001we're not going to do it we're just switching good evening everyone I'd like to call this September 14th 2023 regular meeting of the be County School Board to order um before we really begin I want to let everyone know that I've been informed that we are adjusting audio so if all of a sudden you get really loud just bear with everyone and they'll adjust it as we speak um and two to let you know that Mr Hill will not be here due to a prior family obligation and Mr Daniels would not be here due to welcoming a new bundle of joy into the world he is giving me the honor of announcing that Theodore James Daniels was born yesterday weighing eight pounds and 8 ounces both mom and son are doing well and the family
002is overjoyed and very blessed and Miss Johnson will you please call the role Mrs Kirby here M Harriston here Mr Holbrook here Mr Nels here Dr mey here Madam chair you have a forum thank you ma'am do I have a motion regarding the agenda do want to switch make a motion that we amend the agenda to change item 3.02 and uh put it in front of item 3.0 one I have a motion by Mr nms and you're saying to approve every other part of the agenda yes ma'am okay I have a motion by Mr NS do I have a second second by Dr mey any discussion all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed the agenda is approved do I have a motion regarding closed session Madam chairman I propose that we go
003into closed session pursuant to the code of Virginia 2.2 3711 A1 329 one to discuss the assignment appointment performance disciplining and release of contract for specific uh Schoolboard employees for the discussion or consideration of the acquisition of real property for a public purpose or for the disposition of publicly held real property where discussion in an open meeting would adversely affect the bargaining position or negotiating strategy of the public body for the discussion of the award of a public contract involving the expenditure of public funds including interviews of biders or offerers and discussion of terms or scope of such contract where discussion in an open session would adversely affect the bargaining position or negotiating strategy of the public body I have a motion by Dr mey do I have a second second by Mr Nelms any
004discussion all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed we're in close session come at a closed session Madam chairman I move that we come at a close session I have a motion by Dr mey do I have a second second second by Mr nms Sorry Miss Harrison I heard him first that's okay okay any any discussion all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed we're out a closed session Miss Johnson will you please certify the closed session where the bford County school board has convened a closed meeting on this date pursuant to an affirmative recorded vote and in accordance with the provisions of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act and where section 2.2 3712 D of the code of Virginia requires a certification by this school board that such closed meeting
005was conducted in Conformity with Virginia law now therefore be it resolved that the Bedford County School Board hereby certifies that to the best of each member's knowledge only public business matters lawfully Exempted from open meeting requirements by Virginia law were discussed in the closed meeting to which this certification applies and only such public business matters as were identified in the motion convening the closed meeting were heard discussed or considered yes yes yes yes yes thank you Miss Johnson okay due to an earlier motion when we approved the agenda we're going to move 3.02 to 3.01 so open up with school presentations from Stant River Middle School and Stewartsville Elementary School yes ma'am thank you madam chair so board members in order to keep you better informed as well as our community about the Strategic work
006not just of the school division but of each School we're having several schools present at each school board meeting their school continuous plan tonight we're very pleased to welcome Mrs Jessica Guyer principle of Stant River Middle School and Miss Denise kler principal of Stewartsville Elementary School who will each be sharing inform about the goals within their school's continuous Improvement plans tonight you might hear some references to uh different levels within the accreditation that was because we were going to have explained those until we decided to rearrange this order but uh please know any references to levels within accreditation we'll be explaining in the next presentation from Dr wood for tonight so without further Ado I'd like to uh introduce Mrs Guyer and we look forward to hearing your presentation thank you good evening members of
007the board I'm Jessica Guyer principal at Stanton River Middle School at Stanton River Middle School our vision is to inspire our schools to our students to be lifelong Learners who can compete successfully on the global stage while contributing to their Community as productive citizens our mission is to educate diverse Learners nurture their potential and Empower them to be competitive successful and productive citizens air vision and a in Mission aligns directly with the Bedford County Public Schools vision building citizens promoting success this evening I will share an overview of Stanton River Middle School's celebrations continuous School Improvement goals historical data and schoolwide initiatives for academic support as we reflect on the 2223 school year I'm very proud of the work that our staff has put into supporting the growth of our students these are a few
008pictures pictures that provide a small snapshot of our hardworking faculty and staff in the top left we kicked off the school year with a Sharp Staff excited to begin this year's Learning Journey we hosted a selfie scavenger hunt with our new teachers to show them the SR way our library media specialist has worked diligently to renovate and innovate air liary media center with flexible seating arrangements and a fresh organized layout making it easy for students to locate books of Interest we will continue to open our doors to showcase our students learning experiences like the Living Museum pictured here our teacher leaders will continue to support one another and new staff we are grateful and thankful for air school resource officer Deputy David Bishop also pictured is our cheer team highlighting a newly refinished gym floor
009and last our school mascot Titus spreads a very important message and that is to be kind this list provides a small snapshot of opportunities that that positively impact the culture and climate of Stanton River Middle School I would like to highlight opportunities for every student such as participation in extracurricular activities like Athletics and clubs through the newly added journalism class we have established the student Talent news team we are excited to have a parent teacher Association for the second year in a row but we need parent support come join us to advocate for students and teachers with turnover we have had new teachers young in the profession and we recognize has the need for ongoing support through Staffing flexibility we have initiated A A Lead Teacher position to support new teachers with instruction classroom management
010and student engagement this additional layer of support is necessary to grow and retain our staff last through the teaming model we have created two teams per grade level to focus on individual student support in areas such as Reading Writing math career exploration and character development last preliminary data indicates that we have met accreditation however we recognize that we have work to do specifically in the areas of math English achievement and literacy science and school culture and climate at this time I would like to share with you your historical data and school Improvement goals for targeted academic areas as we review historical and current academic data it is important to understand that the results for n for the 19 20 school year are not available due to the closure of schools and the cancellation of State
011assessments the 2021 school year results reflect reduced student participation in these assessments due to co 19 the wide variations in participation rates and learning conditions should be taken into consideration when reviewing the 2021 school year data as scores decrease significantly from the 1819 to 2021 school years you can also see that our scores show consistency and Improvement to address weaknesses in math and based on 2223 so testing as well as data from the 23 benchmark assessments students will meet or exceed a pass rate of 70% on the 2324 so mathematics test the following achievement Gap groups will reduce their their fail failure rate by at least 10% in math African-American economically disadvantaged and students with disabilities students receiving so scores below pass proficient will demonstrate growth as evidenced by division benchmarks the algebra Readiness initiative
012will be implemented for remediation and reteaching of targeted areas of growth all students will achieve a pass rate of at least 70% on math so assessments the math department has placed a strong emphasis on data analysis from assessments common planning at the grade level and as a department is embedded throughout the school school year as the department identifies specific needs for students a 45-day plan will be implemented prior to the so assessment in the spring this will give students the additional support needed for growth we're working closely with the BCPS instruction team and have been provided with ongoing support from the supervisor of math as you can see there is a slight decrease in scores from the 2122 school year overall a reading and writing scores remain an area of concern to address weaknesses in
013English achievement and literacy based on 2223 so testing Stan River Middle School students will meet or exceed a pass rate of 75% on the 2324 English and writing test students receiving so scores below pass proficient will demonstrate growth as evidence by the division Benchmark data remediation will be provided for reteaching and reviewing of of targeted areas of growth engaging in interactive reading units across grade levels will challenge students to gain higher level vocabulary and make connections with real world experiences targeted remediation will continue in Reading specifically for subgroups an emphasis on writing across the curriculum through the implementation of the BCPS writing plan and implementation of the srms writing plan will reinforce skills through core content subjects for example math analysis explanations of math applications science cause and effect analysis and response to Hands-On activities
014in labs and history alternative assessments field trip responses and Project based instruction following the 1920 school year air scores represent a decline in progress to address weaknesses in science and based on 2324 so testing students will meet or exceed a pass rate of 70% on the 2324 science test the following achievement Gap groups will reduce their failure rate by at least 10% in science students receiving scores below pass proficient will demonstrate growth as evidenced by midcourse and end of course Benchmark data during the 23 24 school year 70% of students will demonstrate growth by either passing the 2324 so science test or showing Improvement of at least 20% from the common preest to the end of course Benchmark we recognize areas of concern including analysis and application of the content the science department will place
015an emphasis on the following an investigative approach to real world science targeted science specific vocabulary and an increase in Hands-On labs to reinforce analytical and application skills overall School culture with staff and students continues to improve as you can see our discipline data has shown a slight increase since the pandemic based on Behavior data and teacher input from the 2223 school year Focus areas for support are ranked as follows according to their frequency of occurrence physical and verbal aggression class disruptions obscene language Defiance and disrespect towards Authority and peers abs ISM and tardiness to class based on school climate survey data and student and staff survey data during the 23 24 school year tiered support systems will result in increased reinforcement of of effective interventions and strategies that promote positive climate culture and safety specific
016areas will be targeted using the 2223 climate survey data by comparing the 232 24 data to the previous year's data points the school climate at Stanton River Middle School will improve as measured by student and staff surveys decreased discipline referrals and a reduction in unexcused absences air climate survey data will be reviewed and Revisited throughout the year this data drives climate and culture goals as we work to improve in this area continued initiatives to address School culture and climate through teacher lad committees like our positive behavior interventions and support committee through PBIS we will see improved student outcomes reduced exclusionary discipline and improved teacher outcomes additionally all students participate in a daily connections class for academic reinforcement character education academic coaching and career exploration through the creation of your attendance committee we have increased communication
017with students and families on the importance of School attendance our student Support Services Department is working d dently to support the mental health of our students through monthly character education learning themes there is an emphasis on Career exploration and we are excited to offer all of our students the opportunity to explore careers through our second annual career day in October again air climate survey data will be reviewed and Revisited throughout the year this will drive air climate and culture goal as we work to improve in this area as I wrap up this presentation you can see that we have work to do and plans are designed to support the growth of all students as you make plans for the school year we invite you to the river so that you can experience air student-driven initiatives
