School Board Meeting - 3/13/2025 - 5:00 PM

001e e e order this Bedford County Schoolboard meeting for tonight Thursday March 13th Miss Johnson if you will please call the rooll I'm sorry before you do that Miss Johnson I have two board members who have notified me they will not be here tonight and that's Mr uh Johnny Knight and Mr Matt Holbrook Mr M Hill here Mr Daniels here Mr sill here Dr hubot here Mrs pervis Mr chairman you do have a quorum thank you uh do I have a motion to allow board members to participate remotely move second second all right so I have a motion by Mr Daniels and I have a second by Dr hubach any discussion all those in favor signify by saying I I I I any opposed all right so that motion passes has Miss okay so miss

002pervis welcome to the meeting thank you all right all right do I have a motion to approve the agenda as presented so moved have a motion by Mr Daniels do we have a second second second by Mr Hill S Hill any discussion all those in favor signify by saying I I I any opposed all right agenda is approved if you will please join me for the Pledge of Allegiance allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation God indivisible with liberty and justice for all M Miss pvis are you able to mute your phone until you you need to speak okay perfect thank you because it's coming through so just wanted to ask that appreciate that all right if you will please join me

003for a moment of silence thank you all right moving to staff reports 2.01 superintendent report Mr deare I'd like to again thank the uh school board members and the executive team for um kind of keeping up with me in my medical progress I'm doing much better I just want you guys to know that and I appreciate your prayers it it's uh been a journey and I don't think I made it without you guys uh assistance and help I want to I want to start every meeting with the same discussion because I think it's really important if you look on the screen I don't think we've advertised enough how significant or important this is so in principal's meeting the other day I you know I talked about having some posters made where we could put this

004in in in in offices and begin to talk about the significance of that rise of 10556 to 36 I think it's hugely important for the community to know that and you know I I'm not going to elaborate but I had a conversation at a gas pump with a dad who is a homeschool and why not why not bford County and and and I don't think enough people understand the significance of that movement and the dedication of the teachers so I want to keep bringing that forward whenever we can this needs to be a focal point of where we are because we have some great teachers and we want to celebrate what they've done and some great instructional staff have moved our teachers as well so I I I do want to keep moving that um

005it's it's highly significant the other thing that you've seen a lot of in the last couple weeks is the national assessment of educational progress or the nape scores and so I kind of wanted to highlight what those are and how they're used on a national and a state basis so the nap score does not report individual school or division data for comparison a small sample of students in grades four to eight take the test each year typically 30 students in each grade level are invited to do so per division the schools and the students are chosen randomly and the test is structured compared to state-to-state performances there is a full uh disclosure of what is found for Virginia in the vdoe National report card you can find it on the VD OE website the nape

006report of January 29th states that Virginia like the like much of the nation as a whole saw declines in fourth and eighth grade reading and math results from 2019 and to 2024 I think it's significant that we keep in mind that a lot of this reflects a prolonged and pervasive negative impact at school closures and unnecessary disruptions and shift to remote learning had on our children during the pandemic and so this whole process is about correcting what what what we did to the students during that that time frame since the winter of 2024 nape test Administration Virginia schools have fully implemented the Virginia literacy act the VA ensures that every student in kindergarten to fifth grade receives core literacy instruction rooted in scientific based reading research and evidence-based literat L literacy instruction in addition the

007forthcoming year as we look at where we're going in 2526 um the literacy Act is again um kind of ramping up so to speak and what they're providing for our schools is a Core curriculum for fourth and fifth graders supplemental and intervention curriculum for grades four to8 and professional development for Middle School teachers to build their knowledge and evidence-based literacy instruction aligned with science based reading research so we can continue to see growth in the areas of 4 to8 because the Virginia literacy act has put an emphasis on this so that's important to remember while the nape is a good indicator of fourth to eth grade reading and math achievement across the N nation and state levels we will continue to focus on where RBC BCPS students are in this progress and continue our commitment

008to reading and math excellence and I'm very proud of where we are in this process and and those sitting at the table that contribute to us um the use of Chrome books is the next next topic I want to look at uh a detail explanation was provided on Wednesday memo sent on February 4th 2025 entitled information request from budget work session the instruction team recommends that we continue using Chromebooks as a tool for instruction and I highlight this not for providing instruction because all so and Benchmark testing is is only offered on digital format our state standards require require the integration of technology in all core courses we recognize that students should be taught digital citizenship while also being taught how to compet how to be competent Learners on the computer and from textbooks Chromebooks

009are not the issue it is it is appropriate use of Chromebooks in the amount of time spent on off task site that is the instructional issue we are committed to working with our school-based leadership on proper use of technology and the need for more FaceTime teaching um next topic is future resoning consideration uh this will start in FY 2526 and will involve a 2 to threee study of financial cons considerations on Zone to Zone study of school capacities projected County Zone by Zone housing unit considerations and the financial cost to the division of underc capacity schools based on S soq standards there will be more information coming to this as we enter into the 25 26 school year I I also want to highlight the number of executive orders and how they relate to Bedford

010County as I think most people don't understand that Bedford County predated a lot of these ex executive orders with with u making Corrections beforehand so there are prominently four executive orders that really do do come into play in schools and they are EO rolled back Federal Rec recognition of gender identity EO ending radical indoctrination of K12 schooling EO keeping men out of women sports which includes a title 9 reversion back to 2020 version an EO eradicating anti-christian bias what most people don't know is that um we have several policies that have actually predated this as I said before the most significant is policy INB entitled teaching about controversial issues found in section I instructional program dated June 8th 2023 which um discusses a lot of the issues that the executive orders discuss policy IB States

011in accordance with the BCPS non-discrimination policy all staff shall be mindful that all children are created equal and it breaks it down into four areas one particular race ethnic religion disability status or sex is not inheritant Superior or inferior over another number two an individual solely by virtue of their race ethnicity religion disability status or sex is not inherently racist sexist or oppressive number three an individual shall not be discriminated against or receive adverse treatment solely and partially because their race ethnicity religion disability status or sex and an individual's moral character is not determined by their race ethnicity religion disability status or sex in addition to this teachers have been uh told that they cannot have discussions regarding sexual orientation and gender identity uh policy IB goes into explaining those two policy excuse me those

012two definitions very well and I would encourage anybody to go on our way website and to look at those um those policies as it relates to any information that they need in addition and currently active BCPS has three other um policies that relate to I and B and the first is found in non-discrimination section A foundations and basic commitment commitments which is code AC which was revised in June 10th 2021 and two policies in prohibited harassment and retaliation found in sections J for students and G for personnel they were both revised in December 9th of 2021 and are relatable to the aforementioned IMB all of those go into discrimination and they go into a lot of the things that um that a lot of these Federal Executive Orders are beginning to address so they are

013on board docs and anybody that needs to reference them I would say and and I've heard heard one of our board members say this we are because of what the board's activities were in Prior I I kind of think that Bedford is on The Cutting Edge of being ahead of this so I I commend the board for that as a reminder in in discussions about policy I just want to remind everybody that the vhsl transgender policy has been updated as of February 10th that uh vote by executive committee was 31 to0 to bring the league in compliance with the Federal Executive Order keeping men out of women's sports the vhsl executive committee has directed vhl staff to immediately proposed policy changes that would form an emergency legislation to comply with this executive order the next

014item is something that came out of my SWAT discussions with on a lot of campuses and my recommendation and and it's usually needs to stay in place for 3 to 5 Years anyway my recommendation is that our current strategic plan be continued with one exception and we know when we look through this we see that the the first point is that we will maintain a high academic expectation and support students in obtaining foundational knowledge transferable skills and post-graduation plans secondly we will provide a safe and supportive learning environment third we will create an exemplary Workforce by creating by recruiting supporting compensating and retaining high quality to employees and then the third is where excuse me the fourth is is where I want to add in something that I think is really important and that is

015we need to start looking at a volunteer program because we don't use the community enough on in in section four so um what I'm looking to do over the next couple weeks is to I I start next week at a PTA meeting and address this issue uh in Boonsboro where a PTA organization can pick this up what I'm going to ask them to do is to to formulate a volun program within their PTA and where PTA organizations don't exist because the schools are just don't have the parent manpower to do it then we need to look at having someone fill that position even on a part-time basis to be able to go around and try to find people to to get into the schools and supplement our teachers I think it's very valuable when you

