001I got back in the car and my wife goes [laughter] out in kicking or hitting a ball. [laughter] All right. >> Congratulations. >> All right. >> I'd like to call this regularly scheduled January 8th, 2026 organizational meeting of Bedford County School Board to order. Mrs. Johnson, please call roll. >> Mr. Daniels, >> here. >> Miss Dobson, >> here. Mr. Hill >> here. >> Mr. Hullbrook >> here. >> Dr. Hubach >> here. >> Mr. K >> here. >> Mrs. Pervvis >> here. >> Mr. Superintendent, there is a quorum present. >> Is there a motion to allow board members to participate remotely in the January 8th, 2026 regularly scheduled meeting in accordance with BCSP BCPS policy BDD? >> So moved. >> Motion made by Chris Daniels. Is there a second? >> Second. >> I heard two over
002there, so we'll go with Matt Hullbrook. Uh [clears throat] I guess at this point I asked for consensus, right? >> Ask if any are >> Is there any any opposed? >> All in favor say I. >> I. [snorts] >> Uh the next item is there is there a motion to approve the agenda? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Chris Daniels seconded by Dr. Hubach. All those in favor reply by I. >> I. >> All opposed. We have a unanimous consent. The agenda is approved. I will now move to open the floor for nominations for chairman of the school board. Nominations do not require a second. The floor is open. I'd like to nominate Chris Daniels as our uh chair. Any other nominations? As there are no further nominations, I will close the floor for nominations
003and call for a vote. All in favor signify by I. I. All opposed. [snorts] The nomination carries. At this time, I turn it over to you, sir. >> Thank you. Thank you. [snorts] >> All right. Um, thank you very much everybody. Appreciate that. Um, going to move to 1.06. This is going to be election of the vice chair for 2026. Um, do I have any nominations for vice chair? >> I'd like to nominate Dr. Hubach. >> All right, we have a nomination for Dr. Hubach from Mr. Hill. Any other nominations? Hearing none, I will call the vote. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Any opposed? All right. Congratulations, Mr. Vice Chairman. All right. Um, >> thank you. >> 1.07. Let's stand for the pledge of allegiance and then a moment
004of silence. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. A moment of silence. >> [snorts] >> Thank you. All right, moving on to uh staff reports. We'll start with 2.01, the superintendent's report for Mr. [clears throat] Fair. >> Thank you. Good evening and welcome to our first school board meeting for 2026. Um, I trust that everyone had a restful and and enjoyable Christmas, winter break, and new year. I'd like to take this opportunity to officially welcome our newest school board member, uh, Miss Joe Dobson, District 4. Thank you in advance [clears throat] for your commitment and your participation in Bethford County. Glad to have you here. Before I get into my
005full report, I'd like to request the board consider moving the April 9th schoolboard meeting to Thursday, April 16th. Due to an oversight, we scheduled the meeting of the second Thursday of the month of April, but that date is officially spring break. Um, I would ask for consideration, a motion or consensus of the board at this time to move that to April 16th. We would correct that on both the calendar and the website. >> Okay. >> Um, you're asking for consensus. >> I am asking for a consensus. Yes. >> Um, I just asked for consensus. Correct. >> Do I have consensus to move the date of that uh April meeting to April 16th from the 9th? >> Yes. So, that is unanimous. That's approved. >> Thank you. As a followup to an employee recognition that I
006first mentioned, November 2025, Miss Jessica Guyire, principal of Stanton River Middle, and Lorie Barber, who is the ISS coordinator at Stanton River Middle, and myself attended the Virginia Board of Education meeting in Richmond this morning for the awarding of the Rise uh award, which is recognizing inspiring school employees. [clears throat] Miss Barbara received her state recognition as one of two Virginia classified employees who are now moving to the national level 2026 Department of Education Rise Awards. And I and again, it was a joy to be there with her and to watch her receive that award with one other individual. And um [snorts] I I think it was welld deserved for what she does at at Stanton River Middle School in how she works to lower recidivism in in school suspension and they've seen that result.
007So I gave great kudos to her for all of her effort. Tonight, I'd like to speak directly to [snorts] schoolboard members uh and I would like to address two concerns that I've mowled over for the last year uh in the form and I'd like to make them in the form of recommendations by this board to consider so that we can in [snorts] one way or another improve our u conversations, improve our involvement and um in the long run better serve stakeholders of Bedford County Public Schools. Uh after much discussion with the then vice chair and the now present chair and almost all of the board members uh there was a lot of good dialogue either pro or con to both of these recommendations and so I want to make sure that I put them out.
008you have you you've been given the format of what one of them would look like and I just want to reiterate that tonight what that looks like and kind of give you some examples. Um those two considerations are a board work session format before a board meeting on a every other month basis or as needed basis um in place of routinely meeting committees. You guys are have jobs. you guys are uh heavily involved outside of here and what I'm trying to do after listening to some of you is multiple things here. Number one, I'm trying to give uh best consideration of your time and at the same time uh while that time might be reduced, I'm also trying to give you the most volume of information so that you can make good decisions. And so
009processing this through, having conversations with other superintendents, uh a a a coach that I have from Salem uh that was given to me by the state, I just I feel like we could enhance what we do and also take care of those issues which I've heard several times that in a just committee system, nothing else, just meeting in committees, we often have people left out of the conversation. So, for instance, if you um had a be careful because I'm I'm I'm not pointing fingers at anybody, but if if you had a policy um that needed to be discussed and revamped, then what would typically happen is we would have that in information. We would list that those changes made in the committee. It would then go to action and you would be expected to vote
010on it even though you had not looked at the verbiage of it. And so those are issues that were brought to my attention. And then um along with you know trying to figure out how to figure out how to resolve that a conversation that started in this board I I don't know what month maybe summer or before where one board member suggested we have work sessions so that that we can bring topics to a table so we can all discuss it. I like that idea. I think you'll like that idea. you've you've been able to see the parameters of that. Um uh I to give an example, the chairman and I were talking today. I'm not trying to abolish committees by any form, but you guys are out a lot. You're involved a lot. I
011would just as soon have a lot of conversations on the phone as you being away from your job uh and having to come in for multiple times or go you're all in community boards. Most of you are in community boards. you you go to some of your two committees and then you end up here on a board meeting. I'm trying to figure out how to minimize your time and give you the best information [clears throat] so that you can still have dialogue, all seven of you in the room at the same time and everybody understands what we're doing. So, so one of the concerns was trying to abolish the committee. That's that's not what we're doing. In fact, I gave an example to Mr. Daniels today. Um let's [clears throat] just say pick any any
012committee um or any topic and that topic went to work session. That topic will not go to work session until there is a consensus amongst you that this is an important issue to discuss. Once Mr. Daniels and I get that kind of commitment and consensus then we would have approximately two months before because it's every other month. So, we'll give approximately two months to get information from these executives and then let you look at it at your leisure and then if need be have a committee meeting because we don't agree on something going to work session and then we bring it into work session and it doesn't necessarily have to have a committee meeting but bring it into work session. Um, I think we need to put parameters on work sessions. You know, I think
013Miss Pervvis brought up the fact that we don't need to have more than two subjects. Some people have said three. I suggested uh probably ill in in so doing four, but that's probably too many. So, have that before a board meeting. And if a topic does not meet your parameters, your your standards, then send it back to committee so that it can be hashed out and then returned to action. Does everybody follow what I'm trying to do here? I'm trying to streamline this. I'm also giving all seven of you eyes on every topic and at the same time we keep moving along because there's a lot of policies that need to be looked at. There's a uh there's curriculum things to be looked at. There are tons of things in budget to be looked at.
014The only committee that I think at this particular point in time that needs to stay monthly is what is currently our CIP facilities and uh PPE because there's a lot going on and different ones of that that you're on those committees. We talked about that. We don't we don't need that to go to work session. We need that to go to eyes every month on a site. And so that I don't I don't say we do anything with that one right now. We just leave it. You still would have your opportunity to bring in questionable things to a work session. You know, last year we had this kind of a a whole discussion, and Matt will enjoy this, a whole discussion on whether or not we blast the uh the walkways before we paint them
015or we just paint over them. uh as far as I I recall and and what I think would be prudent is we get the old paint on before we put the new paint on. And so if there's a issue at discre a discrepancy like that then you bring that and we all have that discussion and we all say good grief let's not put 15 coats of paint on on an over on on a walkway or overhang. So those are the things those are how we can move subjects and topics through. I think it it it's an advantage most importantly but it [snorts] because it puts all seven of your of your eyes, groups of on this topic or on all topics. Does that make sense to you? So I you know I've heard on at
016least two occasions it's like I'm trying to go backwards. I'm not trying to go backwards. I'm trying to go forward. I'm not I'm not trying to take power of anything. I'm trying to give you power. And I've had so many conversations over the last week that were very positive in both of the things that I'm introducing tonight. And I just I think it's it's healthy to have discussion whether we agree or not. It's just healthy. The any any comments before I move on with that one? >> Um okay. So you said not to abolish committees, >> correct? >> Um so we'd still have committees and just meet as needed. And then who determines the as needed portion of it? >> I think the chairman and myself >> by your input. [clears throat] If if someone
017in the executive team says, "Hey, listen. We got a hot topic coming down here on HR or whatever and and she feels like we need to have something to discuss so that you're in apprised of something, then she could suggest that or she could wait to we could put it on a work session agenda. We we have the discrepancy. if if any of you have a topic that you feel has to be looked at individually before we go any deeper, you can make that suggestion to him. And and I think we've made a mistake here in the past and I want to correct it. And and it's my fault. Um we've taken things to actual work study or to fruition without consensus. So if you feel like you have something that's important that needs to
018be brought up, a call to him and he agrees, you got two, you need two more to say, "Hey, listen, let's give this to the executives or let's put this in a work session or let's put this in a committee." Does that make sense? >> It's fluid. >> Okay. >> I just don't, you know, one of the things that I watched over time was it it was more about routine than it was about topics. We we need to get away from routine, you know. I I I I was talking to a lot of you, all of you, almost all of you on what we think will be hot topics this year. And I'm not going to go into them here. I think they come up in a work session because we need to be prepared
019for uh how we treat our faculty staff. We need to be prepared for policies that might change. We need to be prepared for inflation. We need to be I mean, you can go down that list. Uh you guys have all had this conversation with me. I think we we need to concentrate on those and we need to concentrate on those heavily through our work sessions so that we all have a voice to it if you if that makes sense. I'm if you don't know me by now and you think I'm going after power, you you don't know me then because what I'm going after is relationships. And it's for the same reason that I've I find relationships with the board of supervisors so vitally important. I I can't do my job without being able to
020have a conversation with them. And I appreciate those that have met with me and I have some others scheduled. Um I think we all need to take that opinion. I have I talk too much. It's a gift my dad gave me. But what that does is form relationships and relationships are what get things done. That's my opinion. >> Um so just making sure I understand this. So I'm going to use facilities because that's the one I want. Um so right now Mr. Haggler will email me and Matt and go Matt and I and go, "Hey, these are the the meeting times. Are y'all good with that?" We'll respond back yes or no. >> Well, keep in mind this one's monthly. That hadn't changed. >> Yeah. And so so I'm just using that as an example
021because it's the one up. [laughter] Um so in the future would then Mr. Haggler contact Chris and go, "Hey, I want to have a facilities committee meeting?" No, he's going to run it the same way he always has. >> Okay. Yeah, we we've kind of been doing that. >> You guys are going to you guys are going to meet and you're going to set your next meeting. You're going to go because you know where construction is. You know what what the deadlines are and all that. >> Mr. Hog. >> Yeah, I was just going to say that's kind of how we've been doing it. >> Yeah. Facility. >> Keep it going. >> Had kind of, you know, said, "Hey, we're not going to call unnecessary means just to have them." >> So, >> yeah. But
