their students understand how they function over a period of time and we want them to be functional and and themselves those records um our next steps as we're moving forward even though we are moving quickly we do want to try to have these processes and procedures um in place as draft forms as we end the end of the school year so at our next board meeting I'd really like to be able to bring you a draft of what those are going to look like and and walk you through what that is we want to give our schools and staff the summer to get
115used to these new procedures uh there's going to be a process of migrating some of our files to this new format new folders color coding whatever it is the uh task force decides would be best for those different pieces but we understand that's a quick move but we want to make sure that we have that in place and give schools plenty of time to move to these new procedures be happy to answer any questions you might have at this time board members question I've been following you with that we had a conversation with some information out there some months ago and I said what are we doing and so as usual we ahead of the game appreciate that and if I may Madam chair I just want to give a quick up to the board
116I know I wasn't on the agenda but you might want to hear about where we are with summer school um just give some brief updates if I may uh as of right now we're approaching 600 students that have requested uh the ability to participate in the program not all of those are in person we do have some students that have requested to participate virtually uh but we're very pleased with how that number has developed even just a few weeks ago we were close to half that number so the word has really gotten out our schools have done a good job of recruiting and we would be thrilled to have that many students in our schools this summer receiving that instruction uh staff is heavily involved in planning for curriculum and resources and really focusing on
117making this a a memorable summer for our students and and very pleased with the work they've done so far I do want to give kudos to Dr Wells and his staff specifically Miss Campbell they are working favly to ensure that we will be able to transport the students that have requested that or would like to be transported um I will say uh in Miss Campbell's um stad to provide her support we certainly are looking at a point where we might reach a density it's going to be difficult to transport that many students obviously we want to ensure that we give our drivers the lat ude to use that well-deserved rest over the summer if they're not interested in working uh we've done everything we can to incentivize that for them and raising pay and ensuring
118we're honoring that time of them over the summer as of right now miss Campbell is able to cover the students that have requested it uh but we are kind of quickly reaching that point where we might be able to too few too many students to be able to transport everyone with that um we have had some parents that have families I should say that have already indicated they would transport their students we asked again and certainly in public form if there are any families that are able to do that we would appreciate them doing so that we can ensure we can get all the students to the program that want to be there this summer uh but those are the updates thus far certainly be able to answer any questions you might have on summer
119school Madam chair I don't have any questions but definitely send my thank you to miss Campbell for that effort it's a lot of uh lot of information to undertake there she is always our hero behind the scenes for like that we appreciate her very much question Mr neighbors real quick how many students do you normally have in a a summer school just to have good comparon not 600 I can tell you that uh so when we were in a more typical format a couple of summers ago uh at the elementary level we had about 175 students at the two sites um and at the secondary level we had somewhere in the neighborhood of about 150 so we are tremendously above what we would typically see that which of course in this year of all years
120we're we're thrilled about that gotcha thank you do we have enough teachers we do we were pleasantly surprised by our response um when I put out the survey just to see who was interested we had over a hundred responses after just a few days um so a lot of Staff really really wants to work and um I think they also understand that this is a critical summer for a lot of our students and they're they're excited about being a part of that but we will actually have more staff than position so we're trying to be creative about how we can make sure that we can honor their their desire to be a part of that as well yeah cool that is definitely a good unusually good I would think that this you're right as you
121already said this summer is a little different a lot of people feel like we doing a remedial we're doing a get ahead we're doing a catch up we're doing continuation of of studying stuff we got a great gamut going on there appreciate the hard work on that there are no more question we should move on to Human Resources okay Madam chair members of the board yes sir I have IND you with memos this evening I have several um the first one is the current vacancy report uh where we staying currently uh with the need to fill um this was posted Friday so actually there's been some slight updates we have um filled one position in professional one classified as of today and potentially tomorrow we'll have another professional uh position filled but currently as you
122look at it it indicates 13 professional vacancies in 17 and classified worthy of note though the the CMP assistance we haven't intended to fill those during the course of this year so those have just sat there waiting for us to take action to fil for we'll be we'll start to look at filling those perm CLI for the coming year and a few of those are some one- year only positions as well um so to date uh we have filled 23 positions so we are active that's in licensed positions in five classified so um it looks um so that puts us really at about maybe 30 what is that about yeah 33 positions uh professional uh filled so far and and typically we we end up being somewhere in the little 40s uh with professional positions
123moving into the next school year but I'm happy to take any questions if you have any regarding that memo you're rolling you're rolling good work okay we are we are active no doubt about it uh the second memo is a a um some is some dis disaggregated demographic data comparisons uh and lens your information some student population demographics compared to our employee population demographics as you know our one of our comprehensive plan uh goals in HR is to recruit and hire highly qualified staff that are representative of our student population and that is what we're attempting to do over the course of of years and we have some data to share the memo shows you what each um graph will provide following the memo and in the fourth box you can just look at the
124answer to the lenser questions uh that were asked and and that is um information that was requested by the board and it is the areas are bulleted at the top and if you flip across you can take a look at the different data if you had a chance to review it um I'm happy to answer any questions regarding that data that you might have tonight anyone with direct question from Mr Galler at this time I don't I don't have a question per pretty self-explanatory I just want to say thank you I know this wasn't no words whatsoever we do trct the data so yeah I know but it's good data to have I know when I came on the board you know almost five years ago we made a commitment to doing this and I
125was wondering how we were progressing yeah and we've made some strides but we still have some more some more ways to go we have a long way to go and and for you I do certainly have gratitude for our acps induction and recruiting committee because they have work diligently all this year we're broken into three subcommittees we have a highly qualified and representative uh you know subcommittee basically looking at how we can increase in that area an induction and support committee and communication Pro promotion committee and at the end of the year we will have a full BL plan to address all these areas and we've been very active and all of our communication with colleges and universities despite pandemic we are doing our very best um and there there are certain things that you
126wish you could have larger pools of candidates uh and we are doing we're I'm using the input from that those committees to do everything we can to help uh recruit an excellent and diverse staff in our division uh the next memorandum is just informational uh something that has come out from the U was sent out from the Department of Education the superintendent's email U but it's regarding some upcoming changes 2021 General Assembly session as you can see uh implemented some policy changes in the Commonwealth regarding uh our uniform performance standards uh and evaluation criteria for teachers how we evaluate our teachers and so forth uh as well as um lure requirements and all those are are surrounding U an effort to make sure um that as I readed here that we have um practices in
127cultural proficiency and efficacy and we have some train in place to achieve that they're they're adding a standard I think six in our evaluation criteria and that's specifically provided uh behind is the last page in that memo where you can see that they are going to add as of 2022 in the fall a standard that we will evaluate teachers by in the classroom instructionally for having culturally responsive teaching and Equitable practices and you can see the different indicators the performance indicators outlined below that um that has been put in place partly is in response to the general assembly's uh requirements you can see there's the first bullet on the cover of the memo where they're asking that they put that together um in addition to that uh there will be specific licensing requirements for training
128in those areas for anybody seeking initial ler or reler uh interesting to note uh in that last bullet just so for awareness purposes um and as of the fall of 2022 anybody in the division who has a license will be required to participate in train in these areas at least every 2 years and in bullet three you can see there will be additions to the LIC or renewal process for endorsements in history and social science uh to include instruction in African-American history as prescribed by the board of education so these are awareness issues this is a big undertaking they have identified these appropriate areas for us to integrate into licenser requirements into evaluation we certainly can't ask our teachers to put these practices into place or our administrators to evaluate them without proper training and
129that was my initial question uh you know when are we going to get some support and knowledge of understanding what are the guidelines for that um and the doe is going to put that up in December of 21 they will end up giving us further information specifically on what the requirements will be and they are going to give us support with uh training for our administrators and teachers in those areas and also potentially for some of the training that will be required um every two years and for licens so there's a lot of information to throw out there I put the superintendent's memo behind it the email and um also some information directly from the evaluation standards but I'm happy to take any questions that you might have on that just wanted you to have
130advanced information uh since that will be applicable in about a year and a half I suppose um yes ma'am um do you know if there will be any public comment on this nowhere has it indicated this there will be public comment on what that is going to look like um I've actually asked and tried to figure out further information because there wasn't a whole lot of specificity to be honest with you about the implementation time frame regarding the evaluation procedures they did give that with the ler uh so I had to make sure that those two were in alignment and they are and they haven't given any information to us or posted it about public comment on how they are planning to you know put out this information in response to the general assembly um
131policy changes and I'm just looking at this that gave me and and I'm not looking at the okay um email so do we have more information than just this I have the entire well as of March of 18 the as far as the um evaluation process we have more information on that and that is the actual manual that we typically utilize has been revised it is not en Force yet but I have the entire manual I'm certainly happy to send a copy of that to you because well I'll will tell you that as you see by the yellow flags that you know that's how many different areas where there inter factal changes throughout in the different language and application of how teachers will be evaluated uh in the classroom and the expectations that'll be there