018and experience all that Stanton River has to offer thank you for your time and your support do you have any questions okay Miss Harrison nod her head first thank you so much for that wonderful report uh and congratulations on your pre accreditation status too as well that's awesome um in terms of your lead teachers You' mentioned that you provide support uh through your lead teachers so how many lead teachers do you have that's supporting I have one Lead Teacher one Lead Teacher for how many teachers I have 13 new teachers 13 yes ma'am not new to the not all of them are new to the profession okay so of those 13 how many of them are new to the profession four four okay and my other question um is regarding your mascot I love your
019mascot does the mascot get to visit classrooms and hang out occasionally yes Titus is also an integral part of aalan news team so you will often see him on a weekly um newscast but yes he visits and he's times he's out in the parking lot okay fantastic thank you best of luck to you all thank you uh yes I I'm just going to also Echo um Miss Harrison's uh thoughts about it was a really wonderful presentation and thank you so much for the time you've put into it and also I offer my congratulations for your pre accreditation I just want to also say one of the things that I always look for as a former teacher and principal it are excuse me meaningful interventions um it's really easy to say we're going to help kids
020and we're going to you know do something but I really appreciated your teaming model that you mentioned um I think that's a wonderful integration to add additional assistance to to students the Forbes academy uh the Reed re uh redesigning of your media center and your your real world science tiered systems of support you mentioned so many things um that I thought thought really work educationally and evidencebased um you know supports for students and and intervention so um I really and the common planning time I think is so very important so thank you for really thinking through how can you help these children and and what else can we do and I just mentioned a few of the the wonderful um uh interventions you have but um it's really uplifting to me as a former principal
021that you you all have sat down and really thought how can we do this a little bit differently and how can we do it better so thank you so much for that good evening school school board members I want to personally thank you for this opportunity to share all the wonderful academic success Stewartsville has achieved I'm honored to be the principal of this dedicated and hardworking school as you will see we are a very data-driven school which helps to keep our instruction purposeful and focused on student performance our school has its challenges with socioeconomic impacts however we are able to meet the needs of students and keep our expectations High there's so much to celebrate so let's begin Stewartsville celebrates full accreditation in all subject areas Stewartsville has already had a successful family literacy night
02273% of families were in attendance the event was fully funded by Title One funds pizza was served and take-home reading tools were handed out Stewartsville is also proud to announce that this school year our PTA is fully staed this dedicated team has already contributed to the school by repainting the map in the courtyard and helping with the outside appearance of the school in order to establish goals for our continuous School Improvement plan we need to First Look at the data goals were created for English using analyzed data from previous standards of learning scores and pel scores pels is a phological awareness and literacy screening that is state provided and a screening tool for Virginia's early intervention reading initiative the purpose of Pals is to provide early diagnosis and immediate intervention as you can see our
023school has maintained a percentage of 75% or higher for English standards of learning assessment and for Pals we reduce the number of identified students by 23% Stewartsville leadership team created goals to improve reading scores overall they are as follows 75% of stud students grades 3 to 5 will achieve a score of 400 or greater as measured by the standards of learning assessment in the spring of 2024 students grades K through three will demonstrate a 20% reduction in Pal's identification as measured by the spring Pals 2024 screening the resources Stewartsville is using to improve reading scores are following the new Benchmark Advan reading program to Fidelity teachers have already reported that they are seeing improvements in writing and more interest in Reading Stewartsville is also fortunate to have an additional reading specialist and a reading remediation
024teacher paid for by Title One funds this is in addition to the reading specialist provided by the county the three Specialists provide intense remediation to students identified by the pal screening goals were created for math using the following data from the standards of learning moving with math and assessing math concepts assessing math concepts is an assessment tool and remed mediation curriculum purchased with Title One funds the assessments focus on important Core Concepts identified that must be in place if children are to understand and be successful in mathematics these assessments provide a roadmap for teachers to provide more effective instruction and ensure maximum learning for each of their students Stewartsville is currently in level two for the subgroup students with disabilities we are using moving with math assessments and curriculum provided to us by our special
025education department to monit under student progress and provide intense remediation on spe specific skill weaknesses throughout the school year moving with math offers lessons designed to provide students with critical skills and Concepts that lay the groundwork for a strong academic future moving with math utilizes explicit and systematic design principles to address the needs of students who need reinforcement of foundational skills these assessment tools help us closely monitor our student progress throughout the school year this provides for purposeful planning for Remediation in all grade levels Stewartsville also uses our Title One money to fund a part-time remediation teacher that focuses solely on math Stewartsville is working closely with the Bedford County Public School supervisor of mathematics to support teachers with the pacing guides and the many state provided resources our math goal is as follows 70%
026of students overall grades 3 to five will achieve a score of 400 or greater as measured by the standards of learning assessment in Spring of 2024 in the subgroup area of students of disabilities students grades three to five will demonstrate growth throughout the school year as measured by moving with math pre-test and post test 70% of the students grades K through two will show Proficiency in the area of number sense tasks using AMC activities on a daily basis as measured by the AMC Benchmark assessment Stewartsville is currently in level two for chronic absenteeism the three-year average for absences are 20% of students Miss 10% or more of the school year therefore our third goal is to reduce absenteeism to the acceptable State rate Stewartsville will improve the rate of absenteeism from 20% of students missing
02710% of the school year to 15% % or below in addition to regularly sending letters and reminders to parents Stewartsville has created an attendance team the attendance team pushes out classroom initiatives such as rewards for class attendance Sunshine club and slogans such as everyday matters parents are already showing improvement with School contact and medical excuses School Behavior data revealed a majority of behavior referrals were related to peer conflict and impulsivity Stewartsville leadership team created a goal for school climate our school implements a program called getting along together or Gap getting along together is a schoolwide program that helps students build social skills and apply them both inside and outside the classroom Gat teaches students strategies to focus their thinking manage their behavior build positive social relationships and understand and deal with their feelings all in
028ways that support learning and life success we will will measure the progress of this goal through a student survey and analyzing Behavior referrals another resource provided to us by Bedford County public schools that is making a big difference in our school climate is the services of intervention design Specialists IDs IDs has helped students that have had childhood trauma and have been difficult to manage behaviorally in the classroom this service has greatly help the students through teaching counseling and helping the students manage School appropriately thank you again for this opportunity and for all you do to support our school any questions that's me saw you first okay um again I I just want to congratulate you on your uh pre accreditation and for the work that went into your presentation it was excellent you two are
029the first so you're going to have huge people are going to have huge uh shoes to fill there um I really just want to focus in again I would like to ask a question first what is your your current percentage of disadvantaged students do you have an idea um about 133% disant oh disadvantaged I'm sorry I thought you meant students with disabilities I was thinking about the level two yeah disadvantaged um it's at 60 about 62% this year um you know with that high a disadvantage population I I think it's really commendable that you're using words like purposeful instruction and focused on the challenges and I think really important thing that you brought to your presentation was the data data data um you know i' I've visited your school I've seen your data analysis um
030it it's a huge tool that you use you know what every child is doing and you know I think I could ask you before the so test who's going to pass who might pass who's going to fail uh your your data is just really wonderful and I I commend you for continuing to collect to not only collect it but use it so efficiently um purposeful planning I think that's another key to to what we do in improving schools and the remediation teacher you have in math is you know Focus solely on math is is just a amazing the attendance team again that's so vital you can't improve students if they're not at school so having those attendance teams is is really um amazing I I'd just like to ask you to um can you just
031saying a couple of words I don't want you to you know have to go on but how much does title do Title One funds help you at Stewartsville help us tremendously we're able to provide again an extra reading specialist um reading remediation teacher it helps us with human resources but also helps us with um having materials and and programs that can help us track the data and really again be purposeful in that instruction thank you for that um I I also want to congratulate you on Pal's um reduction of identified students by 23% that's just uh amazing and your comment about the IDS uh the intervention design Specialists again in speaking to some principles I think that they are communicating that that's just been a boon of an assistance to our principal so thank you
032for that um I I just thought you did a wonderful job and congratulations to both of you two and you can go home and go I know we're done yeah you're done everyone else is sit there going oh go but you really did a very nice job both of you thank you so much there I don't really have any questions I just want to say congratulations really honestly full accreditation that's wonderful just fantastic and I am so excited to hear that you find that the IDS are essential and needed and important for your students in your in the school that's music to my ears it really is um you just shared so much I mean I I love the ideal um about your PTA the fact that you're fully staffed with your PTA boy do
033I remember those days where we were really out there beating the bush trying to get someone and begging and there you have your PTA fully staff you know kudos to the parents in the community of your school for stepping up uh because our PTA are so very important so I just applaud you and your staff for that um your your great resources to help your students as Dr mey mentioned is just fantastic uh using your title One funds um so good to hear that your teachers um are really applauding the reading program that they're excited about it so that's good to hear it really is that's important uh just keep up the good work we're just so proud of both of you thank you so very much for giving us ideal of what's going on
034at your school fantastic good report thank you both so much really appreciate it great job okay and giving this hour we will go ahead and break for dinner and then we'll pick up um with preliminary accreditation information when um when it's in the agenda number 10 okay let's go to dinner good evening I'd like to reconvene this regular meeting of the beffer County school board for September 14th 2023 and if you would please join me with pledge I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the which it one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you very much okay we will move on on to the public comment put my glass the public comment portion of tonight's agenda is limited to 40 minutes speakers are
035asked to State their name and voting district the school board is here to listen to your comments but will not engage or respond to speakers during this 40 minute period please remember that this is a public meeting and that we expect all speakers to refrain from foul profane abusive or hateful language during their comments or any any time while in attendance during this meeting we also ask that speakers keep their remarks objective and about the school in nature please keep all comments limited 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 staff or student are having the potential to cause unnecessary delay or disruption to this meeting or prohibited this is a public meeting for public matters if