022and at the same token, if there was something that was really pressing that you had to eat meat more often, you're able to do that. So you guys would have that flexibility and and >> if there was ever >> so really the only thing changing is notifying the chair >> when we're having meetings >> not for you guys >> not for that committee that committee is asis. >> Okay. What committee is staying as >> I can give you a good example for curriculum and progress monitoring and outcomes. So, um, we once every few years may adopt a textbook. That would be if we're adopting a textbook, that would be a time I would want to call the CPO committee together and go through like our procedures and steps to make sure we had board member
023input to keep all of the board updated through the CPO committee. So, that's like a big project that we would probably meet multiple times for. I think what I found with curriculum and progress monitoring is um sometimes my team is trying to think about well what are we going to present to our CPO committee um before we present to the board and I think sometimes we feel like we're just kind of doing things we would do for the board anyway or it's not really a special project. We re um or we had a committee redo the family life curriculum that was lots of people involved that needed CPO [clears throat] with us during that. So for CPO it would be special projects like that. So I may be the one to say to Mr. Duper,
024can you talk to the board chair because we're going to go into a social studies textbook adoption and I'd like to have my committee start meeting. But let's say Dr. Hubach has been on that uh committee with me. if he had some concerns about curriculum and he called Chris and Mr. Dupair and said, "I have some concerns about this. I'd really like to have a CPO committee meeting and and all of you have consensus." Then I would go ahead and schedule that for what worked for the team. So, I think that's kind of some of those special projects that are unique to some of our committees. >> So, if I understand this correctly, we're going to have committees. They'll be formed. Mhm. >> We're just not going to use them until we need them. >>
025Until we need them. If there's a special >> kind of situation. >> Yes. There's something big. There's a special project except for facilities and CIP because they're constant construction. Well, we're meeting on site walking and looking at the construction a little bit a little bit >> I would say especially when it comes to those those committees and those things or I've sat on IGA um as things are happening that are going to get ready to be presented though to [clears throat] um at a work session like those committees would be informed and know what's going on. So like the committees are still meeting either having phone calls or whatever if it's not an official meeting. You're still involved in the process of being able to present um what essentially what's going to be presented at
026the work session anyway. So that way if if you have a concern, you could call me if I was on the IGA or Dr. Hubach or whoever or so or we could call you and say what's going on exactly and then you you kind of can brief us. So the committee is still going to have that vital role of being informed and being, you know, driving the train as well. >> So I have a question. >> Yes. >> So I'd like like you to walk us through for the CPO meetings. um that's a curriculum um progress not done. If there's a concern like we have some schools that are not performing the way they need to and if Dr. Hubach and I talk about it and we say hey we really needed to be part
027of um the conversation of how we're going to bring these schools up to the standards that we expect them to be. walk us through the process in order to for us to meet. We don't we don't have a regular schedule and and I'm fine with not having to go in all the time. I understand that. But um I don't like the idea that the board has to ask the superintendent for permission to meet. That is backwards. Um and so I'd like to understand what the process is here. >> You're not asking the superintendent to meet. You're asking >> chair >> your chair to find consensus and then meet. And that would be an excellent example as I explained this to you this week. Um that would be an excellent example of using a CPO committee
028to prepare maybe in March for an April work session. And one of the things Yeah. I I want through the process then if you would please what what what needs to happen then >> well there needs to be a communication of your concern which you have just voiced and then I would go it would go through through Mr. Daniels it would go through me I would go to Dr. Woodford and I would say, "Listen, produce this report. This has consensus approval. Produce this report." And so that's where it would go to both possibly the CPO committee and most definitely probably to a work session because everybody in this room [snorts] of the seven uh districts should know where we're we where we are on moving our kids. You you shouldn't have to speculate that. And
029so that's a that's a good example. you and I spoke about this week. Uh I gave you that answer. I'm not I'm not going to change that answer because that's the best format to get it to all the seven. While you and Dr. Hubach would have a robust discussion in front of uh the instruction and Dr. Woodford, the important thing is that it needs to move to all seven before we just say here's a plan. Could the rest of you five vote on it? Does that make sense? >> I agree with that. totally agree with that. I don't have any problem with that and I just wanted you to walk us off um you know and the board and to understand the process there. Um I am a I have a little bit of a
030red flag on some of that because of some of the boards and not this one right now for thank god but some of the boards we've had problems you know through SBMA I've heard through this through my contacts with other board members that if they want to talk about a topic that maybe some other board members don't don't really want to talk about um whether it's some moral issues or whatever then they have been shut down and not allowed to talk. And so that is that is a big concern that we don't open that door. >> So we've been there before by what you're telling me and we don't need to go there because when you approach the chairman with that scenario, [snorts] getting that to a seven board conversation is precisely how you have
031that discussion. And if it's so controversial that it's going to blow up in your face and it's the chairman and the board's opinion to table that until it goes to a committee and gets refined, then that's the process you go through. There should be no topic that you you don't want to bring up, but there will be topics that you want consensus with before you move forward so that you don't create controversy. You know what we're trying to do here is give you the most information we can give you. Give you a voice. Also, and my wife would tell me I don't do this very well, but listen to what your board members are saying, what your peers are saying. And so I I understand where you're coming from, but there should be no conversation
032that cannot be held in CPO at a meeting, a a committee that eventually would be properly prepared for work session and properly agreed upon and properly approved through the uh action agenda. And if that answers your question, let me say to the rest of this group, uh, Miss Pervvis, what I told you before, I think they all need to know this is that, um, your concern about those individual schools. Uh, we were to have started a process, instruction was to have started a process in December and start to evaluate those schools and then we had seven, six days of no school. So I know Dr. Woodford is trying to get that back on the calendar. Um those are concerns and if she wants to address it, she can address it. >> So then I would
033need to request today in order to meet this month or whatever uh from the committee in the CPO committee or can it just be by the phone or what does it when does it need to be required to >> Yeah, I think you could call Mr. Daniels at any time to have that discussion with him. I will say especially for CPO, we are constantly getting data. We're constantly giving updates and so we will more frequently give those things to the board because I think the board needs to know about scores and about interventions we're [clears throat] doing with schools and there's a lot that goes into that and there's a lot of work with school improvement and so the very things you might be thinking about may be things that we are getting ready to
034cover or you may call Mr. Daniels and say, "I really would like to have more information about what the instruction team is specifically doing at school A and school B." So, we will put that information together and then we will bring it if if there's consensus to put it on a work agenda, we'll do that. Or if there's consensus just for a report to the board, we can do that also. So, I think there are multiple ways um depending on the topic. I think it's very topic driven. Are you good with that, Miss Berus? >> Yeah, I I think so. I just I just want to make sure that we're able to, you know, have freedom to speak when we need to. And I I do believe that there's been times where I've just felt
035like, well, where do I go with this and how do I address this? This is something that the whole board needs to do or at least talk about. So, um, you know, I've been the one that's been advocating for more transparency in work sessions. I just want to make sure that it's not to the detriment of the committee. And I know that there's been times where the committee has presented to us the same stuff that they later presented to the board um, and just gave us a heads up. So maybe there should be some kind of heads up via emails as well so that we can say hey yeah this is ready this is good or whatever. I just think that the communication there could be streamlined through emails and then presented through the work
036session um or through the actual board meetings. I think that's a great idea and I don't I don't advocate that we have to meet, you know, the CPO has to meet every day for every month, but I do just want to make sure I'm understanding the process and then that the process does not, you know, keep people from being able to speak. >> Yes, that's another good point. Um, Dr. Wford just whispered in my ears. There's also Wednesday memos which would would initiate >> would initiate any conversation or give information to you to initiate a conversation. That's another perfect example. >> Go ahead. >> Well, I was going to say I mean if it if it was that extreme of a deal, we could still call a meeting anytime we want. >> Right. Yep. >>
037So, I mean, you know, if it got to that point. >> So, I have a question and a comment. My first question is um for let's say um Matt decides we need to have facilities committee meeting. He calls me they go yeah let's go to Chris. So we we all get together. How do we get consensus? Do we have to wait till the next board meeting or do we just all email it out? >> So with the previous Mr. Mr. Mhill used to have to do this and he would start making phone calls and say I need four board members to approve this for consensus and he would just make the phone calls to us. We would each call him and it would just be a very quick process. So if that was the case
038that you could expect for me that that's going to be the case. You would call me and I go okay that sounds great. I'm then three we just need one more. >> Yep. >> And we would do it and we would do it very quickly. >> And then my comment is I'm open to try it if we all have an understanding also. you know, six, eight months from now, we look around and go, >> "This ain't working for me." >> Yeah. We can always reverse this. >> Yeah. >> So, you know, >> you can also tweak as you can also tweak this as we go because we are trying something different and new. >> So, if you have a recommendation >> and we have the discussion >> to say, let's try this. >> Hey, >>
039because as of right now, you see, it all sounds a good idea. We're going to find snags and bumps and and things like that. that. And so this gives us an opportunity then to also come back and go, I don't know if if we really want to keep on doing this or maybe, oh, this is work great. Let's keep on doing it. >> Great quarterbacks can call audles. And I think that that's something that I think that we'd all be very good at and we'd all be able to recognize what's working, what's not. How do we make it better? >> And uh yeah, to to me, I I'll just speak on this real quick. To be clear, it's important that we are keeping our our committees and we're put keeping aces in their places because
040that that part of that has worked. if I don't know about something, I'm going to go to someone that that does and and with the way that our board has worked, those have been the right people in the right places. So, I think that that's great. We're not advocating our governance and our authority as a board because we're still having our our committees. Um, this is just a way to help get more information and then get that same information out to the entire board for transparency, but also then out to the public for transparency. I know our our meetings were um were, you know, livereamed and they were they were out there. However, if it's on the day where we're going to have a a school an actual school board meeting, there's a chance we're
041going to get more people from the public that are going to at least be in tune to what we're doing. And I have no problem with with the with [snorts] our citizens seeing how the sausage gets made and what we're actually debating. I think that's a that's a good thing. So, I am excited for that part of it. But again, you guys know me. if something just give me a shout. If something's not working, we're gonna we're going to look to make the change and if something's important to you, this is our board. All right? Um we'll we'll we'll get it out there. We'll make sure we get consensus and we'll we'll move. [cough] So, I was going to say something at the end after both topics, but I think [clears throat] I'm going to
042say it now. What you've just done for the last 25 minutes is a work session. Five of you spoke probably six of you spoke. And that's what a work session is. We know we know how each other feels. We know what's important. We know what's in question. And and all we've talked about is having a work session. Can you imagine any topic where we step in here on a afternoon at 3:00 and have this kind of discussion? how much healthier the seven of you are in knowledge. >> Well, and I would agree with that. I would agree with that. >> I'm gonna make a statement. >> Excuse me. [clears throat] Excuse me, Dor. I'm going to make a statement and then I'm finish. >> Several of you made comments through both of these topics tonight.