132U of course once they're properly trained so I can share that information with you and if I find any information about um public comment of course I'll I'll I'll put that forward I I would like to see it I I know that we're all um on board for culturally responsive classrooms and practices of equity but seems like I find out there's lot of different definitions for those things yes ma'am so I'm interested in seeing the teacher training what are the spec specific things as teachers are being required to do um yeah I I personally don't want to see our teachers having to teach something that's against their bullies well I think if you look at the performance indicators that'll give you an idea at least where their focus will be but they won't put those
133that criteria for training and those indicators out probably until December December yes okay well we'll look for it then but if you hear anything about public comment um I just think that we need to um respect our teachers I will do that and there's no other document or guidance regarding the licenser at this time it's just the information from that superintendent email thank you excuse me is there any I could have a digital copy of that 100% And if you and if you look at this right here and now I'm not going to tell you you have to do that but if you go on the doe site or any even on Google and just type that in that that'll pop up because it is posted on the dewe website but I will send it
134to you electronic so they have they have posted it but yes ma'am any questions yes sir keep go okay thank you well that brings us to our um dental insurance renewal proposal for you all that is a memo that follows you had that for review uh that describ the memo describes the process that we went through to kind of uh take bids from dental providers the process we went through to select finalists and we ended up having two finalists and we held interviews for those as groups and the memo describes the different characteristics that that um led us to select um Anthem as our recommendation for our dental provider you can see some of the benefits of course you can see in bulleted some of the factors that we looked at and we did look
135at that very closely among the committee um this renewal does represent an increase of 17.6 which is a 2-year Guaranteed Rate at that level but it is also that is the same that matches our current amount of increase that would experience from you know M life if we stuck with that group um the significant benefit that we received from bundling with Anthem is still give us a 2% um reduction in our medical benefits uh which is very substantial and it will help us lower costs uh for our employees so I thought that was a huge benefit uh with this group but also uh when we rated them they came out uh significantly ahead of the other group uh that that was kind of there at the at the two finalist so there questions regarding anything
136there process or the recommendation I'm sure myself or M SC can answer any questions have sorry have another question ma' um so the 2% reduction that we'll get medical insurance we are going to tailor that to the employee that is correct yes that yes as we had projected if this was the direction that we went that that that would [Music] C questions yeah Qui question what was the expected increase on the medical what was the expected INE say so we we were actually if we if I'm saying this correctly I think we were at a point where we were at an employee increase of 3.9 am I correct Teresa is that right which would bring down to a 1.9% increase with the balance funding it was going to be a 6.8 because we were going
137with balance funding oh correct yes ma'am that going to be a 6.8 that was for fully I apologize so it brings the increase for the balance funding down to 4.8 for for the for the increase however uh if you will recall with the fully insured it was going to be at 3.9 and so if we take 2% off of that the employees will see a 1.9% increase and the employer will pick up the other the difference and that's all built into the bu okay great I knew that's where we're going but not sure how we got we actually talked about that scenario and laid that out in February I believe so thank amazing that it's still in place but yeah our our our employees came out and so if approved we would notify the groups
138uh as of tomorrow motion you need a motion on that I believe so motion it's certainly up to you guys if y'all want to wait until next time or if you feel comfortable now that's fine we just we did not bring it we don't we never want to bring anything to tell you tonight right so that's that's certainly up to you guys well I mean do we have any with this do we I guess m par we need a action we move it to action or we just take it from there oh good good so at this time then you've heard the report from Mr G on the dental insurance agent at this time and I have a vot motion of approval I'm sorry I hear you everybody Mr CeCe okay do I have a
139second second Miss Thompson is second all in favor any oppose thank you Mr G thank you all M yes sir it looks like that um because we put our our young people at the front to recognize them they didn't show up all the back but I am not going to prevent them so they're going to take part of my time okay and I would like for first part Davis to give their reports follow me who would like to go first okay good afternoon good evening good evening board members and Par we're at that time of the year where we're recognizing our seniors for their achievement throughout the years on May 19th there will be a golden house ceremony for the National Honor Society seniors at the high school there will also be a golden a
140award ceremony which which will also be held at the high school on May 25th um a little of what I'm going to do after graduation um after graduation is my plan to attend Virginia Commonwealth University and majoring biochemistry I feel I feel the experience I've gained this year with the school board has helped to prepare me for challenges as I begin college and Beyond some of the lessons I've learned is that things just don't happen that there's a great amount of preparation and work that goes into every decision and when you're dealing with a group of people it takes compromise in order to make progress and I greatly appreciate the experience good evening Madam chair and members of the board uh thanks the main thing that everyone is talking about in the high school right
141now is graduation and many seniors are so grateful that we have the opportunity to walk across the stage as if it were any other year um this shows that the people that work for the schools truly care about their students and on behalf of all acchs seniors I thank you for giving us the graduation we have been dreaming about um the week following graduation we have ammer theaters musical Lion King Jr I have been blessed with the opportunity to play Kim muasa for two nights and Pumba the warthog for the other two nights uh Miss emmer along with the rest of the cast has been putting in so much work like building Pride Rock uh getting all of the costume pieces together and figuring out sound that would work outside overall this play is coming
142together and I encourage all of you to come out to the high school June 2nd through the 5th um since this is my last board meeting as a student representative I would like to thank Dr Arnold and the school board for giving me this experience um this is something that I will never forget and I will look back on when I'm old thinking about my younger days um secondly I want to share my uh plans after high school after countless months of weighing my options I will be attending James Madison University majoring in political science go D Jim you is about to get the most loud insane and spirited football fan and I'm excited to see where these next four years take me thank you wonderful just just great we're excited I'll make some more
143comments about that later we'll turn that over to Dr AR okay and I want to thank you guys both publicly as well and to let uh you guys know that the high school is going through their process right now for our uh next year's uh representative so we'll we'll get get back in touch with you on that one but thank you guys you have been awesome okay so my first item is to to bring to you the uh the more updated uh or more I guess detailed 2122 uh school year recommendations what I would ask is that uh because I know there's probably elements of this that uh will spark a lot more conversation than other parts so let me get through the let me get through it and then we'll go back to the
144the parts that uh you really want to work through and so I I I certainly like to get through the whole thing first and then we'll we'll come back to things that you want to talk about so uh leading into this I think it's important to know that and I talk about Co numbers every time we sit down we are currently at 4.1 per 100,000 uh in ammer County which we haven't seen since June maybe and so I mean we're literally getting one a day okay so we are moving in a very good direction we have had a lot of vaccinations occur and so this is this is something that I feel as we move forward this this is going to happen and can happen for us and so uh first I'd like to to
145say and I'm going to say this with the caveat because two hours ago we received different uh updates from the CDC um I think one of the things that we need to realize though as Dr well said is that we are still under a Governor's uh mandates as well so what I want to say about this is as restrictions are loosened we will loosen the restrictions right so we will we will reflect what um CDC and governor and bdh and all of those like we did in the fall last year because if you remember in the fall last year we didn't have the governor's mandates yet and so we we were so at this point based on where we are currently at this moment we will continue the mitigation strategy of social distancing which has
146been reduced to 3 ft uh we'll continue doing visual screenings uh for our students with their uh the teachers with their students will promote our hygiene practices uh currently and we don't know where this is going it is face coverings because of e72 not CDC recommendation right now but that's for all vaccinated uh Folks at this point um we'll continue to do our due diligence with cleaning and sanation we U don't believe that we're not going to be have to we're going to have to do contact tracing still um when when folks uh test positive and then we'll continue as much as possible to Cort our students that way we if there is if there is a positive case that it doesn't spread uh so we're we're going to still try to keep our students
147together as much as possible in the same groups throughout the day now in high school you understand that that's that's virtually impossible but Elementary School we can do a much better job with that in terms of Transportation in order to get all of our students there we will reduce down and allow for two students per seat um there is a presidential order about transportation and I believe that the new CDC Guiden said something about Transportation as well public transportation and so there there'll certainly need to be face coverings on the buses and they will continue to clean and do sanitation School meals is still going to be a difficult one for us uh we we feel like at this point we're going to still need to have our students eat in the classroom because if
148we put them in a in in an open uh lunchroom then everybody has the mask off and and so then then if we have to uh quarantine that's a lot of students versus one classroom uh but we will continue to re-evaluate that and base that on the guidance that we're getting so those are the are the things that we feel like we have to keep in place in order to keep uh the plan that we want uh going as far as Staffing is concerned and and what I put here is there are the things that you guys as a board allowed us to do this year to help support uh what we were doing in the buildings uh with extra single year positions we will continue the custodial uh additions the the nurse uh supports
149the counselor supports instructional assistance the full-time substitute teachers those are all things that we PID for with our co uh funds and we want to continue those because we still feel there's a need for that and as you remember in our budget process that was where the car's Act 2 money was going to be put in place and the only addition that you'll see will be um the remote learning administrator that's going to be needed to deal with the the um the clerical and the facilitation of virtual Virginia right and and if you'll know if you'll remember in our budget we had a list of like teachers and administrators for the for the remote Academy but we're not going to need those because we're doing virtual Virginia but we will need somebody to help facilitate
150uh when those students are enrolled and how we how we uh support those students as well so those are the continuation those are those are in the cares act budget not our operational budget okay the uh big one that I think you guys will want to talk about and we we will talk about at the end is about start times and so when we went out and we we we gave the information about um having Elementary start at 8:00 having secondary start at 9:00 uh I know you guys received um input I received input uh some of that had to do with scheduling conflicts at the end of the day for secondary students um extracurricular activities and and um how that impacts our secondary students at the end of the day child care how that
