School Board Meeting - 11/13/2025 - 5:00 PM

001November 13th, 2025. Uh, Miss Johnson, if you will please call the role. >> Uh, Mr. Mhill >> here. >> Mr. Daniels >> here. >> Mr. Hill >> here. >> Mr. S. Hill, excuse me. Mr. Hullbrook >> here. >> Dr. Hubach >> here. >> Mr. Barnes >> here. >> Uh, Mrs. Pervvis >> here. >> Mr. Chairman, you have a quum. >> All right. Uh, I am going to skip over 1.03 because we do not need to allow board members since everyone was able to join us. Um, Mr. Cars, [clears throat] welcome. >> Thank you, sir. >> Um, do I have a motion to approve the agenda as presented? >> Have a motion by Mr. S. Hill. Do I have a second? Second, >> second by Mr. Daniels. Any discussion? All those in favor signify by saying

002I. I. Any opposed? All right. The agenda is approved. Right. If you will join me for the pledge of 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. [clears throat] >> Please join me in a moment of silence. >> Thank you. All right. Uh 21 superintendent report. Thank you. Welcome to tonight's superintendent report for November 2025. As we move into the holiday season, please be reminded to check the approved BCPS calendar uh for our on our website [snorts] for the days out of school for the next few months. It starts with uh Thanksgiving break of November 26 and 28. Um just those that you are aware of that make plans. Before County Schools is proud

003to announce that all division school campuses and the school administration offices have officially earned hearts safe school designation in October through project Adam at the Children's Hospital of Richmond at Virginia Commonwealth University marking a major milestone in the division's commitment to health safety and emergency preparedness project atom which stands for automated defi defibrillation can say in Adam's memory was created [clears throat] in memory of Wisconsin teen Adam Lamel who passed away from a sudden cardiac arrest while playing basketball for his high school team in 1999. The third certification formalizes each school's emergency readiness protocol in the event of a cardiac arrest. BCPS is the first school division in Virginia to be 100% in compliance, having all 20 campuses and the school administration offices certified. Legislation that supports Virginia's heartsafe school designation programs primarily include bills

004SB 817, SB1 1435, and SB 1695, which establishes the legal framework for school cardiac emergency preparedness. Congratulations to the more than 100 BCPS employees who are now participants of the cardiac emergency response plan known as SER. A special thanks goes to nurse Kelly Thomas, supervisor of health services for her leadership and determination to make this a divisionwide reality. [clears throat] While the United States of America is preparing to celebrate its 250th anniversary next July 4th, 2026, there is another significant anniversary on hand that recognizes New London Academy for its 230th anniversary. The Alumni Association marked this anniversary with a celebration on October 18th, 2025. In a recent newsletter, Association member Steve Ever reminded us that the school start on December 1st, 1795 by an act of the Commonwealth of Virginia General Assembly. A charter was

005granted to establish what is what was originally a school for boy boys. Prominent men in the New London area donated 100 acres of land to establish a village, the village of New London. These men opened countless educational opportunities that have continued for over two centuries and the evidence of that continues today. While several educational transition has taken place over the history of the New London Academy, it continues to thrive today. Congratulations to the New London Academy alumni association for significant milestone in history. Also another recognition the the Rise Award known as the rec of for recognizing inspiring school employees is a United States Department [clears throat] of Education National Award intended to honor and elevate classified school employees who provide exemplary service to their school students in their community. Virginia school divisions were invited to

006nominate one classified employee for the 2026 Rise Award with two finalist for the state being sent to the national competition. In July, I nominated Miss Lori Barber, the inschool suspension coordinator to Stanton River Middle School as a candidate for Bedford County Public Schools. I recently informed that Miss Barber [clears throat] has been had been chosen as one of two representative Virginia. Congratulations to Miss Barber for the dedication, compassion, professionalism, and Stanton River Middle School to Stanton River Middle School and for her commitment to student growth and well-being. Last month, I started a um conversation in here where we were looking at the effects of smartphones on our kids and our families. Tonight, I'm not going to read through the whole thing because I am going to post this tomorrow. And what I'm doing over the

007next several months is I'm looking at several different pros and cons of smartphone use. Number one, increased mental and emotional effects, which I will look at tonight briefly. increase of physical health complications and increase of negative social behavioral effects. I am going to post eight different links that will discuss how teens spend their time on social media and that when they exceed 4.8 hours per day, they are more likely to deal with mental health issues. Number two, the second link is going to be talking about those kids who um spend four or more hours are highly more likely to experience anxiety and [snorts] they are also highly more likely to to um have symptoms that relate to depression. As we as we know when executive order 33 came out, Dr. Jonathan hate's book was used

008as a kind of a template for for a lot of the data called anxious generation. I think what we need to keep in mind is that when kids grow up in a non um smartphone world they they learn what is called a a play uh exist experience. They learn from a play experience. when we hand them a cell phone at a very early age of eight nine then that play experience is transitioned to a cell phone existence or experience and so I put a link in there that warns about that as well. I also put a link in here that talks about uh cognitive diff difficulties that students adolescence experience uh when they spend x number of hours on social media and it has ramifications on their ability to concentrate their ability to remember and

009to make decisions. There is a link for that as well. The sixth link goes into signs of problematic so smartphone use and talks about how it it really gives reasons or or ways in which we can uh look at it and at the same time provide our kids with some tools and our families with some tools on how to [snorts] to combat this. Um there's also a about a 40page I think it is um booklet from the US surgeon general's advisory on social media and social mental health um that talks about the overexposure and the difficulties that kids experience. And then the last is a um post from Podmi uh Piedmont Health uh that dis discusses [clears throat] the reduction in screen time that can uh put kids in a scenario to increase more mindfulness,

010gratitude and better social, emotional, physical health once we understand that they should that we should combat or we should look at how many hours a day they they actually spend. So, this information is here for parents to go in and tomorrow, um, I'll post this with all of the links. So, I encourage parents to go in and look at this because the [clears throat] goal here is for all of us, including us adults, to look at how we use social media and the amount of time that we spend using it is is detrimental. And um so I I'm not going to spend time going into each one of those, but I I do want you to feel free to go one tomorrow and open those links. Uh it'll be very uh user friendly. [snorts] Um

011tonight, my [clears throat] last part here, tonight, uh BCS school board, BCPS school board will vote on redistricting the Forest Zone Elementary Schools to address capacity issues of Forest Elementary and New London Academy. The current proposal would also affect Thomas Jefferson, Otter River, and Boonboro if if it were to be improve approved in its entirety. While the executive team create created the elementary districting plan for the forest zone and was directed by the board to do so in April, let me state that it is the executive's team to also be open to any consideration implemented by this board tonight or any modifications. And so we're willing to carry out whatever you guys decide tonight and um and hopefully it will serve the district well. Uh we've got to address the capacity issues in several of

012our schools and we cannot leave here tonight in my opinion without making some type of decision. Thank you for your time. >> All right. [clears throat] >> Uh 2.02 strategic framework update. Dr. Troser and Mr. Hawks. This evening I'm joined by Mr. Trevor Hos, supervisor of CTE and workplace readiness. So this evening we're going to provide a report to the board about our strategic framework. And each month a member of the school admin office will present an update on a goal and on a strategy. So when developing the strategic framework in 2022, we developed a vision, mission, and core values. Just as [clears throat] a reminder, the vision of Bedford County Public Schools is building citizens promoting success. Our mission is that Bedford County Public Schools will provide equal opportunities to enable all students to

013think critically, collaborate, create, communicate, and become productive citizens. And finally, our core values are to focus on students, collaborate with staff, families, and the community to support learning, act with integrity, challenge students to reach their personal goals every day, and energize the learning by creating safe and dynamic learning environments. So every goal, strategy, and action step that you'll hear from us is designed to align with our vision, with our mission, and our core values. So after recent action by the board, we now have five strategic goals in our plan. They are high academic expectations, safe and supportive learning environments, a high quality workforce, family and community partnerships, and efficient and effective use of our resources. So the goal that Mr. Hos and I are going to focus on tonight will be goal four, family and

014community partnerships, which is developing mutually supportive relationships with families and community organizations to enhance student well-being and expand workforce opportunities for all Bedford County students. [snorts] Specifically, we're going to focus on strategy two of that goal, which is increasing work-based learning experiences through mutually supportive partnerships. to students are provided opportunities for career exploration and workplace development. [snorts] With our CT programs, we're aligning our programs with the most high demand credentials and skills identified by employers across the Commonwealth. This ensures our career and technical education programs along with high school internships truly prepare students for the workforce. Also, while developing the strategic framework, feedback showed that families want clear information about these programs. So much [clears throat] of our work has been about expanding communication through these updates on the division website, the program of studies

015and other methods which we will share about. To monitor progress towards these goals, we have identified some indicators of success. These indicators will help us to monitor implementation of action steps and to reflect on their effectiveness. The indicators are access to information, program planning, and additional opportunities for high school students to assist with college or career planning, students successfully completing at least one dual enrollment course, students successfully completing a high demand CTE credential, workplace readiness opportunities and internships, and partnerships with families to increase awareness of options for students. And as we developed the plan, we developed action steps. And so we've already taken a number of steps since the plan was created. So I'm going to share about those. And so we are ongoing with these steps and we continue to fine-tune. And so the