043I'm bringing up that and and it comes in different forms. Knowledge gives us understanding. Knowledge gives us power. Knowledge gives us uh a perspective that we don't have. knowledge gives us a lot of different you all said it differently but you all led to to the same conversation. If we do not have knowledge of what goes on collectively all seven of you, you are missing. You are missing debate. You are missing the ability to contradict. You are missing the ability to change someone's perspective because guess what? Perspectives are real until you change them. Well, our culture is full of that. Just stop and have a conversation with somebody. Stop and have a relationship with somebody. That's when true development happens. And I'm an advocate for that. So, that takes me to my second topic. I
044know it is the most controversial thing I have done in my career in some people's eyes. It's not in my eyes. So I want to have this discussion the same way we just had this discussion about workshops on our sources of knowledge. So um what I am proposing even at a temporary level is that we maintain schoolboard member alliance and we if temporary be temporary. We're trying to check in what that looks like. um add back VSBA and it is because of the networking that goes on at VS SBA does not mean we have to agree with it. It does not mean we have to vote with it. It does not mean any of those things. The biggest controversy I've heard is we don't want money to go to them. But the problem is as
045I am a new superintendent, I have found out information because I am not allowed to go to that board from other sources usually behind the eightball. My executive staff finds stuff a month or so later behind the eightball. So I am bringing this conversation up and and more good conversation has come out of me bringing this up than if I had never brought it up at all. So, I'm advocating that even if it's temporary [cough and clears throat] and and we're still checking into that. We have a we have a phone call in to their manager, um, what was it called, Doug? >> Office manager to ask if we could just get a six months so that we could experiment with it and see what it looks like. I don't really care. What I want
046is for us to be able to get the best information possible. And if it fails tonight, I'm okay with that. I'm not offended by that at all. What I'm trying to create is a fullblown discussion of where we need to be as opposed to where we are in the reception of information. How do we get how do we get how do we network? How do we have conversations with people that we aren't allowed to be with in that setting? So, I'm making a recommendation for you to consider that you [clears throat] won't offend me however you go. Um, yesterday I had I believe I lost track probably an hour and a half conversation with the executive director of SBMA. I was able to voice my concerns. My concerns were heard and I think I do
047really truly think and and I hope she's watching right now because I want to thank her for the opportunity to speak to her. But I really think that we can see some things develop there that will put that organization into a place years from now even if it takes three or four or five years to where it can compete in the knowledge area. But if we don't address it and we don't challenge um SBMA then it will not a give it will not represent the superintendent it will not represent the board clerk. it will not provide any representation to the executives through the superintendent. And so what I've asked for and I got good reception yesterday and I really appreciate the conversation is that those are areas that they're going to work on. So that
048doesn't mean they happen overnight. Those are going to take time. Those are going to take co uh cultivation. Those are going to take, you know, real um cooperation. So my my question tonight is for you to consider a dual uh membership even if it is temporary um so that we can learn glean uh be part of networking it doesn't mean I have to be I have to be supportive of it I it just means >> [snorts] >> um I want every piece of information moving forward in particularly the next two years the next two years I think are vital and if SBMA is there then I I'll be I I have no problem but if they need time to develop they need time to develop we need information today I'm going to go home don't
049tell me the score but I'm going to go home and I'm going to try to watch the Hurricanes play miss I could care less tomorrow morning who wins because it doesn't change my life if if if my Hurricanes lose but tomorrow if I don't have knowledge, then my job's harder. Does that make sense to you? I want as much knowledge as I can get in this job. So, I want to open this up for discussion as well because it should be brought to discussion uh with all seven of you here. It shouldn't be brought this kind of topic should not be brought to a committee to you know, we typically might bring this to IGA. This needs to have all seven inputs. So, I'm I'm fair game. Um, I open it for discussion. >> Well,
050Mr. Dubar, first of all, it was an interesting conversation that we had the other day and and u [snorts] at the end of the day, I'm I'm for dual membership. And I'll tell you why. Not being a member could cost us a whole lot more than being a member. Information is power. We need to move fast. We have no idea what's happening in Richmond right now. Nobody does. And because SBMA doesn't lobby, we really don't have a good feel on the pulse of what's going on. So my exact words to you are, I don't think it matters if we're dual members, but I do think it matters if we're not. That's where I stand. >> Let me insert because I wanted to say this before I started. You know, there was a lot of information
051given out and from my standpoint, um, we did not give you complete information on on [clears throat] legal services from the SBA. That was corrected and I think you found that information today in an email or or sometime. >> Yes, sir. >> And and so, you know, that that's an omission on our part. I apologize for that. Um, but, you know, that's going to be the dollar cents versus the knowledge and we just that those are discussions we have to have. Those are discussions we have to have. What does it look like? What do we need? what do what do we not need? And so, thank you for your comments. Yeah, I would say [clears throat] I'm really I think we need to look at it a little more. You know, between the two emails,
052you know, I got one from Shelly, got one from y'all. And uh, you know, I haven't had a time to really deep dive into it and look into what they do offer you, SBMA. [clears throat] Um, and like you said, I get it. VSBA does lobby. They're not always lobbying for what I would agree with. You know, I can't speak for everyone here, but >> um I definitely don't think we need to make a rash decision. I think some more information should be >> I appreciate the comment because they might not be lobbying for what I like either. >> Yeah. >> But at least I know what lobbying is being done, >> right? >> So, going back to Mr. Karn's comment. >> Yeah, I don't >> we need to know what we need to know.
053>> I don't And honestly, I don't think it would be that big of a deal to me if it [clears throat] wasn't spending the money. >> Mhm. >> You know, that's the big part. I mean, if you have it free membership, yeah, we why not? But >> yeah, I think that's where I'm at, too. >> You know, I don't really like giving them the money. it not even not even that portion as much as why two organizations you know if we've got you know from I'm just going to use the email that most recently gotten and it may need to be updated but from what I looked at altogether SPMA cost us a little over 8,000 altogether VSBA would cost a little over 8,000 with all additional costs included everything um I don't [snorts] understand
054why we need two. And you know, if if SBAMA is not doing what you'd like it to do, let's have that discussion of should we leave one and go to the other. I don't I don't see any value in having two of the same tool. uh it doesn't make much sense to me to hold on to okay if the point you want to make is VS VSBA is providing us better information that's a better organization then let's have that argument to have the argument of especially with going into budget season here and we're going to ask our staff and our teachers to understand of hey if we want to spend more money over here we're going to have to cut over here and then to look at us as a board and we're and two
055organizations and I know it's it's pennies to what you know a new HVAC system cost and you know all that kind of stuff but if I want to set the example of a board of if we're asking other people to to take measures to be more um austere then I think we should do that as a board as well. So that's that's kind of where I'm at. I I'm not really I don't really have a dog in the fight. SPMA versus VSBA. reached out to the VSBA. You know, they gave me a lot of good information. They both seem fine to me, but I don't I don't have enough information to really dig into either one of them right now. And I would rather have the discussion of, hey, we need to leave SBMA and
056go to VSBA. If that's if that's what you want, if that's what the [clears throat] the executive staff wants, let's have that discussion. >> I'm not having I'm not having that discussion. >> No, I know. But that's what I'm saying. like it just it doesn't make sense to me to be on it doesn't make financial sense to me to be on two boards that or two associations that that do roughly the same thing. Yeah. And and my answer to that is I understand the financial side of it and I agree with it. I'm not going to shoot myself in the foot and choose one over the other or or I'm not going to dog one one of them. What I'm going to say is that we need as much especially in the next year to
057two. We are going to need as much information whether it be correct information because sometimes valuable information is incorrect. You need to know what's incorrect so that you can make a good decision. So I I don't I'm not justifying one over the other. I'm just saying we need more information and and and I will say this about my conversation yesterday with Jordan. Um there were a lot of discussions about where they want to go. I have I they were they were conversations that I brought up and maybe she's had with other people before and she was very receptive and for you know we we haven't had anything for superintendent. That discussion I do believe will start. Um we we haven't had anything for board clerks. That discussion I am told has started. So I I'm
058kudos for hearing me. Um, but I at the same time you just you don't go from single A to professional baseball without time and development and and and that's kind of I just I want to be prepared for the next year or so and if if SBMA [snorts] gets me to a policy scenario that that is sufficient and and and by and and by the way we got policies this week which is outstanding. That's what we want. Um, [clears throat] but I also want networking. [snorts] I I also want to be able to go to an SBAMA conference as a superintendent and sit in session with board members and then let board members go over here and superintendents go over here and have discussions, bring them back, do the reports. This is how you're going
059to grow. I believe you're going to grow that organization. So, I'm I'm not bashing either one at this point. I'm just telling you information whether you perceive it to be right or perceive it to be wrong or perceive it to be in insufficient is where we're at right now. We need to be very concise in how we use that information and how much we get. >> I have a question. >> Yes. >> Um you had mentioned short term. Um are there opportunities with VSBA for networking and development without membership? >> No. it has to go through other organizations and and so there might be a conversation that starts at uh VA vs VS VA and I would find out about it because I went to a VAS conference or I went to a regional that
060has nothing to do with VAS just it's regional superintendence and I was always like when did that you know I'm listening to something and I'm writing a note or I'm coming back to the executives and saying did you know this and um that's probably been the thing that's that probably alarms me the most is we aren't always in the loop whether whether you agree with the loop or not you need to be in it and so if again I'm not here to bash either organization I'm not going to do that I I'm very very excited about the the conversation we had yesterday it it it's there's gaps and we just need to fill them right now. >> I have I'm conflicted in in a number of different ways. Um I am um much more in
061in alignment with SPMA in terms of our core values of my constituents and Bedford County as a whole. I believe and BSBA uh has wellunded, longestablished uh lots of resources. Their roots go deep and so they have resources and they have familiarity with with this division that SBMA does not have and familiarity often makes us comfortable but not for the right reasons. Um, and for that reason, my support really wants to be with SBMA, but I recognize the gaps because of the newness of their organization. And um, it takes time to get up to speed. You you can't grow roots overnight. and um so I would be in favor of a dual membership for the information um for a limited time and and give [snorts] SBMA time to to get up to speed. Uh my
062caution would be if we've got them both on the table and this division has been familiar with it with the the VBSA that VBMA that's where they're going to sit and go and that would be my fear that they would not use the resources of the SBMA side of things and continue to do the same old same old if it's available. The good part of yesterday's conversation is that it at this point being open to the conversation that uh SBMA is for board members and it knows and I think Shelley knows that it needs to also be inclusive of superintendent that need feel the need to be there or want to be in that network or want to be in that [snorts] dialogue. Um that was very uh helpful yesterday for me. Um, again, you
063said we don't grow roots overnight. Um, and you know, we we had a discussion today. Let's see if we can get a temporary. Let's just see if we can get it. So, if and and if you got a temporary and you came back six months from now and said, you know what, we don't need it, so be it. But if you went into that thinking that you're not it's this is not a mindset that this is not us being influenced because we're we're unique. Medford County is unique. We're we're not in the mindset that we need certain things because we already have the template there. We already have great policies for our schools. We have great policies for our kids. While while some districts were fighting out discrimination, guess what? We already had it. We
064had it. So, there are there are things that we're ahead of and we should be proud of that. You guys should be proud of that. Um for the same reason. Information is important, dialogue's important, and I do believe in Shel's mind, this is she gets it. This is where they need to go. And as long as that is a discussion for the future, I'll help them with that. I don't have a problem. Um, I I I don't want to say anymore. I just, you know, my heart, >> Miss Pervvis. Well, I was not able to go to the SBMA um empower ed this year, but um I know that some of the school board members have and in the past and some of them haven't, but it has been extremely valuable for me. Um, but
065one of the cautions I have with the SBA is when there's laws that come through the pipeline that say May, the policies that the SBA puts out say shallow, which is a big difference. And um some of the policies, for example, when they said something about um transgender bathrooms, the VSSBA, that was in the legislation, the SBA added um that they sh they shall provide not only bathrooms but also locker rooms and um overnight stay. Um, and so they're they're twisting some of the legislation that's coming through and um, some of their policies from what I'm understanding. And so we have to be very very careful that we do not use this period. Um that we look at them instead through FDMA that we um adjust and and we look carefully at what's actually going
066on in the legislation instead of just what the recommendations are for those policies through the SBA. um they just do not match up with um the values of Bedford County. And um I I'm also cautious about what kind of training that our um administration would get from them without um you know, I don't know. I've not been there, but when they're doing stuff like that with their policies, I you know, there's some big red flags. Well, Dor, I do not d I do believe that the only way that people go to those are board member and superintendent. The executives don't get training. >> Yes, we can go. >> Yeah, we go. >> You can go. >> We can, but we've we're not allowed with with SBMA. We've never gotten training. >> So, we we are
067out of the loop for information. The superintendent and us are out of the loop. >> But again, I I think we've discussed it. >> All right. Well, I I I have some Um, I've been on this board for a while. I've been on this board when we've had VSBA providing us policies and other information. Um, I think some of the things that they were certainly for are the reason why a lot of us are sitting on this board. Um, we passed a parental rights resolution. We passed a teachers and staff resolution. We've passed a promotion of patriotism. We've we've taken care of a lot of the woke policies. all things that they were stood against us on um as as most of our constituents uh are are proud that we we did. We worked kind
068of hard to kind of separate ourselves um from the SBA. Their values typically seem to align with the values of Fairfax and Lowden County and not necessarily the people here in Bedford County. That is the truth. They do provide some good information. Of course they do. There's a lot of lakes that have good fish in it, but they also got alligators, too. So, I would be very careful um in making um in making some of those just saying that we could get some information that we're not getting. I do think we can get some of this information elsewhere. You've had very good conversations with um um SBMA today. They seem you actually were able to get the director on the phone. We tried to find out if we could get a six-month membership from an
069office clerk. We don't got the answer. So, they're a big organization. Small organizations can be fleet, they can be fast, and they can get us information. I have a funny feeling that if we had a question as a a county, uh, as as a as a school board, uh, that we could get the answer probably pretty quick if we just picked up the phone and made a call. Um, also, I think that all of us have a lot have pretty good access to um, if not our our local delegates, at least their legislative aids. We can get Tim Griffin on the phone. We can get Delegate Zara on the phone. We can get Wendel Walker on the phone. We can get Senator Peak on the phone. We can find out what's going on. And by
070the way, anything that they're trying to pass out of Richmond, um, they're not being really shy about it. They're pretty much telling us what they're going to be trying to do. Um, and a lot of our delegates sit on a lot of these subcommittees. So, I think that we're going to find that we're going to be able to get the information if we ask. I think there's other professional organizations that we could probably look at as well. One's for human resources, one for instructions. There's things that are that are out there. I for one member of the board would be willing to pay for that for if there if there's something lacking. I just do not in my heart would not be able to vote whether it was free, whether it was temporary or anything
071for for for VSBA at this time or anytime. And it's because of those things that they have done in the in the past. If they didn't have a slant and were straight shooters on absolutely everything, we wouldn't have had a problem. There would have been no need for SBMA. That's not the case in this. And it's funny. Well, the SBAMA only deals with school board members. It's called school board member alliance. The VSBA is the Virginia School Board Association. Sounds like they would be doing the same thing, but then they're also lobbying and they're also talking to everybody else in the organizations. So, um I appreciate that School Board Member Alliance is willing to get better. And I think that we have a good in with good relationships to be able to make sure that
072we get the information we need in a timely manner. Um you said they provided some uh updates on some policies and they're going to be doing that on a monthly basis. They also had an email that went to members of schoolboard member alliance say the bills that they're looking at that are going to be uh introduced. Um there's I mean 15 different things that they're looking at here. sexually explicit materials. That's a bill that's going to come back up. Um, alternative assignments, universal free breakfast, paid leave expansion, redefining bullying, mandatory mental health training, repeal of right to work, local tax authority for school board construction or for school construction, FOYA, AED requirements, unpaid meal debt, renewable energy mandates, all things that are coming down the pipeline. They're saying that they're looking at them. I'm guaranteeing
073VSBA is saying that they're looking at them, too. But SBAMA is providing that. So, long story short, I am certainly not for um going uh going that route. I understand what you're talking what you're asking for. I get it, but at the same time, I feel like we can get the information if we just put the work in. And with that, I will uh turn it back. And I guess you're going to ask for consensus on >> I would ask for a consensus on both items. >> Okay. So, let's go back and let's see if we can get consensus. Start with the first one which would be um incorporating the plan to have um work >> to have work sessions um in addition to our committees. Start Mr. Kins. >> Yes. >> Miss uh Miss
074Pervvis. >> Yes. >> And yes for me. So that you have consensus on that. >> Um >> thank you. >> Got it. [snorts] And secondly, for um having dual membership between uh SPMA and VBA, we will look for consensus on that. >> Yes. >> No. >> Miss Bergus, >> no. >> And I'm on that one. So, as of now, that is no consensus there. [snorts] >> You have just had two work sessions. >> Do you understand what you just did tonight? >> Been here for an hour. But you know what? You accomplished a conversation that has not existed to this point on any topic outside of committees. So, It's our job right here to make sure that work sessions work and you need to remind us of that if you think we're not doing that.