151impacts our elementary students and so those were the things that uh I received and I believe you received the same types of of information now what I know you also wanted to know what happens around the area uh atics in Nelson County are small enough where they can run one bus route they don't have to run shifts and so they can go at the same time and so that leaves uh Bedford County who their secondary students go after the elementary students and so they report at 855 so that's closer to what um we have recommended last month Campbell County and Lynchburg City uh work on a book before so secondary starts before uh and those are the times that they go in Lynchburg city has their secondary students go in at 7:30 Campell County at
152805 U now of course it's my job to make a recommendation about what is most impactful to students in the classroom right in school obviously the things that we got feedback on are not as much about what happens in the school and in the class and I understand readily that there are other factors that are going to go into this but just so you know there that research does show that there are decreases in Target absenteeism uh our students do better secondary students uh do a better job increased assessment score so I feel like it's my responsibility when we're talking about the education of our students to talk about what is best for them in an educational setting but that doesn't that doesn't answer all of the the issue here so I just want to
153say that before we go any further so because of that I am recommending that the Elementary start at 8 and the secondary start at 9 UM and that is based on what I feel like it's my responsibility to do what's best for kids in school um but there obviously has been research that uh supports that um at the end of this we will certainly revisit this because I know a lot of the feedback that you've gotten a lot of feedback that I've gotten don't match with this so we'll we'll get to that here shortly but I would like to talk about some of the other particulars of this plan the first is how how is the school going to look for our students in the elementary school all uh they'll be in 5 days a
154week all day no hybrid spaces it will look like 2019 in an elementary school okay so that's that is how Elementary is going to look the secondary after work with u staff the high school the middle schools uh they have all landed on wanting to use the block schedule but it's a little different than what they did this year so this year they did a 4x4 which means in the fall they took four cources and in the spring they took four cources the problem with that is that it it really compresses uh uh your curriculum and your teaching uh because the students that have the four and the fall they have to test at the end of that course like in the winter right and so with so testing and those kinds of things if
155they took an AP course in the fall AP cour the testing doesn't happen until the end of the year in May so those kids have a gap between what they have to take so there's a different model of block scheduling called ab and what AB means is that that students actually take eight classes all year long but they they rotate day to day which four they take so if you look at this on Monday they will take their a block classes so they'll be in 90 minutes in four blocks and they'll have four courses Tuesday they'll they'll do the other four and then Wednesday becomes this day where they kind of rotate right because they they want to make sure that on one week you'll have a block three times the next week you'll have
156B Block three times right so does that make make some sense okay so what this allows then obviously is that nobody has to take an so test in the winter time it's all Springtime testing so they get the full year it doesn't feel rushed it doesn't feel compressed uh those students that are taking AP testing they in class all year long and they they are in class up to when they actually take the um the AP test um the growing programs such as AP dual enrollment CT and internships those are better suited for the year long as opposed to that that four SE that four per semester and so that's why uh the the high school and middle schools have recommended and we agreed to that they would use an AB schedule and that's going
157to provide eight opportunities for credits as well so if you remember two years ago we were on the seven period day and so students are getting one more opportunity to earn credits which is also a positive so we go back I've talked to you guys about this several times but the delivery options for instruction based on the the um Senate Bill 1303 you shall as a school board offer in person instruction to any student that wants inperson instruction uh to meet the the standard requirements of time so for the US that means 5 days a week 6 and 1 half to 7 hours a day and so we have to meet the 180 days or the 990 that that is required by law this upcoming school year the virtual which was a May statement which
158we have talked about you may provide it you may not uh but I think we all agree that there are uh a group of students that may benefit from having the virtual option uh but we also uh brought to you last time that we think that that virtual option should be done in a way that doesn't tax our system our resources and our teachers and and by doing that we selected virtual Virginia uh I will have you know that since we announced that most of the other divisions around us have have started to change their their virtual options to Virtual Virginia as well U because they see the value in in doing it that way so this is what virtual Virginia will look like uh in your so in your packet there is an application
159form that application is going to uh have some criteria that students need to meet in order to get uh enrolled into virtual Virginia um it will be available for students in kindergarten through 12th grade uh it is based on semester so if they enroll then the first sem they're enrolled for the first semester so if they if they want to come out they can do that at U at semester break if you look over on the the far right it this gives a breakdown of what our cost estimate is and so uh it's going to cost roughly $2600 per Elementary student for the year and it will cost about $2,000 for the secondary student per year and based on our feedback from families um as to who would take the virtual option U we are
160we are estimating 400 students and that would cost roughly $ 89600 ,000 uh for the full year for those students uh and as you remember we put about $1.3 million in that cares lawn to deal with Staffing a remote Academy so instead of doing Staffing the remote Academy we're paying tuition and it will actually be uh a bit less money in terms of the car's act funding as far as um virtual Virginia is concerned uh we it's not an all cart en so for example if I'm a student I want I'm going to take I'm going to decide to take the government in English at home and then I'm going to come into school and take two other courses we we need this to be the the where you go if you want to take
161virtual courses this is the program this is this is what's being offered we do recognize however that all of our students are bonified students they are our students even if they're in Virtual Virginia which makes them eligible for any of our extracurricular or vhsl activities so that's the that's the virtual Virginia model um one thing I do want you to to know is that we have to start enrolling kids um and so we' like to start getting information out to our students so we can start to enroll them uh we are guaranteed space as long as they're enrolled by July 15th we go beyond that then there's no guarantee that there's going to be space or room for our students and and and that's really important because the amount of students that might be taking
162advantage of it across the state is is going to be pretty pretty big and so they're going to have to staff that um and so what I showed you this last time was the the timeline that we had put in place and so we're here on May 13th this is the plan and what the goal was was to say okay here's the plan now we were going to put out a a survey to to families about the times those kinds of things to get their feedback so then you in June would be able to say we're good to go um in the meantime of course we we want to start enrolling students in Virtual Virginia now if virtual Virginia is not the option you guys want I hope that it is um and you change
163in June it's no harm no foul we can tell those kids that okay that's not your option but do realize that we'll then have to build a remote option or or not right so uh we will be enrolling them with the understanding that it might not happen uh but I I I really think that based on your reaction last time that this is probably the the way you're you're you're leaning towards so those are the uh the timeline the plan and so I guess at this point would y'all like to go back to which SL well guess how about that one yeah we'll start there so any questions or comments M chair well I I originally had indicated I me and I'm up to what my colleagues was want to do but I mean I
164feel like I've heard enough feedback from staff and um parents to make a decision I'm not sure where the other members are no pressure to do that finally putting out I would like to try to get I like to try to give as much information to parents for planning purposes as we can possibly as fast as we can I understand but also confidences of making good informed decisions but um I was just going to state that I'm ready to make a decision tonight if my colleagues are if not I understand so yeah I I am too so since last Bo me I've heard from other people as well first I asked my own kids they're um honestly they don't seem to have a problem they're good rather sleep in a little bit more um but
165I'm I'm I'm ready I think the sooner we can make this decision yeah that's what I was I agree with that um not just about school schedule but I'm going to reiterate what I said the last meeting and that is moving full steam ahead with our opening date and getting kids back in the classroom um you know with the regular challenges of getting every child every day ready and Co coupled I don't want to fall behind any more than we we were I think am has done an amazing job staying on top of it with what we had to work with but um yeah I like what you said about you're you're having to worry about the child's education and that doesn't discount the other factors I'm a parent to I struggle with the same
166challenges but it is about the child's education at the end of the day and I think that I'm ready I'm ready to make a decision guess we got to show her no I I don't know which which time you're in favor for and and I didn't make it clear which I we're talking about just right now this one slide right yeah this is this is my recommendation for the start to right um it really feels like it's one of the few is not the only thing that is of much discussion you know the cont that might be controversial right the rest of it seems pretty well yeah and I'll comment on some of the other stuff just for whatever it's worth um when I first saw that AB structure I was a little concerned because
167I'm like we can't do this every other day but will you explain it I think it's great I think that's really going to be cool yeah um and it's going to provide a lot more opportunity I I love that um and you also said that as much as Governor eases up on restrictions that's how much we will be easing up one two including I would say you know even if it's where everything is we're go whatever you know go back as we were that's what I think we need do eating in the classroom we go back to eating cafeteria that's yeah that's simple adjust like that yeah and and like I say if we did this two days from now it might look a little bit different than this one right because who knows when
168the governor's now going to come out and make another statement we know he's he said June 15th but because of this it might it might pick up some pace and be next week so whatever it is we will adjust the mitigation strategies those are going to be flexible as we go but I think where we are now want to make sure that people understand that's where we are now um I'm okay with the times I just had questions about um virtual Virginia but if we're going to do the time first that's yeah you can ask the virtual Virginia it's fine it's oh okay for the virtual Virginia charging parents then no no we're paying the tuition the school system will pay the tuition okay um and that's the co money that's what the co money
169is there for to to provide those those virtual options for our families if they need it okay no matter how many students put in quar no matter how many okay and and we we really feel like I mean I think that might be more students that actually end up enrolling in it and and still at that number we we more than have the the resources to do that okay thank you mam CH I guess I need to show my hand because I I know y'all are I think yall are commenting on this the commentary that I've heard is has been year towards the Old ST times um keeping those schedules in consideration parents I completely understand what Dr but that's I just wanted to clear up that that was my position and talking about on
170the slide that's what I was I two I have only seen one or two emails from people but they both recommended um going back to the older schedule not um switching it the way it is now um but you know in seeing what you've got here I think everybody's in agreement that the best thing is to have them there 5 days a week and if it requires a Mas if the governor requires a mask and that's what we got to do um we have I've had people ask are you going to require kids to wear mask I'm like I'm not going to require kids to wear a mask but apparently the governor is until when he does it you think back to about 13 14 months ago we were getting hourly updates we didn't truly