016bring the when you bring retired teachers or retired Engineers or whatever they are back into our schools to help our teachers I think it's it's something that we're drastically missing and it's something that came up in a of my SWAT discussions the other three areas that I really want to speak about tonight are questions that we get in emails and one is how do we decide an inclement WEA to do a delay or a closure and so I want to just I want to read the statements of the executives have given me on this because I don't want to vary from this and we are putting this on the website so that parents can refer to this um BCPS staff closely collaborate with the office of Bedford County Emergency Management to get the most updated

017weather WEA briefings from the National Weather Service and other pertinent information regarding uh potential storms we also closely collaborate with the Virginia Department of Transportation for update road conditions information and concerns when needed enable BCPS staff Drive roads throughout the division to assess bus routes prior to making the decision staff also check into the surrounding School divisions We Gather all data available on current road conditions as well as future weather forecast that includes the approximate timing of inclement weather temperatures type of prec precipitation and make decisions that best keep students and staff safe at a as safety as a top top priority this is a commitment that we have made to make that decision prior to five o'clock on any given day so that parents can make plans and so that we can make the

018right plans as far as providing uh information for teachers and parents on the on a day before the the This lends to the next question how do we make up inclement weather days BCPS calculates 990 hours as the school year and not school days BCPS Banks hours and we have approximately 1350 hours built into our current schedule the state requires that we make up the first five days missed once that is done for every one day we make up we are given two example if we use 6 and a half days to make up a makeup day and we're giv credit for 13 hours as of today um we we know that we are using tomorrow as our first makeup day March 14th and so this is one way of providing back a snow day

019um and if we had to ask for a waiver from the governor and you ask for waivers from the governor when there are when the governor calls for State emergency which he did during the month of January so Dr Woodford follows through on that and if we needed to calculate hours to make up if we needed to apply for a waiver then that process is in place um I I think we're we're doing fine as far as ours at this point um and so we're we're not wor too worried about that right now the last thing I wanted to discuss is the implementation of executive order number 33 establishing bell-to-bell cell phone free schools and and I have been on campus and talked to some teachers who are very excited about the engagement in their

020classroom and so I just want to read through a couple things that Dr Woodford and I have collected over time um in the last couple weeks it was very difficult at the beginning of the year to establish a 3-week period because we kept sending them back for snow days so we are at a point now where teachers have have had this in place in their room to where we are starting to get good feedback the principls have been informally surveyed to determine what the first two months have looked like the full teacher survey was sent out this week on Tuesday which will GA gather more specific information all reports indicate that teachers feel the students are more engaged and that they appreciate the consistency of implementation through the policy and the use of the pouches

021there is more positive student interaction in classes the hallways and in the cafeteria a few parents have been unhappy with the process but once a principal explains to them why we're doing what we're doing and they understand that it usually turns into they understand the rationale behind the implementation cell phone violations through discipline are leveling off there is a there was a slight increase at the beginning but once students realized that the pouches were here to stay things calm down not having access to social media during the school day has decreased the number of incidents what we would call drama especially in Middle School talking to the Middle School principles and communication with phones the only concern that the schools are having at this point is that the pouches have a a sharp pen at

022the end that engages and some of those pins are not standing the test of time so Dr Woodford is working with the company on how we better improve that product and and how we replace them if they're broken um what I want to start from now on and um is that when I do a report and I put things in there like uh weather in you know inclement weather how do we make up days there will be a posting in the superintendent page that will show my remarks from this point at a meeting so people can refer back and we can refer people to the answers that we collectively as an executive board have have found um before I close out I'd like to invite Mr Haggler to give us an update on the calculation

023tool recently provided by the state as we move into projected revenue for the school year 2526 yes thank you sir um we did receive our calc tool from the state based upon the general assembly passing their budget uh that budget is now at the governor's office and waiting for him to sign veto or not do anything I'll come back to that in a minute uh General Assembly it was you know quite a bit bipartisan to pass this uh budget in the house it was 81 to8 in favor for and in the Senate was 27 to3 so a lot of bipar are getting this bill through um if the governor vetos it it goes back to the general assembly and they got to work through that veto session and so that postpones us being able to

024finalize our budget um if he signs it then this is what it is if he does nothing from my understanding then the budget that was passed last year which is the B annual budget is what's in place nothing gets done no changes um happen so waiting I think uh March 24th is the deadline for him to take action so um I'll be watching that closely and if it does pass then the only other thing we have to wait on is the Board of Supervisors letting us know our funding and then we can reconvene as a board and finalize our budget so I'll keep you all updated on that uh the good news from the general assembly is they they made two changes that hopefully are all in our favor and that can help us balance

025our budget uh the first is they went back to to the pre-recession support uh figures uh so quite a bit more more money came in from that um in addition um there's an it's called a special education add-on now Kelly Jennings uh director of special education and myself have contacted the Department of Education and going what is it and can we use it to bounce our budget or do we have to spend that on new stuff we have not received an answer yet um so it seems like people at the Department of Education don't know what that is which is surprising but we're trying to find out so all told about 2.1 million more from the general assembly 400,000 of that is the special add-on which we don't know if we can use that to

026balance the budget it might be that we have to spend 400,000 on new stuff or new staff in order to get that so somewhere between 1.6 to help balance our budget to 2.1 uh depending on that 400 if the governor signs this budget so very positive um the the vast majority was that U recognizing the support cap we're well above that and most districts are it's just the state recognizing that so that is we already have those positions that helps us balance our budget I have communicated that to the admin um the County Administration as they're working through their budget but and my notes to them was this is all predicated on the governor sign it nothing's locked so um we'll continue to Monitor and keep the board updated on that uh any questions on

027the state budget okay that's all I have for thank you any other questions regarding superintendent's comments all right uh 2.2 overview of the new accountability model DR Woodford good evening members of the board um during the summer of 2022 the Virginia Board of Education began a review of the school accrediation model with the intent of evaluating the model's Effectiveness and transparency in SE September of 2023 the Virginia Board of Education directed the Virginia Department of Education to design a new accountability system that was transparent easy to understand and ensured preparation of students for their next phase of education so tonight I would like to share with you the model which is called the school performance and support framework um that has been approved by the Virginia Board of Education and will be used for our

028accountability uh beginning with our spring test uh prior to the approval of Virginia school performance and support framework in January of this year schools in the Commonwealth had two separate systems of accountability one that focused on the state requirements uh for performance and another one that was used to C calculate Federal accountability these two systems were confusing when used together and so complicated that there was a concern that the systems were not communicating students actual performance in Virginia um so the new system separates accountability and accreditation as you can see on the chart um in front of us on the screen on the right side of that slide um is the accreditation model schools will be accredited based on meeting the state's statutory obligations and operational compliance this would include um pieces of the standards

029of quality so some examp did we offer the right courses to allow students to get their diploma did the school do all of their required fire drills did we hire the correct number of Staff um and so those items are all certified through reports that we give to the Department of Education throughout the year um our Focus tonight is really on the left side of the screen if you're looking at it and that's the Virginia school performance and support framework that is actually going to be our accountability measures um that are really looking at academic achievement as you can see in this diagram schools will have three areas of focus that will determine their overall performance in academics the elementary and middle schools will have uh the three areas of Mastery growth and Readiness and

030high schools will replace the academic growth piece and they will focus on graduation the three areas of focus for overall performance are weighted um this chart provides an easy understanding of what each component is weighted to provide a total score for each school's performance rating the shifting of waiting in categories is indicative of the focus that the Virginia Board of Education really wanted in Virginia schools so for instance the Readiness indicator increases in weight from elementary to high school to indicate the Virginia Board of education's focus on Readiness After High School for employment enrollment or enlistment enlistment which they would call Readiness for life um the the minute calculations can get a little um complicated we've shared a lot with the CPO committee and um so we're just kind of keeping it at a high

031level so you can see the overall waiting um for our systems um so let's start with the elementary indicator s and Define what the state is measuring in each of those three categories that are identified for academic performance so we'll look first at Mastery Mastery is going to measure performance on the reading math and science so test which will include VAP test um VAP test are tests for our students with um significant disabilities and it's more of an a portfolio assessment so all of our VAP test and our test will be used to measure Mastery in the overall calculation um there is also a focus in this accountability system on the progress of English language Learners which will count for 10% of the overall Mastery measure this is the only time that the board of

032education is looking at any type of subgroup and that's our English language Learners um there has been a lot of discussion about schools who don't really have a significant number of English Lang language Learners um you know if you only have one that's a lot that 10% would count for that so they're looking at some um waiting that would be more division level um they're also looking at not using the so test for this but using the weda test which is a test we give to our English language Learners when they um come to our schools so that we can gauge what level of English language they required um the second indicator is growth and this um is measured through aist called um the Virginia's visualization and analytics solution which we call vbos um this