075Um, this concludes my superintendent's report and information for the night and thank you for your conversation and thank you for your input. >> All right, perfect timing. It is now 6 o'clock at 601, so I'm already late. And we will skip um right now. We will go to public comment. Um, I will read the public comment. I thought I was getting away from reading a lot of stuff, but I I'm not. I have to read even more now. So, the public comment portion of tonight's agenda is limited to 40 minutes. Uh, speakers are asked to state their name and voting district. The school board is here to listen to your comments, but will not engage or respond speakers during this 40-minute period. Please remember this is a public meeting and that we will expect all
076speakers to refrain from any foul, profane, abusive, or hateful language during their comments or any time while in attendance during this meeting. We also ask that speakers keep their remarks objective and about the school and nature. Keep all comments limited to matters related to public schools and any comments that are harassing or amount to a personal attack against any identifiable indivi or individual sorry uh whether a board member or staff or student or having the potential to cause unnecessary delay or disruption to this meeting are prohibited. This is a public meeting for public matters. If a speaker is not present when their name is called, we will proceed with the next name on the list. An individual who is not um signed up to speak may not substitute for that time slot. Individuals will have
077four minutes to address the board. An alarm will sound when the individual has 30 seconds remaining. A second alarm will sound when the allotted four minutes have expired. When this second alarm sounds, please discontinue speaking and allow the next person in line to come to the podium. Should you be able [snorts] to finish your comments, please send or give them to Mrs. Johnson and she will give them to the board members. Please do not adjust the microphone at the podium. It has been positioned for optimal optimum audio quality. And with that, we'll start call the comments. And um we'll start with Mary Katherine. >> Hi y'all. I um my name is Mary Katherine. I am in district 5 and I have two children in the public school system and they are being very well treated
078and I'm very grateful. I'm sure many of you know who I am. I have been a very um eager community member um from back I guess it's been five years five years. um every single one of these board seats and every single one of the central office um I've gotten to know and I just wanted to come up here at the beginning of 2026 and thank each and every one of you for the jobs that you are doing. It is a hard job. I know that you deal with irritable parents and um overworked teachers and um challenging children, but each of you um are in this position. And I just wanted to tell you thank you for everything that y'all do. I am a big supporter of what this current board has done and is
079continuing to do. And I want each of you guys to know that I am praying for wisdom for you guys. And um that's basically it. just thank you very much for all that you do. Thank you, >> Miss Bennett. There is nobody else signed up for public comment. So, I will give a second to see if anybody else would like to speak. And with that, I will close public comment. And then, u Mr. Johnson, I guess the public hearing on the budget would be next. Correct. >> Correct. >> Okay. Oh boy. More reading. >> More reading. [clears throat and snorts] >> All right. So, we are going to start talking about the 2627 or this fiscal year's budget. The this portion of the meeting is designed for public comments regarding the fiscal year 2627 budget
080only. This budget um public hearing portion of tonight's agenda is limited to 40 minutes. Speakers are asked to state their name and voting district. The school board is here to listen to your comments, but will not engage or respond to speakers during this 40-minute period. Please remember this is public meeting and that uh we expect all speakers to refrain from any foul profane abusive or hateful language during their comments or any time while in attendance during this meeting. Speaker is not present when their name is called. We will proceed with the next name on the list. An individual is not signed up to speak may not substitute for that time slot. Individuals will have four minutes to address the board. An alarm will sound when an individual has 30 seconds remaining and a second alarm
081will sound when the allotted four minutes have expired. When this second alarm sounds, please discontinue speaking and allow the next person in line to come to the podium. Should you be able to unfin to finish your comments, uh should you be unable to finish your comments, uh please send or give them to Mrs. Johnson and she will give them to the board members. Please do not adjust the microphone at the podium. It has been positioned for optimum audio quality. Oh, I guess I need to read this. Please refrain from outburst or have you removed from the building pursuant to code of Virginia 18.2. 2 1:00 4:15. It's pretty forceful. >> Oh, okay. [laughter] Just so you know, >> just so you know, >> I don't know who's going to remove it, but [laughter] >> it
082and with that, there is nobody signed up for the public hearing for the budget um to start the year. My assumption would be that as we continue to where we start to have budget discussions, we will have some comments on that and I'm sure we will all get emails and and we'll start discussing that here very shortly. Um so we will cut cut that and now we will go back to um 2.02 and go to strategic framework update with Mr. Haggler. Thank you. Looking at the agenda, I was tempted to get thrown out um [laughter] and just turn it over to Leanne to take care of the rest. >> This is the Randy Show. >> Uh good evening. Um I'm here to present tonight uh continue to present on behalf of staff the strategic uh
083framework update. Tonight we're going to focus on goal five >> [cough and laughter] >> um the efficient and effective use of our resources. Just as a reminder um putting up on the screen that uh that the the main template for the whole strategic uh framework is um our vision, mission and core values. Our vision is the acronym BCPS building citizens promoting success. So just put it that I won't read through all that but uh as a reminder to everybody that that's the the core looking at our uh our goals. All five goals are listed up there though they're pretty small. We're going to be focusing on goal number five. Um the efficient effective use of resources. This was recently added to the plan. Um there were four and this fifth one was added um I
084think late last year. Um the four strategies associated with this is to build an annual budget that supports the strategic framework goals. Create and maintain long-term capital improvement plan that identifies funding sources. Number three, explore cost-saving opportunities and explore revenue generating programs for the school nutrition program. And number four, advocate with state and local represent representatives to fully f fund mandates and remove restrictive laws that hinder daily operations for students. So, we're going to focus uh tonight and presenting on this basically on the first strategy of that fifth goal. There are six things listed there on um um strategies uh that we're going to approach this goal with. And I'll I'm not going to read those exactly, but I'll name them and kind of tell you what we're doing on some of those. For the
085first one, um looking at programs and initiatives that's going to be done by gathering information. We have public hearing. I know it's early in the process. We didn't get a lot of feedback tonight, but we usually we talk to the PTA, we talk to board members, we talk to principles, and we get feedback that feeds into the executive staff and the superintendent hears about that. And then we we'll proceed in the future that anything that you see that's kind of new in the budget, new program, anything is going to refer to the goal and the strategy and the strategic plan to make sure that that is supported by the overall strategic plan. Anything going into the budget. Number two, I just mentioned tonight we have public hearing. We'll have more work sessions and uh we
086gather data from multiple sources as we go through and build the budget. The third item the executive team will annually evaluate. That's an ongoing thing that we do each and every year. Um when later on tonight I'll be presenting the second quarter forecast and how we look and projecting out the year. We're looking at efficiencies. We're looking at costs. are they coming in under and over and kind of and kind of evaluating what we're doing there on an ongoing basis that is executive staff and we're looking at trend analysis on a lot of those line items. On the fourth one um this is a ongoing process by the executive staff too. A good example of this I was coming up with an example on this one. I was talking with Dr. Woodford on this today
087is that our IT staff and Dr. Woodford, we look at our software line that supports what we're doing in the district, business software and also instructional software and we're looking at are we getting the results from that and what are we going to prioritize? And so you can if you really wanted to if you go to some of these conferences and stuff there's a lot of software you can buy and and so with limited resources where are we going to put our money and so where do we focus on that? And I'm very proud of our instructional staff. They looked at this and there were some cuts on uh some software that we're using for textbooks and stuff and saying that's really not getting our bang for a buck. It is over here. So, let's
088move our resources over here. So, we're doing that on an ongoing basis evaluating our programs and are the are are the purchases really producing what we want them to do. Um, as we get down towards the bottom of this, this is what we're going to be entering in the next few months. So, for the new board members, welcome aboard. It'll be a whirlwind. Uh but number five is is that all this data is going to come together. We're going to get as much information we can from the state. Um and then through the superintendent he the superintendent will pres present really a balanced budget to the full board. And that's the first cut you're going to look at it. This is superintendent's recommendation where he's gathered a whole information from the executive staff and others
089and presents it to the board. The board then takes that over and makes changes or adopts it. And so that that the board picks it up and then the board will ultimately vote on that budget and that'll be transmitted to the board of supervisors for a request and you're still not done because then you have to wait for them to either approve your request or not. Then it comes back and then you have to make further adjustments. So those are five six that kind of takes the new board members board members through the whole board process. Superintendent will produce a budget supported by the strategic plan. The board members will then pick that up make adjustments make adds reductions not support. then it becomes yours. Then you adopt that. It goes to the board of
090supervisors for requests. Then [clears throat] it comes back and you make changes. If it's fully funded, you got a budget and you're done. So that will take the next probably four months. If the state delays, it could take the next six months. So we'll see what happens in Richmond on that. So I'll stop there. That's this uh goal five for efficient and effective use of resources, mainly strategy one and building a budget. And uh I'll be happy to answer any questions you might have about that. That's very simple on the overall ability of a budget but uh from a high level there. >> All right. Anyone have any questions for Mr. Haggler >> and I would encourage encourage all board members especially the ones it is very complicated. If you want let me know. I'll
091take a day and explain the whole thing and go line by line. Any questions you have if any of the board members have recommendations they're hearing things from um our our employees and stuff. Please pass that on to Mr. Pair. So we can consider that when we're building the budget and kind of kind of flush all those out. So we we do need your input before it even gets to the superintendent's request, but you'll still have that opportunity once it becomes the budget that you have to bounce, but we'd like to know as soon as possible so we can do cost estimates and some evaluation. >> Any any other questions or comments? Mrs. Pervvis, anything? >> Sorry, I was muted. No, I'm good. Thank you. >> Okay. I would say Mr. Haggler that and and
092maybe Mr. Depair, we should get an an email to board members individually and kind of ask them kind of priorities, things that they're thinking, maybe top five, top 10 things um that they they're hearing from their constituents that are that are important. Maybe we can start putting that list together and seeing what aligns and then we can start moving that around. That's going to be something that the finance committee and Mr. Hegler and then all of us are definitely going to and be very much involved with. But I would recommend that whoever sits on that new finance committee um take Mr. Haggler up on that offer to to kind of walk walk through everything. There's there's a lot of line items. There's a lot of different things. I don't know how he keeps it all
093straight, but he does a great job and his team does. So, um very appreciative of that. Um >> Mr. Daniels, did we even reassign committees here or when we >> No, I'm gonna I was going to bring that up during my closing comments. So, as I wrote that down now, we'll we'll figure that we'll walk through that. Okay. >> Thank you. >> Okay. All right. Mr. Haggler, you this is the Mr. Haggler show. >> That's why I wanted to get thrown out. >> All right. 2.03 2425 financial audit. >> Yes. Uh Brown Edwards completed their audit of both the uh county and the school system. Um that's required each year. This is the official report. Um I usually report out on three different audits that we receive. one on a Virginia retirement system, one on
094our school activity funds. I've already reported on those for last year ending um June 30th. This is the financial audit. Um it's been presented to the board of supervisors. I'm happy to report that in the audit report um the financial statements um uh according to the independent auditors are fairly stated in all material respects. That's on the the top page there. Um there's two uh subsequent things. Uh they look at deficiencies in internal controls. they they did not identify any deficiencies in our internal controls. So, I'm happy to report that. And then there was also um we're in compliance with all laws and and and state rules on that, too. So, they look at to make sure you're in compliance on grants and everything that you should be reporting on. So, a very clean audit
095overall in our financial statements. Um the um there's a link there. Um, I've highlighted the pages that really refer to the school system, but we're part of the entire counties and it's a pretty thick about 200page booklet. So, I try to give you the pages to look at if you're interested in that. Be happy to answer any questions on this if you like. >> All right. Any questions? >> I have I have just a a comment. Um, I know Mr. Daniel, she and I talked about this and then I al also talked to Shelley Nordon from SBANA SPMA. Um she said that there are some other SBAMA um counties that are going through a full forensic audit and um I think that is something that we need to you look into. She said that their