036a speaker is not present when their name is called we will proceed with the next name on the list individuals will have four minutes to address the board an alarm will sound when an individual has 30 seconds remaining and a second alarm will sound when the allotted four minutes have expired when the second alarm sounds please dis 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 Mrs Johnson and she will give them to board members we also ask that you please do not adjust the microphone has as it has been positioned for Optimum audio quality okay and tonight's first speaker is Robert ashell good evening I'm Robert ashel and I live in hudleston my H Schoolboard
037representative is Mr Matthew Holbrook and he's also the classmate of our son I believe and a teammate I want to thank Miss Georgia hariston and Dr Susan Ney for the years of service to the school board you both have brought experience expertise and good judgment to the table I wish that you would stay but I realize that there is only so much fun that anybody can have in one lifetime I wish both of you the best I want to chat with you a little bit tonight about a concern that I have related to pending Construction expansion whatever here at Stanton River I was at the uh meeting of the Board of Supervisors in the spring when they said the tax rate I spoke as well as n a number of other folks from the Stanton
038River Community who encourag the Board of Supervisors to raise the tax rate by I what 5 cents I think I anyway to raise the rate so that the money could be spent to fix this Auditorium expand it to put classrooms and storage and whatever else was needed in this facility and to do something about the awnings that was four or five months ago and to my understanding there's only been one joint committee meeting since then between the supervisor in the school board that concerns me because time is money and the longer we put it off the more expensive it's going to be in the 30 years since Stanton River parents were promised to have Renovations and expansion in this building it was in this building in October of parents and I met with the superintendent
039then John Kent and over a period of months we worked out a plan and we thought that among the stuff that was going to be done at the river this thing was going to be fixed it quit leaking all the time there wouldn't be a swamp in here the band uniforms wouldn't be ruined instruments wouldn't be ruined music wouldn't be ruined and so on and so on well that didn't happen because of cost overruns in Forest ironically so many years later we upgrade Forest we spend all that money down there and we still got the same basic problems here so 30 years after I was here and heard those promises I truly hope that we can get this thing done now in that Board of supervisor hearing uh Mr Edgar tuck who is a Manita
040representative yep oh dear I'm about to run out of time at any rate we have to have the approval of the Board of Supervisors to get anything done let's meet as a joint committee put a plan together let's get it done we're burning daylight and children deserve better thank you thank you Mr ashell Christina ker Christina ker Christopher hartless Christopher heartless Allan kinger Alan ker Cindy Young House good evening I'm Cindy Young House of district 7 thank you again for this opportunity to to address the board on August 29th I attended the intergovernmental Affairs committee meeting in which policies for choosing theater Productions and handling vhsl transgender appeals were discussed at length first of all it's obvious the proposed theater script policy Inc is nothing but reactivity to head over heels last Spring's lgbtq plus
041inclusive musical at JF it was a wonderful show by the way with the necessary relevance for our community considering this origin story for Inc its implementation will be interesting its unfortunate inevitable adoption demonstrates an unfounded lack of confidence in our talented theater professionals as well as a potentially Reckless vehicle for discrimination and censorship secondly the vhsl transgender appeals process discussion by the IGA committee provided substantial insight into motivation for passing the yunan model policy some committee members made it very clear the desired outcome is to prevent any appeal for transgender athletes in BCPS according to the meeting attendees discussion there have been 39 appeal requests in the last nine years with 36 appeals granted last year there were 11 appeals with nine approved out of approximately 172,000 students the discussion proceeded with an implicit proposal
042to leave vhsl that quote things might change end quote and more districts would leave vhsl all to avoid playing other teams with transgender students some of the conversation went like this quote and teams that have transgender students answer we have to play them or it's a forfeit response so we have to put our students at risk and we pay them V hsl how much a year end quotes since our students are playing teams with transgender students I would respectfully like to know for what precisely are they at risk another question for which I very much would like an answer is how do you intend to police This Confidential student data also what good do you imagine could possibly result from such policing let me be clear lgbtq plus students exist and pose absolutely no risk
043to you or anyone else here's another quote but from Miriam Webster this time an obstinate or intolerant Devotion to one's own opinions and prejudices end quot that's the definition of bigotry when prejudice against a group especially an already marginalized group insinuates they are an entity to be feared harmful bigotry is committed against that group by definition sadly the IG committee concluded that by adopting yin's model policy quote to a t endot then then no language specifically against transgender students would be needed in policy in order to block the appeals process conveniently quote they vhsl will work with us any student under a grant of appeal would have the appeal revoked and must return to the team sport of their biological sex vhsl will support whatever School boards do end quote so the adoption of yan
044kin's model policy According to some on the IG committee means no transgender students in sports that is the entire stated motive I'm not sure the motives behind Inc and Adoption of young kin's model policy gel with Virginia code 2.2 3900 otherwise known as the Virginia Human Rights Act please vote no to Inc please reconsider allowing the vhl vhsl appeals process for transgender students please don't use yonan's model policy for even more indignity thank you for your time and congratulations to the Daniels family thank you Miss Young House Patrick smolinsky good evening my name is Patrick smolinsky and I am a registered voter in district one I a recent graduate from Stan River High School and the president of my graduating class and the school school today I am here to speak on the controversy surrounding
045Bedford County's policy on large flags on the back of student vehicles I believe it is a right of the students to be allowed to fly a large flag of America on their car wall on school grounds in hopes of convincing you to change of policy I would like to establish several points in favor of amending the policy first the immediate concern of the school board must be resolved safety of the students the statement released by the high school in essence argues that the distractive name nature of the size of the flag is a safety issue on the surface I find this somewhat reasonable so I did some research on state laws and accidents related to large Flags what I found is that all 50 US states allow drivers to fly large Flags under Vehicles so
046long as they are properly secured I also could not find a single news in report about incidents that were caused by a large flag so while the County May argue this is a safety issue I believe these claims are unfounded and unreasonable my second point is that we have a fundamental right to fly our flag in order to honor our country and the Patriots that sacrificed it that flag is the most diverse flag representing the melting PA of America whether you are white black Christian Jewish gay or straight the American flag is a symbol of the right to life liberty individualism and freedom to express one's opinion the Flag represents all Americans from all backgrounds it represents the greatest country on this Earth no country has done more for civil rights freedom and opportunity than
047America however our freedoms did not come easily the founding fathers who put their lives on the line the Union Soldiers who died fighting against slavery and the 18-year-olds who stormed the beaches on D-Day all of them sacrificed in order to give me the right to fly that flag they died so that patriotic students like Mr hartless could show their appreciation for the blood they shed our students have every right to fly to flag to show love for our country and its veterans lastly my final point is on what incentive Bedford County offers parents to stay here a huge reason to enroll a child and underfunded rural County like Bedford is its policies as a cashier I have had adults in their 50s come up to me cracking jokes on how they cannot count because they
048had a Stanton River education I personally know families who pay to send their kids to other schools so they can receive a better education the grave level presidents of Stan River were once asked what we do well in education and not one of us including me could give you an answer the truth is quality of education is not one of our highlights as a school system however given the choice between sending a child to stay in river or a school whose policies I disagree with I would choose Bedford County every time because I feel like we have a pro parent school board that loves our country and as so long as the school board allows us to display Flags regardless of size and has a pro parent platform I will continue to support this County
049and if they do not fix this policy I will simply take my business elsewhere I have spoken with many students and adults on this issue and nearly everyone agrees that this policy should be amended I appreciate everything that you have done for this school and I hope to continue to see many great things out of this County thank you for your time and congratulations Mr Daniels thank you Mr smolinsky Janet Roby hello my name is Janet Roy and I live in the sixth district um I thank you for the opportunity uh to speak before the board tonight and when I spoke last to you in February I did provide each of you with a publication called sexual exploitation I trust it was a valuable resource uh for you all I am a member of concerned
050women for America who has a rich history of over 40 years of impacting the culture and advocating for policy that promotes uh and protects families and one of our core issues is education and we think reforming public education means returning the authority to the parents which you guys have done a wonderful job uh the prior Administration advised schools to hide from the parents have their child identified at school it was disturbing when all School boards were directed to implement this misguided strategy I applaud this board's decision to reject that policy now you are faced with an updated model policy ensuring privacy dignity and respect for all students and parents in Virginia Public Schools I urge you to implement this updated policy as it ensures that parents are in charge and they should be the ones
051who make the decisions about their child and not be kept in the dark just recently Virginia Virginia attorney general released an official opinion clarifying that the governor's 2023 model policies does comply with the equal protection Clause Title 9 and the Virginia Human Rights Act if you've not seen that I'll be glad to for that to tonight in regard to the fourth Circuit Court of Appeals decision Grim versus Gloucester County School Board we must realize that this decision was viewed is to be viewed as a narrow in scope as it did not address one students use of locker rooms overnight sleeping arrangements or athletic teams parents right to be notified if their child had begun to identify as a different gender at school or teachers and student rights and obligations in speaking words or taking action
052inconsistent with Biology and or conscious much has happened since this decision was made and your concern should be student safety the new updated policy provides that framework for you and for that reason I ask that you do implement the updated policies thank you for your time thank you Miss Roby Christina children hello um good evening my name is Christina chers I'm the president of the bfer County Education Association um and we just wanted to do a little report for y'all um we as a local Association wanted to welcome everybody back to the start of school that's very well underway and just to clarify for theard what our purpose is as an association the BCA is a professional organization that tries to Advocate at the local level for concerns of its members just for the record
053any BCPS staff member is eligible to join the BCA whether part-time or full-time whether an instructional teacher bus driver custodian PA professional administrator or any classified or certified staff we have members at every single school and work site in Bedford County and though not every employee chooses to pay dues for T liability coverage we attempt to represent the concerns of Staff in BCPS this summer The Executive Board of the BCA met for a planning session and discussed our vision for the upcoming year so I just wanted to share that with you tonight the bca's vision statement and Mission is quote advocating for safe fully supported successful students and staff and Bedford County Public Schools every decision we make and every issue we address attempts to be in line with that Vision we would encourage any