171know what was going to happen so uh we're kind of at the mercy of that but um if that's what whatever the Mandate of the moment is that's what we're going to have to do but um and so when it comes to times like I said my everybody that I have gotten input from has requested um going back like said to the older schedule um my comments that I've heard have been a little bit vared between both of them so I couldn't say that the comments on my end have come and weigh one way more so than the other um I did have um one parent I think Dr Norman helped me with this one and she had some really good questions um we talked about maybe a frequently Asked question document or something but
172I think you've answered some of those about can the student participate in sports um can you transition back and I believe I heard you say you could transition between semester one and two that's that's what we pay for right okay at semester at a time but if you read the law and the law says any student that wants to come back in person may do so so I don't believe as a school system we can prevent a student who starts off in Virtual Virginia for two months and says I want to come back I don't think we can prevent them from that based on the law and so that's why I'm not making the statement that you know you can't come back during the year um it would be more beneficial to you would recommend
173have some continuity there um yeah and then I think parents would need to know if we're doing the block schedule and those classes are year long that's correct and virtual Virginia is on a semester class then those students that would transition back would have a more difficult time so you know for the secondary students I guess it would be more beneficial for them to be virtual all year that's correct as they just need to know what the consequences are going to if they decide to come back um and then I know we've got money budgeted to pay for these students but we've heard some things this year about the early grades like K through three virtual is very difficult for them are we going to have any type of funding for Teacher support that if
174we have students that are struggling in Virtual Virginia like can kindergarten third grade that we have people that can go the home or have we thought about that well and it said the original goal behind virtual Virginia is allowing us to separate our staff from the virtual Virginia staff um but that doesn't mean that they're still our students but it would need to be an on top of or an extra an outside of their their normal day and we could we can treat that like any other um support that we provide students outside of the the classroom I mean we do things like Homebound and and um and Remediation types of so we have the ability to to kind of connect with those folks but uh what I my My Hope Is initially is to
175separate uh but if we find that we have students that well quite frankly if they're not being successful in Virginia they need to come back part of the criteria in that document I just don't want to seeart through thir gral years really far behind and we don't provide some support or bring them back well they need to be in school bring them back I I you know I can't say I can't sit here and say that there are not medical issues that will prevent a kindergarten from coming back to school I can't sit here and tell you that but for most of our students school's a safe place and they're not being successful in Virtual Virginia we are going to bring them back to school be watching the tracking yes absolutely yeah and that's part
176of what that administrator position there with facilitated position there is to keep track of how our students are doing in Virtual so I think where we are now we we understand the mitigation we understand the changes of CDC and and the governor and we I think we're okay with that I think we're okay with block I think we're okay with First Virginia the item on the table and I had one more note which is the opposite way this letter says you know uh let's have the uh secondary go back to being early uh and the um Elementary go back to being late for reasons of sports and work uh it comes from uh one of our people here you asked me to mention that so we've seen both things and I think it's up to
177the board and superintendent to try to make a reasonable uh solution to the time and I'm I'm not going to say which it should be we have a recommendation how can I offer something to you all is that the original and so we have to weigh you having enough knowledge and enough information to make a decision versus how soon do we make the decision to allow families to prepare for that decision and what we had originally intended to to do was to between now and your June meeting to put out a survey saying hey everybody what do you want and then that way you will have by the next meeting this is what the majority says and I feel like that an issue like this right when everybody every family is impacted in a slightly
178different way right and that's that's really going to be the case here is it it's an individual issue and so you're either going to find out how everybody feels and then go from there or um you know or your conscience I guess what you think is right right Madam chair yes Ma so also these start times are taken in consideration of transportation that we have to run two bus routes versus other counties that don't absolutely because of their mitigation um navigation could change that for right now we're expecting if mitigation changes as far as distancing and things like that you going to change the two routes we still we've always run two routes three that's why we stagger our Crossings anyway I grew up in Nelson we didn't have to do that so um that
179those starts are think that into consideration just fing you're saying full up it sounds like I I get everybody the I'm saying that was what was the original plan and that's said it earlier all right hold on this slide was presented I think we knew that but just trying to help you know I'm just I just making a statement that that was your recommendations yes I agree with the survey going I just to say that I actually agree with the new times you propos CU my kids the old schedule they were getting up at 5:30 in the morning and that's exact that's exact the exact point is that it impacts everybody in a certain way the way I land on this is what's best for students and their learning and that's where I land we
180have unique situation where we half part of this Royal Rule and part is City with one high school to give everybody from Transportation issu no matter which way we go the first pickup will be sometime around 6:00 whether it's an elementary kid or a high school kid that's the reason I was thinking that it's a lot easier for high school get but let's put the surve yeah that was the original and that way I'll bring it back I'll come back to you and say 51 that's 5050 that's how it usually works so that's going to give the community enough time to plan what do we well for next meeting this yeah I mean you'll decide in June my my hope is the plan was is that you would just you would bless the whole plan
181in June okay right that way everything is is locked down and this is what we're going with okay so some of us have shown our hands knows where we're standing on this so feedback would be very important yes okay and that will go out tomorrow okay one more question um have you talked with the um coaches and how this is going to Impact Sports oh yeah so with with sports in general um right now we're doing a 4:00 dismissal for secondary anyway so practice to start around 4:15 to 420 and the end around 6:20 6:30 games are scheduled for certain around 6: to 7 depending on the sport so we're still we're doing that now so I don't see it being an issue moving forward just um if we go back to the way we
182had it before we schol getting at 3:00 then we start practice at 3:15 320 and be done by 5:30 so it's doable sometimes for the more for longer distance travel which we haven't had much long distance travel history because of the co restrictions we had to play Clos for to home you may have a day where if you had to go down to a p or somewhere like that you may have to leave a few minutes for this regular dismissal but I think we could accommodate that I think one of the things that schools the coaches had to deal with in the old schedule was holding kids at school while they waited for the bus to come to to go to a game or you know so it was it was an hour waiting as
183well sometimes and so um you it it really does depend in terms of those kind of things and bford county is on the same schle currently so we play three of their teams in in in a year you know yearly scheduling we play three of their schools um so we will get the uh we'll get the survey out we get that information back to you and hopefully then make the final decision on and I I guess maybe for folks that are that are listening there's very much the feeling that everything except for the start of the day is feels pretty good to fol like the direction right because I want people to at least get that that kind of feedback we're going to we're going to ask the specific question start time but then we're
184just going to put a more of a general comment questions about the other parts um we're not looking to say do you like AB or do you like uh 4x4 that kind of stuff I think I think the the schools have done a good enough job of of working through that to get to get the appropriate here here's one that I I need to read while we we talked about a lot of things but here just one idea that parent said says regarding my son who's turned in 11th way he attends am high school and the governor school which meets at Heritage he and his cbgs classmates and the stem students at cbcc have had a very odd schedule this year due to the later the latter school day times at amers Governor school begins
185at 7:30 and let out at 10:15 to 10:30 the classes these students take at ERS County High School don't begin until 1:25 of course that break time between schools can be used to complete other work if they are at home but it's very awkward for students without their own transportation to ride the bus to the high school and then have to sit around until third block begins because the other school district that have students in Central Virginia government school and stem start their days at 7:30 or 8 these students have to be there that early but then have a great deal of wasted time in the midday it would make more sense to run am County Public School a closer and a closer time frame to the other area districts when it comes to the
186academic programs such as stem and cbgs so other than the sports part of it uh and the babysitting part of it we also have those concerned of we have in the cbgs and stem we probably have about 10 kids okay all right so moving on the next part is vaccination clinic we have that little video you know Dr well talked about vaccines and Miss P was one of our support staff of the year and one of the one of the reasons and I don't think Mr Holmes talked about it specifically was she was she was a rock star in our vaccine clinic I mean she was she was everywhere she did everything for That vaccine clinic and we had to this point um we have administered close to 5,300 doses uh for this community uh
187for the ammer community and I'm going to say that if it were not for the efforts put in by am County public schools that wouldn't have happened in am County and so I I am I want to publicly thank our uh volunteers we had 66 Amis County Public School volunteers we had 15 from the community we had nine folks from the EMS and 12 from other areas in the county uh Administration that that um volunteered so we did a little video and we just want you to watch it as a it's a 2minute long video but this is just to say thank you to all those folks that made this happen our world Chang never imagine pmic has dominated a lot the covid-19 pandemic has dominated our lives for over a year creating anxiety stress
188fear and uncertainty I would like to however talk about something a little more positive and hopeful and that's vaccinations while Amber county public school's initial goal was to vaccinate uh our entire staff in an attempt to make a return to fulltime in-person learning a greater possibility we quickly realized that we had the capacity to host and staff these vaccination clinics in an efficient manner we understood that our community's health is tied to our school system so we began lobbying the Virginia Department of Health to allow us to provide vaccinations for the ammer community in a partnership with the amris County public safety and the Virginia Department of Health amris County public schools has now been hosting the mass vaccination clinic for the amers county community for several weeks at our high school so the event
189today is uh hitting the vdh phase 1 C uh so those people are identified on the on their V site uh but basically everything today is appointment only but we do operate from 9:00 to 1200 today um and so we're trying to get everybody in we're doing about 350 shots today uh we going hit in Phase 1 see next week we're going to go to phase two just anticipated and then that'll be open for almost everybody in the state who's above the age of 18 for madna or 16 over for fizer uh you can go to the amers county uh website or the amers County Schools website and there's a link to the event right site and Eventbrite is where you'll sign up for these clinics this what we're doing this for the community uh