016first one would be that we've attempted to partner with businesses for work-based learning opportunities for internships and job offers. Uh post high school graduation. For example, we've had some meet the graduate events at Susie Gibson recently. Uh we have advisory meetings at our base school um that helps us give input on how to make our CTE programs more relevant to the CT uh excuse me to the local workforce. We've also hosted a CTE week at each elementary school to engage students in learning about pathways offered. Every year Susie Gibson teachers actually go to elementary schools for CTE day and they talk to our fourth and fifth grade students so they have an idea of what programs are offered um as they continue to progress into secondary education. We facilitated on-site tours and activities at Susie

017Gibson. All 10th grade students have already taken a tour of Susie Gibson this year again to explore programs and to consider applying for them. Another step is to solicit the support of the Chamber of Commerce to offer a career expo for all eighth graders prior to starting their academic and career plans in Zello. Recently, our eighth grade students um went to the Bay School to meet students from CTE classes and they can begin to explore those pathways on the way to careers uh that they would like to explore based on those academic and career plans. We've partnered with the Lynchburg Regional Business Alliance for World of Opportunity. In this way, they can explore different opportunities for careers through presentations um from local businesses. We've re-examined our CTE offerings to meet community workforce demands and [clears

018throat] to target demand careers postgraduation. So, right now we're kind of at a shift with our strategic framework as far as we're trying to um align our course offerings with high demand credentials uh which we'll hear a little bit more about that later. We made a goal to reestablish the CT advisory committee to have a standing monthly meeting and we have been doing that for a number of years now. We have a few board members that are on that committee and we really appreciate your participation in that. Local businesses and organizations meet to discuss community and curriculum needs and what we've been able to do is we've been able to explore more CTE and job skill training opportunities. Uh it's really been beneficial for our students with disabilities. We brought a course called education for

019employment um to our base schools that was designed specifically for them. And then we've revised our application process uh to create more opportunities. And what we've found found is that this has increased specifically for students with disabilities. We have over 30 this year that are juniors at Susie Gibson. So we're very proud of that. And then finally, we established an open house at Susie Gibson. So just recently on November the 3, we had an open house and was attended by about a hundred which we were pleased with for one of our first ones. Now, moving forward, we want to continue to engage in ongoing steps such as working with CBCC to offer one credit dual enrollment courses that all students, whether on a standard or advanced diploma, can take in high school. So, in the

020next few weeks, we're going to walk with our CBCC rep to go visit our base schools and look at all of our CTE courses just to see which ones align with their course offerings and possibly make them dual enrollment. We want to expand our dual enrollment credits at Susie Gibson um and our base schools. We want to expand opportunities at Susie Gibson. Uh so we are currently exploring and it's exploring. Um you know we'll we'll see what happens in the next few months but um we would love to add an EMT course, a firefighting course in criminal justice. So um again that's not a commitment, it's a commitment to explore that and we we think we've got some good options. Uh we're wanting to require all of our CTE courses to have an industry certification

021as part of a class requirement. And then we want to explore work based learning opportunities for our students. And so again with the new strategic framework and the accredititation process uh from the state um we're we're having to decide which direction we want to go in. So we're continuing to explore do we do more high demand career options or do we do more work-based learning and so that's an ongoing conversation we'll have with CT advisory and then our school administrators. On October 28, Mr. Hos and I shared with the CPO committee some of these updates and then specifically we discussed the question of where did the list of high demand jobs come from and credentials and then how are we helping our students with career planning. So Mr. Hos is going to answer these questions

022at this time the clicker here. All right so these next few slides are going to cover two main topics. Uh first we're going to cover high demand credentials and then we're going to get into our new career explor exploration platform which is Zello. Um the high demand credentials I just wanted to talk about who's driving that and how it ties into our new accreditation model. So the Virginia office of educa education economics they are the driving force behind that. So what they've done is they've partnered with the BDOE and the state workforces and they've they've got with them about figuring out what credential do students need as soon as they get done with high school that makes them employable and separates them from their peers. So that's where the high demand part came from. um

023the link at the top of that. You guys can click on that and that will take you to a VDOE link that has all of the credentials that are offered for every CTE class in Virginia. And then on the far right, you'll see a column that says high demand. And any one of those that's marked with an X is what they have labeled as as high demand. So, um just wanted to show you where this came from and who's pushing this. So, the VOE, they're the ones driving this. And then the high demand credentials. Once they figured out what those credentials were, they made it part of the new accreditation model. So, you know, we used to have the CCCRI, the college career and civic readiness index that had its own point value. Now, they've

024shifted to the three E. So, those three E are employment, enrollment, and enlistment. For this presentation, I'm just going to focus on the employment. Um the three E are now 25% of our total accreditation. So it's a pretty big chunk. So I wanted to go over the employment piece for you all. Uh on the far right you'll see 0.5. That's the minimum amount of points a student can earn. So that's for a CTE completer. And just a reminder a completer is someone who completed classes a sequence that goes together and builds off of each other. So that would be the auto tech one and two, culinary one and two, marketing and advanced marketing. So a CTE completer who also does a high quality work-based learning experience. What's going to make that difficult for us is

025the state has changed from 12 highquality work-based learning options down to six. And so those six are registered apprenticeships, internships, supervised agricultural experiences, entrepreneurship, clinical experiences, and school-based [snorts] enterprise. So it's going to be a little tougher going from 12 to six. Um, but moving over to the 75, that's where most students in Bedford County were leading up to this year. So that's a CTE completer who earned a state approved credential. Not high demand, just state approved. Most students got that through the wise test in their economics and personal finance class, but we were told that the wise test no longer counts for accreditation. So that had us start shifting our focus to the onepoint column. And in that onepoint column, it's a CTE completer who earns a high demand credential. So that list that

026we just went over or it's a CTE completer who has a non high demand credential and a high quality workbased learning opportunity. So when we saw this, we thought the easiest route was just, hey, we're going to offer a high demand credential in every CTE class across the division. When we had teachers look into that, they got together with each other and picked the credentials that would be offered. and we found that only 18 of the 43 base school CTE options actually had high demand options. So when we found that out, we we started to pivot to say, are we going to forget about the high demand altogether and go state approved and focus on high quality work-based learning. So we're going to get a [clears throat] committee formed for that to figure out what

027our next steps are going to be. Um because we're not going to be able to do high demand for everything since there's not that many options. So, do we do high quality work-based learning for classes that don't have the high demand? Do you just focus on high quality work-based learning? So, those are the things that we're going to have to [snorts] have to figure out. Um, the 1.25 on the far left, that is going to be mainly your Susie Gibson students. Uh, so that's a CTE completer who has a high demand credential and a work-based learning opportunity. students at base schools with 50 minutes, they're they're probably not going to have the time to tackle all three of those. So, the 1.25 will mainly be your your Susie Gibson students. All right. So, now that

028we've talked about high demand credentials, I wanted to shift to Zello. So, Zello is our new career exploration platform that replaced Major Clarity. We had some challenges with Major Clarity in the past and that led us to start looking at some other options. Um we we got administrators and counselors, department chairs and other supervisors together to look at other options and the feedback for Zello was overwhelmingly positive. And so that's what led us to go with Zello. And so now they are our new career exploration platform which personalizes career options so the students can explore in the division. And I just wanted to give you a glimpse of what students see while they're in Zello. So this is the homepage where students can see at the top right shows their the due dates of all

029the lessons that are planned throughout the year. This particular student is interested in culinary. So that's why it has a culinary video up there. It's a lot like social media. It's not a social media platform, but they've laid it out like social media because that's what students are navigate the most. And so the algorithm has it for when they interact with one of these videos or they like it, it's going to start showing them more careers within that pathway. So that's the main page that students see. When [snorts] students do anything in Zello, they have to do assessments. And so the first assessment they do is a matchmaker assessment where it matches them with careers based on their interests. So there's an example of a matchmaker question. They can like or dislike. uh I think

030it's 39 questions. And so once they figure out what students like and dislike, it kind of narrows down that career choice. After they do the matchmaking assessment, they do a learning style assessment to figure out what kind of learner they are in the classroom. Um there's an example of a of a learning style question. When reading a novel, I tend to and the students are able to select what they most agree with. And then after they've done that, it narrows down those career choices even more. And then the final thing that they work on is their personality style assessment. And um once they do that, those are the three main assessments. They'll get to this page. This this is not complete right here, but when a student does complete it all, uh they'll be able

031to see what kind of learner they are, what personality style matches with. There's lessons throughout the year for goals after high school. They can favorite cluster. So those students say are interested in agriculture. they can favorite that cluster and it's going to show them more more careers in that field. And then it shows them this once they get done with all those assessments. So it shows them a list of the careers based on their interests and their likes and dislikes and their learning style. And they can sort through careers. On the top there is salary. So you can filter it by salary. You can filter it by how much education you want. Whether you want to go to work right after high school, whether you want to go to two-year or four-year college. and it

032shows the careers at the bottom that they can explore where whether they're high demand, whether they're decreasing demand and they can heart those and the more they click on them and say that they like them, the more it's going to show careers down that path. And so I just put this slide up. This is what we can use as data. So what you're seeing here is a learning style data report. [laughter] Um we we can run reports on anything that the students select. And so For for example, the learning style. Uh we had a science teacher said, um I had no idea most of my third period were tactile learners. So I need to start doing some more hands-on work during that period. So that's been great to see teachers use it for that. We