054staff member who feels like they would like to work toward helping realize that Vision to apply for membership through our website another thing we wanted to tell you about tonight is that every year since 2017 the BCA has funded Min grants of up to $6,000 annually for members who submitted a valid application by the grant deadline um the grant funding ranges have gone anywhere from $60 to $500 per applicant it just depends on what the member needs when we first started funding local minig grants most of their requests dealt with technology for special education services or personalized learning but since those needs are now met more by the divisions funding over the years the requests have changed it's been interesting to see how the staff needs have changed over the years and BCA is happy
055to help provide for as many needs as possible I looked through the invoices earlier this week and found some requests have come in for flexible seating for classroom libraries for dich at reading levels sometimes for professional development seminars field trips theater sets for high school productions or even building a school garden last year's Grant funded projects included things like journalism software dissection supplies field trips um a waterless art project organizational tools for classrooms a student-run broadcasting project prizes for an Accelerated Reader incentive store and even supplies for indoor recess which sounds terrible but think they do it up to date the BCA has funded local minig grants at every instructional level and in every school zone and it totals $35,500 over the last six years the upcoming fall mini Grant denlon is September 29th so
056we would encourage any BCA member to assess their work sites needs be creative and Innovative and submit a Grant application that aligns with the vision of creating a safe fully supported successful students and staff we know there are a variety of needs in our division they're not the same even per zone or per teacher and we appreciate the board hearing the concerns of stakeholders and working to address them thank you thank you MERS I have some open slots available would anyone else like to speak this evening okay not seeing anyone come forward I'm going to close the public comment portion of tonight's meeting moving on to item eight Miss Bratton to my communications colleague you have a quite to choose yourage tonight after hearing what's going on here this is a um this is not
057um a heavy request but this is a followup to the request that I made several months ago when I came before the board to talk about the television Broad show that I wanted to do for the county well we have been moving forward and I wanted to give you an update on that so we have a media partner we have a major media partner um this media partner wants to um Encompass the entire State not just this County and not just surrounding County so this will be a Statewide project um we have the support of the state of our state officials we have the support of our congressionals our um US senator we have um of course we have the support of the board um we are um moving forward looking for a studio space
058um I had a conversation with your chairperson um who mentioned that Jefferson Forest actually has a studio um our media partner is willing to donate all of the equipment um for this project um they would like it to be a student run which would be very extraordinary because they would get that real hands-on experience we have their sales team working for us as well so we'll have the um the scholarship money available and um readily available for all the participants and the scholarship money is not just for four-year colleges because not everybody wants to go to a four-year college and it's not meant for everybody but this scholarship money will be go will go towards whatever further education they want to these students want to engage in whether it's getting a certificate a twoyear uh
059diploma Community College whatever so I think that that's pretty extraordinary as well um the media partner is going to give us a 30 minute slot once a month um starting in January of 2024 so I would need to get into JF as soon as possible so that I can uh scout out the facility and see what's needed if you guys approve or whomever you guys the principal appr approves that we can use that space um to to produce out of um we also have uh lined up several VIP guest moderators um this is going to be a boon not just for education in this County but it's also going to um really expand us as far as tourism is concerned because all the Productions regardless of whether the students are coming from the Virginia Beach
060area or down near Johnson City Tennessee or from Northern Virginia all of the production is going to be taking place in V County which is pretty extraordinary so we are going to have the resources to bring these students in so that they can compete amongst other counties and then we'll have a championship round ET and it's all going to be done in beer County so we're going to be working with the tourism departments uh for the state we're going to be talking to the Town Council the Board of Supervisors because everyone needs to be on board with this because this could be really good for us if all of our ducks are lined up I know that um the last time I was here we talked about a Leah Z to work with me from
061the school board and for pardon and forgive me if I have over this but I have not connected with that person and now that we are full steam ahead with this I'm going to need to be in touch with that person so that we can get started on doing what we need to do um I met with the VP of nextar communications and that is who our media partner is going to be so not only do they have a station here locally but they have one um in lower uh Virginia near ten they have one in Richmond they also have one um in the Hampton Roads area and one that covers Northern Virginia so that entity we will this programming will not only live on those particular television stations on all of those areas but
062it will also live online and on their mobile apps so it will be great exposure for the school system great exposure for our kids great exposure for our County uh let's see here School Board liaison student Workforce um these would be paid interns um who would be operating cameras you know and not we're not only using the students here locally in B County we'd be using students from all the participating schools what they would do is they would go out and they would record vignettes vignette is like a package that you produce on your cell phone um and that's the way a lot of folks are getting their their information now they're recording on their cell phones so we're going to teach them how to put a story together how to put together the who
063what when where why and how five W's in the H how you tell a complete story um we're going to teach them how to edit their information how to edit on their cell phones how to you know whether you shoot vertically or horizontally you know what's the best uh aspect ratio that you you should be using and then of course we have the equip that the uh media entity is going to be donating to us they'll be learning how to use um those cameras as well and as I understand it um Jefferson Forest is also already getting um material and Equipment um donated to them so this would just be added to it um as part of the agreement uh for this media entity um we had to set up a nonprofit um and so
064that nonprofit would be the the one that would distribute all the funds for the scholarship money um let's see so that basically is the update that I have for you guys in a nutshell so my ask this time around is to use to be able to a go in and see the space at Jefferson Forest talk to whomever it is that is managing that space and potentially using that space for this production and I need that liaison um with the school board I need to be able to work with that person um so that I you know don't make any don't any you know accidental mistakes or missteps you know we want to make sure that we are in line with policy do any of you have any questions for me questions actually um about
065potential contestants for your first show since it's quickly approaching it is quickly approaching do you need those to come from beer County Public Schools as well yes that would be our pilot program and I our pilot program will be produced with berford County School students um and so yes we would need to start uh looking for teams right away and that's another thing that's another reason why I really do need this liais on with the school board or with the the superintendent's office whomever because we need to determine whether we want to do teams or individuals because a big thing is homeschoolers we do not want to exclude homeschoolers you know we don't want to exclude private school students we want this to be completely inclusive and everyone to have an opportunity to showcase their
066talents you know when you're playing football you can showcase your talents on the football field or the basketball court this is going to Showcase your academic muscles you know so we want to make sure that all students have an opportunity so whether we do teams or we do individual competitions I'm of the elk to do both because um I just think that it Fosters teamwork and that's something that we really need to do but I also would like to have a competition for individuals because again we don't want to exclude the homeschoolers out there so I we need to put together an Advisory board with this liaison from the school board or from the superintendent's office um I have a list of former teachers that I'm going to be reaching out to because we want
067to make sure that we are covering stem that we are covering social studies that we have the appropriate questions and that it is fair across the board so yes we do um we are looking at mid January for the pilot taping um we need to get this uh Advisory Board together um and then we can move forward with um if we do team competitions or if we do um individual competitions and I will be honest with you I have been unsuccessful at um connecting with a lot of our homeschool groups um to see you know if this is a viable situation or opportunity for those students I think it is I just don't think that um a team competition would work for them but I do think individual competitions would work so that's why I
068think I would like to do a hybrid of both but again I need to get that Advisory Board together and I'm hoping to do that by the end of uh September which is in just a few weeks and have our first meeting the second week in October with the television station with that being said um I will tell you that Miss brat and I have been talking about this quite frequently and I will will be happy to volunteer for the liaison if no one else would wants to I want to offer it to someone else before I just step in but I'll be happy to do it don't everybody just jump to do it you know what I mean you got me no but I think that this would be uh this is going to
069be a great opportunity for our students um we are coming up with the scholarship packages you know beginning at $1,500 going up to $3,500 which I think is significant you know when it comes to you know course curriculum and trying to you know purchase books and whatnot I think it'd be huge for them so you know we've already come over with scholarship packages we already have some major donors involved so we just need to put the other um steps in place you know figure out you know again team versus individuals and also you know making sure that we can use the facility at JF and that's key because we have several colleges who have jumped on board and who want to be a part of this but they have stipulations that scholarships must be applied
070to their institutions and that's something that we do not want to do we want these kids to have a choice to go wherever they want to go even if it's just to get a certificate program you know wherever so we do not want to align ourselves any college any University um we really want to be independent with that so if we can use the Jefferson Forest um studio if it has enough space that would be great so I need to know a can I go and look at the studio and do I have permission to broadcast out of that studio if it is a sufficient space I have actually spoken to Mr Wilson and I've gotten an overall layout of their studio and I believe it will fit fit the needs until this really gets
071off I think it would be a good place to start um but also know too that we are cautious as to who goes into our school so does anyone have any objection with Miss Bratton getting in touch with Mr Wilson and going and looking at the studio and making sure that that is okay is that okay with no objection no OB absolutely and Part B do we have a problem with that being used as a place to broadcast from well again I think um having her talk with the building principle um certainly is first and foremost and key here um and of course if it's agreed upon and the principles is okay with it then yes I see the reason why we couldn't proceed on I do have one question if I I don't know
072if now's a good time to even ask but I think this is really fantastic I want to applaud you for your uh desire and your willingness um and the time that you're putting into it uh but I'm curious in terms of just the staff and the number of people that you're going to have supporting and helping you with with the students and and all do you have any ideal will there be other you mention other teachers so I I'm just curious what that's going to look like in terms of your staff that's where the um media partner comes in play so they're going to provide me with a staff of six okay I will be producing the show all right because that's what I do um but they will be providing me with a staff
073of six um the bulk of our but we're going to need at least 15 people staffers so that staff of six um plus myself the other nine that's going to be student student run okay um so they're going to go through a training process on how to use this equipment and that's why Jefferson force is so advantageous because they already have a studio so their students I would imagine already have some experience there we want to open this up to other students as well students from Liberty students from Stanton River we want to give them all the opportunity to do this not everybody goes to Jefferson forest and has that opportunity so we want to open up those doors and so that's what the staff of six from this from our media partner is going