190you know we if if you need the shot or you need to get that shot just go on the event PR site let us know if you're having any issues with that feel free to call us we'll be glad to help you do [Music] it sto by it was it was so well run Dr Wells and his staff everybody did such a great job and it was the most positive thing you know in a year of not so much positive that was a really positive uh atmosphere so we we're really grateful and thankful that all that happened and I wanted to do that publicly tonight I was going to say you got the Chick-fil-A recognition so that's whole thing yeah they do great okay so moving on U for this next is Board of supervisor
191request on Friday I sent you uh in board report that uh Miss Lian and I have been uh invited to uh attend the May 18th which is next Tuesday Board of supervisor meeting at 7:00 to discuss our uh recently completed Equity L um a couple things I want to say about that first I work at the pleasure of this board um and this board has perview over all decisions made with the schools that is that is your when you ask Mr W about your responsibility that is your responsibility to have perview over decisions about the board um that being said unless I'm instructed otherwise um this Lian and I intend to attend and lay out the who what when and how of our Equity lessons this uh spring uh there was a list of 25
192questions that were produced uh some of them related to the lesson topic not all of them uh I'll prepare a statement to answer most of those um and understanding that many of those weren't Germain there were several that were asked about transgender and so I I I'm going to ask I would if I go if y'all want me to go I will answer the questions in a statement that are about the equity L because what the invitation was about um I want yall to remember that you guys have had several three four public discussions about this and you laid out the parameters and the processes for future instruction uh we passed a policy that or we haden't passed policy you made a motion that a policy was going to be developed to lay out those
193processes and procedures and so uh before y'all discuss it I just wanted to say those kinds of things because this school board deals with school issues and so um I'm I'm open to answer any of your questions or respond in any way you want to we'll have more discussion I think it's ridiculous I mean fact they're summoning you guys up up there um I I appreciate you your willingness to go and do what you got to do um whether or not people agree with this one one thing but we're elected to help run this School Division along with you and if this anybody at the in the community or On The Board of Supervisors has issues they could come here and discuss those with us not the other way around so I I just think
194it's uh I I don't like the power grab they're trying to get here mad Madam chair yes sir um I concur uh as a as a student of local government and knowing what our constitutional responsibilities are I was very insulted when I saw uh what was put out there I was insulted on a couple different levels one because I know what our Authority is as a school board especially now that we're elected and not appointed by the Board of Supervisors and I'm not trying to start a riff I just think that they really need to examine what their actions are with this but I also thought that some of the questions were unfair for the equity lessons that were that were posted I I don't think the words remain uh to to some of the
195content now I understand that things are interpreted in different ways I said but you know I tried to step back and and and avoid the the defensive piece and I said maybe I need to do a little self-evaluation as far as how I have communicated what my overall intent has been for uh this Division and so I started I started wondering I said if those comments are coming out then obviously either someone has not listened to things that we have communicated or I have not communicated it effectively and so as a member of this board and a leader of ERS County Public Schools I will not promote a position that does not encourage individual student achievement or recognize that we have all been blessed with a varing array of talents and gifts and that because
196of those blessings we will undoubtedly travel many different pth in our life and as a Division I believe we are here to support our students on those Endeavors and equip them with the tools to be successful so in my in my approach to give a clear and concise response to most of those questions um and and I redirect to the Board of Supervisors I I feel comfortable I would like to make a motion a directive uh to this board or uh on behalf of this board and I'll read it now as a motion Madam chair I moved at the amris County School Board ban student instruction and employee professional development within amers County public schools that b its Concepts promote that one race or sex is inherently Superior to another race or sex that any
197that an individual by virtue of the individual's race or sex is inherently racist sexist or oppressive whether consciously or unconsciously that an individual should be discriminated against or receive adverse treatment solely or partly because of the individual's race or sex that an individual by virtue of the individual's race or sex Bears responsibility for actions committed in the past by other members of that race or sex and that an individual is inherently bound to a predetermined role or outcome in society based on their individual characteristics and in the event that this uncertainty regarding whether or not instruction or emplo employee professional development might violate the terms of this ban then the content of such will be evaluated by a process determined by this board in consultation with the superintendent prior to the implementation of said instruction
198or employee professional development and I think that I know that's a motion but I think that sends a clear message back in my opinion and and B greatly rebuffs a lot of the questions that were posted out there uh but uh Madam chair I've made a motion discussion quick it has to be second I I'll second proed motions in second now we have where are these questions on their Facebook Facebook on the County website I think it just I just saw it the other day I mean they just released it yeah they just Tuesday like two days ago so and and I was going to bring that to your um and I can certainly find an email to as well to your motion um I will say you know we talk about um the issues
199of our day are difficult to talk about and they're difficult to process through um you heard me say tonight that our social emotional standards that are being put to us from the J Department of Education from my perspective some things that are a little troubling and not all of it but some of it and I think the piece that troubles me and I believe a lot of citizens go to the point that your motion has made is you know just there are issues that our society has to deal with but within our classroom within our students when they're sitting in those chairs they need to be assured that they are all valued and we don't want anyone of our students to feel put upon um and I think your motion says it well based on
200any characteristic that they don't have any control over um so um I I would be in support of the motion um because I think that that piece would address some of the social emotional standards and then we would perhaps have some Authority on some of those standards of how they are taught because we don't want I don't want those types of things in our classrooms um so I think I think your motion goes very well to to the heart of the issue that I think is difficult to talk about and to handle um that causes that Division and if we can get beyond that and have some common ground I think that would be a good thing and I think we're talking about two things here Madam chair I think we're talking about motion we
201have talk about questions so yeah got deal with motion good I'm trying to find everything on my phone the motion the motion motion oh um yeah I just I saw it earlier I just didn't realize it was concerning questions like this well it's it's not quite but this he brought Mr graer brought this about because well you explain wow I was just you just gave it to me tonight so I can't sure sure I frankly I looked at in my Approach I feel like we're defending our position as far as that one I don't I don't necessarily agree with the uh some of the questions is how the equity lesson was presented um and I just in my opinion I'm making a clear and concise statement to address the concerns of the community that put
202those questions for I just want you to clearify that yes ma'am this is not what we're doing the equity lessons we not what is being oh I Concur and also um I believe you can address that it understanding how it fits within all of the things that Mr Gallagher has talked to you guys about tonight as well with the training of our teacher like we don't we certainly don't want to do anything that's antithetical to those things abely he he had taken great pains to make sure that they that doesn't butt up against each other as well yes but if it does I think we're gonna have have to have some tough conversations sure because if that's if we don't want I know our policy talks about um controversial issues that they should be in
203the classroom without um you know if we have to talk about those difficult conversations free from bias pre Prejudice or coercion we have policy about um not U you know our work environment for our teachers and so we've got to consider everyone um I know we have a policy about the Pledge of Allegiance and some people would be adamantly opposed to that if we were to say everybody do that but we allow students to have freedom to not participate in the Pledge of Allegiance so there's got to be some room that we can have conversations about people's beliefs and the political ideologies and what freedoms they have so it may be that we have to talk with the attorney about it at the time but I mean I'm not comfortable with just saying you know
204well we're going to pass this but then if the state tells us that we have to treat people with discrimination that we're going to do that I'm not I don't think the state's ever going to say that I mean we got too many things it seems like we got too many things on the plate here I'm confused but your points taken but what what um Mr rer has brought and he's explained why he brought that what are we saying as a board to that we had a motion a second Mr want to make sure that you're not talking this is not a policy policy follow I just make sure and I also want to say that you know I think this would address some of the concerns that we have had with um some of
205the lessons that we've seen Performance Based assessments as well as some of our themes in in our English classes I think that if not we W address of the concerns but we'll address some of them once again you talk about this motion I'm ready to a question okay I want keep anyone else I think it goes right along with our every child every day we're looking out for everybody here bottom Mr Grier I believe you did a fine job summing it up thank you so we have a motion from Mr sorry and a second and we've had discussion everybody comfortable all in favor okay and that's with let us be clear what this intention is anybody oppos motion carries from Mr and where were we now talking about Tuesday Tuesday I think people different people
206were talking we pass where have we gotten here I'm I'm trying to remain professional with that as far as or whether you should go or not is that what you were I'm ask yeah a thought I had would be I do think that there's value in the public understanding um could we take the 20 25 questions and perhaps narrow them down and put them in context and create some good questions um have them here so we can have public comment hear Board of Supervisors could be welcome to come and listen but but I believe that this information needs to be we need to hear it it's not that's what that was my point this is your we need to hear it we need to make decisions um so that's where I think the discussion needs
207to be my personal opinion is here this will be the appropriate I now if if what we do does not satisfy the public you know yeah they have the right to go to board supervisors but if we're doing it the way we I believe we should this is where you start well I mean I'm not I'd already decided I wasn't going to have this discussion tonight if I'm going to have it on Tuesday um the invitation was given Dr did you accept it because it must be it's that on the web that we're coming well um and it is yes it is board's final say but it sounds like the horse is already out of the barn well I don't think it I think you guys can say this is how we want to do