033can also run reports like this for um careers that students save. And Dr. Trosper mentioned earlier the EMT, criminal justice, and firefighting. We were actually able to use Zello, go in and click on those careers and you can filter it by school, by grade level, by teacher. And so we were able to find all those students that said, "Hey, I want to be a police officer." And we were able to send directly in Zello messages to them and their parents with an application link and some more information about it. Um counselors can use this same thing for college visits. So any student who has saved this particular college, counselors can click on that college and send a direct message to them. Um lastly, the counselors are really loving it because uh it syncs perfectly with

034powers school. So they're able to make classes for next year with their students in Zello and they can also send approval straight to the parent for these course requests right from Zello. So um I know we're on a time limit here. I could sit here and talk about Zello for the next hour, but I I'll I'll shut up about it for now. But we are really excited about this platform and and what it's been able to do so far. >> And just one final thing I'd like to say is uh tomorrow is the deadline for applications to Susie Gibson. So if there's any parents listening of sophomores, they need their applications turned in by tomorrow and they should have gotten a call out, I believe, at 4:30 today. So hopefully we get a lot of

035applications. But thank you for your time. If you have any questions, we'll be happy to answer them. >> Questions? I have I have one. Um, so Zello, is that a flat fee, licensing fee, or do we pay per student? >> It is. It is per student. >> Okay. So, it is per student. So my question from a finance perspective is who's keeping up with that to make sure we're not paying for students who either a have not logged in or are using it or when they graduate we're not continuing to pay for it. So Randy, I'll throw that one to you uh from a finance perspective. And you may not have an answer right now, but I want that because what we found as we started digging into finance, there were things we were paying

036for that we were no longer using. So, I want to make sure that's on our radar. >> Yes, sir. Um, typically you estimate the usage and stuff and then you adjust in future years and contracts on that. I'll have to look at the details on this contract to see if it's a monthly or a yearly u u uh service fee on that where you can adjust if say you reserve 300 and only like 100 are hitting it, then you would adjust downwards in the future contract on that. But we'll take a look at it now that for the finance committee. >> Yeah. And Trevor, don't take that as I love the program and I think I think we should even start earlier and let kids go and click and you know and find out what

037their interests are and see as we can you know that we can push them even in earlier grades. So love the program. I just want to make sure from a finance perspective and then the old program clarity clarity >> major clarity. >> Yeah. and we ended that contract and we've validated we're no longer paying for anybody anything on that contract. Correct. >> Okay. Awesome. >> I just want to say they presented this to the CTO >> CPO too many acronyms. Um and we were so impressed with this new program. It's it's just amazing. And that's is one of the examples where technology is a good thing and we want we want to take advantage of all of these opportunities for the kids. I also want to let you know that I spoke with a financial

038manager this week um personally, but he gave me some information about a national push that's going on right now for people to um train high school students in um welding. And it has cost um it has created hundreds of jobs. And right here locally, there is such a need for welding that there's like a backup I mean a backlog of welding jobs that are backlogged about three to six months because we don't have welders in the area. So I would like to get that information to you so that maybe we can consider [snorts] that with the CTE program. if if we have the funding nationally to to push this, that would be awesome. >> I had one question. Thank you so much um for this [cough] presentation. This may not relate necessarily to CT and

039I I see that next on our on our list is a program of studies. So, Dr. Trosper, I don't want to necessarily get ahead of you, but I'm going to say a dirty word here, AI. Um are we planning for AI in in CTE and of course other programs? Um I know it's here. We can't be kind of afraid of it and we've got to kind of grab the bull by the horns. >> Yeah, that's a that's a very good question. That's a tough question. Um I I I can tell we've started to train our our teachers in ways to use it practically. Um our our supervisor professional learning is putting out regular updates, information just to kind of help prepare our staff for that. I >> I can't say that we've done a lot

040to train our students, but what I can tell you is that the state does have standards for technology and part of that is AI literacy. And so they're fairly new and we do need to continue to look into how to incorporate those effectively because you're right, AI is here and we've got to make sure we use it correctly. >> I think our students and workers that are able to use it as a tool are going to have an advantage over students that don't know how to use it as a tool. I I think that when I've used it, if you know what you're talking about and you're asking questions and you're using it, like that's good. It's garbage in, garbage out. So if we can learn and and incorporate it, I think our students will

041have an advantage. And I just want to say I know that um when I was teaching at EC Glass, Village the Lynch RIPs is pushing some kind of AI program. So you might want to call them and find out what they're using using [snorts] and how they've incorporated it and pros and cons and what what maybe they could recommend. >> Okay. Yeah. Thank you. >> I was going to say Mr. Stexton might also have some information. I know he works with Dr. Whis on the AI and the education there. So if you do, if you don't, it's so we created some guidelines last year to kind of because it's a gray area right now and to kind of guide teachers on what to use and some some AI that we had vetted. But I will

042say just in the most recent uh like Google is really focused on uh creating Gemini but the education version of Gemini that uh they're really pushing and it's gotten so much better to where it doesn't necessarily give the student answers to questions but it helps guide them on where to find those answers where how to do research. Um, so as we we're going to start diving into that uh a little bit more and instead of like telling students to go to chat GPT, we would most likely send them to Gemini because it follows Furpa and all of the regulations. It's archived. So everything that the student types in there is archived just like our email, Google Drive. Um so Google's really stepped up I will say uh on the education side of of trying to

043help us help schools with this AI platform. Um so that you know and it's it's changes every day. Uh just Gemini chat GPT none of them are the same as they were two weeks ago. It's constantly changing. So but it's here. >> It's here. >> It's not going anywhere forever. So >> and Trevor I'm gonna give you something free of charge. It won't cost you anything, but I'm going to challenge you to challenge this board to find you $2 million somewhere to build you a new bus garage [clears throat] at Suzie G. That [snorts] also allows you to add classrooms for diesel mechanics because there's a need. We've [snorts] been asked for it repeatedly [clears throat] and so I free of charge. It's not going to cost you anything. [laughter] So you can say I

044said it and >> that'll be part of his evaluation this year. >> There you go. [laughter] >> So, you know, I just, you know, CTE is it's so important and I love that program. And again, I think the earlier we get started and and just asking students where they want to go and it doesn't mean you can't change direction, but if we know where they want their base and where they want to start, that's I I think that's great. So, I really appreciate that information. All right. Any other questions or comments? Two [snorts] $2 million. [laughter] >> All right. >> That's cheap for >> Well, I mean, we got you two that can, you know, figure that out. >> Yeah. >> All right. 3.01 2627 program of studies. M. Uh, Dr. Trosber. >> Thank you.

045So September 30th, principles, counselors, and division staff met to discuss some adjustments in addition to the program of studies for next year. Uh most of the changes I've outlined are fairly minor. Uh mostly they were made for consistency just just to make sure that we were doing this consistently throughout the division. We are proposing four additional classes which I'll discuss. So if you look at the draft of the program, anything that's underlined as new and anything struck through is what we've removed or adjusted wording. So tonight I'm presenting this for information and then we'll be asking you to take action in December. So first of all some adjustments. So we we got together with our high school band directors because we realized there were some inconsistencies in our courses and all and we revised the

046course description for small instrument ensemble. Essentially we wanted to emphasize instrumental techniques and performance and this gave them some flexibility to where they could recruit students who had come into high school with with limited experience. So, it's hopefully going to grow our band programs. With advanced symphonic band, we changed the waiting from a 4.0 to a 4.5. This is, of course, it's the highest level of band instruction. Students have to have an audition to get into that. Uh, and ultimately, we we felt like the effort that it took to get into the class was reflective of the waiting with again with the audition. Also, with our band classes, we updated them to be able to take him in grades 9 through 12. So, if there is an exceptionally talented ninth grader, uh they would have

047the opportunity to take some of the advanced classes. And so, again, all three band directors, we met, we had great discussions. So, we're we're hoping that uh improves the quality of our our fine arts program. As far as credits go, we got some updates from the BDOE and our nurse aid one and two and cyber security fundamentals, which are both at Susie Gibson. They were previously three credits uh and now they've been changed to one. So, when I talk about course additions, I'll tell you how we're adapting with that. We made some changes with dual enrollment. One of the challenges at our smaller high schools is that you often don't have enough students or staff to teach both an AP and dual enrollment. So, they have to make choices. One of the choices they sometimes

048have had to make in the past is to put them at the same time. So, an AP group and a dual enrollment in the same class taught by the same teacher. That is very challenging for a teacher to do because it's basically two different curriculums. So, last year we had said we discourage that and we prefer not to do that. But what we did find there are some courses that are they lend themselves to doing that. The curriculum is similar enough and so what we want to do is provide some flexibility. So generally we don't want that but if a teacher or principal feels like it is appropriate they would request to me uh and then I would talk with them and maybe approve that. So again just trying to be more supportive of our

049schools. As far as tuition goes, the language was not updated with some of the current changes and as we know students are not responsible for tuition. If a dual enrollment course is taken on Bedford County campus, that's that's changed within the past year. If they take dual enrollment off campus, that's when they are responsible. So, we really want to see that enrollment go up. It's a real advantage for our students. We talk a lot about prerequisites for dual enrollment and so we emphasize that if a student's going to take that, it's important for them to take a high school equivalent course before enrolling. So, if they're going to take college biology, it'd be important that they take high school biology first. We just wanted to kind of shore up some of that language. And then