096results should be coming in within the next few days and that um whatever they find, she's willing to um share with us so that we can kind of investigate that on our own as well as providing us um the names of some of the companies that the others used [snorts] and whether or not they um felt like they did a good job. She's I know that a full forensic audit could cost us money, [snorts] but it also um she's finding that it in the long run it actually saves us quite a bit. Um not just even I mean it could even be almost immediate savings. So anyway, I would like to put that in, you know, as a possibility and request that we kind of look into that and I'm happy to share that with
097um the board once we get more information from SBMA. >> Okay. All right. Thank you. Um I think we can go let's go to the second quarter forecast. >> Yes, Mr. Howard. So, um, I take the data that we had as of December 31st and kind of project out the rest of the year to make sure our revenues and expenditures are coming in with projections. Um, so on the first page, >> I'll try to get it done. >> I'll try to >> for the first time ever. Um, on the first page, um, you can see that our revenues overall projection about 342,000 less than projections. I did build into uh the projections those supplemental appropriations that I thought were appropriate that we that we see coming in uh for new board members. Supplemental appropriations are
098new monies coming in that we did not build into the original budget. Um there's three of those. One was $164,000 security grant from the state. Um the second one was about $11,000 for teacher lensure grant. The big one there for 1.6 6 million almost 1.7 million. The state uh sent money to divisions [clears throat] two years ago. So they forwarded you all the money and you had three years to spend it down and that was for all in Virginia literacy and catching up and truency and a lot of things that they said saw coming out of uh co um we were awarded close to 3.5 coming into the year we had 1.6 to spend down by the end of the year and we're on target to spend all that down. So I just have to
099do a supplemental for that remaining amount for the given year and that uh that needs to be spent down by the end of the year and we're on target to do that. So those are the three supplementals. I'll present those later in the meeting [snorts] for information. They come back next month for action and then I have to take them to the board of supervisors for final approval. So overall in the state um state funds you can see is the biggest decline there really because our enrollments came enrollment came in a little bit lower than projected there and but uh sales tax looks strong so far uh six months into it. So that's about 5.8% um ahead of schedule. So that kind of provides a little bit of relief there. So be happy to answer
100any questions you might have on overall revenue. [clears throat] Not too not too many things moving big there, but uh the biggest one there is a little bit lower enrollment than anticipated. That's the revenue and I'll go to the expenditures if there's no questions on that. >> Any questions on the revenue? >> On the expenditure side, all of our categories um projected to come in under budget as you can see built into the supplemental appropriations that I did on the revenue on the expenditure side also. Got it. Um, so when you combine the underbudget on the revenues, but we're coming even more under budget on the expenditures projected into any bounce right around $500,000 there and our ending balance. I would say that looking at the caboose bill for the current year budget that was
101proposed by the governor before vacated the seat included a 2% bonus for school employees. Um, for new board members that money comes but they don't give us all the money. we get part of the money and then we have a lot of positions that are not even covered by the state. So just a rough estimate here um 2% to employees would be about 1.5 million. State would give us $850,000 of that. Still need 700,000 to actually do that. 700,000 500,000 projected balance right now we're close but not there. So we'll be watching that. That caboose bill has to be picked up by the general assembly and passed. So, I don't know if it'll have the same language of 2% or a flat amount or if it'll stay there. Yet to be seen, but I'll keep
102the board briefed on that. But we are watching that to see if that comes through on the caboose bill for the FY2526 budget. Any questions about expenditures? Okay, I'll move on to the other funds. Um, I'm going to flip a couple pages there and we'll go to the nutrition fund. Midyear, this is one that's always been been interesting the last few years. as of mid year, um shown a loss of about $100,000. Uh it's been a that's a lot better than it was in previous years. We've made a lot of progress and typically mid year we do show a loss and we kind of make that up as the year goes along. So I'm hoping that we're close to break even by the end of the year, but still watching this one very close. We've
103made some changes and we've got some [clears throat] changes for next year to try to get more efficient on some things. Um and we briefed uh some of the committees about that also. So we're moving forward with some some tweaks to the system and we'll continue to watch that. The nutrition program ideally should be self-unding. Money you get from the federal, state, and what you charge should hopefully pay your expenditures. Um inflation and um the cranking up of the uh minimum wage has really put made that harder u to be honest with you. So we'll continue to watch that, but the the overall overall balance is still in good shape of about 1.2 million. >> Yes, sir. >> And that is just people [snorts] from last year. That is a massive I know it says
104it's a loss. Yeah, >> as of now, but a massive change. >> Y refresh everybody. What what did what was the loss last year? >> Uh last year we actually ended up pretty better. It was two years ago where really kind of surfaced and we were probably, you know, $400 to $500,000. So we had a we had a good sustaining bounce that we could absorb that and actually the federal government was like a lot of the COVID money that flowed in there we had to spend down. So we were spending but then we had to curtail that and get it back to where we could be self-supporting again. And so we're getting closer to that. So, I'm very proud of our staff. >> Yeah, it has not been like, oh, we'll see what happens. It
105has been a we have to take action and and really correct it. And kudos to you and nutritional team and everybody, but that's a that's a big turnaround that don't sell anybody. Sure, that is a big turn. >> So, hopefully that's [clears throat] that that holds. There's some estimates in there, but we'll continue to watch that one. >> Uh moving on to the textbook fund. Um 1.5 projected ending balance. Uh the next adoption for that fund will be history and talking to Dr. Woodford today. We're waiting for state information on that. We don't know if that'll be next year. It's slotted for next year, but sometimes you have to wait for the state to kind of say what is what books are even available for you to adopt. So we're we're going to wait and
106see on that. They were they were very delayed on some other textbooks, you know, a year or two back that we just kept on putting it off until they gave us guidance. So we're going to wait and see. But history is the next adoption. estimate about a million dollars for that. So, we're building up a balance there. Yes, sir. >> Um, I know the last one we did was math. Math. Yeah. And is there different levels of expense based on subject or is it all pretty standard? Hey, books a book. >> I think it really depends on how many resources come with it. So, history would probably be a a lighter adoption than a reading or math adoption because there aren't so many manipulatives or extra resources outside of it. Um, it also depends on
107how many different history classes we have because we might have to order textbooks for several high school history classes where high school reading there are just four grade levels. So, it really just depends on the um the resources and how many classes we have that are different. Would you say or >> Yeah, I think that's correct. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Really want to report on that that we are putting money aside for those large adoptions and anticipating those instead of coming to the board and going oops didn't plan on that and we need $2 million or something. So, um but history is the next one that it's slotted for. >> Next fun. >> Yes. Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. it just um curious. So you're saying that the history adoption may not be for
108two years. Is that what you're saying? >> So typically from DOE there's a seven-year rotation on textbooks. Um, so what we will wait for is for the Department of Education to say these are the standards and they do their own textbook adoptions and they look at all of the publishers and say these books are approved from the Department of Education as appropriate and it's time you can now um adopt new history textbooks. Sometimes we make it in seven years, sometimes it's eight years or nine years or 10 years or 20 It just depends on how the money goes. So that's we've created a rotation of every seven years thinking about we have to adopt something. Um and so we on our rotation chart we had next year is history but we know just with changes
109and and what the DOE is doing. They've not even started looking at history. So we know it's at least two years maybe more. So, it's just it's longer than we have on what we expected and what we've been setting money aside for. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Uh maintenance fund. Um there will be more details on this um coming from the committee at a later board meeting uh detailing what we accomplished last year, what's on what's slotted for next year and the next five years. So, we're working on that 5-year CIP budget and we'll be presenting that at a future uh board meeting. But on overall financial uh 11.5 million ending bounds projected, I will say a lot of that is already earmarked for the HVAC projects at Liberty High School and St. River High
110School. Uh we're negotiating with the uh vendor right now to get a final contract so they can start on that project this summer, but it'll probably take two years to get those projects done. A little bit complicated and and timing on that. So, we're moving forward on that. Uh the committee's been briefed and working on that and has selected the vendor. We're in negotiations now and trying to get final contracts on that. So a lot of that money will go down once those contracts are signed and committed to. Any questions on the maintenance reserve? I know that's just a high level. There's a lot of projects going on. We'll bring more details probably at the next meeting. And finally, uh we are self-funded and our health insurance um not as not as rosy here um
111as the other ones are. Uh started the year with 2.6 million in reserves. We're at 1.8 in reserves right now. We have seen our we've gone up on our rates the last two years. 7% two years ago, 10% last year, and we still see our balances being eroded. So I do expect a pretty substantial increase to our premiums this year in the budget. We'll present more on that. We'll get um Dr. Calver and I will have a briefing from our consultants on this in February so we can bring more data back to the board. But just seeing the cash flow, we need to make sure this self-unded count stays. It has to stay. I have to have the I have to have the money to pay the bills. So, we're going to have to address
112this. Um there has been substantial inflation in healthcare that has um just for new board members. This bounce was at six million four years ago. That's how much is eroded from what we had set aside. There was there was a period of five years we didn't go up on our premiums at all. It's starting to hit now. So, we just have to address it. So, I do have concerns here. We'll continue to watch it and we'll see what happens in the in in the next quarter here. So, be happy to answer questions on this. Yes, sir. >> So, we are selfunded as far as Bford County Public Schools. >> Yes, sir. >> Is Bedford County also self? >> They are. >> Could we pair up with them? We're talked we're talking and we've been talking
113as is the ex staff have probably doing that long term. Um it's complicated the health industry and maintaining staying on top of it. You have you know back county staff doing it. You got the county staff is is there there's something you could do there. The plans are similar but the rates the rates are very well they're they're far apart. So it's not an easy merger. It just isn't. Uh align is our consultant. They're looking at it. It's not something that we would do this year. you got to get more alignment before you can do it. But we're looking at that long term. Um, but there's a lot that goes into that. Yes, we're looking at that and other avenues. >> We're not a revenue. >> Our consultants are going to bring other things as
114for where where can there be cost savings and what can >> expensive. >> Yeah. Um but it is difficult to merge two plans when just for instance and this is not to say bad or good but if uh our premiums for the same plan that's close to the county and we're paying like 580 and theirs is over 800. It's like okay money has to come from the county over to us. You got to explain all that the board of supervisors. It can get done and we're working on it but uh I I that's in the future I believe. >> Good question. But we're doing all we can on this. >> I would say to that we've had two good meetings to talk about different with executive team executive team and that's our goal is to
115have conversations like this so that we can bring it to those boards and say listen there are there are some good ways to do things that we may not have considered. >> Yeah. >> So that discussion is happening. So that concludes the uh the forecast at mid and I'll have another one at the third quarter. But a [snorts] lot of the data from this one feeds into me looking at any technical or uh adjustments that go into the budget and I've already started working on that because I look at what's actually happening to what we budgeted. Is it good or is it bad? And I [clears throat] have to make technical adjustments and I work off our mid our second quarter one. Um so uh more on that when I get into budget on those
116technical adjustments, but uh I'll present another one at third quarter, but I don't I don't see anything jeopardizing us ending the year um not have enough cash. >> Um who [snorts] who are we uh who's our health insurance through? >> Um our health insurance is through Anthem Delta Dental is our dental and vision >> superior and then we have a uh we actually carve out our pharmaceutical and we go out for bid on that separate anthem and that's optimum. >> So we we bid that out separately. I I you're starting to hear that the that the premiums are going up and I just got my small business one the other day and it was a 17% increase. >> Um I'd say the biggest pressure when you look at it um pharmaceutical is catching up to
117medical. It's not there yet, but it's catching up pretty quickly on on how much that we pay out. So um but anyway, we'll have to continue to watch that. Thank you for the work as always on that. Um, membership forecast. >> All right. So, this is the starting point for the budget where we're going to forecast our membership for next year. And so, I'll go through this. Um, I'll I'll kind of highlight the it's it's a long report. So, on each page, I'll kind of highlight I don't think there's a presentation up here for that one. You have to look on a sheet. So, on the first page, we have our forecast uh methodology. But on the top part, you can see that we've got the five-year history and then what we're projecting for the