208this I like I my first statement was I work at your pleasure and school issues should be dealt with uh the school board I think that there could be some discussion with them about how you want it to occur as opposed to just saying this is how you're going to come do it and that's that that's how it was presented that's right um Madam chair so I just want to clarify the announcement that was made on the we or on the Facebook page that the Board of Supervisors is gathering information apparently about this and that um Madam chair you and Dr Arnold have been invited to intend so that's what the announcement does that just wanted to make that clear that's great um I feel like yeah I don't like that it was a last
209minute um announcement that was made on Facebook but that's how this world is now um I feel like it's got to be here we've we've talked about this since January I think that's correct at every board meeting and we have given the public opportunity to be heard at every board meeting they're gathering information they're not going to respond they're not as far as I know it's you know not it's information um so I don't know what the end result of That's supposed to be so I'm in agreement I mean I wasn't insulted anything but I'm in agreement that I think that information should be shared here in this form with this board and parents are always welcome to come and share their opinion and comments and email questions and gather um information that they want
210so um when did they contact you is did you find out who that popped up on Facebook or no no they they had they had been going back and forth about it amongst themselves the week prior and then they asked they had a board meeting on the Tuesday and then by that late that week they asked if I would do that and then that came out on Tuesday yeah well I I would like to see you know perhaps Dr AR and Miss L sitting down with Mrs Moore and Mr Rogers having a conversation say you know yes we want to be want to share but I'm fine with making a motion so the board wish would prefer that we do that here well it depends on like I said I'm not going to have this
211conversation twice i' already decided you know the invitation was extended and you accepted or not did you I told them I little it okay but that doesn't so look that that that's what I'm trying to say now to to have this and I'm just going to be one person saying this to have that conversation I don't care which Arena it is if we if we if we have it here um here be the physical building but on the terms of the school board we've already done that I thought we've already had those conversations true we've already answered those questions um not perhaps as we wanted to some months back I thought we put out some things on the um web pages about the equity lessons I thought parents sent you notes emailed you I thought
212we've been down this road so we're talking about two different things at this time for what I proceed and I haven't talked to anyone other than you uh and other people who thought about telling me I have been I was under impression that they wanted at their meeting to you for you to give a presentation so to speak or to answer questions to answer those question yeah so once again I'm just one person it's up to the board unanimously or not to say that Dr an is going there um and I will go with him because my name was on it or not and I would do whatever you all want but to have another conversation here at a school board meeting is on SOL thing just my personal op have they requested um you
213before to come speak to them on like different subjects or is this like really out of the norm I've never had that happen and I Know M Lian is more than capable going but I don't feel right I mean I look at this as a team approach and it really I mean that's what bothers me is is I'm not I don't know what the I I surely hope it's a genuine gesture I don't know what it would might turn into and I don't feel comfortable we've had had the discussion it's been going on since January right I mean if if there's motion on the table if that's an official motion to have it here then I say it if that's what you did Miss Thompson and how how I mean we we've heard from a
214lot a lot of people on this um I I just do not understand why it's still being stirred this way I guess um I'm I'm I'm I I would agree um if we're going to entertain it it needs to be here so I guess to clear the confusion I guess uh Madam chair I make a motion that if this discussion is to be held with Board of supervises it be done in a school board meeting and that you all not participate in the Tuesday board supervisor meeting a second that we have a excuse me motion on the table and a second um any discussion um I would just like to state if we already stated we were going to go there and then back out of it it doesn't look good and also I have
215a big concerned about them holding our Pur strings I I I I would I would hope they're not going they're not going to hold hold I would hope that they would be a littleit more professional and not hold education back because they just want to answer we're just saying student in the right envirment right yeah you're not saying we're not going to have a convers I talk to but I I agree this so it's a board discussion it's a it's a it's all of us not just one or two of Y is a governing body for the schools that's I think that's what yall saying any other discussion before we well we're um if the school board doesn't agree with something they've got going on or we have questions of something they've got going on
216we go to them ask them the questions um I agree with this I I I agree that they should come here and and talk to us about it um so Madam chair I just if you wouldn't mind elaborating you said you wouldn't mind having a conversation no I said I wasn't going to have two conversations two conversations yeah you know um once I got the 25 questions um I wasn't going to discuss them but one time so my comments tonight is the plure the board is making a decision now and I will at this time we discussion but the motion has been made and um I'm not backing down as chair I will do what is the pleasure of the board I'm just one person um I do agree on several things that have been
217said but I'm not going to have to discuss but one time so any more discussion if not we shall have a vote on this the vote I guess Madam parliamentarian is is Dr Arnold and the chair attending or not attending that no the motion is that this discussion is going to be had it's going to be had the school edit under the guys of the school board okay I say that I think that gives us an opportunity to where it's not just you two having answered questions we can have a very transparent conversation about what we have learned from the public and what we have done right um you know it's a team effort instead of it just calling out two people well it would right well it be the same format but you're saying
218just changing the venes well and I think probably that we could work through the questions in a way to to give them information if they're seeking information and they want the answers I can give them answers and then if they still want to come discuss it then I guess that's a that's another okay uh Madam parar the where are we now we in the voting I'm keeping up don't this up mess this up all right all in favor of someone quote what we actually saying here form Mr would you like the the mo the motion is that uh if if the school board is going to have a discussion with the Board of Supervisors regarding Equity lesson or school other school policies that it be done in the school board setting and that we're requesting
219the the chair and the superintendent do not attend the Tuesday board supervisor meeting for the purpose that's advertised I guess that would be right way well said and we have already had a second all in favor oppose I just want to state that I want to abstain cuz I haven't figured out all what's going on yet okay all right so what's next so you got some dates well with that I will have the conversation with the County Administrator my counterart yeah I don't need to say properly but we don't want the first time they hear it is in the paper um but that they hear it from you very well written paper just I mean that's what's wrong now everybody's hearing pieces of things so let's make sure it's a direct telephone if you don't
220mind to yes ma'am one thing that maybe I need to make a motion on this um do we need to send an an invitation not just say to them you won't come but to invite them yes oh that's yeah absolutely absolutely the teamwork concept yeah but I I think we need to kind of lay out the parameters between the two before anything yeah I'm just worried about the perception of it but if there's a formal invitation oh W good yeah and I'd be happy to entertain like if we had a joint me joint meeting or something yeah it's not on our data it's not on their date it's something that we agree to and it's amenable to everybody but that's just a thought yeah I don't want to interpret it as a riff or anything
221I just what's appropriate and what's not okay we good yes ma'am where are you number four I got some dates that y would be interested in yes uh well decided on May 18th May 19th is the National Honor Society Castle ceremony um May 25th which uh you have an actual invitation um regarding the golden a ceremony we have done some uh manipulating and we have put we have a couple of different ceremonies going on at the same time so we could meet uh uh requirements that we have on social distancing for the gold May ceremony on May 25th May 26th is our retirement uh recognition here which is a Wednesday night y would all agree to to be able to move that from May 27th which is the Laural graduation we have two graduates in
222the Laurel program and that's always a nice thing in May 28th we have the hammer County High School graduation at Williams Stadium Liberty University uh remember June 8th at 9:00 a.m. we'll do norms and governance training with bsda and June 11th is the last day of school how long is the training room get uh three four four [Music] hours the morning yeah here and we can send out another email with this these are the same things that were in the board report I think minus the golden a because that decision hadn't been made but the golden a is the the 25th that's that is imp what's the some of restrictions what's the participation the attendance restriction on that right now we're allowed 30% of the capacity in the in the room so the gym so
223we can have 30% of that which is 276 RSVP cign is it get an ATT well this year for the golden day we have 75 recipients which is great but it also means that that's a lot of people you know and that that was the that was the biggest issue and so we're going to be a we're going to split those in half at the same time and do them simultaneously okay cafeteria and gy I believe right now we're using gym and we're debating between the cafeteria and the auditorium so if we come yeah yeah I would that's how that's how we're going to do it um I think I'm going to go where my son is but I think everybody else is might be expect closer to the time if you want us SP
224up particular somewhere represent and that's all I have well we moving lat of the hour we would still want to hear from board members we still need to know what's going on Mr start Mr Terry yes ma'am so the STEM Academy has um we recently had our our our internship presentations the senior recognition the cbcc graduation has been going on for the past two hours I've kind of kept a watch on that just to see what all see all of our students graduate um they have been just as busy as as everybody else with getting all their little things done and unfortunately they you know have to do a lot of their stuff you know like I said virtually but they were able to get their seniors together to do their senior recognition just nobody
225could come to and watch it we had to sit on on Zoom or whatever it was to watch it um I have been able to go up to the high school and attend the last improv was great love it Coulson it was awesome um gone to several of the tennis matches Reagan there you go girl look good um we also attended the football and high and the uh cheerleading banquet um they did a really good job of doing that in the stands keeping everybody as separate as they could um pretty good food and you know good seeing people out and about and and doing things and not just sitting on a zoom call so uh those those were great um as far as tonight's meeting um you know to be able to see the support
226staff recognition uh 41 years here and still picking that's that's great that's great Mr Jones should be definitely commended and Miss pay for all their work that's that's a great thing uh and Mrs aity the teacher of the year um just listen to miss Scott talk about her you could just tell how much um Miss Scott thinks over it's awesome to hear the the recognition of teachers and everyone uh Coulson and Reagan good luck to both of you next year you've done a great job representing the school um the you you laid some fine ground work for the next group to come through so uh um BCU be glad to have you Reagan and looking forward to seeing you JM you there call yes sir and have a good time um I I would like
227to miss thank Mr Clinton for coming again and speaking uh like I said we always like to hear from our people of our community uh those who are with us those who are against us those who are got whatever opinion like to here um the uh math Pathways program that's um so many people just they think math is done and I graduated and I'm done until they get into the real world and realize that they use it all the time so anything that we can do to make better experience math people when they graduate is is where we need to be so uh that that program looks like it's going to be be uh very useful I like it and the summer school program y'all got 600 kids coming already that's that's going to be