050as far as course waiting, this is one where we found out all three schools interpreted our regulations a little differently. Um, nobody's fault it. Just over time with changes, we find that it happened. So, we wanted to clean up the wording. And so, what we've said is for for an AP, gov school or core dual enrollment classes, they're going to have a 5.0 weight. If it's an [clears throat] elective dual enrollment, it's going to be 4.5. doesn't matter where they take it, whether it's on campus or off-campus, but that's how the GPA are going to work themselves out. That way, there's consistency everywhere. And then finally, we just put some deadlines on requests for early graduation. So, we want to make sure we are able to to have the time to consider everything that students

051have their testing requirements completed uh just to make sure that they're ready to graduate over the summer. And a lot of these are based on situations we faced throughout the year that we want to make sure we plan better now that we've gone through it and learned some things. As far as exam exemptions, we've always had practices for that, but it hasn't been in the program of study. So, we added that this year and one of the criteria for a student a CTE exam to be exempt is if they have a CT completer and pass the high demand credentials. So, we're trying to promote students taking high demand credentials. In the middle school, as we know, students take some courses that are high school credit. And we do have an acceleration policy. And the policy

052says that if there's a request to remove that from the GPA, the superintendent may set regulations um and deadlines, but we didn't have a deadline, so we added one. And the deadline is that if a parent wants to make a request to drop something from the high school GPA, it needs to be done either prior to their freshman year or after completing their junior year, but not in between. And that way we've got some consistency and it limits anything falling between the cracks. We for our honors courses, one of the things that we have really tried to promote is that these are preparations for advanced placement classes. And so we align some of the prerequisites with AP. So we recommend highly that a student maintain a C average in all prerequisite courses [snorts] recommended by

053the college board and also to pass all so tests in their subject area prior to taking an AP or honors course. So, for example, if you want to take an AP biology, you need to have maintain a C um in biology in in high school biology and also have passed the so. And so, there's a number of examples when that would apply. For journalism, we just added a line that said students may be asked to go through a selection process to take the class. As far as policy updates, as the board has adopted policies, we added all the relevant policies to the program of studies. So, I won't go through each of those, but again, these have already been approved by the board. We just put them where they belonged on the program of studies.

054For Susie Gibson, attendance, we've had a few situations we felt like we needed to give the principal some authority. So if a student, for example, has has had attendance um as an issue at the base school or at Susie Gibson, if the Susie Gibson principal reaches out to the base school principal, they can talk about supports, but there is the ability to to remove a student from the program uh and fill that with a student that might be more willing to take advantage of those opportunities and benefit from the program more. And then finally, every use of major clarity has been replaced with Zillow. So those are the adjustments. As I said, nothing major, but we just really had a lot of scenarios we had to talk through. Uh, as far as additions, we're going

055to add an AP business and personal finance class. This class is essentially an introduction to business at the college level. And so, I think that's going to be really helpful. They're going to talk about things like entrepreneurship, marketing, finance, accounting, and management through real real world applications. So, that's going to be a really good class uh that we're going to try out at one of our high schools. We added an agricultural business fundamentals very similar except for it's emphasizing personal finance management for a agricultural business and so students will talk about consumer choices maintaining records for finances and anything that would go into running a business but again focused on agriculture. We added an honors physics class. Uh interestingly we only had a regular physics and we felt like that is a pretty challenging class

056that was deserving of an honor. So that would up the GPA to 4.5 instead of four. uh and it's going to cover essentially the same as physics, but it's going to be in greater depth and level of understanding. And then finally, patient care technician. As I said, nurse aid dropped down to one credit. Well, students are over there for for a good amount of time, either morning or afternoon at Susie Gibson. So, we're going to stack that nurse aid with patient care technicians. So, they're actually going to get more credits for nursing. It's going to help our students be more prepared. Um and so we did go ahead and add that just to try to help out um with our our long-term sustainability and again effectiveness of the program. And then the last change was

057a removal. We removed advanced band because the discussion we already had essentially was covering what was needed. We have not used that course for a long time. So if a student wants advanced band, it would be the advanced symphonic band. So it's not taking away opportunities. It's just kind of cleaning things up for consistency. So um that's an overview of the changes to the program of studies. Any questions? I'll be happy to answer. >> I would like to just make a suggestion or comment. Um I'm on [snorts] the board of the STEM program as well as the gov school and one of the conversations that we've been having is [clears throat] that as these students are doing what and I know the CTE program definitely offers more certifications, but a lot of these kids are

058coming to college without a full ride scholarship. they still need to pay and they often have to work during college. It would be helpful if they were able to get out of high school with some kind of certification. So instead of being paid 12 or $15 an hour, they might get $20 an hour. Um so I I am concerned that even the kids in gool and STEM and the STEM academy are not getting as many certifications as we would like them to have. and they were saying that they can't offer all of that because of their limited time that they [snorts] have with the students. But I want to make sure that we are encouraging them when they are in their um regular classes in our schools that they take advantage of some of those

059things so that they can prepare better for their future and um their future expenses in college. Um at this point we do not have any summer classes for the CTE program, do we? at Susie Gibson or anywhere? >> No, not not a Susie Gibson. No, we have like a personal finance, but that's >> I don't think that's program or nothing. >> No apprenticeships, no nothing. [clears throat] >> No. >> So, is that something I mean everything costs money? I know, but is there is there any opportunities that maybe we could take advantage of that might be even scholarship in or just working with the community to to get these kids plugged into somewhere in the community to be starting to earn some money and be an apprentice to something and develop a skill or some

060kind of certification stream. We work on trying to push that. >> Yeah. What we can do is bring it to the CT advisory committee because we have lots of of community um representatives and businesses. I think that'd be a good thing to talk through um and as you said provide more opportunities and with CTE we do have a high number of students getting credentials and a few years ago we actually did a presentation that showed we were well ahead of other divisions and but this is CTE I'm not familiar with the STEM credentials but I would love to to research more about that. >> Yeah I I just would like to make sure we are giving these kids whether they're going to college or not the the best opportunity to succeed. >> Absolutely. Thank you.

061[snorts] Any [clears throat] other questions? >> Yes, sir. Doc, Dr. Trosper, you said that the AP business personal finance uh course being added is being added to some schools or all schools? >> Well, right now it's it's and all students can sign up, but we base our offerings on student interest. Um the request came from Jefferson Forest High School, but it is in our program of study, so any school can offer it. Okay? It just it would just depend on student enrollment, teacher certification, anything like that. Thank you, sir. >> All right. Any other questions? 3.02 Policy Updates. Mr. Chair, [clears throat] >> the Intergovernmental Affairs Committee met on October 27th, 2025 to review proposed revisions to the following nine policies. Now, before I read those policies, um, titles, I want to say that I'm

062going to stop at policy number four, which is a JC school attendance areas, and I'm going to explain how we're going to address that tonight because that's not only in information, but that will also be in action. Okay. So the nine R DA management of funds, EBB school crisis emergency management and medical emergency response plan, IKE acceleration, JC [snorts] school attendance areas. Edits include the addition of language to require the superintendent to create a regulation defining potential options to address schools projected at or over capacity. Now, what I'll do is say the next item on the agenda, I'm going to have Dr. Woodford pull that out and explain it. There's [clears throat] also a regulation that goes with it. The fifth policy reviewed for information is JCB transfers by students in persistently dangerous schools. JFC

063drugs in schools, JFCG cell phones and/or personal electronic communication devices. JO student records and KI public solicitation in the schools. All right, any questions? 3 policy JC and JCR summary. Dr. Woodford, >> thank you. At the meeting on October the 27th, 2025, executive members presented a suggestion to the IG committee regarding policy JC, which addresses school attendance areas. Um, the section added to this policy is the last paragraph, which allows the superintendent to create a regulation when [clears throat] needed to provide potential options for addressing schools that are over or under capacity. The executive team also created a draft regulation, which is completely new, that provides options for addressing these over or under capacity schools. the executive team and the IGA committee have defined terms to make sure that the regulation reads um easy and

064that it's easy to understand such as what is a zone school, what is a new development, what is capacity threshold. Um the team then created possible options for the board to think about when discussions arise about schools that may be nearing or over capacity. Um, these include traditional redistricting, which is moving school boundary lines, grade level reconfiguration, which could be multi-age classrooms or [clears throat] or other options of rotating students, um implementation of the overflow model um that uh Mr. S. Hill presented at last month's meeting in which students in new developments may be busted to schools with more capacity and/or temporary or permanent changes to facilities such as additions of mobiles or new construction. Because this is presented as a regulation, it allows the board and the superintendent to make changes or additions if

065needed when this issue arises and it remains flexible because it's a regulation for future discussions. Policy JC, school attendance zones, is [clears throat] presented now for information and the IGA and executive team are also presenting it as an action item later in the meeting since it is relevant to any further discussions regarding redistricting. In addition, regulation JCR is also presented for board approval. While regulations do not require board approval, the team feels it is essential for the board to approve this regulation as it is new and it's tied to redistricting discussions. Um I or anyone on the IG committee is happy to answer any questions you may have. >> Questions? >> So can you please um clarify this? If we approve this, does that give the administration the opportunity to just change zones and on

066their own or what is it? What is it that we're giving you? you are um looking first at policy JC [clears throat] which just allows the superintendent to um create a regulation that would offer options that we would present to the board if there was a question about redistricting or if we had a school that was under or over capacity. So a regulation is just those specific guidelines. Um, and then the regulation is just really all of the different options that could be considered by the board if there is a discussion about redistricting for any purpose. So, it doesn't give um us as an executive team or the superintendent any authority [clears throat] to do any type of redistricting or or any decisions with that. That still rests with the board. It's just this is