074to do they're going to be training these students we're going to have someone there and I of course will be there for every broadcast to make sure that you know everything goes smoothly nothing is going to be live everything is going to be taped because we're going to have to go back and we're going to have to correct mistakes so the students will be their authentic selves but as far as any technical issues we're going to be taping everything so that we can go back and correct whatever needs to be correct if someone didn't if that TD technical director did not hit the correct button or whatever you know we might have to retake something you know we'll have a camera that's you know filming the entire time that we can insert and edit with
075so it's going to be very Hands-On with the students and that was also a stipulation with the media partner that you know they really wanted this to be a student driven initiative and so so we're looking at students in the 10th 11th and 12th grades chairman um I think this is a great idea as well I just think we need to have some mechanism to ensure that students from all of the zones do get to participate I think it's going to be very easy to grab kids from JF because of the proximity to the studio but I think we have to have a way to to ensure that students from all three zones not can but are involved in it I Echo that as well yeah I agree yeah and that's where that uh panel
076comes into play that's where that liaison is so important we need to make sure that students are are um from all the schools are involved and um I don't know whether it's um an after school project or you know part of a study hall or whatever but we need to make sure that they all get training like the appropriate training and the students at JF are going to have a leg up because they are in close proximity to their studio so they're going to have access to that students here at Stanton River probably not uh Liberty High School probably probably not so that's why we need to have training ahead of time um that's what the um uh his name is Ben Odin um he's the VP of program um that I had a meeting
077with um as a matter of fact the um the state is very excited about this you know I brought the lieutenant governor down and we talked to her about this I've talked to the governor about this they think it's a great idea so they're going to have we're going to have guest appearances on this show from several VIPs um uh around from as I mentioned congressionals as well as from Richmond so they're very excited about this a member of the lieutenant governor's office is actually going to be on our Advisory Board she has um she has quit the office to on this project um she they really believe in it and it's something that could really take off for the state so I'm I'm super excited about that I hope it lives up to uh
078her expectations but um super excited about that but yeah we want to make sure that all students have this opportunity we're going to have a four-week long training session so for all the students so that they are accl acclimated excuse me to the equipment so they know how to to record their vignettes and not only for JF and Stanton River and Liberty High School but we also have to think about the other students who are coming in from Virginia Beach and from Chesapeake and from ronoke and um from Lynchburg you know we have to incorporate them as well and so we're working out details as to how to do that you know and that's where we came in with the idea of creating packages or creating vignettes we're not going to be able to give
079them equipment to go out on we can show them how to produce broadcast quality on their smartphones because that's where a lot of our news is coming from unfortunately so um so we we are thinking about that man so I mean at sometime I'd really like an update on how we accomplished that okay because I think that's hugely important I know from representing the Stanton River Zone if if this comes to fruition and and 70% well when it comes to fruition it's you know 80% of the kids are from JF that's going to be you know that's going to be very disappointing so you say that you can do that it's a it's a huge deal to make something like that actually happen so I would just you know really urge you to to let
080us know how you have made that happen so that there's an there's equal representation because like you say is it you know is it a study hall well you know probably not for Stanton River and Liberty um you you know it would probably tend to be more in after school I'm not the one to decide that at all I'm just saying I I just want to absolutely ensure that it's the access is equal to all three zones absolutely and then we have to have participation too you know I can bust my behind and break my neck to get students from Stanton River but if no one signs up no one signs up but absolutely I mean we are we are making every effort and we we're talking about that in in every single conversation and
081how do we open this up and how do we make sure that it's not just students JF and you know if there is another option for a studio you know I can build out a studio if there's another option for a studio that we can use in the county I'd have to talk to the members of the Board of Supervisors and the Town Council to see if there's another option for me but right now that is the only viable option to get a br you know a product broadcast quality that we can produce out of there but we will make every effort to make sure that there's equal representation not only in these three schools but keep in mind we have Rono County we have Campbell County we have other counties that we have to
082work we have to work into as well it's just that beer county is going to benefit the most out of any county in the state that we engage with so I just want you to keep that in mind questions okay so what else do you need from us tonight I need I got the lead on I need um you got per connected to Mr Wilson I believe I'll send you his contact information and I need to get into that school to see what's going on then when so he would call she would call Mr Wilson to schedule a time to go over there and look pulled my card out and put my cell phone on it so I thank you very much C on the back and I get her hooked up okay okay all
083right and she's a good egg so you can trust her any other questions for me am I dismissed yes okay we're we're clear you don't need anything else from us that's all for right now okay thank you so much thank you I think that's gonna be an amazing opportunity for our kids right let's move on to the consent agenda do I have a motion regarding the consent agenda mam chairman I make a motion that we accept the consent agenda as presented I have a motion from Dr mey do I have a second second from Mr nms any discussion all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed consent agenda is approved okay so we are going to pick up with staff reports not covered before 3.01 move to 3 .02 preliminary accreditation information Dr
084Bergen yes ma'am good evening members of the board tonight Dr Woodford and I are going to be sharing some information with you about State accreditation that will include how accreditation ratings are determined the accreditation results that were released by The VOE last week for both our schools as well as for the state Based on data from the spring 2023 data and I'm going to be sharing some highlights with you from a recent announcement from our governor and from the Virginia Department of Education about plans to address concerns with in the accreditation results that we're going to be reviewing with you tonight last week I sent you an email that provided links and attachments to some important information regarding accreditation status as calc ated by the Virginia Department of Education at the end of last school
085year you might recall in a Schoolboard presentation we did share with you the raw so Pass rates which are the percentage of students who passed a Content so without any retakes or growth measures uh added to those figures that we had previously shared with you for accreditation purposes the final percentage calculated by the Virginia Department of Education also includes recovery scores which are tests taken or retaken and passed after an initial failure by a student as well as growth points which are awarded to students who have demonstrated growth over the course of the school year as measured by the Virginia Department of Education growth Assessments in calculating accreditation status the vdoe includes six School quality indicators for all K12 schools and an additional three School quality indicators for high SCH high schools only the first
086two indicators are academic achievement on the English SOS for all students and achievement gaps for English which measures any discrepancy of the P rates on the English so for student subgroups that would include race ethnicity socioeconomic status and students with and without identified disabilities the next two School quality indicators are academic achievement on the mathematics SOS for all students and then achievement gaps for mathematics which again would measure discrepancies by student subgroups the fourth indicator for all schools is the overall academic achievement on the science SOS the fifth indicator for all schools is chronic absenteeism which is the percent of students within a school who Miss 10% or more of their enrolled days during an academic year so those six are all schools there are three more for high schools only and those include the
087graduation and completion index which is a measure of each school's graduating cohort and includes students who have earned a standard or modified diploma students who have earned their GED by passing the general education development test and students who remain active in school membership on the last day of the previous school year the Dropout indicator includes any student whose latest status in our student information system is there a Dropout or if they're unconfirmed in their graduating cohort and then the final School indicator for high schools only is the CCC or the college career in Civic Readiness Index this measures for the graduating cohort student preparation for college and careers while in high school credit is given for advanced coursework CTE courses and credentials jrc coursework working credentials work-based learning and Service Learning performance on each of
088these nine School quality indicators is reported at one of three levels a level one performance would indicate that the school is at or above the standard which means the performance of the students meets or exceeds the state determined standard by using the better of either the most current year performance or the school's cumulative threeyear rate level one can also be determined if the current year rate is below the standard but there has been measurable Improvement in student performance from the previous year a level two indicator or near standard which on this slide you'll see is in the yellow circle and I'm signaling that to you because on the next slide you're going to see colors so I want you to associate level one with meeting or exceeding and level two as I'm explaining is near
089standard that means the performance of the students meets a specified range using the better of the current year or the cumulative threeyear rate or if the current year rate is below the standard but again has been measurable Improvement in student performance from the previous year red level three means below standard this is performance of students does not meet a specified range using either the most current year data or the cumulative three-year rate or student performance has stayed at a level two or three rating for four consecutive years in determining a school's accreditation status the Virginia Department of Education evaluates the overall performance of each school on these School quality indicators and there are five possible accreditation ratings that can be awarded to each school by the Virginia Department of Education those ratings are accredited accredited
090with conditions accreditation denied accreditation withheld or if it's a new school and there's no previous data they would receive a new school status I'm happy to share with you based on our 2223 student results all Bedford County public schools are accredited one school Liberty Middle School is accredited with conditions due to achievement gaps with English achievement this is a graphic representation of the ation status for all of our elementary schools again I'll refresh your memory about the colors the area shaded in green indicate where schools meet or exceed the state standards in the school quality indicators I want you to notice the sea of green on the screen in front of you yellow represents performance that is near standard red indicates below standard performance we're very pleased as you will note on this screen that
091all of our elementary schools have met or have exceeded the state standard in both English achievement and math achievement and that all of them but two schools have met or exceeded the standard for achievement gaps in either English or math you'll also notice that 10 of the 13 elementary schools have met or exceeded the state determined standard for science achievement for accreditation the most glaring concern is that column to the far right which is chronic absenteeism about that which I'll be elaborating some more in this presentation as noted on this Slide the results for the secondary schools are a bit more concerning than those for elementary however on the positive side please note how all the middle all three middle and all three high schools have met or exceeded the standard for math achievement and