228phenomenal um unfortunately you know they they have to come because maybe they didn't get all that they needed this year um but at least it's available for them uh I'd hate to think that because this was such a screwed up year that they didn't get what they needed and we didn't have anything available for them so uh being able to see the effort that you guys are putting into getting this uh straight uh is is a great thing um it it speaks volumes for our our community um and Dr Arnold the um superintendent of the Year award um I think looking back to where we were like I said 13 or 14 months ago we had a lot of communities looking to see what ammer county was doing and um that speaks volumes to your
229abilities um I think you would have gotten the award even if they didn't in there that mean they didn't give it to everybody but um so many of the communities were wondering what's am's doing before they made a decision and I I think you and your staff has done a phenomenal job with that so thank you very much and uh that's my report thank you so much well State well as far as committees think we covered that earlier with Dr Wills um like to thank um or congratulate Mr Jones Miss pay Athen on their recognition this year absolutely outstanding I know my wife had the opportunity to work with uh Miss Payne on the clinics and she was uh her her gopher what I called her but she she ran around and helped her get
230the shots and uh they you know it's a very rewarding thing and I know uh she's very welld deserving and they all are for those recognitions and I appreciate their contri contributions to this division Reagan Coulson thank you guys I'm bad at goodby but you know actually we meet off summer so don't think this is last me you guys can keep coming at least to college so but thank you all for your contribution and what you brought keeping that Us grounded with the the student community and thank you all for that um on and uh thank you for your public comments again opinions that they're great to they're great to receive helps us process information Dr Arnold um thank you for everything that you've done with the leadership and that recognition is well deserved uh
231and I totally drowned out the last part where all the other superintendents got it to me you were up there so on the hill but thank you so much for your uh leadership during this trying time uh the math comment absolutely I U when I went in law enforcement I thought that I said I won't use that and then I got to doing crash reconstruction and I was seven pages of math trying to figure out how a commercial motor vehicle uh if they had enough time to stop or not let me tell you but uh math is extremely important in every day so look I really appreciate Miss Smith's explanation that like more than you'll know so thank you so much and then finally uh I would be remissed if I didn't mention two people
232that that I've had the pleasure of having interaction with that are no longer with us and that's one is Mrs woodriff um I can tell you uh my frequent stops when I worked up on that mountain uh I really enjoyed um the smile and the reception that I got when I walked in that shop to get lunch uh and I really appreciate that and uh she will be messing um and Dr Nichols U I had the pleasure of working with him in my capacity at the sheriff's office as balner stated and when he texted me last night I actually got to looking through my phone and I very rarely delete message conversations but I and I sent this to him but we didn't put it out there but to speak for the man the kind
233of man that he was uh you know the last text I got from him when we were talking about um running for school board and uh and he said uh you call and I'm there there good luck and I just really resonated with me and uh good man thank you um yes I just wanted to say a big thank you and congratulations to um Mr Robert Jones Mrs pay um miss m um again big part of what makes am what it is today we appreciate everything they do for us also um a thank you to Coulson and Reagan our student reps thank you guys for all your work this year and taking time out of your night to come sit with us old people we appreciate it and also best wishes to you to truly
234for you know your next chapter in your life the path you're going to be taking I truly wish you guys both the best and I encourage you to do whatever you want to do don't let anybody tell you anything different you are still always going to be Lancers right um also um a thank you to um Miss mcleen always a pleasure when she comes speaks with us um thank you to um Paige um Breen for her email for us to here tonight and that should be all thank you so much was right okay so for committee report I actually the last Governor's school meeting was last week and I could not attend due to a personal reason so unless I was in I was in a conference you were in a conference so I believe
235that was the last was that the last one for the year okay so I guess I have an update there um and yes following all my colleagues to congratulate I think they may all be gone the recipients of the recognition Awards and um you know that speaks a lot to their dedication and hard work so congratulations uh Coulson and Reagan our student reps um appreciate your service love hearing your feedback as to what you learned hope you'll take this little window into government and use it in your life as you go away from here and I wish you well in your endeavors important to hear about your success um and just to Dr Norman I just wanted to say publicly and um M Jennings is is her title Dr to I'm sorry okay so Dr
236Jennings and Dr mman you sent some data to me that I specifically request understand it took a lot of hard work so I just want to publicly acknowledge that I do appreciate that um so at the beginning of the meeting I wrote down a um one of my favorite quotes and wanted to say something about that it's actually on a poster in my office and it says Teamwork Makes the Dream Work and team was mentioned several times in comments tonight and I wanted to say something about that because not only the teamwork inside of um the school system you and your sta have making all of this work I feel like um the board and the administration the teamwork is very important and that it doesn't mean that it's going to be perfect it doesn't
237mean we agree on everything or um have the same viewpoints but that respectfully we get to the same goal which is um doing the best we can for Amis County public school system so um I'm proud of of the teamwork of this County well I'm looking forward to graduation too let me add that to mine so uh yeah let me congratulate those that um recognized earlier Sports a teacher of the year um you know I've heard a lot of good things about each one of those people and I think it it was very well deserved uh went to the Improv Love The Improv that was that was so much fun um lion kings coming up and I think everybody needs to try to go see that these guys are talented um I just love I
238can't wait to get the new Auditorium so we can really knock this thing out of the park here but we got we got some Talent uh coming up Coulson Reagan thank you guys for all you do um you guys are going a good far I'm looking forward to seeing where life takes you uh want to say great job um Dr Wells you you were the man of all of it or what but whatever happened with that vaccination clinic was amazing I mean everybody in the community that I have ever talked to people working it it was it was one of the best Rand operations of most anything um and yeah graduation it's always always a fun fun time takes me back I live I cariously through the guys M chair yes ma'am I would just
239like to say really quick I forgot um we have this wonderful my name book here that was presented us tonight I just wanted to say thank you to um glwood burle and can't wait to start reading it thank you so much CE you good yeah just keep it short I just want to say ditto for what everybody said um wanted to uh say congratulations from Mr Jones M uh p and U Mrs minini and Dr Arnold to you um you know you said in the years to come people maybe may know that every superintendent got it but here in our County we will know just you got it um and I know we need to get FR a and put that all that's that's a great accomplishment um because I think you have taken a
240lead across the state and've done a wonderful job of getting us back to school I appreciate that very much um Reagan and Coulson thanks for joining us and working with us I know you've worked hard all your years at school but especially this year just keeping um things going and communication and enthusiasm going it's just been wonderful listening to you and you're refreshing all perspectives and attitudes so thank you very much um and uh I had one question about the Equity lesson survey um I guess we'll be getting results yeah we we're putting out all that we well we probably do it whatever kind of format we might have move forward with what we just talked about but um just look forward to all the celebrations at the end of the year thank you all
241for what you've done and a wonderful year I'm like Miss Thompson I'm going to use those detto signs of we have had a wonderful meeting had a a lot going on been a lot going on a lot of good things are going on a lot of good information has come forward uh once again I would like to congratulate all of those who received honors tonight and Dr an all of those who um teachers of the year and support staff of the year and surely we will miss these two young people here but you own to better things and I hope that lanc land has prepared you for your journey absolutely just before I close what did what time do you want to go to school in amers 10:00 a.m. we know I just waiting ask
242I thought better ask high school student just already knows a little something about we're excited by Laur coming up we do have two students not plan to be there we have the invitation here I did have a meeting last week and SN was there as well on zo we improved the budget and rolling is down a little bit there but that's things to be to be accomplished there so L is in good shape I was able to get to two of the schools for lunch distribution it happened during my exam week so I couldn't do as much as I wanted to but I want to thank all those who participated and was able to do that I've been just enjoying myself on the softball field and my life is just as happy as it can
243be uh some of these things don't bother me when I'm seeing my young people out there hitting the ball and winning and all that so that's that's the way I operate as far as going forward we would do whatever we have to do to to stay with the practice of every child every day that's all I'm going to say about anything that's the only reason I'm here really uh I will answer questions if they appropriate and whatever Dr sets up with the Board of Supervisors I will be there to support you oh now we're a team and we're supporting each other as long as we have the property properly don't want anybody think that we're backing out because I have no intention of backing out of answered anything anybody wants to know I will not
244have a public spectacle um for those questions so um joint board meeting sounds more appropriate to me than coming to a school board meeting and that would just be the direction chair that I would ask you to go respectfully and anybody that's listening tonight we will do whatever we need to do to have peace in this County for whatever reason that we are not at peace which I don't know that we aren't we're answering any questions that we can and with that said I'm just about through I am still saddened by Dr Nicholls I don't want to leave that I was a good friend he and I sit down many a time he and I got lost in willbur together anybody been with me know and I said Dr Nichols I believe we've been around
245will Mur three times he said Miss L you told me where to go I know that won't good but anyway we will miss him and I believe his service is being held tomorrow at C joining him but if not let us think about him in a good way and it's been five great superintendent something my little tiny time and I've enjoyed myself learned something from all five still learning something so let us go forward tonight we're getting ready to go into a Clos session but let us leave on the right of court I'm not a preacher but let's not go out and say anything that didn't happen let's not go ahead and say anything that didn't transpire let us try to get the message across in the right way Dr anything else before we go
246into close session if not the board will entertain the reason going to close all right pursuant to section 2.2 3711 A2 and A7 of the code of Virginia it is recommended the board convene and Clos meeting for the following A2 student matter and A7 legal matter okay do we need a motion to go into close session some move second second We Are CL session thank you thank all those be [Music] gone hi Welcome to our 2021 winter sports virtual P rally thank you all so much for joining uh I just want to give a big shout out to all of our ammer Middle School coaches for the winter season first we have our coach for cheerleading that's Heather Dilla we have our coach for boys basketball is Mr Cody tatlo and our coach for girls