067more of information that the board can use and refer to when we're discussing redistricting. >> I I'll speak on behalf of the IGI and I want to thank Mr. S. Hill um for for being heavily involved in uh in coming up with different options uh for us. And that's really what this is about at the end of the day when we're doing anything that we try very very hard to make the right decision. Ultimately, that's what everything comes down to. Um, with this policy and this regulation, what it allows us to do is just that it gives us a ton of options. So, when we have asked um the executive team to present us options, there's only so many tools that are in the tool belt. Well, this [clears throat] now gives us more um

068more gives them more options to then present to present to us. As I said um to Dr. Hubach, I said, I feel like this gives us a scalpel instead of a sledgehammer. and it allows us to be very very thoughtful as we're making, you know, serious and big decisions. So, um I want to thank everybody on the executive team and again Mr. Hill for um for helping bring this together. We asked a lot of questions at it and I feel like we have the right policy um at this point. So, I I know it's an information and I know we're going to vote on it, but I I sincerely hope that we pass this. >> Thank you. Any other questions or comments? All right. 7.01, approval of policy updates presented at the October 9th. Do

069I have a motion? >> So move. >> Have a motion by Mr. Hullberg. Do I have a second? >> Second by Dr. Any discussions? All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Any opposed? All right. 7.01. Those policies are updated. Do I have a motion for the approval of policy JC and JCR that was just presented by Dr. Woodford? >> So moved. >> Have a motion by Mr. Daniels. Do I have a second? >> Second. [clears throat] >> All right. I'm gonna give that one to Mr. Hullbrook. Any discussions? Oh, you want me to give that one to Dr. >> Okay. Sorry. >> All right. Any discussion on that one? >> All right. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. >> Any opposed? All right. 7.02 is approved. Um go

070to close session. Um Miss um Eid, are we ready for recognition that you can start early? >> Yes. >> Okay. All right. Let's go for that. [snorts] >> What's that? >> Yeah. >> Got 401. >> 401. >> Oh, okay. >> Oh, yeah. We got to go back to 73. >> Yeah, we didn't have time for four minutes. [laughter] >> Good evening, board members. I'm excited to share with you some of the fantastic accomplishments of Bedford County Public School students and staff. Um, I know it's a little different than we're used to, but with the auditoriums, I think we talked about it last month, but the auditoriums being updated, it's hard to get big [clears throat] groups of kids in here. So, we're going to do this while they're being updated. So, for now, we've just

071made a little presentation. We're gonna start with Forest Middle School. Um, so congrat congratulations to Forest Middle School for being awarded the distinct honor of becoming one of the first middle school band programs in Virginia to receive the Virginia Honor Band Recognition Award. This is awarded by the Virginia Band and Orchestra Directors Association for meeting a specific set of criteria. Uh, next is something we h we share but we all already know. BCPS is committed to quality early childhood education. But something you might not know is again for another year, all BCPS preschool classrooms have earned the BQB5 [snorts] quality rating system for the for last school year. Uh the Virginia Quality Measurement and Improvement System measures quality teaching and learning experiences that prepare children for kindergarten. [snorts] Next, we have our Jefferson Forest Marching

072Cavs. They traveled to Fairfax County recently to compete in the Oakton Classic for some of the finest high school bands in the Eastern US. There are only two bands in Virginia that JF has never beaten in this compet beaten in competition. And at this competition they they took James Madison High School. Um so after that they were named group five champions and now they only have Bassid High School to to win against and hopefully they'll take that next year. They went up against them in the Commonwealth Cup or the state champion. I'm not sure which but um they did not they got second in that. So, uh, another group of students who have achieved some great things over the summer and at the beginning of the school year is our FFA students. The Smith Mountain

073Lake FFA and Stanton River and the Liberty FFA students continue to shine through their hard work, leadership, leadership, and dedication to agricultural education. Since the school year started, they've attended chapter officer leadership trainings, participated in the Bedford Fair and Carnival, uh competed all over the state, have Kin Palmer scholarship winners, and even made their first podcast appearance. Liberty FFA had winners at the Hub Federation Forestry Contest, placing first, and even went on to the area contest at Carbon's Cove. Smith Mountain Fa competed at the Virginia State Fair in their livestock skillathon and hippology. In addition to all these wonderful things, you can see them all around town and the county helping where they can in beautifying Bedford. Our theater students also have made their names known so far. Both Cavalere Theater and LHS Performing Arts

074went to VTA and took home some great achievements. Jack Wallace of JF was the winner of the VTA one playwriting competition for 9th and tth grade. Chris Cole was named the all-star cast and Jen Joerger was named top actress. JF's tech team was stage craft showdown champions and their improv team was named state improv champs. JF also lip-synced for their lives and took the VTA statewide show tune lip-sync battle as well. Auditioning juniors and seniors combined for many callbacks from colleges, workshops attended, lines danced, puppets built, great plays watched, friends made, and a fabulous time was had by all. The Cavaliier Theater then went on to compete this past Saturday earning the title of VHSL 4D South Champions and they are coming up for the regionals next weekend and then we hope they will continue

075past that. Liberty High School performing arts represented at the BTAS as well. They received the one and only spirit of theater award that is given to the team that best exemplifies sportsmanship, etiquette, kindness during the annual conference. out of all 36 schools, that's only given to one team and that was given to our Liberty High School performing arts. Uh they were also the sub region one act runner up receiving two best actor awards and they will also be competing at their regional championship. So next we're going off the stage and running all the way to states for Jefferson Forest and Liberty High School's teams. Both the boys and girls teams of JF had an incredible season, earning district championships, regional wins, and achieving state qualifying times with personal records. A special shout out to the

076boys JF team for finishing third at regionals to qualify for states, and to Samantha Magden and Noel Shelton for qualifying individually. So, congratulations to all their teams with the accomplishments at the state level, as well as Min Smith for making all state. The Liberty High School girls also made it to the state competition for cross country as well. And Kylie Stennet made all state as well. Now we're going to go to the river for a little bit. And Stanton River Middle Schools had a Oh, there we go. celebrate winning first place in the Prodigy State Challenge Mythical Tier. So from September 15th through the 30th, incredible students answered over 25,000 math questions correctly. because of their hard work and dedication, they now automatically qualify for the Prodigy National Cup in May. So, congratulations. Way to

077show that the Golden Eagles really rise to the challenge. The next two slides Mr. Dupair talked about in his recognition, but I'll just show you some pictures. Um, this was our ceremony where we surprised Miss Lorie Barber at Stant River Middle School for her Rise Award nomination. And then we had our hearts safe designation ceremony. And this is all of the school nurses with uh Kelly Thomas, our our supervisor of health services and Dr. Phillips from VCU and um a representative from Bedford Fire and Rescue. And they were instrumental in helping all of these schools become hearts safe. And then our last slide is just a little bit of what we've been doing in the community recently. So since school's been started, BCPS has been out and about with some really fun events. We've had

078students from art classes and FFA that both have participated in podcasts talking about, you know, CTE related things that they really enjoy. Um, we've painted the town pink with the town of Bedford for awareness of breast cancer and participated in their downtown trick-or- treat event. Touched a truck with students from all over at Falling Creek Park. And then, of course, Little um Little Feet Meet held at Liberty High School. So, it's been a really cool school year so far and we're excited to see what happens in the next few months. And Mr. Chairman, that concludes recognition. >> Awesome. Thank you very much. All right. Next is public comment. Public comment portion of tonight's agenda [clears throat] is limited to 40 minutes. Speakers are asked to state their name and voting district. The school board is

079here to listen to your comments, but will not engage or respond to speakers during this 40-minute period. Please remember that this is a public meeting that we expect all speakers to refrain from any foul, profane, abusive, or hateful language during the comments or anytime while in attendance during this meeting. We also ask that speakers keep their remarks objective and about the school in nature. Please keep all comments limited in matters related to the public schools and any comments that are harassing or amount to a personal attack against any identifiable individual whether 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 name is called, we will proceed with the

080next name on the list. An individual who has 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 will sound when the allotted four minutes have expired. When the second alarm sounds, please discontinue speaking and allow the next person in line to come to the podium. Should you be unable to finish your comments, please send or give them to Miss Johnson and she will give them to board members. Please do not adjust the microphone at the podium as it has been positioned for optimum audio quality. First is Whitney Holly. Good evening. My name is Whitney Holly and I live in District 3. Um, I'm here today to express my

081support for adopting the proposed overflow model. I believe this is a fair, balanced, and proactive solution for residents of District 3 and for our county as a whole. Um, I understand that discussions about resoning have been ongoing for several years. However, as a new kindergarten family, I did not realize our community would be directly affected until we received the letter in September. Um, in the early conversations that I had with lots of teachers, friends, and neighbors, the overwhelming comment that I heard was, "The board has already made up its mind. They're going to pass the resoning plan, and the public hearing is just a formality." And whether that was true or not, it was really discouraging to hear that this was the perception that so many people held of our school board. Um, and listening

082to your discussions over the last month at your recent meetings, I sincerely hope that your vote this afternoon will prove them all wrong, that you are willing to incorporate feedback and collaborate with teachers, families, and the community to find reasonable and student centered solutions that benefit everyone. Um, what I appreciate most about the overflow plan is that it protects current New London Academy students while giving flexibility to respond to forest area growth in a thoughtful and measured way. It balances capacity, supports teachers, and keeps class sizes at a level where kids can truly thrive. It also maintains efficient use of facilities such as Otter River. This model also provides transparency for families who have not yet purchased homes or signs leases in new developments. From the start, they will know that their child may attend