033tool calculates a student's expected growth in reading and math over time based on that student's prior performance on so test and the performance of all students in Virginia taking that so test so vivos will provide an expected score in reading and math for every student individually um I would consider that like a goal for where we would want our students to reach the reason that um the state department is looking at growth is because if you have a high achiever um who typically does well on an so test we want to make sure that they're getting the highest score that we want them an advanced pass we want them not to just pass the test but pass it with a high score um so growth can be achieved by any student um in our system

034so schools receive credit for students who meet or exceed the expected growth that's been calculated in BOS the final component of the Elementary performance is Readiness so the Readiness indicator uh measures chronic absenteeism and the five C's performance task so the five C's are critical thinking creativity communication collaboration and citizenship um the performance task to measure these areas has not yet been created so so this year chronic absenteeism will count for the full 10% of the overall rating next year as they develop the performance task and our students take that chronic absenteeism will move move to 5% and the performance task the other 5% um the Middle School model is exactly the same as the elementary model in what is measured it's measured the exact same way um growth and Mastery are just weighted a

035little lower and Readiness a little higher as I described as we move up in grade levels The Waiting within the school is different um because we're trying to get our focus on graduation and Readiness for students so again measured exactly the same they're just weighted a little differently and then finally our high school components so the high school components are not only different but they also have different data that they're used to be met measured for the Mastery portion of the component we're still looking at reading math and science performance and the overall progress of our English language Learners in School Readiness it does include chronic absenteeism just like in the elementary and middle school model but it also adds the six-year graduation rate with students who receive an applied studies diploma these are our

036students with disabilities that stay in our educational program longer and graduate after five or six years in high school this has never been used in the calculation for accountability before and I think it's a positive addition it recognizes the work of our students that receive their diploma that may just Le need a little bit more time and it gives them and the school credit for that continued work um the second indicator is the school's graduation rate this is a measure of students that have received their diploma um in what we call on time which means within the four four year span of high school just as we would expect so um they graduate as a senior after they've been in high school for four years and then the final Readiness indicator is the ready for

037Life 3E framework which I'm going to go into in a little bit more detail so the 3E Readiness framework is also an index rating system based on rigor and experience so as stated students can earn points for multiple experiences in high school that are preparing them for life so specifically um the calculation here is a little bit more in depth but is an example of what is measured so for instance when we look at the enrollment category um that category is focused on enrollment in a two or fouryear college you can see that students are um assign points for any category they meet the standard in so a student um can earn earn a one in 2500 points for earning an associates degree before graduating those are our students who are in our early college

038program who graduate with their diploma and with a two-year associates degree um then you can see the waiting changes they'll receive one point if they take three or more college level courses which we call dual enrollment um and earn a minimum of a b and then you can see the progression here so as we have um you know one to two two credit bearing College ready courses we start looking at AP scores if they're taking AP test so in essence you want as many points as you can get so that's how these points are assigned you can see the same thing in employment in employment we're really focused on our CTE credentialing so a full point for anyone who's a CTE completer um the catch here is that they receive an industry CR itial in

039a high demand High wage field so the doe actually publishes um and um in conjunction with um the Employment Commission in Virginia what are those High Dem demand High wage fields and so if we have students doing a a CT completer um they can get a point for that remember you don't have to be a Gibson student to get a CTE completer that's the goal when you're a Gibson we want that and all of your credentials but we can get completer series at the high school which has been a focus for multiple years so um we're just recognizing that Career and Technical um and then the final focus is on um enlistment and that looks at scores on the armed services vocational aptitude battery or the asbab test or the Armed Forces qualification test which

040is the afqt um as you can see you could have a student who may they have an associates degree complete a a CTE completer credential and decide they want to go in the military at some point and take the ASVAB and earn a high score so students can get points in multiple areas so that's something we'll be looking at um it's a it all comes from the reports that we do for doe to calculate that we're not going through our Kids and Counting their their points but our goal is to get as many points as possible and I think we've had a really good focus on all of that um through our CTE um expansion with our jrc program at Gibson and then our our push for dual enrollment and AP and the board um

041really taking on helping pay for AP tests and things like that we have more kids who are involved in that um So based on all of that data calculated in weighted formulas the school will then be given a overall performance category label and those labels are distinguished on track off track and needs intensive support and you can see so schools who receive in the large system so Elementary if they have Mastery growth and Readiness and they get um between 90 and 100 points they're distinguished and then then it continues 80 to 89 that school is on track um between 65 and 79 they're off track and need a little bit more support and then below 65 points needing intensive support we got some preliminary data where the state took our scores from last year and

042tried to give us a performance category for each of our schools um and most of our schools were in the distinguished or on track um and we had two schools that came into to off track they were just a point or two below that 65 and we think looking at the date it was really chronic absenteeism which we've been working on so we hope that um you know just from those preliminary um looks at performance that this year we will be okay of course we're always considering as an instructional team there there is a new English test and a new math test with new English and math standards this year so fingers crossed that our Mastery continues uh the way it should um and then sorry I'm stuck uh finally all schools are then ranked

043by their performance scores and the bottom 5% of schools in the state are identified for federal federal Improvement so this is how the state of Virginia is going to use the same system to say where schools are at the state with state requirements and then the bottom 5% of those schools are identified for federal Improvement so that's how we get both accountability systems using the same data um I will say um in the past we have been federally identified because of one or two subgroups there are no subgroups except for E Learners in the new system so I feel really good that we're probably not going to fall in the bottom 5% our schools do really really well um so again 95% of the schools in Virginia are going to have no identif ification which

044is positive um and then the remaining schools may receive support um through federal dollars um to focus on student groups or overall school performance that has been lacking for more than one year again our schools are doing really well with this so um I think the federal identification will be very positive I know that was a lot to take in but I'm happy to answer any questions that I can question Miss pvis through this you've been through this a couple times oh she's been through too the only thing I did did you get a commitment from the Virginia Department of Education that they would not change this for at least five years um I did not get that commitment um I I will say the old system has been in place for over two decades

045so I'm hoping at least it gets me to retirement that's all I beyond that beyond that all right so no other question I had just a quick question what um I know you're waiting for still a little bit more information but um on the schools that we do already have identified it's not um not at task or whatever it was um do we have things already implemented into how to help them before we wait for any more funding but just getting them back on track absolutely track on track I guess they're off track I guess is the way right so when we first get scores um in the summer we immediately look towards those Mastery scores so we're already look you know we were looking last summer at what schools needed support in math and

046reading and science we've given um significant support from the instructional team and the Special Education team in those schools um we didn't get these rankings until really late in the school year and we had already been supporting the schools so so I feel like we're right on track based on the the data we had from last year's testing um to connect and support schools um to to keep them moving forward this school year and I think Dr Trosper is going to talk a little bit more about some of the support from his team and his presentation too from a budgeting standpoint the federal dollars so will that change based I I we're getting federal dollars today So based on this calculation will those dollars change so we'll continue to get the dollars that we're getting

047today this is an addition to correct it's an addition to and usually it's um a limited edition like we have to write a grant for that money and so it's about $50,000 for the school um for curriculum materials remediation training things like that so it's over and above what we just get from the federal government I just wanted to make sure we were ahead of any budget issues that because of that yeah I just wanted to say like I I think that it's it's important and as you're going through this how I've been on the board a couple of years how we do talk a lot about the supports that we provide for our students but it's been I mean just a just top priority for this board and this division of the opportunities that

048we give our students and we can provide for our students so if you look at that one page that shows enrollment employment and enlistment I mean that's that's what we've been hitting on and we've been pretty proud in this County with the work that goes on at Susie G of course with Roc but with all the CTE how we've expanded that as a board and then have we've continue to talk about how do we get more kids into du enrollment how do we get more into Early College what else can we provide that is if we just keep focusing on that and how we are setting our students up for success we're going to continue to see our rankings increase and if there's any other suggestions you guys have on what we can do from

049a budgeting standpoint from the finance or any other way I I think we would be all years uh to see what we can what we can do but always not sitting back and resting on our Laurel say what else can we do what else can we do um it's it's a testament to the CPO committee and and you guys on staff here too so just thank you uh for for that and thanks for the presentation all right any other questions or comments all right uh 2.03 midyear data update Dr trer all right good evening tonight I'm going to present an overview of the first semester achievement data and support measures that we provided to our schools after receiving the data so specifically I'm going to focus on our vs data for students and grades K