247basketball is M Terry Campbell so thank you very much to all of our coaches also we have a couple of students that were not able to be here today present at the virtual pep rally one of those is from our boys basketball team Antonio Paris good job Antonio great season and then also one from our girls basketball team Brooke Tasker great job Brooke and she was actually a member from of our team from manelis middle school so great job Brook so fantastic Seasons guys and we can't believe it's over already but awesome job go cougar [Music] my name is j Morris and I play mostly every position for the amers middle school basketball team I participate in football B team for the ammer high school my favorite subject has to be art because it helps
248me try new things and build my creativity my favorite big three is responsibility because it helps me and take responsibility for my action my name is Jake Casey and I play center for the boys basketball team I'm in the eighth grade I participate in the FFA which stands for the Future Farmers of America my favorite subject is X science because I like my teacher and I learn interesting stuff my favorite big three is respect because you got to earn it my name is Christian Proctor I'm an e8th grade and I play forward and center for the AMS basketball team I participate and soccer my favorite subject is math because it's what has taught me the most this year my favorite of the big three is respect because you have to have respect for your teammates
249and for yourself my name is Ashton Bryant I'm in eighth grade and I'm the shooting guard for the boys basketball team I am the soccer and I'm Striker math because it you can use it in your everyday life respect because I like being respected and giving respect to everybody else my name is Levi Campbell and I'm in the seventh grade and I play point guard for the the AMS cougars my name is R Lane I'm in sixth grade and I play point guard for the AMS cougars my name is Dylan lewit I'm in seventh grade and I play forward for AMS cougars my name is Jack Casey I'm in seventh grade and I play shooting guard for the AMS basketball team I'm J Jo I'm in the sixth grade and I play shooting guard for
250the AMS basketball team we are am boys basketball my name is k Christian I'm in eighth grade and I play play for the AMS girls basketball team I participate in volleyball and travel softball my favorite subject is math because it's straightforward and it's always been easy to me my favorite is responsibility because keeping up with uh having good grades and playing three Sports at the same time it takes a lot of responsibility I'm mckeny patet I'm in seventh grade and I play point guard for am cougars I'm Kinley Wilson I'm in sixth grade and I play forward for Amos girls basketball my name is Angley Terry I'm in seventh grade and I'm a guard my name is Claire Meeks I'm in sixth grade and I play forward my name is a C I'm in sixth
251grade and I'm a full I'm Rachel Bryant and I am in sixth grade and I play center for ammer girls basketball we are girls [Music] basketball my name is Amir and I'm captain of the AMS cheer team I play soccer my favorite subject would have to be reading because I'm really good at reading and I also like writing um my favorite of the big three would have to be resilience because I think it's really important to bounce back whenever you're at your lowest my name is Olivia Jordan I'm in 8th grade and I participate in cheer lady it has to be history because I'm really good at it and I just think it's really interesting probably respect because treat others the way you want to be treated and I want to be treated with respect
252I'm sah and I'm an grade and I'm the co- captain of the AMS Cham um trap I do trap my favorite subject is probably science because I like Hands-On experiments um respect because I want to treat others the way I want to be treated my name is shaklo and I'm in eighth grade I'm a co- captain on the AMS cheer team piano and singing my favorite subject would have to be history because I find it really interesting my favorite is respect because I think it's important that we treat each other with respect respect and treat each other equally my name is daia I in eighth grade and I am a captain of co- captain of the AMS cheer team I also participate in soccer my favorite subject is history because I think the past is
253very interesting and there's a lot to be learned from it my favorite is resilience because I think it's very important for people to be able to bounce back or recover from any situation hi my name is Victoria I'm in e8th grade and I'm a Cheerleader at AMS iron girls my favorite subject is math because it's fun and it comes easy to me my favorite is resilience because when people knock me down I get back up my name is Hannah and I'm in eighth grade and I'm on the cheer team I like dancing and horseback riding I like math because it's it's fun and I think it's easy probably respect because if you give respect you'll get it back my name is Sienna I'm in seventh grade and I am a cheer leader on the AMS
254cheer team my name is is sha I am in seventh grade and I am a co- captain of the cheer team my name is Kaye I am in sixth grade and I'm I am a cheer leader on the AMS cheer team I'm Michaela I'm in sixth grade and I'm a part of the AMS cheer [Music] [Applause] [Music] team [Music] sh we are in [Applause] [Music] here thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you Bank of the James for partnering with am County Public [Music] Schools Welcome to our Gallery this is m Reed's grandmother Helen Mundy wood she started learning in a tiny one room school she was the first black graduate of Lynchberg college she was a teacher and she taught thousands of students in the ammer county she was smart
255she was Brave she worked hard we honor Mrs Helen Mundy wood our local hero thank you so much for being a part of our mhes Gallery this Freedom walk is so inspirational to all of us and our students here at Madison Heights Elementary School was given the opportunity to express themselves through ART which which is what a wonderful way for all of us to show how things are going on around us in our community how we need to express ourselves and showing that we care about what's going on in the world and pray that one day we'll all have peace the students at Madison Heights Elementary School were able to use their voices through artwork every artist has a message and our students have some really clear messages that they wanted to share with the
256students and the families of our community the most important thing is that every student voice matters thank you this piece of artwork inspires me the most and when I was looking at it it seems like it would be somewh of a comic strip and in the background I did not notice this until I read the bottom in the background there turns out to be a kid that looks like to be planning a shooting but at the bottom it says a message about that school shootings are preventable if you know the signs and know how to help people my mom actually was a I wouldn't say a victim but she was in the same school as a school shooting one day and it just kind of scarred her okay you like this song because it shows
257that it's about love and that your skin color can be different except for this one yeah like that one this is like me and Destiny because we're best friends yeah that's up that's about it hi once again it's Dr mcginness in Mass High elementary school so today what you had an opportunity to see was a gallery walk created by our students um basically letting everybody know what they know about uh black history month but even more what they know about standing up together as one voice as you take the walk and with them through the uh a black history Gallery you will see a lot of opportunities where students are sharing their message the message that as one uh we can beat divide beat anything together we can conquer anything and you put it all
258together we can break the change by standing together so I hope you enjoyed the gallery walk hope you enjoyed all the hard work that our students teacher put forth we also want to thank the uh students from Lu who pitched in and did a lot of great work we got some wonderful uh teachers uh uh coming to us in the future so they've joined in with their students and the staff here today to make the day a great day for all once again remember together we can do it standing together we can break the change standing together we can accomplish anything have a great day and once again come back and see us at Madison Height Elementary [Music] School [Music] hello I'm Jeremy Hutchinson and I'm the assistant principal at Madison Heights Elementary School along
259with Miss Watkins and all of our students uh our fourth grade students here today fifth grade and fifth grade yes we do just want to thank everybody for coming out today and looking at our freedom Gallery of Art the the kids have just done an amazing job and uh so we just want to say thank you for that guys do you have Miss Watkins do you have anything just thank you so much for hopefully you will be inspired by looking at a beautiful video that will be coming to you soon so thank you so much for being a part of our experience and kids what do we say thank you [Music] thank you thank you thank you Sunday night thank you thank you thank you thank you Banker steel for partnering with amers County Public
260Schools [Music] thank you thank you thank you Sunday night thank you thank you thank you thank you Virginia Farm Bureau for partnering with am County Public [Music] Schools [Music] hello El and Elementary readers um I am Rob Arnold superintendent of Amis County Public Schools I uh have a son who is a graduating senior and I am happy to uh participate in the Virtual Reading month here at El Elementary and I'm going to read a book to you today and I'd just like to thank you for inviting me to do one of my most favorite things and that is reading so today I'm going to be reading to you the book called the most magnificent thing before we get started we probably ought to talk about the word magnificent uh if you're not familiar with that
261word um let's think about a few synonyms that uh mean the same thing of magnificent can you think of any how about excellent or amazing or spectacular or marvelous so this is going to be really exciting to find out what the most magnificent thing is so this is a regular girl and her best friend in the whole world they do all kinds of things together they race they eat they explore and they relax she makes things he unmakes things one day the girl has a wonderful idea she is going to make the most magnificent thing anybody have a prediction on what the most magnificent thing will be let's let's find out at the end of the book when we get there see if you are right so she knows just how it will look she
262knows just how it will work all she has to do is make it and she makes things all the time easy peasy first she hires an assistant next they gathered their supplies they set up somewhere out of the way and get to work it doesn't look like they're out of the way does it the girl Tinkers and Hammers and measures while her assistant pounces and growls and chews when she is finished she steps back to admire her work she walks around one side her assistant examines the other side it doesn't look right her assistant picks it up and gives it a shake doesn't feel right either they are shocked to dis discover that the thing isn't magnificent or good it is even kind of sort of okay it's all wrong the girl tosses it aside
263and gives it another go she's smooth she wrenches and fiddles her assistant circles and tugs and Wags when she has finished she stands up and takes a long look at it her assistant gives it a nudge with his paw the thing is still wrong she decid decides to try again the girl saws and glues and adjusts she stands and examines and stares she twists and tweaks and fastens she fixes and straightens and studies e [Laughter] second she was getting ready to do the certified had one job Natalia one job it's getting late all um we need to vote Yes hold on where was that oh yes all in favor all in favor opposed after vot certification of a closed meeting whereas the am County school board has convened in a closed meeting on this St
264pursuing to an affirmative recorded vote and in accordance with the provision of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act and where is 22-3 712 of the code of Virginia requires certification by this school board the search a Clos meeting was conducted in Conformity with the Virginia law now therefore be resolved that am County School Board hereby certified that to the best of each member's knowledge only public business matters LLY Exempted from open meeting requirements by Virginia law were discussed in the closed meeting to which this ification implies and only such public business matters as were identified in this motion convening the Clos me were heard discussed or consider Mo to certify make certify yes M Thompson yes Mr C yes m w yes M yes Mr giser yes Mr yes than okay need someone to make
265a motion oh I make a motion that we approve superintendent's recommendation to release three students from compulsory attendance for religious reasons do we have a second second all in favor I and oppos and now good yeah I have my wire on since February I don't know when they're coming to hook it up I thought that when I was [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] close wow w [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] w