083a different but still nearby school. It also supports efficient bus routes since only select developments would be redistricted or redirected, I'm sorry. Um, ult ultimately reducing travel distances compared to the original resoning proposal. It would be my hope that in the future all children can attend a school within their local neighborhoods. But as our community continues to grow, that can only happen through expanding existing schools or building a new one in the forest area. I believe it is reasonable to expect new development, new development to contribute its fair share to the need it creates in our schools. Localities should work with developers through voluntary profers or impact agreements. And I hope our county will take full advantage of those opportunities so that future growth helps support the classrooms and facilities our students depend on. We

084all know that overall funding is a challenge and that that responsibility falls on the board of supervisors. Um, Bedford County currently funds our schools just above the state minimum, which isn't enough. Over the past 5 years, local support has dropped roughly 2.7 million, while inflation rose about 21%. Per pupil funding fell roughly 17.6% in just one year. Bedford County spends less per pupil than many neighboring divisions, ranking near the bottom statewide. These facts show that our local investment isn't keeping pace with our student needs and our teachers, staff, and students deserve more than the bare minimum. If we want to meet the needs of a growing community, we must invest in our schools accordingly. And we will continue to advocate for adequate funding to properly support Beth County schools, our teachers, and our students. But

085in the meantime, I encourage the board to move forward with adopting the overflow model. It's a practical, compassionate, and student focused step in the right direction. Thank you. [applause] [snorts] Good evening. My name is Casey McCricard from District 3. I would like to take this time to express my support for the overflow model. This approach is compassionate and practical solution that puts students first. It allows our children to remain at New London Academy where they've built friendships and strong relationships with teachers while still making room for new families moving into our district. This plan also provides those families with transparency about where their children will attend school. I also want to take this time to thank you all for the hard work and dedication the board has put in into finding a solution. I hope

086that you can see many benefits of this plan and vote yes to the overflow model. Thank you for your time and considering what's best for our children. Jamie Holly, [snorts] >> Jamie Holly, District 3. Um, good afternoon members of the board. Um, I would like to start off by thanking each one of y'all for your transparency and conversation at the last meeting, you know, last month. that that really meant a lot, you know, following following up with us after that meeting. So, thank you guys for that. Um, I'm here tonight to ask you guys to vote in favor of the overflow model for New London Academy. Um, I feel like this model will equally and fairly serve all the families and students in the New London area. Um, this plan keeps current families and students

087attending New London that have been here for years. And it also provides transparency to new developers and to new families moving in so they know where their children will be attending elementary school. Um the board of supervisors has made it known they continue to develop the new London area. They outline that in their financial reports that they want to continue developing New London. Um with if if you guys went forward with the redistricting um Otter River would be at 96% with good also starting to develop which would put New London at 60%. Without any homes being built and students to then fill New London Academy so it's almost Robin Peter to pay Paul. Um this would create you know redistricting over and over again as as due continues to you know develop at a school

088that's already at full capacity. Um this model has worked really good in other parts of the state. It's worked good in other states as well. Um, I think that this will be really good for Otter River as well because students will slowly be, you know, integrated into Otter River versus going from, you know, 50 to 60% capacity to in one year 96% capacity. I think that was with the mobile unit as well. Um, so slowly integrating students that are being overflowed to Otter River would also benefit them as well, I feel. Um, once again, I appreciate you guys. I know y'all are working hard. Um, thank you Stephen Hill. I know you put a lot of effort into this and you know to everybody else that's you know really worked hard on this. So we're

089asking you guys to vote for this overflow model for our kids. So thank you guys. That is all that was signed up for public comment but we do have time. Is there anyone else that wanted to speak? All right. I will close tonight's public comment time. >> [clears throat and cough] >> All right, moving to 7.03. Do I have a motion for the approval of a forest redistricting board request? Mr. Chair, I move that we approve the forest zone adjustments excluding the portions that move students to Boon Elementary and Otter River and deny the new London area redistricting portion and refer it back to staff for f further study utilizing the overflow model. >> Great. So, I want to make sure I'm clear. Your motion is to approve the Forest Elementary recommend. >> Forest Elementary.

090Yes, sir. >> Uh excluding any students that were recommended to go to Boonboro and to Otter River and to um deny the New London and put it back to staff to review the overflow policies, etc. >> Yes, sir. >> Okay. So, I have a motion by Mr. Hill. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> All right. So, I have a motion by Mr. Hill and a second by Mr. Daniels. Do I have any other motions? All right. Questions about what Mr. Hill is proposing? >> All right. >> Very clear. All right. So, we have a motion and a second. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. >> Any opposed? All right. Randy, I apologize. You wanted to provide some numbers. >> Yes. Uh with with that motion and were you moving forward

091on that? Um [clears throat] there's some decisions to be made on zone transfers. >> Um and how we're going to uh we're waiting for the motion that you wanted to move forward with the Forest Elementary ran numbers on everything. I do have a handout that I'll pass around and I like to discuss this because there is a discussion on zone transfers that the board will have to give direction to staff on. Okay. So, as I pass this around, it'll really be the first and second sheet just regarding the next two because those were for the New London uh in Otter River, which um based upon the motion that's going forward is not going to take place at this time. So, I'll wait for those to go around. I'll speak to the first of all the

092zone transfer um uh policy JCD. Uh this is the revoking of zone transfers. This is when we run into a situation where there's uh we're over capacity or classroom space and the priorities given to that. um first priority is given to children that are um with staff members at that school. So if there is a staff member at that school bringing their kid to that school, they're given the priority, they're the last ones to be zone transfer re uh uh denied on that. Next one is if you're a staff member at another school, but your kids going to one school that we're having issues with. and then all other students that um are non-related to staff members with zone transfers at that school. So um Dr. Woodford and I have worked on this the last

093few days making sure we identify everybody. And if you turn to page two, we've looked at if we do zone transfers and also consideration of grandfathering children in. Uh so both of those really we need guidance on on this. We did look at if you grandfather and rising fourth graders going to fifth. So kids that are going from fourth to fifth um that they could stay with their siblings also staying at that school. So that's the top chart that we looked at in the grade configuration and what it would look like at Forest Elementary based upon that really for transportation for the parents because no transportation will be provided for those. They should go to TJ. They're they choose to stay at Forest Elementary. They'll provide transportation. So, we're allowing if you so choose the

094fifth graders going into fifth grade with their siblings so the parents can transport them to one school. That's one option. Yes, sir. >> Um, just want to make sure I'm I'm understanding this properly. These are all these are not stacking numbers, correct? So, 35 or 39 kindergarteners, 43 first graders, 54. So, these are not stacking numbers or are they stacking numbers? >> Um, this is considering what the counts will be at Forest Elementary. In the first one, you're saying we've got the rising fifth graders, but some of the other siblings are going to be in those grades, too, that would be staying, too. Okay. Did that answer your question? Gota. >> So, that with with option one, if you grandfather in rising fourth graders in the fifth grade and their siblings staying um at Force

095Elementary, everything looks pretty good. They'll have to provide their own transportation there except the fifth grade. We're concerned about that. It may create a situation where we have to add another step staff member to force elementary above the staffing standards to deal with that grade configuration because of how that school would be staffed with teachers. Um so there is a cons that that is one [snorts] item that we're [clears throat] concerned at that we looked at. Option two that's highlighted. Um >> can I also say that with option one that's a one-year waiver. >> So siblings would then in the second year go to Thomas Jefferson. They're not grandfathered in until they get through fifth grade. It's a one year. >> It's a one-year letting the fourth graders go to fifth grade, finish up and

096their siblings going with them. But in the following [clears throat] year, everybody would have to go to TJ. That's option one. Option two, um, which is highlighted, that is what, um, the executive staff is recommending um, but we'll adjust according what the board wants. Only grandfathering end students currently at the school. all the all their uh zone transfers are revoked. That means all the kids go to TJ all and transfer um zone transfers are revoked except for employees currently at the school. Okay, that would keep only employees that are at that school with their kids at the school would be the only ones remaining. Everybody else would go to TJ >> BCB any employee. Second option >> that's any BCPS employee. So if there's an employee that's at JF that drops their kids at Force

097Elementary, we'd still allow that. Option three is just a little bit more um you know severe there. Only employees at that school and their kids at that school. That's only a slight change. There's not a much not there's not a big difference between two and three. So we we're recommending two because we see that there may be uh a need to put additional staff at Forest Elementary to do deal with that large fifth grade class if we leave rising fourth graders there. We'll be happy to answer any questions of the board, but this is something we would need guidance on so we can go ahead and notify and prepare for next year. >> I guess my first question and this is to my other board members and to the administr I have not heard anything

098from this particular group of students, the ones that are the 53 students I believe it was moving, you know, where we're currently splitting Lake Lake Vista to no longer splitting Lake Vista. So I don't it it's >> the ones we heard from were the ones that were going to Boonsboro and >> correct. >> Um and so I don't know as far as obviously the for me this you know second or third options are basically the same one or two spits difference. I don't really see much of a >> my my only concern is we've been very >> we've always said grandfathered was part of the plan. >> We didn't say grandfather and I'm >> I'm just making my argument. We didn't say grandfathered for fifth graders. We said we would grandfather students in. Now you

099got to make a decision and and move them. So, I get that if that's the majority of what the board wants, but okay, we grandfather fifth graders. Well, what if one of the fourth graders, you know what? What if one of the siblings is a fourth grader? So, now we're going to force that fourth grader to go to TJ when they could have finished Forest Elementary one more year. I have a concern with that. Yes, it may cost money. I I don't know what that impact is, you know, >> and we don't know about incoming kindergarteners. So, I think we just need some direction on what do we do with siblings of those siblings that haven't come to school yet. We're fine doing whatever you want. >> My personal This is Marcus for district 4.