118next three years. Um, so you can see uh the projection is to go from 8,495 in the current year down to 8389 next year. So we are still forecasting a decline for the following year. Um, I will say as you as you look at this, it is um it is continuing to go down over the next three years. When you look at our 12th grade going out, it's larger than our kindergarten coming in. So, you know, it's birth rates and how large our county is and turnover in housing and or the kids coming in and stuff and several factors are causing that decline. So, [clears throat] overall, we are going to factor a reduction in our ADM, average daily membership for our students, and that impacts our budget for the state. Uh, if you turn
119the page to the next page on table three, it gives it by grade level. Um and then you know I can remember when I got here in 2007 most of the grade levels were over 800. You can look at them most of them lower 600s now and even some below. Um but I but the chart too I would just say um I kind of look out three years and I do a 1% v variation on that. Um you go back five years even the high variation was negative. You can see that the high variation right now is almost a straight line or break even. So, it seems like our our losses are going to slow down here in the next few years. So, that's encouraging. Looks like we're trying we're getting to where we're going
120to stabilize and and quit this uh uh and quit declining. Can't guarantee that. We'll see what happens um going forward, but this is the projection. Um if you turn to the uh the next three pages, they just break out the data by zone. So, I'm not going to go over those too much. each zone. You can look at the details of those and kind of look at the schools and uh look at the projections by zone. Um not surprising, the forest zone more stable. Um you can see the Liberty zone declining the most and then the Stant River zone declining somewhat, not as bad as the the Liberty zone. So those are the projections looking at schools and uh trying to project the the enrollment trends there. the school membership projections. Um I went we
121we did work with the facility committee on this and went over this in a lot of detail because we changed some methodologies. We looked at it wherein you'll see some new data on there that has not been there in the past. So we reviewed that in detail with them. Uh you can see the individual school enrollments um there for elementary, middle, and high and the totals by school. I will say it's not on there, but from the redistricting, we reached out to every single parent that was in the redistricting for force elementary and asked um were they going to go to TJ or do for or stay at Forest Elementary because of grandfathering. Um they're not those aren't committal letters. They can change their mind, but we had 16 students going from Forest Elementary to
122TJ. Um and so that red that's what the redistricting from best that we can gather is what's going to happen with the 53 that should have gone 16 are going to go and the rest are going to stay. So those are our projections. Um if you go to the following page um the methodology for coming up with the capacities in our schools uh really did a lot of discussion with our facilities committee on this and coming up especially our elementary schools in coming up with a good capacity and what we think those schools can handle. When you take those capacities with the enrollments on table 17, um we did two calculations. One with just K12 and if you look at the K12 calculations, where are our schools and what are the capacities and the percentages
123and then we looked at where do we have our preschool programs? If we have a preschool program at a school, we removed a classroom from the capacity calculation to come up with a new calculation. So that means it reduced the capacity of the school for K12. if we have uh preschool programs there. Based upon all this data, you can see that Forest Elementary is going to be at 96% capacity next year. Um I do have a little bit of concern. There are more developments and when are those kids actually going to show up? So, we'll see what happens next year, but our projection is that they're at 96% capacity next year. Um and I have three schools highlighted that we're recommending to close to transfers. Um, and that would be Forest Elementary at 96, New
124London at 91. Otter River may seem strange at 54%, but Otter River is like one of the closer schools to those two schools. And before we open up for transfers to that school, we're saying let's close that one because that may be one of the triggers the board has to move kids to that school. We don't know that the board has multiple triggers they can move to to deal with overcrowding, but I think Forest Elementary is going to be a concern coming up pretty quick. It's the class cuts too because it's such a small school. >> Yeah. Um Dr. Calbert was saying when you look at that school, we were looking at the staffing for that school today. And when you have a school that small, the kids don't come in 21 buckets. It's not
12521 21. There's 16 in one grade level. There's 35 in a grade level. So when you apply our staffing model to that school, it's very difficult to staff that small school. You actually have to go above the staffing standard and give them extra positions just to get by because they just don't come in clean package. It's it's just messy when they're that small. So we're closing that so we don't cause more of a mess also and cause additional cost at a school that's already costly. So that's our recommendation. Um that's how we've done it in the past. Be happy to answer any questions or uh Dr. Dr. Woodford or Dr. cover can help me on this um about our recommend recommendation for closing those three schools. >> Any questions? >> I do have one more
126page, but I wanted to stop there before I just kind of blew through it all because that's pretty important. >> Um the auto river transfer close, um is there a way we can not just blanket close it and just do a um case by case? That way it'll allow us to still, you know, If you have a portion of people that want to come to that school, you can still allow it if we don't make a move. >> You mean by depending on kind of grade level? >> Yep. >> That way you're you're you know, if you have 17 in a class and you still have four or five spots available. Okay. Well, yeah, come on in. >> We depending on what the board would do in the future and stuff, you it might be
127it might fit now, but then any action in the future might cause problems in the future. And I don't know once a kid starts there that the board has traditionally been very generous by grandfathering. Once you start, you finish. That's right. >> So if you put a kindergarten in there and it causes trouble next year and >> first after you move kids in, you just don't know [clears throat] what's going to happen next year. >> I'll ask for Dr. Woodford's um input on this because she manages the zone transfers and I could see that as potentially being a problem. >> So part of our policy states that siblings can also come. Once a child's in the school, siblings can come. So sometimes that sets us up for um we get a large class especially in
128kindergarten where we have 21 22 25 requires another teacher. So um it's probably been four years ago at Otter River we had these very uneven class sizes and we ended up with a class size of 27 in first grade. So the board had to make the decision do we add a teacher or do we revoke zone transfers? and we went to revoke zones transfers and we told children and their siblings they had to leave the school. It was very traumatic. So I think we since then have traditionally just said we are closing out a river but every zone transfer that comes in because people will still request it. I'll call the principal she and I'll talk about it. We let a couple of kindergarteners in this year uh because she had a very very small
129kindergarten class and we thought okay we have room to grow there. Um, so we do kind of do case by case, but overall we kind of say this is a school we have to really watch because typically we have to add two to three teachers to that school to make the configurations work so you don't have these large class sizes which is very very expensive. And so that's why we have tried not to do it unless we just know we've got a very low class size and we want to at least be able to keep kids in that that school if that all makes sense. >> Yeah. Do we have a lower um household to student ratio in this district than we do others? Because I know we pulled the permits of, you know, bu
130new building construction and this is one of the fastest growing uh elementary school zones. So, is it something particular about this district to where the household ratio may be down? >> I think it's homechool honestly and the number of private schools so close by. That's what I mean. We have a very large home. It's also been the, you know, um, you get into a dynamic, um, the birth rate >> Mhm. >> being down, but you also have the dynamic and, um, it's hard to tell because you need more longer trend on that. Sometimes communities will, especially in the forest community, you you're going, you know, they'll switch over. Mom and dad raise their kids, they downsize, they go somewhere else. Another comm another family comes in with kids. I don't I don't know if that's
131happening as often. So, you've got people that raise their kids staying and not moving. So you don't have the influx of kids maybe that you would have if a community's like switching over in some of these communities. I think it's all four of those that are happening. Um I'm hoping it stabilizes and new construction is the last page we'll go over. Um that there will probably be more kids coming into Force Elementary pretty quickly and Force Elementary is going to be something the door the board's going to have to decide what to do on probably even next year. it it's getting to that point and that's even after redistricting some of TJ of Force Elementary or the TJ there's still going to be some more pressure coming to force elementary sorry I didn't mean to
132skip that no that's okay um if we can go to the last page we added some information that the committee and um I'll say uh Mr. Stephen Hill um was looking at and um and so my uh maintenance staff and myself went out and we we started digging up data on what are the trends, what how many from town houses, how many from apartments, how many from homes can we expect to come in our houses. We looked at historical data. We have table 18 which is our methodology that if there's a new development, this is what we can expect. That's based on Bedford County's historical, not on national. Um and so we applied that to these developments we see up top now. When do these de developments get done and when do the kids show
133up? We had discussion. When do you start planning on those kids to show up? When you see footers in the ground, when you see the permit pulled, you know, and so it can vary. Some of these are two, three, four years off. Some of these are conceptual and some of these are being in construction now. We don't account for the kids until they really show up and and they show up in our ADM. But this is information for the board. These are coming. These are permits there. There's construction going on. And if you look down um at the bottom, there was just a new one I got notice on yesterday or today of a new development going along Parville. Um either 54 or 83 town homes that will add even more to Otter River. Uh
134once that's done, they haven't started anything, but that's conceptual. So >> I think it's 31. >> What's that? >> I think it's going to be 31. They're adding [clears throat] on 31 to make it 84, I think. >> Yeah. To make it 84. They were starting at 54. They they're wanting to go to 83 and they have to go through the board of supervisors. So, we got notice of that. If it's 81, that's another 13 kids into Force Elementary, which puts it at about 138. If all this came out, 138 more would come into Force Elementary in the next three to five years. So, something we got to watch and then I'll brief the board on as it's happening. So, this is kind of like a watch list. Where you where you going to have
135problems going forward? Correct me if I'm wrong. Every one of those schools are in the are in the forest. So, correct. >> Every every one of those developments. >> Um, that's really where I'm watching. I mean, we have capacity other places. So, I'm focused on certain areas, but there's not large developments going any I mean, there's single houses or four houses, but there's not real large developments that I know of that are going to impact some of our over capacity or elementary schools where we don't have capacity right now. But we'll watch it everywhere, but the forest area for elementary is the one we have concerns. Hope that was good information. Um, we added that last page just to make sure we're on top of those things. Any other questions on that? Is the board
136okay with uh if I could get a consensus on the the school closures? Um, because that's really a board decision uh that it gives us guidance and to make sure we have your backing to close those three schools for next year. Zone transfer closures, right? >> Zone transfer. >> Make sure we're not closing schools tonight. >> Did I say that? >> I'm sorry. Sorry. >> I got so excited about that. [laughter] >> Before we do that, Mr. Haggler, just repeat the three schools again for all the board members and public. >> Um, recommendation from staff is to close Forest Elementary, uh, New London Academy, and Otter River next year. All right, Mr. Kors. >> Yes, schools. Yes, she did. [laughter] >> M service. >> Yes. And Randy, if my email blows up, I'm going to
137call you. [laughter] >> You deal with the facts on the field. It's a yes. It's a yes. It's a yes for me, you know. >> So, you have consensus. >> Uh, one more. No surprise. Budget update, Mr. Her. >> Yes. Um I was in Richmond earlier this week. Um the governor proposed um his budget and it's kind of interesting how Virginia goes. It's the next Bayion budgets proposed by the outgoing governor. So it's just a unique circumstance that that we have. Um high level here. I do have some cut sheets, but there's a lot of changes in Richmond as you know. Um so I don't know where the governor's budget's going to go with the general assembly. I will say I heard a lot of careful rhetoric enrichment that they said there's there's pressures in
138other areas based on what I was hearing. I don't know if there's going to be a lot more coming in public education to be honest with you. Uh Medicaid is going to take up a lot of the revenue. Um they it's going to take up $2.5 billion of the new revenue to to take care of Medicaid. That that's a lot of money. So it's not going to leave much for everything else. So there are some things in public uh in the proposal that I'll I'll just mention a couple. There was a 2% salary increase for both uh the years of bienium 27 and 28 in the governor's proposal. So it' be 2% one year, 2% in the next year. Um also the governor's uh budget did take the recommended VRS rates which are lower because
139the investments have been better and they've been paying back the unfunded liability. So that's almost a 2% lower on the VRS rates. It saves the state money and it'll save us money on the expenditure side. It's not a revenue, but it'll be a cut on the expenditure when I produce that. So, that's helpful. Um, the exec executive staff already been looking through staffing. We'll have to look at the details. Uh, we'll continue to monitor what's happening in Richmond and whether that the House and the Senate when they pick up the budgets, if they're going to make major changes or it's pretty close to that. Um, just based upon what I heard, I'm not expecting anything huge coming out of Richmond other than what we got from the governor, but I may be wrong on that.