092four of the six have met or exceeded the standard in English achievement with Liberty Middle and Stanton River Middle being near the standard for science achievement Forest Middle School and Jefferson Forest High School have met or exceeded the standard the other four secondary schools are all near the standard some of our greater challenges for the secondary schools concern the achievement gaps between student groups on one final positive note those three indicators for high schools only you'll note that all three high schools have met or exceeded the standard for the graduation and completion index and all six have either met or are near the standard for dropout rate and for the CCC or college career and Civic Readiness indicated as the governor emphasized in his press release and in his comments last week there have been
093alarming increases in chronic absenteeism which have doubled across the entire Commonwealth since 2018 and we are certainly not immune to this trend here in Bedford County with the majority of our schools not meeting State expectations for accreditation in regards to Chronic absenteeism again that's defined as a student missing 10% or more of the Academic Year and that's for any reason that would include excused absences unexcused absences and suspensions for us that would be a total of a student who is with us for the entire school year missing 18 days of instruction or more as the governor indicated in his remarks during his press conference parents not only have rights regarding their children's education but they also have responsibilities and that includes ensuring that their children are in school every day in our division Communications we
094will continue to stress the importance of parents being sure their children are in school every day and each of our schools will have a focus this year on improving their student attendance I'd now like to turn the presentation over to Dr Woodford for the next several slides she's going to share with you some additional information from the governor's presentation about the impact of chronic absenteeism on students academic progress including their s so testing results Dr Woodford Dr Bergen as Dr Bergen shared absentee rates have doubled since 2018 this chart was shared by the state superintendent last week at the governor's press conference and it shows a Statewide Trend that mirrors exactly what we are seeing here in Bedford uh just for some perspective if a student misses two days of school a month whether it's
095excused or unexcused they will miss 18 days of school in a school year and they are deemed chronically absent Research indicates that students missing 18 days of school instruction in grades 3 through eight will score 18% lower on reading test and 25% lower on on math test as compared to their peers who have regular attendance for students missing 36 or more days that's up to two months of instruction they will score 31% lower in reading and 43% lower in math than their peers who do attend school regularly I know that 36 Days seems like a lot but unfortunately we have a lot of students who are reaching that level for our students in our subgroups such as our students with disabilities our economically disadvantaged students our English language Learners the decline is even greater when
096they do not attend school on a regular basis not only does chronic absenteeism correlate with low academic performance it is a powerful indicator of Dropout rates and it is linked to poor outcomes later in life the Virginia Department of Education is conducting a Statewide attendance campaign called attendance matters Virginia aimed at reducing absenteeism rates in the Commonwealth the campaign works with Virginia schools and parents to increase attendance by communicating the importance of attendance to families expanding breakfast after the Bell programs ensuring that every child has a trusted adult at school monitoring and celebrating successes and reducing barriers to attendance such as transportation and mental health challenges this summer during our admin conference our administrative leaders focused on ways to improve School attendance not just through using the treny process um you know once we get
097to treny that's really too late but looking at positive acknowledgement of students when they're at school school and division teams have been developed to focus on improving student attendance in school each and every day as Dr Coon's State superintendent stated last week it is simple if students come to school they will do better if you were able to listen to the governor's press conference last week either live or through the link that Dr Bergen emailed you last Friday you heard the governor share his concerns about students across Virginia not yet having fully recovered academically to pre pandemic performance standards this slide which is from the governor's presentation shows Pass rates for all Virginia students in grades 3 through eight on the last four administrations of the so assessments the on the far left shows prepandemic
098results from 201819 indicating in yellow that 28% of all Virginia 3D through eth grade students failed their reading so test that year while 76% of all students had a passing score above 400 the next three bars show post pandemic results from 2021 21 22 and most recently 22 23 you'll notice that these bars include an additional tan color um in the presentation um this is what the governor term low proficient students he shared in his press conference how the Virginia Board of Education had adjusted the so cut scores in November of 2020 a cut score on an so assessment equates to the number of items students need to answer correctly in order to pass the test with a score of at least 400 the adjustment in the cut scores allowed students to incorrectly answer two
099to four more questions on the so test and still be considered proficient reading from the bottom up the yellow percentages of 29 to 33% indicate that about a third of all third through e8th grade students in Virginia failed their reading so over the past three years with a score below 400 the tan areas with the percentages between 29 and 32% indicate the percentage of students who scored somewhere between a 400 and 440 and are considered as passing they would have most likely failed reading so test if the 20189 cut scores had not been adjusted there are students that the governor term low proficient during his press conference finally the green areas with the percentages of 38 to 39 indicate that about a third of all third through e8th grade Virginia students passed their SL reading
100assessment with the cut score of 400 are better to put this in a little bit of context our scores look very similar to what the states do in reading this slide was also shared at the governor's presentation it shows the so math results from the past three years and similar to the reading so cut scores in March of 2019 the Virginia Board of Education adjusted the cut scores allowing students to answer an additional three to five questions incorrectly but still being considered proficient it is important to note however at the same time the State Board of Education also adopted new and more rigorous math standards thereby making the math so assessments much more rigorous that non withstanding these results show an improvement in overall Pass rates across the state with the percentage of third through
101eighth graders failing their math so test declined from a high of 51% in 2021 to a low of 35% on last year's so test those tan areas again with the percentages ranging between 26 and 31% show just slightly less than a third of our Virginia students with a low proficient score between 400 and 440 and of course the green areas show an increase in the number of students across Virginia passing their math so test from a low of 25% in 2020 I'm sorry 20 2021 to an 11% gain of 34% last year our students are performing about the same as all Virginia students um we do have concerns about our MTH scores especially for our subgroups and we are continuing to focus um on levels of improvement and Remediation in math as well as reading
102in summary as indicated on this slide from the governor's press conference more than half of all third through e8th grade students are at risk at fail their reading so assessment last year and even more concerning 2third of all third through e8th grade students are at risk um or failed their math so assessment last year we wholeheartedly agree with the governor and the state superintendent on instruction that we should not be satisfied with the low standards and only aspire to have the highest standards for all of our students as we continue to strive towards Excellence I'm going to now turn the presentation back over to Dr Bergen so he can share more about the governor's all in Virginia plan for improving these student outcomes thank you Dr Woodford so if you had a chance to listen
103to the governor at his press conference he made a statement which really resonated with me which is now is the time for us to be bold now is the time for us to invest more resources in helping our students to improve in their academic performance the governor referenced what he has termed Allin Virginia plan to address the concerns from the data that we have been sharing with you throughout tonight's presentation as the acronym on this graphic suggests the AL stands for a attendance L literacy and L learning all in Virginia Dr Woodford and I are very pleased that we will be meeting with State superintendent of instruction Dr Lisa Coons next week along with all of our colleagues from across region 5 at which time we anticipate that Dr Coons will be sharing more details
104with us about this Allin Virginia plan as a side note Dr Coons has just really been exceptional in her leadership in her short time here this will be the third time I've been in a room with Dr Coons and she is traveling the state to meet with superintendent in each region in a very compactive period of time so that she can review this important information with us personally so I don't have all of the details uh however was it yesterday Dar yeah yesterday I received a rather lengthly um communication from Dr Coons and so I'm going to try to give you the highlights of what I heard from Dr what I heard in this uh written information that I received which is they termed a Playbook and then I'll have more information in the next
105week so to begin School divisions are being encouraged to implement by the 16th of October high-intensity tutoring sessions for all students in grades three through eight who scored either low proficient or who failed their reading or math so assessments again low proficient are those students who we do celebrate with those students and their parents they had a they had a passing score last year that passing score was somewhere between a 400 and approximately 440 which with a more rigorous standard they likely would have failed that assessment schools are going to have some flexibility about when to schedule tutoring sessions they could occur during the school day it's strongly suggested they occur during the school day although they could have school be before after school if Transportation could be arranged and they can occur over next
106summer or it can be some combination of all of those things we did meet with our principles this past Tuesday to review the preliminary information as we were receiving it from the governor during his press conference that day and we're now on a very accelerated timeline along with every other School Division in the Commonwealth and helping our principles to work out these details next the governor has allocated significant funding to reimburse School divisions on a bimonthly basis for any tutoring expenses to receive these reimbursements School divisions will be required to track student participation and attendance in these student tutoring sessions students who will be eligible for these high-intensity tutoring sessions will include all students in grades 3 through eight fourth through eth grade students will qualify if they failed their so test last year in
107reading or math or if they've been determined to be low proficient based on their score last year and for third grade students this year's beginning of the year growth assessment results will be used to determine their eligibility within bands that have been determined by the Virginia Department of Education tutoring is recommended to occur three days a week for an hour a day for a duration of 18 weeks for all those students who are considered low proficient for students who failed their previous year's math so in reading or math tutoring should occur five days a week one hour a day for 36 weeks we've learned that two digital tutoring platforms forms one for reading and one for math are being vetted and will be selected by the Virginia Department of Education and that the Virginia Department
108of Education will also be providing scripted lesson plans for tutors the recommended student tutor ratio is 10 to one now this is how it's the preliminary information is that it's suggested that students will be divided those 10 students will be divided into two groups of five with five students utilizing the digital software for 30 minutes and then rotating and working with a tutor using a scripted plane so the the ratio would actually be 5 to1 10 to one over the hour licensed tutors for these tutoring sessions could include of course our current teachers or our retired teachers who we'd love to lure out of retirement to come work for us in this capacity or aspiring teachers so we're contacting all of the colleges and un to see if we can have students participate with us
109and of course we can use our current pair of professionals non-licensed tutors who would also be eligible and who we'd love to partner with include our parents individuals looking for a break or a career change or others who are interested in working with our students in our schools all non-licensed tutors should they come to join us will be required to complete online training which will be provided by the Virginia Department of educ a and then there'll be ongoing training and support provided by the school division parents this is a lot of information uh which I received yesterday and which I will be providing more details for you as the details become clear uh there will be I'm told a Communications toolkit made available to school divisions from the vdoe that will include some letter templates