100I think if you're at the [clears throat] school currently, you're grandfathered. If you're not at the school currently, I'm sorry. you've got to go to your zone school. And I know that will present a problem because you may have a parent who is doing fourth and fifth grade at Forest Elementary and then you got to do kindergarten at TJ. The parent has the choice to move that fourth and fifth grader to TJ. Unfortunately, we've got to do something with Forest Elementary. So, it it's not an option to not do anything. >> [clears throat] >> But my personal opinion is is if you're currently enrolled at Forest Elementary School, you should be able to finish out your elementary years, but that doesn't permit your siblings to come in now, >> Unless they're already in. Now, I

101know we had some policy years ago. maybe mixing it up where because we did something with Otter River back in the day where >> it's actually I know I think we were trying we we revoked zone transfers at Otter River because it was financially um it was causing issues and so we looked specifically at grade levels and capacity at grade levels and then we revoked just at those grade levels. Um, one thing that you're not seeing in here with Forest Elementary is that there are some zone transfers that have been approved over the last few years. And so there are some just plain old zone transfers from other places. Um, not specifically to the people going to TJ. Um, but I think we could look at numbers and the capacities of those grade levels and

102handle that from here on out. that we've looked at the data. If I'm counting this right, I'll just first of all this if they choose to stay. We gave us an error if they all stayed. Some are going to probably just go ahead and go to TJ anyway. So, they may choose choose to do that anyway. >> Um but counting the siblings tied to um up upcoming fourth graders that are going to go to fifth without trans without zone transfers for uh employee. It's about five siblings that are there that are tied to those. So, I don't see that as being a huge impact. But if you continue to let future siblings come in that I think that that's an unknown future and I I would see that as a bigger problem I think and

103they're they're scattered between grades one here, two here, two here. Um that's what I'm seeing right now. So, um, now >> it will because of the large fifth grade class, I do foresee unless the, uh, uh, over the summer we see a change in the demographics and how many kids are coming that we'd probably have to add another staff member there temporarily until that fifth grade was moved on. >> Now, we have, so we've got students that are coming. What about students that are transferring in that do not go to Forest Elementary School? They're not zoned for Forest Elementary School. Are those just >> We probably would close that school and not allow any zone transfers in. Um I think it was prior to uh Mr. Tucker and I taking over that department. I think

104there was probably some babysitting issues, grandparents across the road kind of thing, special circumstances. Uh but it would probably be the recommendation from I'm just making an assumption from Ry's team uh when they presented um projected enrollment that we don't allow any zone transfers to Forest Elementary that we keep the students who are actually in that zone there and everyone else has to go to their zone schools >> but not grandfathered. >> Not grandfathered in. I'm talking about any additional new students, right? And >> and that's if the school remains closed from a capacity standpoint. >> Yes. And the we're going to guide that through the facility committee and look at capacity. We're gonna we're going to really work through that and also enrollments. But for the first year of this at least we'd say

105I it'd be my recommendation to the facility committee and then to the full board at least for force elementary stay closed get through this and let let these children go through and then see and then look at it in future years. But that'll be that'll be a presentation made in January and a recommendation. So, so the 76 students in the fifth grade and the first line one that would be still three teachers but [clears throat] just 25 students or would you have to um have a fourth teacher? >> We staff the schools by total number in the schools and we have our staffing standards per that so they just don't come in clean buckets that they're all going to be like 22 or 23. So, we ran the staffing model for that school and we

106were concerned that when you're looking at that fifth grade and the number of teachers that they have spread out, they're one short of really making all the class sizes kind of there. There was going to be one grade level that was going to have near 30 kids in a class. >> So, >> depending no matter what the principal did, they had to move and they were one teacher short of getting it down to a lower um a lower level. It was going to be very large class. So, when we look at that, Brandy and I would say 25 and a fifth grade is probably okay. Um, we wouldn't want to go much higher than that, but we also know that probably all of those fifth grade students are not going to stay if there's a

107transportation issue or anything like that. So, it' probably be three at that grade level. That's a principal's decision, though. But >> so we could potentially have the first one and still have only three teachers in the fifth grade, >> not have to hire any any extra teachers. >> well, this is if so this is an estimate if this is the model that's chosen grandfathering everybody in. We don't know the exact numbers yet, but there's other schools or smaller schools and that's been an issue for years that will all lot out say seven or eight teachers, but because of how the kids are coming, you put the eight teachers in different classrooms and then you're left with a classroom of uh 30 and you're going, "Well, that doesn't work." But our staffing model doesn't give them

108that extra teacher. That's where it costs us extra money to say for right now so you don't have to have mixed classes and do a lot of you know u jocking around to get that done. You [snorts] have to you you really allocate one more teacher to that school than they they actually deserve. That's what's happening right now in some schools. And so we're saying this could potentially happen by grandfathering in and if that's the board's wish then we'll deal with that over the summer. We do budget for some of those um because we don't know what's going to happen. So, we do have reserve positions in the budget to do that, but as the budget gets tighter, I don't know if we'll be able to preserve that in the future. So, anyway. Yeah. >>

109All right. >> Sorry. No, no, no. I'm just Okay. [laughter] >> No, he he asked you. >> Yeah. So, to me, I mean, I I would like to see grandfathered for these students who are currently there making no commitments to a child who is not currently enrolled at Forest Elementary. just gonna rip the band-aid off. This is not the only conversation you guys are going to be having about this over the next three to six months. So, you know, for tonight and for us to move forward with this plan, I'd like to get consensus from the board that we allow grandfathering in for the current students who are there. No guarantee for siblings who are not currently enrolled. Um but we are not providing transportation if it's outside of your zone. >> So that would

110be option one for Forest Elementary. >> Yes. >> And and potentially you probably lose some to attrition just with the transportation issue. Absolutely. >> Hey, we got to go by TJ anyway. Just take a take a left instead of going straight. >> Yeah. >> So you're talking about then approving the first one. >> Yes. Or giving consensus. We're not appro consensus for the first one. Okay. >> Any other questions or ways of doing that? You have consensus. >> Yes. Yes. I have to have state. >> Okay. >> You you can participate in consensus. >> I can participate. [laughter] >> So yes. All right. >> But then I would like to say number one says for one year Yeah, it I wrote it down the way you're you're >> but your it's going to be till

111they're about >> tell everyone but no guarantee for new siblings. Yeah, >> a little tweak to that. >> Yeah, we'll make a little tweak but yeah, we got it. >> All right, so we're good on that. >> All right. Do I have a motion to go into close session? >> What's that? >> No, you haven't voted on your motion. >> Yeah, we did. >> Oh, sorry. I thought it was consensus on vote. [clears throat] That's all they did before the redistric. >> I was so nervous. No, it's okay. They did [laughter] a little They did the discussion after the vote was done. So, [laughter] >> are y'all good? >> Good. >> I'm fine. >> It was unanimous. [laughter] >> All right. So, do I have a motion to go into close session? Mr. >> Chair,

112I make a motion to go into close session pursuant to Code of Virginia 2.2-37. 2-3711A 119 for the discussion consideration or interviews of prospective candidates for employment assignment appointment promotion performance salaries disciplining or resignation of specific employees Bever County Public Schools and 19 for the discussion of plans to protect school safety in consultation with law enforcement officials uh where discussion in an open meeting would jeopardize the security of school facilities. >> All right, I have a motion by Mr. Daniels. Do I have a second? >> Second by Mrs. Pervvis. Any discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. Any opposed? We are in close session. still be a >> recipe That's why >> I ran into [laughter] I gota go. I got to go to Marxism. All right. Uh, do we have

113a motion to come out of close session? >> So moved by Mr. Daniels. Do we have a second? >> Second by Miss Pervvis. Any discussion? All those in favor? Signify by saying I. I. >> Any opposed? All right. We are out of close session. Miss Johnson. >> Whereas the Ber County School Board has convened a closed meeting on this date pursuant to an affirmative reported vote. Excuse me. 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 close meeting was conducted in conformity with 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

114exempted from open meeting requirements by Virginia law were discussed in the closed meeting to which this certification applies and only such public business matters as were identified in the motion convening this closed meeting were discussed or considered. Excuse me. >> Yes. Thank you. >> Do I have a motion for the approval of the consent agenda? So moved. Mr. Hill. Do I have a second? >> Second. Huba. Any discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Any opposed? The consent agenda is approved. Matters from the board. Uh committee reports. Mr. Hullbrook. >> We have not had any facility meetings. Well, it's been I missed the last meeting, so I haven't had any. >> Yeah. No, we've got a we've got a really busy um December coming up. >> Yeah. >> Um so,

115we've got um both facilities committee meeting and we're also going to be um discussing looking at all the capacity of all of our uh all of our schools in general uh and starting to look at enrollment numbers. I think facilities is going to be starting to take that a little deeper look into that into um new developments. Um kind of starting to keep an eye on that, being a little more proactive on our end to where [snorts] we should already know where these kids are going to go before we ever break ground on on a project. And so I think um Randy and his team has done a really good job, excuse me, Mr. Hagler and his team have done a really good job about uh getting us all kind of moving in that direction.