050through three and the benchmark scores for all core subject areas the Virginia language and literacy screening system also known as The Vows assessment is given to all students across the Commonwealth in the fall midy year and in the summer spring bous is used for early literacy screening of students in prek through third grade it's designed to identify students who might be at risk for developing reading difficulties students are placed in one of three bands which helps us identify the level of supports that we would offer them so the scoring bands are low risk which means there's a low likelihood of developing reading difficulties students are considered to be developing at grade level appropriately U and we would continue with regular class instruction those that are at moderate risk there's a moderate chance of developing some

051reading challenges and so they might show some areas of concern in their literacy development and they might benefit from additional support or differentiated instruction then finally we have those that are in high risk a student is significantly elevated risk for developing reading difficulties these kids will require targeted interventions and they actually get an additional two and a half hours of remediation um additional per week uh so we really focus a lot of remediate remediation efforts on them so um as a reminder I know you love to hear this this is the first year of giving this vow screener um it's a change from from the doe um this replaced pal so you've probably heard of phonological awareness literacy screener that's Pals um that's been given to students in Virginia for quite some time and so

052um this does align with the science of reading it does align with the Virginia literacy act um which was recently passed and so I'm going to go over some of our scores uh and so the table on the screen actually shows results of our fall and midyear valve screener so as you can see we really are making good progress we're really proud of our teachers and our schools what we want to see is that the percentage of low-risk students grow from Fall to midyear and we want to see the percentage of high RIS students decrease from Fall to midye and if you look at each grade um we did that lowrisk students grew in each grade and high risis dropped in each grade and so um we we want to continue that trend on into

053the spring uh one of the things that I would attribute that to uh is is our new curriculum Benchmark Advance our teachers have done a really nice job of trying to implement that with Integrity I also want to commend our reading specialist um they have done a really nice job of taking leadership uh and ownership of literacy instruction in our schools and so not only are they remediating students that are in high risk and sometimes even moderate risk they've really stepped up and helped our teachers implement the reading curriculum and then something else that we've done is we we have a a supplemental intervention curriculum called really great reading if students don't show progress we'd like with the primary curriculum then um we will use that to help intervene even more and so just that

054consistent implementation I think has been very successful for us so um good Trend so far obviously we want to keep going but so far with vs we feel pretty pretty good about where we are uh the next slide talks about Benchmark data so at the end of each nwe grading period teachers and core content areas give students a benchmark test Benchmark tests provide information to guide instruction and set up students success on end of the year summative and other high stakes assessments so the next few slides might sound familiar if you've been on the board for a few years uh in working with CPO we thought it might be helpful just to go back over some of the data that's available to our schools for some of the new board members um and so just

055wanted to kind of go through that again before we show the data two years ago our division joined the comprehensive instructional program or the CIP it's a Consortium of school divisions in Virginia this Consortium works with teachers and about 65 School divisions uh the map shows and the purple shows where those divisions are um and what they do is they create pacing guides assessments to help our teachers schools and the District staff Target needed supports based on that Benchmark data prior to joining CIP we didn't have a common Benchmark assessment so we really didn't have a lot of division level data where we could use um to analyze where our students are monitoring student teacher and student progress was difficult and so now that we do do have uh benchmarks from the CIP they're highly

056aligned with the state curriculum they're extremely rigorous compared to benchmarks given before we joined CIP and they really help us see results relative to other divisions so uh just wanted to show you what data they provide so you know what our schools and what our division staff is looking at uh when looking at CIP quarterly Benchmark data there's other data points besides Pass rates we spent a lot of time on Pass rates with high stakes testing uh but it helps to have other data to get a real complete picture of student performance uh and so this report that we get provides information to help our administrators determine that the school is going to have higher so scores than last year or not uh and so we we can find out not only Pass rates but

057percentile rankings that compare to other divisions um we have students disabilities we have their uh Pass rates we have disadvantaged students English language Learners and other subgroups so we know all that based on these reports we received from CIP uh and so what I want to do is in the next few slides just show you what data reports schools are currently looking at based on first semester Benchmark results uh there's a lot of information schools have there's too much to review in depth but again I just want you as a board to understand um the data that is customized to each school and what they're looking at so uh the first is the CIP percentile rankings so schools of course want to improve their Pass rates from year to year what we have found is

058that the percentile ranking is actually the most important statistic that we use when we're analyzing benchmarks and the same goes with CIP uh member divisions when we can compare what we are doing to other school divisions it helps us really understand how we're doing rather than looking at Pass rates and isolation so on the screen you see one of the reports we receive it's called an analysis of scores this just happens to be from a math benchmark that we gave um not too long ago school names are covered up on the left but the left column would show the Pass rates and the far right column would show percentile rankings where we compare with other CIP member divisions so the green represents schools fall in the top third of schools in CIP yellow would be

059the second third and red is in the bottom third so I'm going to spend most of the data reports on the percentile rankings and later slides but I did want you to see at least what that looks like before we so real quick why why would we cover up the school names that is those are benchmarks that represent a moment in time from a few years ago I I don't want to give any misrepresent that that's where we are now we have data today that you guys could share with the board to show like where we compare correct and that's what I'm going to do in the next few slides okay just want to make sure okay so the next data our school's use comes from Mastery connect it's our division assessment platform after Benchmark

060School staff get detailed reports about student performance on on each test given uh so while again it's useful to determine Pass rates Mastery connect is used um at the school level by teachers instructional coaches and administrators so just a quick overview of what these reports look like the one you see on screen is a School level report that's found in Mastery connect um this is from a science benchmark that was given in the first quarter again a few years ago but our teachers receive the same kind of report after every assessment given um this item analysis report helps teachers identify specific skills where students struggle so teachers use this data to provide targeted support um to students at risk of failing the so test either individually in small groups or as a whole class if

061if you look on that the circle area would be so 4.2 bullet a so that is one of the standards taught in this particular class um it's a standard that most students missed uh in this class level science benchmark meaning that teachers are going to have to examine this question more closely to determine if remediation or reteaching is needed and which students should receive this intervention so when teachers conduct this well and they adjust their instruction to address the skill deficits students should score higher on their so test the instruction and special ed teams really focused on coaching and supporting teachers as they analyze these reports and so we'll go to grade level or department meetings to help look at that data which again is at the school level the next report is a Mastery

062by standard report which uses colored-coded percentages to show student performance on each standard this indicates areas again that are needed for reteaching so teachers can actually filter this data by subgroup to compare performance uh of those for example students of disabilities so on the screen there's two reports that are for the exact same test uh the top shows performance of students with disabilities and the chart on the bottom shows students all the students in class um if you look at it you can see that 5.3 B that's where that red bar is that was a real issue with our students with disabilities that particular um standard and so all students did okay but we know based on this report that we really need to focus on remediating our students of disabilities so we might talk

063to a co- teer or we might go to a resource class um to really develop those skills But ultimately this helps us Target our interventions for students and de and and address those learning gaps and then the final report is another variation of the Mastery by standard so teachers can use this report to analyze student performance by standard viewing question counts and correct or incorrect responses the vertical columns will show class Trends while the horizontal actually shows individual student performance so you can break it down and see how many students showed Mastery on that skill in the class you can see how many need a little remediate a and those who might need a lot and then again as you go in the rows you can see really individual student performance so again our principles

064are expected to lead their staffs and guide their staffs in analyzing this data and so that's what they are currently doing to develop their 45 Day plans and other remediation plans U that that are getting ready for the final test uh now let's talk about this first semester so the chart shows the subjects that we did test for our Benchmark so generally speaking we give our benchmarks to so tested courses there's a few ex exceptions so for example in grade four students don't take a science so but on grade five there is science 4 content so we do go ahead and test to identify where we need to support our our students uh each assessment is aligned with the standards from the doe including the new standards in English math uh and actually history when

065a crosswalk year as well at the division level we're looking at relative data as I said to look at student performance Trends um and so uh that what I'm going to go over now so on the left side you'll see percentile rankings for math so these charts are going to show data division data by core subject uh and so just as a reminder when we look at percentile rankings for example if a school or a subject is in the 75th percentile ranking that means that all 75% of the scores are below students in Bedford County another way you might look at it is if we're in the 75th percentile ranking that means 25% of the the scores were above our so again this really helps us compare rather than looking at Pass rates and isolation

066so if you look at math those are the subjects that we bench Benchmark tested on for this first semester three of our subjects improved relative rankings compared to last year two declined and two were fairly consistent by staying within two to three points of last year as we move towards so testing what we're seeing from this is we're still concerned about algebra so while the percentile rankings have improved that's still not quite where we want to be um we've had a lot of challenges with our high schools with algebra and so we're going to really be working to Target and support those teachers and schools and then we're going to be monitoring grades three four and six they're they're doing okay but they need to do better and so we're going to keep an eye