110and some other social media campaigns who certainly will begin to communicate as soon as we have figured out all of the details uh so in some regards I feel like you probably just drank from a fire hose uh I I did frontload this information and a in a very long email to you if you had a chance to review it this would have been a summary uh if you didn't have a chance to do that and you were hearing the information tonight you may have questions about our how accreditation is determined what our accreditation results are or or about this latest all infragen plan from the governor so Madam chair I'll pause here for questions Dr ban um the high intensity tutoring that I I heard um our governor speak about I think is is
111is a great thing but I have some very serious concerns about where we're going to get these people like you said you know we're going to look at people who maybe have retired or a pair of professionals but when you're asking somebody to work an hour a day five days a week for 36 weeks um I I just I had concerns when I heard it from them we can't fill positions now so um I I just am highly concerned about that I think it's great if we can make it work I I'm just concerned about actually getting the people to do that um can you provide this accelerated timeline to the board you said we're now on a very accelerated timeline was uh it's weeks from now I mean uh the information that that I
112was provided this week is that the the governor has has set a bar that by October 16th the the wheels will be in motion so having just received this information and and Dr mey you know I hear and I Echo your concerns um i' I've shared with the board and and I I'll openly share the community Virginia has an all-time high right now of teacher vacancies there are vacancies across the entire Commonwealth for literally hundreds of teachers that don't exist why is that there are more teachers who retire every year than there are young people who go to college or university to become a teacher it's it's just math you know more leaving than coming in um however we've been fortunate in Bedford County more fortunate than others that that we right now all of
113our classrooms have a teacher in the classroom we have a small number of classrooms where we have a longterm substitute teacher however in many cases those are individuals who who do have a college degree perhaps not in teaching but they are going back and receiving to get the credentials they need to be a licensed teacher uh but it's a it's very Stark in many other school divisions they they have classrooms with literally no no teachers in them we also have openings I'll give Mrs Kirby Shameless plug we have zero substitute bus drivers so when one of our bus drivers is ill and needs a day off or they're going to the hospital for the delivery of their chop whatever the case may be we don't have someone to drive the bus we need substitute bus
114drivers we will pay you while you train we will hold your hand through the whole process we will train you for every step along the way and then we'll pay you to drive the bus uh and we need pair of professionals so yes Dr mey how would we staff this that on this accelerated timeline that is of Paramount concern it's not a money concern the governor has has has front loaded the money I'll be talking more about that in my later comments we have significant money to invest in this uh but working out the details so we met with our principles U on the upside in our Master schedules now we already have remediation time built into to our schedule so we will we will pop in on the remediation time we might have to
115do some creative things with Staffing um using everyone and anyone in the building and again we're going to invite people from the community to come in who express interest who we can train and and we can provide uh so so non the other thing non-licensed teacher non-licensed tutors will be overseen by a licensed professional uh so that you know we're we're ongoing uh professional development and training for those individuals um I've not seen the software I'm not sure if it's been purchased so again on the accelerated timeline uh I'm really looking forward to meeting with Dr Coons next week to hear more about yeah and and I think even the software rotation you spoke about is concerning because research will bear out that if I put a child at a computer on a program if
116I'm not going back at some time to look at what that child did and really it needs to be right after they did it and correct whatever it is that's you know they where they've made a mistake Rach then that software isn't effective as effective as it could be so that 30 minutes may or may not be um effective an effective tutor for our children so we we need to look at that the other question I have is students can be qualified yes but that does not mean that they will attend so um I wonder too if if we've thought about how we might help move families to the place where yes they can you know they can ATT I mean some having been in schools for you know over 40 years you'll have kids
117go I don't want to do that Mom so Mom will go okay he really doesn't want to come to after school help um so I think we're going to have to be very creative on how we get the qualified students to also attend um and that may include trans may or may not include Transportation or that's why we lean into during the school day I didn't mean to cut off talk immedately but if they're if they're as long as they're not a chronically absent student and they're in school we'll use the remediation block uh to more effectively REM blocks are typically not an hour I I yes ma' I I we taking there if we're taking an hour out of their school day which is already packed what are they missing to do that like
118if you're taking in them out of a special area time that becomes an issue because then they go well I don't want to do this because I don't want to miss my PE class or I don't want to miss art or whatever so yes there's and that won't happen and the governor fot loaded that as well and I would he didn't need to I would agree whether he said it or not students cannot miss those electives in PE Library art music exactly and we cannot uh diminish the direct instructional time that all of our students need every day so again it's math you understand Dr mey having run a school the the day is this long and there's so many things that we need to get into the day but we need to figure out
119how to get some of this in the day as well um and I didn't see this and it just helped me explain understand when we're looking at all this and and I may have missed something somewhere along the lines but there was no achievement Gap School quality indicator for science that's correct it's just overall science achievement Sor yeah I didn't know so why wasn't why why is that not there for science or just that's the state department the Board of Education they chose those indicators and that's just not one they've chosen they're focused on the achievement gaps in the reading and math um but it's just overall achievement in science it's it's what the Board of Education has decided there's there's not a an accreditation category for achievement gaps in science nor is there achievement
120in social sciences it's not a part of the accreditation it's important to us children need to learn history and government and economics but it's it's not a part of the accreditation process and just a general question because I of course I think about this as a parent as well um when we're talking about higher rates of absenteeism and I know I'm I'm guilty of this um in a PO in a pre-co world my child would wake up not feel well okay go to school and if you don't if you start getting really sick call me I'll get you home but I think a lot of parents are more cautious now about having a sick child or a sick individual around other people when spreading germs so if and I know we have options is is
121is there possibly in development or are there any options to where if it is a case like that to where the child is able to do the work where they can do it at home and still be you see what I'm saying just because I don't want yeah yes um great thought and great thinking so uh I'm I think you're all aware I meet with my colleagues in the region on a weekly basis we do a zoom call with one another and then We Gather in person once a month and we were just talking about this how how what what are some ideas we have amongst ourselves for helping chronically absent children who I'll use your example parents were had genuine concerns about health issues and the child was staying out of school for for
122health reasons they're still going to be chronically absent and they're not there for direct instruction so one of my colleagues shared an idea and by the way there's money I'm I'm giving away some of the presentations to come up but some of the money the governor has allocated is to address chronic absenteeism and so one of my colleagues was sharing that they hire attendance specialist again Dr meot Who we're going to hire we have openings but they have a position someone who works with I'll use your child as example not that it is your child but you know they've developed chronic absenteeism for specific reasons and they work with the family in arranging a time to make that work up with the attendance Specialists so that they get their their work with someone who can
123support them and then because they have engaged in meaning meaningful engagement as the state defines it the attendance record is updated as present because while they weren't physically in school they demonstrated that they completed the work that had been assigned and understood how to do the work because the School Division provided a resource to help them in that way it makes good sense to me and uh so we'll talk more about that as well with our principles about do we have the capacity to provide some um assistance for children who are developing chronic absenteeism and need that additional assistance but I'm going to be very careful that that we don't offer that out there so people thought oh well I won't go to school because they're going to send somebody to help me figure it
124out later and then clean up my record we need kids in school every day uh they need to be in school unless they are physically ill they need to be in school but thank you for the question I'm a terrible example by the way of you should stay home when you're sick reason why I thought of that question any more question okay thank You' all so much appreciate it okay moving on to 4.01 PPE canopy solicitation so Mr Hagler if I if I can lead off and then turn it over to you so Mr Haggler is prepared preped tonight to present an information item uh at the request from the school board at the last school board meeting for a request for proposals a request for proposals for uh under the public private educational facilities
125and infrastructure act or ppea to receive competing proposals for removal and replacement of the existing pre-cast canopies at Liberty High School and Stant River High School again this was a request from the board that we prepare this information item for you that we would solicit um solicit requests for proposals however since you all have made that request we have added another item to the agenda under uh 11.03 uh which we discuss when we get to there and I think based upon what you're going to hear under 11.03 uh we may not need to have this information item 4.01 so I'll leave that up to the board if you would like I would just suggest that we skip 4.01 for now and we can always return to it after you've heard 11.03 agreed are you okay
126with that okay Mr heg anything more to add on that sir okay moving on to 4.02 policy updates Dr Mark Bergen yes ma'am um so the intergovermental Affairs committee met on the 29th of August to review proposed revisions or uh to review new policies in a total of eight um again for the viewing public complete Redline revisions for all of these policies can be accessed through the link within this agenda item on board docs I'll just give a high level summary I won't be going through the red uh the redline detail the first of the eight is policy DB annual budget and the proposed updates include a change in notice for public hearing from 10 to 7 Days policy efb Food Services proposed updates reflect amendment to state law for schools to process free and
127reduced meal applications within six working days after the date of receipt of such said completed application policy GCE part-time and substitute professional staff employment proposed edits include the addition of requirements for substitute teachers as well as increasing the amount of time a substitute can fill a teacher vacancy to 180 days policy GCL professional staff development proposed updates include the addition of the requirement to provide highquality professional development and training in science-based Reading research and evidence-based literacy instruction effective next school year we're accelerating that and making sure we're providing training now for our teachers but state law reques by next gr policy I AA textbook selection adoption and purchase proposed changes to this policy include the role of the school board in improving textbooks and the addition of language to reflect guidance from the vdoe on
128defining instructional materials policy Inc drama Productions is a new proposed policy to outline the roles and responsibilities of drama sponsors and principles regarding the review selection and approval process for drama Productions policy jbb ensuring privacy dignity and respect for all students and parents is also another new proposed policy this one developed in whole by the Virginia Department of Education and it's in regards to the treatment of transgender students policy jgd jge student suspension and expulsion proposed changes to the policy include the addition of state code outlining the authority of the school board for disciplinary matters and clarification on the timelines in regards to expulsion hearings again complete Redline versions can be accessed through the link within the agenda item on board docs and at this time I would be happy to answer any questions that