140So, >> great. So, wait and see. >> Um, I'd like to present on a couple other things, too. Do I have these? Okay, that's the governor's budget. Um, but there's two other worksheets I think I have in there. One is the reversion projection and local composite index. If you could pull that up. This is a pretty complicated thing that I briefed the board on through the budget, but I think it's worthy of talking about now. Um, that document's in there, right? >> Okay, good. >> Um, back almost 12 13 years ago, uh, Bedford City reverted to town status. With that, there was a funding mechanism for more money to come to the school system to assist in that reversion. Um they accomplished that by giving us the local composite index for Bedford City at the
141time of reversion which was 31. Bedford County's actual local composite index is 04593. So if you think about that when the state computes what [clears throat] they're going to give us in the budget, they say here's the total amount you need to run your school system. We're going to give you one minus your local composite index. So basically 45 46% we should pay for the state pays for the rest which is not true because we have a lot more positions than the state has but theoretically when you look at that difference that's going to go away in 2829 and we've been putting money aside to build to that so it's not a huge cliffall. I'm estimating that difference at the time based upon this year's budget to be $10.3 million that goes away from the
142state overnight. Uh we're currently on target to set aside about 8.7 with our current plan. So got a couple years to deal with that. We'll see what happens. A lot of things impact that. The LCI composite impacts that. Your membership impacts that and the state budget impacts that. So there's a lot of things that go into calculating that number. Um just wanted to update you. This is something that we've been keeping an eye on. We'll continue and as we go through the budget process this year may need to make adjustments or we just have to continue. We dialogue with the board of supervisors. I update them on this. They're, you know, so they know we've got a plan that we're not going to come over and ask for $10.3 million in two years. There's a
143gap. It may get bigger. It may get smaller, but it depends on a lot of moving factors. I'll be happy to answer. It's very complicated, but I'll be happy to answer any questions you have on this. >> Any questions? And for the new board members, the money at the bottom that we're setting aside is actually paying for the HVAC projects. Now, that's cash we're setting aside for one-time expenditures, but when 2829 hits, that'll all move over to the operating. So, we don't have that big gap. So, just to make sure I'm on the same page here, um that $8.7 million is just for that one year short or the sorry, the $10 million is just a one-year shortfall >> From then on. So, every year it's going to be 10 and we've got $8 million.
144So, if we spend it all in the first year, well, it it'll be it'll it will, if you think about it, it'll take 8.7 million out of the maintenance fund and move it to the operating fund. And then the state will take 10 million and theoretically balance your budget going forward. >> And speaking as the facilities committee, we're gonna have a lot we we can't take all that out of the maintenance fund. >> That would put your maintenance fund at zero. >> Yeah. >> So there there is that concern too. Yes, sir. >> Yeah. >> And there there's dialogue with the uh uh the executive staff also with the county about that too about long-term how we do that. So, it's long-term CIP really kind of being both county and schools looking at together because,
145you know, we're all one big county. You know, how do you support your facilities? >> And so, we're trying to work on that. So the the the picture here seems to be that we're saving money for the reversion and it's we've got $8 million in the bank to put towards the $10 million shortfall that's coming. But that's that's really money that's budgeted yearly, not >> every single >> No, it'll be reoccurring funds that we're setting aside that will be reoccurring in the future. So >> every single year, >> yeah, it's money that's coming out of the regular budget and being so put towards the reversion gradually. >> So to build up to that 8.7 each year, we've been putting 600 we've been cutting 600,000 out of our operating and the county's been putting 500,000 into
146that maintenance fund that then will shift over to the operating fund and when it reversions over. >> Does that make sense? >> No, no, it does. It's just my issue is it it leaves our maintenance fund at zero. >> Absolutely. It has a huge has a huge >> as as a county with a lot of aging schools. >> That's going to be a big issue. >> This sounds like another also when we talked about schools and the and the transfers and what do we have to do and how's it looking with all these new developments that sounds like something for a work session and this sounds like something for a work session. >> So, uh it's budgetm. >> Yeah, it's complicated. It's big news. We're going to have to throw a lot of things out
147there to see what do we think makes the most sense. >> And by by putting money aside for that into that reversion, you think about 600,000 being cut out of the budget each year. There's a lot of things that we have not been able to do. Lo and behold, you know, we're near last in salaries on teachers in in the whole region. So, it it it has drained and impacted our operating and and and those things need to be dealt with. And they're it's big money. So, I don't think it all could be done in one year, but a plan to go forward somehow someway. So, um, >> yes. >> Um, so Randy, just so I'm understanding, you're saying that on 2028 we'll be short we'll have a shortfall of $10 million. We budgeted 8
148million, but then the following year we'll have another shortfall of 10 million. >> No, no, the 8 million would go to offset the 10 million and that would be a permanent offset. It's reoccurring money. >> The the the eight the over $8 million or whatever we put aside is reoccurring money already flown into the school system. It would gypsy shifted over to offset the 10. It >> it wouldn't be another 8 million shortfall the following year. No ma'am. >> Not an additional 8 million. But she's saying >> it would it wouldn't be something that continues. >> No, it just means that the maintenance reserve we don't have anything. So if you got to fix something, you have zero dollars to fix it. >> Right now we have money to fix it, but in 2829 we
149will not see if we can get a real good deal on some duct tape. [laughter] >> Um I will say going back to the recession in 2008, 9 10 thereabouts. I mean there were probably four or five years we did nothing in maintenance. We had no money and everything got backlog backlogged and then you had to catch up. There was a lot of money that came through for CO that helped. I'll be honest, we got a lot of HVAC done during the CO and we could use that. >> But do we wait for a national crisis every 10 to 15 years to get a whole bunch of inflow influx of money to fix our schools? I don't think >> with with that CO money, everybody got money to do HVAC and those prices doubled. >>
150Oh yeah, they did. >> So get as much money as >> I don't I don't believe in budgeting waiting for a crisis. I think we should budget to properly take care of our equipment and we're going to have to deal with that. That I think that is the biggest shortfall or area the board's going to have to wrestle with and we're going to have to have come with a long-term plan. I don't think it's going to be a one year, but how do we get there within four or five or six years and move forward? So, and then the last sheet is um the executive staff look through some things and we kind of distinguish some things you have to do and then there's some things that we really need to do. I will say
151there's no wish list on here. There's no like want to do. These are the things we think we really need to do to be competitive and move our division forward. Some havetos are listed there. So, this is stuff for you to think about and give us feedback on as you're thinking about the budget. I don't I don't know if I'll go over I'm not going to go over all these because, you know, it'll get quite long, but we wanted to get this in the hands of the board members as the executive staff. These are things that we've identified of things that we need to do for our division. There are some things that we have to do to set set money aside. So things for you to consider. You may disagree between a half to
152two and a need. That's fine. You can move them back and forth and and I've given some estimates there. If there's other things that you see there, uh please let me know and I can do some calculations and and and along the line of that maintenance fund, if you go to the last one, long-term funding for CIP, I got a question mark because we have not identified long-term funding for our buildings and we need to do that. So please look over that list and give us some feedback. um either to myself or Mr. Dupair or engage one of the executives if it's in their area and we'll be happy to run some numbers and do some calculations. >> We changing the numbers on that. I don't think for the state. >> Oh, you have >>
153just to say while he's talking. Oh, >> we started with a want list. >> You have it based on 3% because you were >> quickly took the closer to the amount. >> I made it about the have to needs because the haveto's when you look at insurance or any of those other topics, we don't have a we just don't have the ability to to push this can down the road. you have to deal with what's in this column. So you're you're the first ones that are seeing a a value a dollar value. Those are estimated dollar values that we think [clears throat] we have to address that with. So these are all conversations that need to happen at this level and even at the next level if you follow my drift. And so these are
154these are important topics and we'll eventually share get this to an executive conversation executives just so that they know what we're dealing with. Any questions Mr. Hagar on this? If the board chair we could go down each one of those but I I I for time I think time for you guys to digest and ask questions I think would be appropriate. >> I think that's that's the best thing. All right, go to uh 3.01 supplemental appropriations. And just to switch it up, we're going to go to Mr. Randy Hag. >> I'm almost there. Uh these were the two um supple supplemental appropriations I mentioned earlier, $164,000 for state security grant and $11,357 for uh teacher lensure grant. And um that's for you for consideration. bring it back next month for approval and then to the
155board of supervisors for final approval. >> Got it. Any questions on that? >> No, all good. All right. 3.02 end of year carryover reappropriation. >> Separate different than a supplemental reappropriation. This is leftover money from last year. The biggest part of this is that all-in money I mentioned. So that's reappropriating that 1.6 million to the operating fund. We'll spend that down the remaining balance of which would have been our true kind of ending balance without all that all-in money. 162,458.95. Uh there's been the the board of supervisors usually lets us to reappropriate that one-time spending. So we typically request that that money go to our maintenance reserve fund to help pay for building related items in our CIB. So the request is 1.6 going to the operating fund, 162 going to the maintenance reserve fund
156for capital expenditures, and that will be brought back in the next one too. All good. This purpose anything? >> Yeah. No, I try to mute myself. >> You're all good. No, it's all good. We'll wait. You're good. >> Yeah, I'm good. >> Okay, cool. All right. We don't have any additional What should we do? So, let's see. 7.01 organizational items from Mr. 70.1 [clears throat] is um registering the four individuals uh in organizational organizational structure. Uh deputy superintendent title is Dr. Woodford. The clerk is Diana Johnson. The deputy clerk is Melissa Ston. And the agent of the board is Randy Hackler. And so those need a consensus. >> They need a vote. >> Official vote. >> All right. Um so we will need a a motion to accept um the recommendations from Mr. Dupair. >>
157So moved. >> Move by Mr. Hill. >> Second by Mr. Hullbrook. Any discussion? Okay. All those in favor say I. I. I >> I >> Any opposed? Nope. That is approved. That is good to go. All right. Um do I have a motion to go into close session? >> Yes, Mr. Chairman. >> Oh, sorry. >> Pursuant to code uh Virginia 2.2-3711A12 2-3711A12 [snorts] for the discussion and consideration of interviews prospective candidates for employment assignment appointment promotion performance demotion salaries disciplining or resignation of specific employees of Bedford County Public Schools and two for discussion of consideration of admission or disciplinary matters or any other matter that would involve the disclosure of information contained in a scholastic record concerning any student of any public institution. ution of higher education in the Commonwealth of or any state school
158system being student number 010826A. All right, I have a motion by Dr. Hubach. Do I have a second? >> Second by Mr. Hill and any discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? You're in close session. >> [clears throat] >> So it helps a [snorts] See, um, I just said, Miss Johnson, would you certify the, uh, close session? >> Um, can you make a request a motion to come out of close session? >> Oh, sorry. Uh, do I have a motion to come out of close session? >> First by Mr. Hol Brook. >> Second by Dr. Cubach. Any discussion? >> All those in favor signify by saying I. I I >> Any opposed? [cough] >> Okay. Will you certify the second? >> Whereas the Bedford County School Board has convened a
159closed meeting on this date pursuant to an affirmative recorded vote and in accordance with the provisions of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act and where section 2.2-3712D of the code of Virginia requires a certification by this school board that such closed meeting was conducted in conformity with Virginia law. Now therefore, be it resolved that the Bever County School Board hereby certifies that to the best of each member's knowledge, only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements by Virginia law were discussed in the closed meeting to which the certification applies, and only such public business matters as were identified in the motion convening the closed meeting were heard, discussed, or considered. >> Yes. >> Miss Pervis. >> Thank you. [snorts] All right. Thank you. All right. Um, do I have a motion uh for
160action on closed meeting items? >> Yes, Mr. Chairman. I'd like to make a motion uh regarding student number 010826A that we uphold the superintendent recommendation. >> All right. So, we have a motion by Dr. Hubach. Do we have a second? >> Second by Mr. KS. Any discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Any opposed? All right. Go. Uh item uh nine. We got approval um of the consent agenda. Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? >> We have a motion by Mr. Hill. Second. >> Second by Mr. Hullbrook. Any discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I >> I opposed. Consent agenda is approved. Um matters from [snorts] the board. 1021 BCPS assignments to community boards for 2026. Mr. Bear, >> I think it's yours. Is