067on them in English on the right side four of our subjects improved their relative rankings none of them declined and two State consistent so we feel pretty good about where we are in our English classes right now uh but again we're going to continue to monitor those individual teachers or departments or grade levels depending on the data um that have shown areas in need of improvement so we can ensure our scores continue to remain strong um as they have in previous school years the next chart is on science and social studies data so if you look on the left that's our science scores three of our subjects improve their relative rankings none declined and two remain consistent we do test in grades five physical science and biology so we're going to monitor those but I

068did just want to call your attention to science 5 as you're aware we've really struggled to meet our goals in science uh science 5 is one of those that's really showed great improvements we're really proud of them um science six is one that is eventually tested on the physical science test um and so all Trends look good especially grade five so I do want to commend those teachers um and our and our administrators for their hard work and then as you look at Social Studies two of them improve relative rankings and one decline now in the subject that decline the scores are still on the top tier so it's not great concern but it's something to keep an eye on but I do just want to call your attention to Civics as you can tell

069we really struggled last year uh compared to this year uh and really with World Geography as well and so again want to commend our teachers and schools for their growth um as we move towards so testing we still want to improve our Civics the benefit of World Geography is it's taught in e8th grade and anyone in 8th grade is taking it as a high school credit class so they if they pass they'll high school with verified credits in history so that's a positive for those students so that's where we are right now relative to other divisions and kind of gives Trends about where we are and the the final slide is I just wanted to let you know what we're doing as a division after each quarter the instruction and special education teams develop support

070plans for each quarter we determine which schools are priority based on the data and we make adjustments to the frequency and the type of support so so right now our team is focusing on targeting schools grade level subjects and teachers teachers that have demonstrated the need for more support uh we're providing walkthroughs we're meeting with teachers to plan probably more so than any other quarter planning with those teachers uh reviewing their data again meeting with departments and helping them develop their 45-day plans which goes back and targets skills or content needed um that students have shown they need support in as they get to the end of the year we are working with the special ed team and their supervisors to give feedback again and planning in Co talk classrooms and then specifically in English

071Mrs Purdue and Dr Isaac how they're looking at our writing analysis protocol reviews which which essentially students turn in writing samples um we relative to the rest of the state we have done well with writing but we still want to improve that there's we have a long way to go um we're monitoring the implementation of the components of the Virginia literacy act and those high quality instructional materials um that's still new we're in our first year of that so that still poses some challenges uh and then finally we're continuing to support our reading Specialists as they provide leadership again they've done really well this year we're really proud of them but we continue to work with them to help um support them through throughout the rest of the year and so we will have one

072more round of Benchmark testings in the third quarter so this is going to give us just a little bit more data to make that final push for remediation as testing begins so with that I'll be happy to answer any questions um I was wondering about the Civics is that is that a high school class Civics is actually seventh grade in our middle schools okay and could it be that we need a better um textbooks or um have you implemented something from maybe Hillsdale College that can help supplement some of the um gaps that we have in our Civics Department well we have not adopted textbooks and social studies we're using the same ones when I started teaching 18 years ago so they're they're pretty old I don't know when we adopted them so that's a

073conversation we're hoping to have next year um it there's always challenges and and and Civics I've noticed a lot of it has to do with just the the support and identifying um the teachers that need it um and so what what we've had to do is really sit down with our principles and work on some of the newer standards um and we've done a lot of common planning and I'll commend Mr ma our supervisor of of humanities for that um they are teaching new standards this year and they've shown a lot of improvement because I just think they're prepared for it um certainly resources are going to go a long way to to continue that progress so have you used or have you tried looking into the freest step that's given to um schools for

074through Hillsdale and see if they have a Civic supplementation that might be helpful sure we do give our teachers a lot of autonomy as far as choosing those resources so they're certainly want to the guidance that we give is whatever resources they use should should be aligned with the standards and so as long as it's aligned and teaching the standards the way they're written then then you know that's something that they have that discretion to do so I guess the question is have you encouraged them to look into that or have you looked into Hillsdale and see to see if that can be something that would be a good resource and then encourage the teachers to um supplement with that so actually um I have looked at it and Mr dupare has looked at it

075and the grade level pieces do not match the standards uh so we really haven't pushed any of the Hillsdale information out because it doesn't match grade for grade the standards um so in that particular curriculum I know there's a lot of extra resources Mr Mayberry has provided but because it wasn't aligned um we did not push that out to teachers for fear that if they don't teach aign curriculum it could cause issues in testing it certainly stands to reason though when you go from a percentile ranking of 11 to 52 that there's a gap there somewhere and it's it's not that the kids intelligence changed that much it's it's probably what they're being taught or the resources that they did or didn't have and so I think the question's valid sure you know and maybe

076it it sounds a little bit from what you said Dr Trosper that they've got a lot of free rain maybe they need a little bit more structure I I think so and and that's a conversation we really do want to have as we move into next year uh we want to get through our math adoption but that's the plan is to start looking at Social Studies resources next year great question on those resources so when they can go and get what whatever they like is there cost associated with that if three resources or we have to the from the division level no it's it's something that either they would pay for or their schools would pay for um it just depends on the teacher really and we so what what we do is we do

077have a an instructional guide or a pacing guide and we do provide some links to resources that could help them teach that so so we do that which are at no cost to anyone um but teachers might decide they need a little bit more to supplement yeah I just want to see like okay if I'm using resource a and Dr hubach using resource B and his students are performing better I mean that may just the best practice to have and go hey might as well just use that it absolutely is better when they collaborate and that's why we've really worked hard on a reading culum I think we're seeing the results of that teachers are collaborating every student is exposed to the same curriculum um the high same high quality curriculum I'll add and so

078I would like to get to that that's definitely the best practice I think it can go in every every subject awesome so couple questions for me U so one science 5 going from 39 to 70 what did we do differently to get those results I mean I think that's that would be helpful to share just from an you know hey your numbers look great what was the change what and and where did you see the most growth um so I'll just make that comment if you're able to share some of those examples I I'll stop there yeah so science has as you know has been a real source of frustration not just for us but across the state and one of the challenges we've learned with the state is the amount of reading that's on

079the test it's no longer factually kind of multiple choice you really have to go into depth and you have to apply some complex thinking with multiple skills so I do think some of the reading instruction has helped that our students have improved in their reading the other thing we've done is is um Miss kapler has been really intentional about the common planning like we just discussed where we're getting teachers of the same subject in the same room and they're planning sharing resources creating assessments and I so I think what that comes down to is our instruction is more aligned as far as we're teaching what we need to the new standards uh and then we're also have the have developed the skills they need so um we hope that stays that way for the test

080but it's been very intentional trying to support that grade level we also adopted new science textbooks the same year we did reading textbooks so we feel like with that that adoption definitely more Hands-On more lab based more um using the resources that are available in the community and again giving that continuity between schools and I think that's something that we need to be shouting of hey Community we spent X doll on these new textbooks here's what it's getting us and this is the growth that we're seeing if that's truly what we're seeing so I want to make sure we're using that information the second piece is I had asked well why would we cover the schools up and we said well you're GNA see that well I don't see that so I'm I'm interested in

081how do our schools compare and what are the growth areas and it goes back to if we we're seeing Green in some schools what are they doing and how are we collaborating and sharing that with other schools I'm sure you guys have that data I'd be interested to see it the second piece Mr dupare I think is very important is I know some of our schools receive federal funding or additional funding so I'm interested to know what are we spending per pupil at each school and what are the results because I want understand what we're spending versus what are these results and how do they compare because if we're seeing better results where we're spending more money okay but if we're not then what do we need to change so we we need to know

082what the the whole story is and look the results are I mean the green is great I mean this is what we want to see I'm interested in the next layer of How It's how is each School in bord County Performing now that's just me I don't are you guys well I think I think that the percentile ranking in and of itself tells you where you fall in that 65 School Consortium right right you know and to directly want you see comparison between us and our neighboring counties like Franklin Gamble and Amhurst um because this looks at the whole group The the big CIP group well I'm interested in that but I'm also down to Bedford County like where do we compare oh school to school school to school yeah I think that's important that's

083what I'm after um so from an instructional like in science how much have we increased spending on instructional I think our probably biggest expense was the textbook which they've now had for two years I do think there has been intentional support um in classrooms where we have young inexperienced teachers and a lot of Miss kapler going in in modeling she has worked to have teachers who are getting really good scores meet model plan with our newer teachers so I think it's really intention most of the time it's about alignment of the curriculum are you teaching what is going to be tested and so I think that's the way we have attacked it because just putting money in resources isn't necessarily going to get us the results if we don't have people understanding how to teach