116and and we're really excited about how our December is going to look with that. >> All right, good deal. >> Mr. D, >> uh IG um we met, we discussed the the the policies that were presented for information and then uh a couple of ones that we passed today. Um we meet again on 117. >> Oops. >> So, the governor's school um had been looking for a director. We we set up a committee to do that with um two board members and three uh superintendents for their design and we came up with the central Virginia GV school has now for science and technology has announced that the director for um Dr. Smith, who is retiring on June 30th, 2026, will conclude 16 years of leadership. And the Central Virginia Government School has unan unanimously selected

117Dr. Scott Douglas, who is currently serving as the assistant director to become the new school's third director effective July 1st. Um there was quite a bit of um interviews and stuff and and he was by far the best candidate. He's already very involved in um building rapport with the community and um different things that he's been doing. So he's he's been the clear choice that the committee came to. Um, and then in the STEM academy, we um went over some of the things that they're doing right now as far as just getting new students involved and um visiting the different schools as well as um they're this weekend they're doing um mock interviews which uh I have participated in the previous years, but they're excellent opportunities for the kids to actually go in and act

118like they're interviewing for a job and then get feedback from the people that um are interviewing them. So, um that's that's a big part of their um program in in their junior junior year, I guess, the end of middle of their junior year. And then um we also approved the new um strategic plan and removed the DEI that was still on that plan since we are merit-based and not um uh DEI based. So we were we went ahead and removed that from our strategic plan and that was approved as well. >> Uh IG met CPO met uh on October 28th. Then we went over a lot of the things that you heard tonight from Dr. Trosper. Um and we have another meeting the end of November. Laurel School Board will also meet uh [snorts] next

119week I believe Wednesday morning. Okay. and finance committee. Did we set one for early December? >> Early December. >> Okay, that's what I was thinking. Okay, good deal. All right. Um, so the next thing 10.02 is the appointment of RVGS board member. So, I want to take a minute um in case anyone's watching or has questions. Uh, you saw a new board member here tonight. Uh, again, welcome Jordan KS. Um, there was an election last week and um, Miss Kathleen Pedroan, I said it right, Miss Johnson. All right. Um, she had been appointed and because she was appointed and there was an election held when Mr. KS when the state um finalized the results, he was able to join immediately which will finish out that term and then uh he starts his new term in

120January. So, I wanted to be clear of why you saw one last month and now you've got someone new here in district one. But that explains that. I say all of that to get to 10.02, which is the appointment of RVGS board member, which is the Reno Valley Gov School. So, I would like to ask you, Mr. Cards, to take that for at least the December meeting. Um, and then in January, the new board, you got when you guys reconvene, you will assign committee meeting uh committee assignments during that first meeting. So, is that something you would be willing to do? Which >> serves, sir? >> Okay. And Miss Dr. Woodford, um, remind me it's one night. >> It's every quarter. So, our next meeting is February. >> Oh, >> good job saying yes. >>

121REALLY? [laughter] >> We just had to have somebody. [laughter] >> He and I He and I talked about it. No. >> There you go. >> So, you [snorts] may not even have to attend the meeting if you don't stay on that committee. So, >> that's called brownie points. >> Appreciate that. 10.03 comments and concern from schoolboard members. Mr. Cards, we'll start with you. >> I sir, I don't have the words to comment on anything. You just pass me right back. >> All right, Mr. H. >> Negative. >> All right, Mr. Hill. >> I just want to uh I've I've been um engaged a lot with the District 3 community over the last couple months here. I really appreciate uh all the feedback I've gotten um the involvement uh from the community and I really hope

122that um the entirety of Bedford County but really District 3 keeps up the involvement. It's been really nice to hear from the community a lot of constructive things uh and to kind of hope that we keep on building momentum on that. >> Well, I I even like the fact that we showed them that the decision had not been made. [laughter] >> That's right. >> Okay. Mr. James. >> Yeah, I just want to echo uh what Mr. Hill said. Um we got a lot of emails. Um no matter if you were in district three or seven or one or whatever, um every email that I received um people spoke with a lot of passion, but they were genuine and they were sweet and they were they were definitely understood the the position that we are in

123and understand we have tough decisions to make, but um they made their they made their case. they made it clearly and and it was there was no anger or any tone or any of that. I I really appreciated that and at the end of the day it it certainly makes it easy than then try to find a solution that can work uh as best as it can. I don't think there's ever a perfect solution. >> Um especially when there's budget numbers, money doesn't grow on trees and we can't just build new schools whenever we want. But uh I think it's a solution that everyone's like, "Okay, we get it." And we did listen or we do listen um all the time and and it's great. I think that's that means that people will keep coming

124to us and listen to us and I think we get a little bit of grace too knowing that we are willing to listen. Um other than that I just want to say that uh Veterans Day was this week. So um I want to I want to shout out to my dad all the veterans who have served um this country. Um it is is something that we should never never ever forget and never take for granted. So with that I'll pass >> um to say but um first of all welcome Mr. And then also I thank you for Mr. Hill for all you did and hours and hours and hours that you put into this. And I also want to thank the the community who actually gave us suggestions instead of just attacking. That's always much

125more refreshing because we are trying to serve and do what we can. Um, so I for I also want to thank the administration because I know you guys put a lot of hours in and stuff in in in the staff doing all of that to help us address both the financial as well as the capacity issues. Um, we as elected officials have a fidiciary responsibility to serve the community with integrity and fortitude even when it costs us our time which we have spent quite a bit, our popularity which is always fun and even our money. um putting time into this. Um many people choose to live in Bedford County because they know that our elected officials care about them and are fiscally responsible to keep taxes down while still providing excellent community benefits. Bedford County

126Public Schools is no exception. Academically, we've gone from 107th out of 131 school divisions in Virginia to 31st out of 131. And we have done this by investing our finances in quality education and providing more employee support in the classrooms, all while cutting back on administrative positions and salary increases. However, given the financial crisis that we're facing in the reversion of the town of Bedford, we have to make some difficult decisions while continuing to improve upon the quality education that we have strived so diligently to attain. So given the scope of work that must be done in order to be fiscally responsible and in order to have more transparency with the board of supervisors and the community in general, I would like to propose a few options in order to better serve our community. Um,

127and I'm echoing all your concerns about finances. First of all, zoning and facilities committee. That was one of the things that was suggested and I thought that was an excellent idea. Uh this committee, this committee would include parents, teachers, administrators, board of supervisor members, schoolboard [snorts] members, and possibly even real estate agents that can help work out the logistics that we must address. Um this would encompass not only the forest zone, but all zones with repres uh representatives from each of those zones. Secondly, I'd like the school board work sessions to be implemented. Um, I requested this long ago in order to make sure that the entire board, which represents each district, would have an opportunity to understand more fully the challenges that have been already discussed, as well as allowing each local board member

128to weigh in on the discussion. Without a zoning committee to discuss with the community and the board members what has already been pursued and how to propose direction, um, will in how to to propose direction will impact impact their specific zone and the entire district. We open ourselves up to represent or to presenting proposals that have not been thoroughly evaluated before they are disseminated to all of those impacted by the proposal. This can lead to outrage and chaos as we have clearly seen. So while we cannot please everyone, I believe that having the community more involved will help ease the impact as we will face have to face some difficult decisions moving forward. And what I mean by work sessions is we know we have the final financial issues. We know we have um some

129redistricting resoning and probably schools that need to be closed. Let's have a more thorough understanding and discussion during a work session that the whole board can be a part of as opposed to we have a problem. let's resone and let's give the administration the um I you know the task to doing this without specific more direction. So I just think that the board should be more involved in that [snorts] um process and then also considering modules. I know that you don't like modules um but I I think we should probably at least explore them and I know that was part of the policy that was changing or um that that you were proposing. So we should, you know, see if we can discuss them a little bit further and where um and if we need

130to use them. Um and then finally, and I think this is the most important, the board of supervisors and the school board regularly scheduled work sessions. Um, while I realize that both the board of supervisors and Bedford County U school board members all have a lot on their plates, I believe we should have regularly scheduled meetings once a quarter or at least twice a year in order to make sure that we all are working together to make Bedford County and the best the best county in the Commonwealth. In the long run, I believe this will save Bedford County as a whole lots of time and money. All members of both boards should meet together to discuss what our challenges are, what we have done in the past to address them, and how we can come

131together to solve them. We need to stop the them versus us mentality and for the sake of the community, change the focus to all of us versus the challenges that we're facing. We all bring different perspectives to the table. And if we can shift our focus to collaboration rather than competition, Bedford County stands to gain the most. >> Dr. Ha, >> uh, I have just very brief comments and that is, uh, welcome to the board. Thank you for all of your hard work. Um, I think a lot of good things have come out of this discussion that we've had over the last couple of months. Uh, one being community knows that they're heard. uh we have shown ourselves to be transparent. Um we have at least exposed some challenges that we have as a board

132between us and the board of supervisors and the need for collaboration and those discussions have already begun. So I think only good can come out of that and u look forward to seeing what happens next. >> All right, good deal. All right, do I have a motion for adjournment? Have a motion by Mr. Daniels. Do I have a second? >> Second by Mr. Hullbrook. Any discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. >> Opposed. >> All right. You are good.