161it mine? I'll take it. >> Okay. Yeah. >> I [clears throat] think what we have to determine is which boards are are open and which one assignments are staying the same. So, um, I want to make sure that we've got the right openings marked. So, at this particular point, when you go down those, >> they're all open right now. >> They're all open >> because it's a new year, >> right? >> Okay. I thought that we [clears throat] were talking, you know, school year as opposed to fiscal year. Um, then then you need to take volunteers for those. >> Okay. >> It can be the same people. >> It can be the same people. All right. So we have according to this there are one two three four five correct. >> So the first one
162is the seak the special education advisory committee. Um they each committee meets monthly and needs one board member committee is made up of parents uh former parents community members and representatives uh from the special education department. They work to try uh to make schools and parents understand special education best practices needs and improvements needed. This was previously um held by Marcus Hill. >> All right. Thank you very much, Officer Dobson. Jill Dobson will take that. Um Laurel board four times a year opposes special education directors and superintendents. Um and one board member is needed to oversee that. And um Laura program provides classroom instruction to regional students who are severely and profoundly mentally or physically handicapped or autistic. Dr. Were you on? >> I have been on that board for the last two years and
163would like to continue. >> All right. Very good. STEM Academy. Um as members from each region that it serves, teachers and division representatives meetings occur every two months are typically virtual. STEM Academy is a competitive application program for high school juniors and seniors interested in engineering, biotechnology, health science, and cyber security. Classes are held at CBCC. Uh, who had that last time? >> I did. >> All right. Are you willing to stay on STEM Academy? >> Yes, that's fine. >> All right. Excellent. Uh, Central Virginia Gov School uh has uh our students can apply and and it can be accepted. Uh the go school meets every two months at the governor's school. The board is made up of one selected board member from each participating school division. >> They provide oversight to the program. Um
164they've shared that's yours as well. And you guys had some changes over there. You're looking to stick it out. >> Yeah. Yeah. It's all good. >> All right. Great. And then the last one that we have is Ron Oak Valley Gov School. Um this is one of two governor schools that our students can be uh apply for and attend if accepted. Meet four times a year at 6:30 at the gov school. Board is made up of one selected board member from each participating school division. They provide oversight to the program. >> I'll take you. >> All right, Mr. K. Thank you very much. Um and that's the only ones that we have. We we have discussed our other internal committees. I think we will probably I don't it's not on the agenda. So, is that
165something we should just kind of um >> you could do it now or if you want to wait until we get to the agenda item committee reports, you can discuss it then. >> Okay. >> It's up to you. >> Okay. Well, we'll do that. We'll we'll wait until right now reports. Um [snorts] so, I don't know if any I don't think any committees met. committees [clears throat] met. But do you guys have any we did in the facilities a lot? >> Yeah, [laughter] we went and looked at the project at um Beth Primary the GM which is >> might be done now. >> Say they they were supposed to be in it this semester, right? >> I didn't check with the principles, but they were supposed to be at it and playing when they got
166back from break. So >> great. That was [clears throat] really the only maintenance was on that on site there. >> Yeah, we had the Yeah. Um we also did PPA um for that project and we also talked about the art tourum projects. Um >> yeah, >> we're so far so good on on reporting on those major construction projects. We're >> under budget right under. >> Great hard work. You guys are doing a good job >> on on schedule. That's also an important one, too. Um, as of right now, a lot of things needs to change. >> Yeah, >> winter weather can mess up a lot of things. Um, but as of right now, everything seems to be on schedule. Um, kind of working through the uh once they've got that project completed. Hopefully, they can
167focus also more just wrapping up those auditoriums by the fall. >> Okay, great. [snorts] >> Dr. Huba, >> CPO and IGA, neither one have met. >> Okay. Um did you have anything um Miss Pervvis? >> Um Guskull has um a new director and he is now um advertising for a new position to take his um some of the math classes that the previous director was also teaching. So that is on our website under our HR section for new jobs. So, it's also on um several other counties websites for that position. >> Okay. All right. Well, thank you so much. Um Okay. We will move then to comments and concerns from school board members. Mr. K, we'll start with you. >> I don't have any concerns. >> Oh, I'm sorry. >> Oh, I did want to
168do committees before that that those comments. >> We'll do our committee. So um we have the intergovernmental affairs committee right? We have CPO, we have the uh budget and finance >> and we had facilities. We have PPE, but that's it's sort of an offshoot, right? Yeah, we're still we still got open projects right now, so probably keep that running, but it's going to start winding down in the next year. >> I think a good suggestion could be Does that all of them? That's all. >> I think a good suggestion would be um if you were on a committee and would like to stay on that committee, it's probably good to have that a contiguous thing and just kind of stay on there. Yeah. >> And then we'll just deal with some of the open positions.
169Does that sound okay? [snorts] >> Yeah. >> Okay. Um, but I I will be off of uh committees. So that would that would lead that we would need someone one person for the intergovernmental affairs committee and we will need two people for the budget and finance committee. So we will take volunteers for >> volunteer for budget and finance. >> I'd love to be on budget and finance. budget and finance >> to embezzle money that way. >> Well, as you heard earlier, we don't really HAVE [laughter] >> All right. So, that's that sounds great. Thank you so much, Miss Dobson. Do you think that you Yeah. All right. And then we have our second IG. >> And I think that means we're good. And and Mr. Pervvis, you're good for CPO, correct? >> Yes. And I
170don't know if Dr. Hoop is as well, but Yeah. He's shaking his head. Yes, >> I am. >> So, I think that [snorts] that nails it. I think that's good. >> Excellent. And so, you guys can get with the um respective people who help lead that and and get set up for maybe the introduction. We would have to still do chair and vice chair of each of those >> um and then and then set up. So, that would be I'll let central office work with you guys on on that. So, >> okay, great. Mr. K, comments and concerns? I still have no comments or concerns. >> Okay, there you go. >> None for me. >> I've got a lot. So, I'm gonna I talk a lot on these things. Uh I have two that I
171want to kind of break out. The first I want to talk about as we're heading into budget season. This is more for the board and for our constituents. At its core, I want everyone to also understand that we are at a zero sum equation when it comes to budgets. We are not a revenue producing body. So with a finite amount of revenue, [snorts] every dollar we spend to choose in one area has to come from somewhere else. Um so if we talk about prioritizing areas, if we talk about teacher compensation, classroom support, safety, technology, facilities, all of those, they're not in a vacuum. Um so because no category exists in isolation, every increase has a trade-off. And while it's easy to support an individual line item on their own, responsible governor requires us to look
172at the whole picture. Um, so I just want to make sure as we're going into this season that we understand that budgeting isn't just about what's sounds best in isolation. Um, but it's about making those balanced decisions, understanding the consequences, and being honest with our stakeholders that hey, we are limited in this. Um, and one other thing [clears throat] I I I'm not sure about other board members. I got a lot of feedback um when early in December um we decided to or administration decided to remove a teacher workday um from right after Christmas. Um I got a lot of feedback and a lot of concern. I had a conversation yesterday with a teacher about this. Um I just wanted to kind of express what I was told and just in a public forum there.
173Um the days serves an important purpose. It allows teachers time to reset classrooms, review student progress, finalize grades, adjust lessons plan, and prepare for the second half of the school year. Uh without that workday, much of the preparation gets pushed into evenings, weekends, and rushed into mornings once the students are already back. That affects workload, morale, and ultimately the quality of instruction our students receive. Um, so if our goal is to support teachers and to maximize student success, I would encourage the administration to preserve that that uh day moving forward and in upcoming calendars as much as you can. Obviously, I know we have a finite amount of days available. But I I was given that feedback and wanted to express what I was given. >> That's all I've got. It's only two big >>
174I was kind of prepared for a lot more than >> Yeah, right. [laughter] It's early in the year. >> Miss Dobson, >> comments, I just think it's hard to believe that we're back at the second half of the school year already. Um, and welcome back to all of the students and uh the parents. U good to have the kids out of the house and back in classrooms, I'm sure. Um, but uh yeah, I'm looking forward to a good good second semester. and vice chair and this committee. >> Thank you so much, Miss Pervvis. >> Um, I want to personally thank Miss Dobson because I'm now not the only woman on the board, which is awesome. Thank you for running and for um being part of our our board. Um, I also want to just reiterate
175what I had said before about um doing a forensic audit. I'd like to, you know, maybe have that discussion one of [cough] the next uh work sessions to talk about that as we get more information from other boards that have been doing it already. So, um that's the [snorts] main thing I wanted to to um express. >> Okay. Thank you for that. And then it's up to me. So, first I want to say thank you um to the to the board for electing me as chair. Um you I seriously have taken every, you know, position that I've been here seriously. Um this is this is our board. These are our decisions to make and uh I'm gonna I'm gonna help you guys facilitate any of those. So, my phone is always on and you guys
176can of course always call me and we'll we'll talk things through like we like we have um done and for new members that's that's just what we typically all do and we all can get together and talk to each other and help each other out and um if something's important to you, it's important to me and I want to make sure that we uh continue to move things along as long as everything we do is centered around being the absolute best that we can be for the students and the staff. and all the stakeholders here in Bedford County because that's that's what we're all about. Um, but thank you. I I appreciate um your your support. Um, I have two Oh, well, congratulations and uh for making it through your first meeting. You're smiling at
177the end of it, so that means we didn't scare you off, so that's good. Um, yes, congratulations and and and thank you. And we think you're going to you're going to do a great job. So, thank you for >> I look forward to Great. >> Congratulations to you. >> Thank you. Congratulations to you, Mr. Chair as well. Yes. Thank you. >> It's been a long lifelong dream. [laughter] >> Second only to graduating medical. [laughter] >> Dreams do come true. >> Um I would like to just ask um for something in consensus. Um I I think that um several of us in last you've heard about SPMA a lot tonight. Um we have been uh individual members and that's something that um we have taken care of as a board. So I'd like consensus tonight to
178get uh the memberships going for every individual board member um that would want one for this uh for this year. So um if I can ask for consensus, I will ask right now. >> Yes. Yes. >> Yes. >> Miss Pervis. Yes. That's yes. Okay. So, that is something that we will do. Um I don't have a lot on this, but I just I just know that in talking this is something else I'm going to I'm going to ask for consensus uh for um Mr. Juper has rightfully so touted um the work that gets done at our with our team here at central office and that there are thing that he goes to other uh conferences with uh other superintendents and he's hearing from other divisions and I think the exact quote where we are light
179years ahead of many other divisions and I think that you know you can see what's happening with with with our increases in our in our and our standing in the state and I think that's great and I think that that the the kudos that he says about his team is absolutely welld deserved and I just for me I want to say that we appreciate everything that you guys do. Um you know you guys are pulling everybody along and we're seeing the results from that but with that you know we've always talked about some outside of the box thinking and other things that we could do here. One of the thought processes that we've had in previous um facil um sorry uh finance committee meetings has been other ways to try to drive some revenue here
180of things that we could do that services that perhaps our central office could offer or other other avenues that we could offer um to other divisions smaller divisions that we could help them out for a fee. Um, so just want to maybe get you guys to start thinking about that. And so, you know, I I would just ask for consensus to see if that's something that you guys can start brainstorming. It's not part of, you know, your regular day, but if we can start um brainstorming on on things like that, maybe that's something that ends up getting brought back to the uh budget and finance committee. But I'd like consensus um to start brainstorming on ideas to generate additional revenue. >> Yes. Yep. Yes. >> Yes. [snorts] >> Yes. Pervis. >> Yes. I would like
181to maybe even talk about it more as brainstorming with the board as well. >> Sure. >> Not just administration. >> Okay. All right. So that we have consensus on that. Um and with that we made it through our first um board meeting of the year. >> Mr. Chairman. >> Oh my gosh. >> No, you're fine. [laughter] I was just going to say um as far as the SBAMA individual memberships, once you sign up sign on sign up online, you'll receive an invoice in your email. Just forward that to me. >> Okay, great. Thank you so much and thank you for leading uh helping keeping me straight on this. >> Oh, no, you did. Wonderful. >> Thank you. Um [snorts] and with that, we'll try to bring this meeting to an end. So, do I have
182a motion to adjurnn? >> Hold on. First, second, second by Dr. Hub. Any discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Any opposed?