084what they're supposed to teach so I think that's really where we focused and not only you mentioned Hands-On so that's why I was interested in well what kind of instructional dollars have we spent all Hands-On all of that comes with our science adoption so when we adopted it came with the the pieces consumables and some of the things are just very common items you would have in a school that we already have with science kits and things like that so yeah yeah and please don't take any of these questions as negative I mean oh I this data is so this is good um and of course the green for growth I mean is absolutely what we want to see and even if it's not green Civics going from 11 to 52 I mean that's an

085improvement and that's what we want to see so I really we spent a lot of time yeah we spent a lot of time with CPO last meeting kind of talking about what what is good data to share and what is not good data to share and we really struggled Over The Benchmark kind of talked a lot about it and um so this is good feedback okay right any other questions I would I would like to see a little bit more collaboration within each department um I have talked to some teachers who say they don't really do any collaboration with other teachers in the same subject um and I realized we had some um PD days that were changed because of snow days and so on but but I would still like to see more of

086the PDA uh personal development or um professional development done with collaborations more collaborations um among the the teachers even from one school to the other especially those schools that are struggling having fresh ideas um from other for example science teachers or other Math teachers um or other reading teacher Specialists from other schools I don't know if that that's actually an um something that even is an opportunity that they have um where a day where they you might have all of the English teachers high school English teachers meet in one school and during personal develop or um professional development day and all all the math teachers um Middle School Math teachers meet um in in another area but I think um you know my husband was at an executive Sentra and um one of the things

087that they would often talk amongst themselves about oh how do we solve this problem that they don't find the best practices other places and other hospitals that have already done all of the work so I'd love to see that as well where there's um we find some other schools in Virginia that are doing it well whatever the subject is and then have some of them come in and um talk about what did they do differently how did they implement it um finding best practices throughout the state and using those resources to improve our scores as well all right just as a reminder and I want to get back to the positives we're 36 overall so you know I think that's a reminder we're doing the right thing so again don't take any of those questions

088or comments as negative it's just I mean I'm interested in school to school is what I'm really interested in of how we're doing so all right um in closing that out um Miss Jennings we're gonna skip over you for just a second I promise it won't be long term uh we're going to go to public comment um the public comment portion of tonight's agenda is limited to 40 minutes speakers are asked to State their name and voting district the school board is here to listen to your comments but will not engage or resp respond to speakers during this 40-minute period please remember that this is a public meeting in that we expect all speakers to refrain from any foul profane abusive or hateful language during their comments or any time while in attendance during this

089meeting we also ask that speakers keep their remarks objective and about the school in nature please keep all comments limited to 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 because cuse unnecessary delay or disruption to this meeting are prohibited this is a public meeting for public matters if a speaker is not present when their name is called we will proceed with the next name on the list an individual who 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

090allotted four minutes have expired when this second alarm sounds please discontinue speaking and allow the next person in line to come to the podium should you be 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 that was a whole lot to then say we have nobody signed up for public comment however if there is anyone here tonight that would like to speak you are welcome to speak at this time all right nobody is rushing up so I am going to close public comment time for tonight all right Miss Jennings we will go back to you for the annual special education plan and funding applications yes

091sh so every year I present this and this is for for your information to review and then um look at next month for an action um so in accordance with the individuals of disabilities education Improvement act which is idea the regular regulations governing special education programs for children with disabilities in Virginia and School Board policy igba local school divisions must submit an annual plan with applications for for the provision of special education and related Services um to all eligible students with disabilities who reside within the jurisdiction as an agreement for implementing federal and state laws um I did present this annual plan to our cak our special education advisory committee on March 5th 2025 which is one of the requirements as well before I present it to the board are there any questions was there

092any comments or feedback from the cak that you would like to share um no we go through each part and each um comment I think it's more of we'd like to see more funding um with the many positions that we have and um especially not being able to find special education teachers speech therapists um you know how can we find more funding to be able to support them to have teachers stay and retention that was the main comments well it sounds like there's going to be 400 Cas somewhere right in the state potentially if you hear Mark that it depends on what you do with the budget and stuff we've got a shortage got a but it was SP it was special education funds right the 400,000 yeah I'm just yeah and and going back

093to what we were talking to our legislator like we're funding all all these additional AIDS and stuff that the state doesn't recognize I'm hoping that this was a recognition of that let's help you out a little bit more with the funding on that so help you balance your overall budget okay but some of it might be earmarked to say you know you have to meet these thresholds so we got to look at the red tape and the calculations on how that has to be spent whether we're already Meeting those thresholds or we have to do more to meet those for to okay any other questions peris you good surprisingly yes all right all right thank you Mr JS uh 6.01 supplemental Appropriations Mr Haggler yes we brought these at the last meeting for information so

094they're before you tonight for um action if the board approves these I will have these lined up with the Board of Supervisors for them to take action as soon as possible do I have do I have a motion to approve 6.01 supplemental Appropriations so moved have a motion by Mr Hill do I have a second okay second by Dr hbac any questions comments all those in favor signify by saying I I any opposed all right 6.01 is passed or is approved 6.02 approval of Bedford Elementary lighting upgrade bid Mr Haggler yes this was a um project that was on our CIP um we went out for bid on this sealed bid um price came in under what we had to do seal bid on so we're very pleased with that so we're very very U

095very pleased with the price that came in on this you can see the firms on the bid sheets that came in recommendation from the facility committee who reviewed the bid and asked questions and and looked at this is that we proceed forward with awarding the contract to facility solutions group for 18683 that would be lighting upgrades for Bedford Elementary uh scheduled for the summer any questions on that upgrades so Bedford Elementary um about 12 13 years ago we did a um it's called an uresco contract um with the county and all of our schools we did lighting upgrades at the time we did them it was like on the C right when LED was coming out so the price break wasn't there but um the fluorescent lights technical term they're discontinuing these T12 lights which

096are the bigger fluoresence down to the t8s well bedord Elementary wasn't touched we didn't own it at the time it was part of the city's um the city owned it at the time before reversion so it was not upgraded so they have the old t12's in there we need to start moving out of there having trouble finding those and those are discontinued now it makes sense to upgrade that to LED so that's the plan that's yeah so that's primarily what they're doing I thought it was a huge price discrepancy between Moors electric and and the facilities group but uh our maintenance team checked on the group that put the bid in uh they're doing quite a bit of work up at Virginia Tech and so it maybe they're a big National firm but they probably

097have a lot of work we're thinking when they have a lot of work going at Virginia Tech so with that they have teams already here they can come down here and grab on this one and get it knocked out so yeah we we had it pegged in a lot higher came in at this we've done some checks on that so we they feel very confident they get this done I'm sure the facilities um committee has talked about do we have any other uh any other things that might want to get moved up since they're doing pretty good at Virginia Tech do we have any other lighting that we might want move around well you know the question about Led is do you go ahead and you know and do you have the funds to swap

098it all out and start getting electrical savings and it pays back over time what we're doing right now as the t8s that we all replaced um as those go bad we're replacing those with LED as they go bad in various places so we're not doing a whole school at one time um the CIP projects that we have pegged we'll carry the money that we have available for that will carry us forward until about after that there's a question mark So to go ahead and do a whole bunch of lighting might jeopardize projects that are two or three years out that's just my opinion at this point but we can talk to the committee about that what was the difference in what we had pegged for this project versus what we were thinking around we were

099we were we were thinking it's going to come in about 3 300,000 be honest okay so you got $114,000 that you could go ahead and do some LED lights as I said we could go do some more but we've got a lot of other projects that we want to see the bids come in from this is this is encouraging that we had this many vendors come in I hope that boods well for our PPA projects and future projects that there's more appetite more competition so we're going to get better prices dur during the last four or five years one people are going I don't want any more work so I'm just going to throw a price out and so I I think we're seeing a change in the market there whether good or bad if

100you're in a construction business but it might be advantageous to us so I I would we'll take it to the committee but as we get these other bids and money's freed up we can do some other projects too okay just speaking for the committee on this part um it's also right now it's a volatile Market when it comes to materials uh you know I know we just purchased or purchasing a big aluminum building for bet for primary those kind of things those are starting to increase pretty major right now so I think what we talked about was you know hey great we came under on this one might go over on the next one yeah exactly with the tariffs and stuff even with our PPA projects uh uh Jamerson Lewis is even like you know

101trying to get those things purchased because of the metals and the steel and all that so there's a lot of things going on nationally that could impact this tube so but very pleased with this one I I had one question for you Randy we know that the LED lights that are blue are very detrimental they don't work very well um on the mental health of the of the students um they do create um LED light that are more yellow um less harder on the eyes I want to make sure that we're using those instead of the blue light on I I will check into that I I do not have the answer to that right now I know with LED you don't have to put as many bulbs up there or you'll go blind because

102it'll just light up everything so um we we'll check into that and report back to the committee on that and yeah I don't have in front of me exactly the what you call Hue or color scheme on that Spectrum yeah the spectrum color spectrum on that so we'll see if we can adjust that I would be more it's it's more helpful for the kids I know that my husband especially is very sensitive to that and just walking into Walmart is just terrible okay so I want to make sure that we don't create the same kind of environment in our schools okay we'll check on that and I'll get a I'll get an update to the full board on that on the lighting Spectrum we're looking on there thank you for the N work do I

103have a motion to approve 6.02 as presented sorry CH all right got Mr Daniels first do I have a second second all right have a second by Mr Hill any discussion all those in favor signify by saying I I I any opposed all right 6 a02 is approved we have a motion to go into close session Mr chair pursuant to Cod of Virginia I make motion that pursuant the code of Virginia 2.2 3711 a127 that we go into close session for one the discussion consideration or interviews of perspective candidates for employment assignment appointment promotion performance demotion salaries disciplining or resignation of specific employees of Bedford County Public Schools two for the purpose of discussion or considering of disciplinary matters concerning students enrolled in Bedford County Public Schools being student number 031 325A and student 031

104325b seven for the consultation with legal counsel and briefings by staff members or Consultants pertaining to actual or probable litigation or such cons consultation or briefing an open meeting would adversely affect the negotiating or litigating posture of the public body I have a motion by Mr Daniels do I have a second second second by miss pvis any discussion all those in favor signify by saying I I any opposed we are now in close session e e e motion to come out a close session so moved right I have a motion by Mr Daniels do I have a second second second by any discussion all those in favor signify by saying I I any any opposed all right we are out of close session Miss Johnson where's County school board has convened a closed meeting on

105this date pursuant to an affirmative recorded vote and in accordance with the provisions of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act and where section 2.2 3712 D of the code of Virginia requires a certification by this school board that such closed meeting was conducted in Conformity with Virginia law now therefore be it resolved that the meford County School Board hereby certifies that to the best of each member's knowledge only public business matters lawfully Exempted from open meeting requirements by Virginia law were discussed in the closed meeting meeting to which this certification applies and only such public business matters as were identified in the motion convening the closed meeting were heard discussed or considered see yes yes yes yes yes thank you sorry couldn't get your eye contact sorry about which one we're going first all right

106I do I have a motion on action on close meeting items uh Mr chair I make a motion that we uphold the the superintendent recom recommendation for student 03 1325a for student 03 1325b and for employee E A I have a motion by Mr Daniels do I have a second second second by Mr sill any discussion all those in favor signify by saying I I I any opposed all right that action passes I have a motion on the approval of the consent agenda move I have a motion by Mr sill do I have a second second second by miss pvis any discussion all those in favor signify by saying I I any opposed all right we have the approval of the consent agenda is passed all right Matters from the board uh committee reports Mr

107Hill uh yeah we had um the PPA committee we kind of getting kicked off with the bford primary gym um so we we had a meeting before that got started and then a groundbreaking ceremony uh last week so that that was moving forward uh we'll be meeting again out there at Bedford primary at the end of this month uh just kind of check on progress and and start working on the the upcoming uh two projects in the summer um also with the uh facilities committee um the big thing was the um the Bedford Elementary lighting bid going through that making sure the the contractors that were um that were uh doing those bids we felt that the low bid we could also do the job um we also reviewed the other upcoming projects the Forest

108Elementary School Roofing bid Big Island roofing Boonsboro Atrium uh new London VCT Floor Tile replacement Forest Middle School baseball field Redford primary painting Manita Windows Stanton River wastewater treatment and Stewartsville HVAC so those are all coming up this this summer sounds like a great list we've been working on that a long time Mr Haggler M it seems going to be busy this summer can awesome Yep Mr Daniels um so the IG committee met this past Tuesday um um had one thing that we'll be bringing up uh in the in the next meeting for information uh we will be meeting again on April 29th right CPO met and uh we talked about uh the math curriculum adoption that's coming up and we have been through the uh public uh display of the materials and we had

109just a huge outpouring of public to look at that not really at all um so we're trying to get some more internal input from the uh from the teachers uh particularly in the math department um and that's going to happen later this month and hopefully we will make a final adoption I guess v v came in with some late comers that got approved for alignment with Virginia s sols and so there's new stuff to look at even as we come down to the wire so it's a little crazy right yeah we're making it work Family Life curriculum also met we had a very productive meeting um and we have one more meeting before we kind of finalize some of the um the the new curriculum to bring before the board again good stuff that's awesome

110all right Miss pervis um unfortunately I was sick this week so um I was not able to attend but I did request information from gu school about our off options with going back to having cbcc um be our umbrella as opposed to Lynchberg College um I think the from what I understood the contract we have with Lynchburg college or university of Lynchburg um was for five years we have two more years to go and they did not want to break that contract um and then I also found out that Dr Smith is planning to retire in two years so in two years we'll be be able to um reassess what would be just the U most cost effective way of um continuing the school through cvcc or through um the University of lyberg so we're

111working on that okay um finance committee and I'm sorry did you have something El I can do it in my comments okay um Randy and I have taught we're going to be setting up a meeting uh shortly we don't have one scheduled yet but we're going to do that uh one of our next missions is we've gone through line item by line item on the financials now we want to go through and understand where the money like who are the businesses that we're using where are we sending dollars to so to understand who we're doing business with and to understand where that is going out of each of those accounts so uh more um just looking at the overall financial and and who we're doing business with so looking forward to getting that set up

112so um all right comments and concerns from school board members so miss pis we will start with you um I I have been sick so I haven't really been um involved too much but I know Bedford primary had a reading time which is awesome I was supposed to be there but unfortunately it wasn't able to make it um and this coming week Mr dupare and I are going to be at Boonsboro Elementary for APTA uh Q&A um so I'm looking forward to that this coming week Dr H yeah I uh I did get to participate in the reading time at Bedford primary school and um I got to read to a Kindergarten class and it was invigorating from a real simple point that um I was able to read to them from the same books

113that were read to Michael phel help when he was in kindergarten by a friend of mine who has passed away from Alzheimer's but the association there and and looking at the potential of those kindergarten students right and and I'm imagine that that's what motivates kindergarten teachers every day you know and first grade and second grade and all the way up through 12th is to see the potential of the students unpackaged uh right before your eyes and you never know how they're going to turn out but uh you never would have envisioned that Michael Phelps would have done what he did in the Olympics and uh and those things and yet she had a part in that even up to post Olympics was invited to participate in his ceremonies back in Baltimore um so anyway I

114had a great day uh reading to the kids I think they enjoyed it too but who know good deal Mr kind of kind of piggyback off that again it been said several times that we are ranked 36th in this in this state and um I mean that's just a testament to I mean the staff uh the teachers parents maybe a little bit this board um but the and the students and I think the important thing is when you talk about potential it's it's it's in there kids we just got to get it out from them and from from high school and middle school kids with maybe the cell phones we're getting a little they becoming more engaged there was a complaint that I got about the cell phones he said hey the the classes before

115we get going are a little bit louder the kids are talk yeah they're talking they're engaging they're learning how to interact so that they're learning even with that and so I I think that um starting to see some momentum with that and everything that we're doing and and and hearing about you know how the this the testing and how the rankings are going to going to move going forward and say well we're already start we were already ahead of this and doing some of this stuff so that's a really good thing so I I just wanted that's a big congratulations to everybody involved in Bedford County public school so I just want to say thank you to that um kind of back to some superintendent comments um you mentioned some of those um executive orders

116and just some of the policies that come out and and there there gets to be a lot of um uh questions sometimes is if we have certain policies or do we do this we all get asked in the community if we do and a lot of times and we do um we also try to be on the for front in the IG if we don't have something or something that we think could benefit our schools um executive staff will bring that to us we will make suggestions other board members will say hey we should be looking at this and or just best practices that or either around the state or the country that we look at um but if a if a parent or Community member is concerned if if we have a policy or

117if something is mentioned in the policy we on board dos you can search our policies uh there's a keyword search and it it may be mentioned a lot you might have to do a little bit of searching but if you look up and and and click on that to make sure it's a policy it will be there and you can pull those up you can see revisions and just to make sure that we do that and part of the AA we we review policies every every meeting and we try to bring up to eight uh for informational and then we vote on those any changes that sometimes there's changes in state law sometimes there's just things that we do as a division that we want to make sure are out there so we we are

118on it and we we just want to make sure that that that is known and you can you can check that out on our board dos um Mr juper mentioned um some uh analysis that needs to be done for us as a division um whether that be looking at you know rezoning we've talked about it as a board there's a lot of development in certain areas there's not a lot of development and others we have some overcrowding and we have some things are going to happen um we've been talking about schools and efficiency and capacity and all these things and um I have a couple of concerns when we talk about the analysis my concern is who's doing the analysis on this are we going to get outside people to just go hey just just

119looking at it on paper this is what I see great I think that's good but then we need others of course to come in and say yeah but we're not willing to do that I mean I I know on finance committee we've talked about those things we want every option out there doesn't mean we're going to do it but it's important that the public knows that could be an option we just don't want to move forward with that um we need speed on these things but we need accuracy as well three years seems like a long way for me just hearing and and maybe maybe it won't be 3 years maybe we get some things that make a lot of sense and we can get that information out to the public there will be some

120transition time my concern is three years starts putting us I mean we're right there with reversion and the other things that we have that we have to do and and uh we've got a lot of big decisions to make and and we are here and we are here now and it's important that we lay that groundwork whether we're not here in the future or whatever it's important that we do when we're trying to set beverford County's Public Schools up for you know protect what we've done in the past but gear up for what we need to do for the future I think that's that's really important so uh some things you know you dread sometimes pulling that Band-Aid off it's always worse when you're thinking about it before you actually do it so I think

121we need to do that because we also want to not Kick the Can down the road and delay the inevitable on some things because if we can stop some of the bleeding on some of the things that we have we can focus on what we've talked about how do we get past 36 how do we get in the top 10 how do we how do we be uh what was it what was the the the best category you can be in that um in those rankings distinguished all of our schools distinguished how do we be you know that City on the hill how do we be that light for the rest of the Commonwealth to say that you know what you want to be like Bedford County and your phones will be ringing off the

122hook with people a trying to move here and B saying what are you guys doing and I think that that's that's a good thing and that's I where I would like us to be and we've got some time to do that so um I just I'm excited about the prospect of these things I know it's going to be hard work but uh I think that we're up for the task so yeah I first want to commend um Mr ja and his staff for the uh that new Lon Academy propane link we had this week extremely well handled everyone was very safe um you know discovered it during drop off time kids weren't even aware um the forest volunteer fire department coming in with their lights off so didn't alarm anybody that was you guys did

123that very well I'm sure working with the uh safety team there um and I I've talked to Mr hagger about this coming from that I love to see us utilize more carbon monoxide propane detectors that sort of stuff in school so we're not finding out about that from a somebody walking angle man it smells weird in here um so I I would like to kind of look and make sure we're we're up to code not having to do you know what cinon middle school is having to go through right now where you know they had to shut down for weeks um you know if we can a little detector might help that with that um also I was able to uh take a tour of huddleson elementary school um awesome students got to meet a

124lot of the teachers there that was a lot of fun um I did have a couple concerns when I was going there I think Mr agle's already addressed some of them we had some water leaking onto the the ceiling tiles and I think that came from the HVAC and we're working on that um other thing I just want to kind of review there they had a couple little security concerns that I wanted to kind of look into I know I know we've done Security reviews um you know making sure all the cameras are working making sure you know there's no access places where you where you shouldn't be able to access just those kind of things on on huddleson there but great school great people we really I really like it having a visit out

125there all right um couple repeat things but I'm going to say them anyway um first of all um the Yonder pouches um appreciate the update on those um I did take three tours last week I did Forest Elementary Forest Middle JF all positive results um just overall but then when you brought up the fact of the Yonder pouches you know just to repeat what you said the students are more engaged and it's not just the teachers and the administration it is the students who are also giving positive feedback of yes I hated it at first what were you doing but now they're starting to see the benefit um even had one tell me I actually had somebody talk to me I have never spoken to and I've been here four years so it's making a

126difference so that that's that's good good feedback um Mr Hagler the good news is is I found somewhere to spend that extra hund and whatever, so I'm going to make a plug I've already talked to Mr Hill about it uh I definitely want to put it on the needs um for those that have not been to Forest lately I kindly invite you to come over and take a look uh we are now walking to school uh in some cases we've uh got a beautiful new neighborhood across from Jefferson Forest which is directly beside uh Forest Elementary school and the contractor went and they they built this beautiful sidewalk our kids are using it our parents are using it and at the end of the property it stops and it just goes right onto the dirt

127and so in speaking to the principal and just driving by it every day there's a need and I don't know what our options are you know do we work with the state or whoever but I would really like to take care of that so our kids have a continued sidewalk to get to school safely um and so just want to make sure we've got that and uh you know I'll keep talking to you guys from a facility standpoint I mean we've got 100 extra K so um just want to make sure uh we talk about that um and it's for safety concerns too and just the fact of if we've got more students who are walking we may be able to reduce the bus you know that we're using for that neighborhood so um participated

128in groundbreaking last week at Beford primary um you know it was funny uh I was walking with Miss dallis and we were just talking about all of the things that are happening at bford primary so the community should not complain about anything at Beford primary for years to come and what I mean by that is Mella showed me the new floors in both the cafeteria the classrooms the painting that is going to take place they were there measuring the murals make sure we don't go over those and you know she was all excited because these salmon color doorways will no longer exist after this summer uh so full paint um you know in the hallways even talked about the little you know arrows that were coming up uh off the floor we're going to have

129those floors professionally um cleaned um we I've done that in several of my buildings for the company I work for it works they look brand new so I'm excited about that um and then you know like I mentioned the groundbreaking for the gymnasium so really a lot of attention has been paid to Beford primary um it it's been a long time coming but I'm excited um for what's going on over there um talked about Yonder pouches um one of the things that I want to make sure we're looking at um from the the the federal guidelines that has been handed down um I know in the past I brought it up where on day one when our parents show up to sign up for school or to put information in there's an option for male

130female and other and I've always been told well it's the software company that we use we got to do something about that so the software company has got to meet us somewhere in the middle because federal guidelines say Mount female and so I want to make sure we're on that we're looking at it um to make sure there's no question um on the first day of school so that's why I wanted to mention it in March um and that's not just for that software I want to make sure we're looking at it from an overall um school system um and the last thing I wanted to say is Happy Anniversary nobody has brought it up but today is our five-year anniversary of when the world went absolutely crazy over Co it's true and I just

131want to say I am thankful five years later I look around and one of the things that we talked about tonight was BCPS policy INB just a lot of what took place five years ago really drove discussions and the people who are sitting at this table right now as board members and on the phone a lot of that was due to five years ago five years ago I would have never said I'm thankful but there's always a reason for what happens and good comes out of it and so I just want to say happy anniversary we made [Laughter] it all right let's see um the last thing the zone and and Mr Daniel's touch base on this and I and and I apologize I should have said it when I talked about going through um

132Forest Elementary um we've got three elementary schools New New London we've got otter River and we've got Forest Elementary London Forest Elementary pretty much at capacity I know the 80% 80 whatever but when I walk through elementary school and I'm seeing closets that are now classrooms and then I've got a school four miles if that five miles with empty classrooms to me that's unacceptable and so I think we as a board and y'all heard me say it last month the month before and I'm going to continue to stand on this soap box is time to do something with those three elementary schools uh we've got new construction going in across from New London Elementary and and look I know it's not going to be an easy discussion but it is not fair to our students

133or our staff to literally have to use a closet as a classroom and that's just one example but my whole thing is if we've got empty classrooms which we do at otter River and the officient genes that we can drive by evening those classrooms or assignments out it's the right thing to do and so I just want to encourage the staff I don't think this is a zoning at this point I absolutely think it's time to discuss zoning in that two to three year period we don't have two to three years with forest and New London just based on the construction um we're at capacity got kids in a closet and we're still we've got more construction taking place across from JF and next to Forest Elementary which is just more kids um and New

134London I think they're going to build I mean they're across the road the dirt's there the trees are down I mean a couple years yeah so you know but we need to take care of it we we need to just stop kicking it down the road we've got to address and I'm open to all ideas it doesn't have to be you know we've got a primary in Bedford Bedford primary Bedford Elementary if we need to use one of those schools as a primary and one as a ele think outside the box to me we've got empty classrooms and we need to take advantage of so all right that's all do I have a motion for adjourn so moov I have a motion by Mr Daniels do I have a second second second by Dr hubot

135any discussion all those in favor signify by saying I I any opposed we are [Applause] adjourned yeah do the same take