129I can questions for Dr bar so we will move on to 5.01 and at everyone place this evening there was a draft of potential um new agenda formats after last month's Marathon meeting um there was some suggestions that we eliminate taking a dinner break and just running it all through as one um and these will offer those different formats for you um I thought we could agree with this by consensus but then I didn't realize that we would have two members absent and I feel like they need to be here to review it and ask questions and to we just kind of got this tonight for a quick review and I think we need time to look at it too and put in time so we'll try to do something with this next month I
130think we can do it by consensus without actually having to take a full vote because this is kind of a work in progress um I will suggest because one of the big questions that I had um Talk Miss Johnson Dr Bergen and Mr Hill about this during our agenda discussion um start time we start at least 5:30 if not 6 o'clock and I think about um it wasn't that long ago it doesn't seem like that I was on the other side of the podium coming to these meetings to speak and it was hard for me to get off from work get everything settled and get here in time to speak so if if when we're thinking about a potential new start time let's either keep 5:30 or six o'clock in mind change the time we
131get out then we haven't gained anything all you've done is eliminate dinner well we're starting at starting an hour earlier if we start at 7 I mean if the main part starts at 7 well you're you're kind of right keep it keep it above then then then somewhere along the lines then come up with an idea to where we can set that public comment coming in later because again people work till 5 like I did and I know I'm not the only one I just my bubble I use as an example um I would be really pushed to have gotten here to speak and and I'm sure I see Miss Wood out here who speaks to us quite frequently you're pushed for time if it's if it would be at 5: or 5:30 even 6
132o' if we could somehow come up with a way to make it more advantageous for the public to come in too want to implement this we're going to talk about it and try to finalize it next month I mean because we've got at least two new members of the board coming it would seem like their opinion would be more important with regard to this than than mine would be we're not going to live under it well that's something we can discuss further next month too once we get the other two members back and I know we did not post this but can we go ahead and put these in with the other information with with the attachments to the agenda they added them to Bo du okay and then um could we make sure we
133email copies to Mr Hill and Mr Daniels thank you I I just it's not going to impact me I hate to vote on something that's going to hold somebody in place I understand that I understand that too so I mean that's something we can take into consideration next month when we have a full board Madam chair can I just make a comment while yall are thinking on this um all of these proposals have a couple new things in in my conversation with the chair and the vice chair that I'm excited about and I hope you'll consider one is is a presentation of the colors so we're very proud of our growing jrc program and I had actually talked about this with Lieutenant Colonel p and thought this is a good opportunity for me to introduce
134this since we're meeting in our students high schools anyway tonight we would have we could have had a couple of jrtc students from this school present the colors at the start of the meeting for the pledge it gives them another opportunity to practice that important skill that they learn in class and he's very excited about the potential to do that he just would like to start that in the second semester if the board were to add that in the other change which I talked with the leadership about and I'd like you to consider is moving Clos sessions to the end selfishly when we go into closed the rest of our executive staff is just sitting waiting on us um so I'd rather if we did close towards the end come out take care of any
135action items that might be related to close and the meeting we don't need to encumber everyone else to be here and then uh we can we can also want a frontload at the right time Mrs Kirby uh for our students and their parents we don't want them here at 7 8 9:00 at night we'd like to have recognitions early on you know if we were to start the meeting at you know 5 or 5:30 we could get recognitions up front and we could have public comment up front and then do our business and then do closed at the end that those were just my suggestions and thank you uh Diana for putting all these in writing I agree with you we're missing a couple members but I just want to make sure that I clarified
136some of those things from our discussions I appreciate that and but to beig back off of what you just said too as well um as far as presentations early at 5 o' if we do have a student athlete who is receiving an award that night who happens to have an away game that night then we're forcing them to choose between going to their game potentially or coming here to be recognized so that's something else we need to kind of are you know missing practice or or whatever I think that could happen when it was five six seven or eight I mean it if they if we can come up with some way to potentially put that down um as something to think about okay so let's move on then to where are we now additional
137action items yes item 11 additional action items do I have a motion or do we need any discussion for the reappropriation of operating of fiscal year 2223 this item is coming back from last Bo meeting um this is the amount left over in our operating fund uh that's going to be reappropriated to the maintenance fund do I have a motion regarding the reappropriation of operating fiscal year balance I heard Mr Nelms and who did I hear for second Miss Harrison okay any discussion all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed motion carries okay moving on to 11.02 donation of gift to school Mr Haggler do you need to say anything further these are coming back these were three donations one for Thomas Jefferson one for Liberty High School one from Jefferson Forest High
138School these were presented at the last board meeting and it's uh anything over 10,000 is Needs Board action to accept those gifts do I have a motion regarding the donation of gifts to the schools move have a motion by Miss Harrison do I have have a second second by Mr Holbrook any discussion all those in favor signify by saying I I oppos motion carries okay here's the infamous 11.03 that we talked about earlier PPA Mr Haggler yes um as uh Dr beron was saying we had prepared a solicited PPA document under our PPA guidelines that the board had um for um the canopies at Liberty High School and Stan High School um on Friday we received a unsolicited uh proposal could you move your microphone just a little bit closer please I'm sorry too close
139are you come over close um an unsolicited proposal for multiple projects that are listed on our CIP long-term plan uh these include projects at Liberty High School Stan River High School and also Bedford primary um not only the canopies but additional projects that were on our CIP plan under the PPA guidelines um we if the board chooses to go forward with that unsolicited um proposal that we've received uh there's confidential and proprietary information in there uh there's a requirement that I adverti we advertise for 45 days on conceptual design in which competing uh proposals can be submitted after the 45 days is up the board would convene a committee to review those proposals and select which proposal they want to move forward with so at this time we are not um signing a document obligating
140the board for anything at this point um if you choose to go forward with his unsolicited PPA I would advertise come back to the board after that with any additional proposals and then evaluate and whether we go forward with negotiations on that so the only action by accepting this tonight is we go out and advertise for another 45 days to see if there's any competing PPA uh proposals that are submitted uh for these projects once again in the projects can't say a lot about that because it's proprietary information at this point it will be made public once we negotiate a contract but it was multiple projects at Liberty High School Stant River High School and also Bedford primary do I have a motion regarding PPA chairman I move that we accept the unsolicited PPA proposal
141I have a motion by Miss Harrison do I have a second second second by Mr NM sorry Mr H I heard him first any discussion all those in favor signified by say and I I opposed motion carries stronger connections Grant Dr cornette do you have anything further to say thank you for the community we'll just share this is uh we're asking for your approval of an application for funding from title four part A bipartisan safer communities act stronger connections Grant this is just more money for increased safety measures and upgrades we'd appreciate your support with Y vote do I have a motion regarding the stronger connections Grant chairman I make a motion that we approve the application for the title for part A bipartisan safer communities act stronger connections Grant by Dr mey do I
142have a second second second by Miss Harriston any discussion all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed motion carries moving on to item 12 superintendence report Dr Bergen thank you madam chair I I've got a number of comments to share with you so please strap in I I'd like to lead off and share some thoughts with you regarding a local news report circulated in the past month about an individual student who was asked but refused to remove a flag from his truck the student was aware of language in our student parking contract a contract that has been in place in all three of our high schools for over a decade and the contract States and I quote large Flags or Banners are not allowed to be flown on veh are not allowed to
143be flown or displayed on vehicles due to their distractive nature so just for clarity this provision in the parking contract exists solely as a safety issue that issue is the potential for any large piece of cloth whether that be a flag or a banner of any type to obstruct the view of the student driver while navigating through a St through a parking lot please understand we have hundreds of young student drivers who are all arriving and departing into the parking lot in a compressed period of time so the safety concern is that a young driver with an obstructed view could potentially hit another car while pulling into or backing out of their parking space or Worse inadvertently hit another student who is crossing through the parking lot to get into or get out of their
144own vehicle since there have been questions or concerns raised about the phrasing in the current contract specifically regarding the distractive nature we are updating our student parking contract to say that large Flags or Banners are not permitted to be flown or displayed on vehicles due to their potential to obstruct the view of drivers however Flags or banners of size not greater than 12 by 15 in are permitted now regarding all of the comments we received about this student being asked to remove his flag and that it was an American flag this community is well aware how proud We Are how proud We Are that we are the home of the national D-Day Memorial how proud We Are that we fly our American flag in front of every one of our schools every day that we
145display the American flag in every classroom gymnasium Auditorium and stadium that every day our students proudly stand and pledge their allegiance to the flag just as we all did at the start of this meeting now we'd also like to have our students have the opportunity to display the American flag on their vehicles we just want to be able to do so in a manner that does not create for us any driver safety concerns so I'm going to have some more information to share with you uh in my upcoming comments about how we propose to do that my next update concerns the state budget there's been a lot of uh press release here lately if you've been uh following we've been waiting five months on protracted negotiations and a little late but still the Virginia General
146Assembly has reached a bipartisan agreement on budget revisions these revisions now are going to be for year two which is this year of the banian budget and if you didn't catch in the headlines it's great news for K12 uh this is bipartisan support and the governor support for 645 million additional dollars in K12 I want to break that down for you what is that 648 The Lion Share of that goes back to what we were talking about with the Virginia Allin plan the governor's plan 418 of the 645 million will be dispersed across all of the school divisions for that plan again the AL L is attendance literacy and learning so the funding is meant to address the chronic absenteeism that we've seen across the Commonwealth to implement or to get a jump start on
147the legislator's literacy act which is just providing more resources towards literacy instruction in our schools and as we talked quite a bit about earlier high-intensity tutoring for students in grades 3 through eight to address their learning loss that's 418 out of 645 there's another 152 million which I personally is my favorite part which is taking another whack at the support cap so the support cap was put in place during the recession it was a budget saving measure uh it's really short Change public education for decades now and through this bipartisan agreement there's $152 million being added back into public education that is determined because the current support cap ratio is 21 support positions to every thousand students this increases that to 24 positions now three positions you might not think is that much but we
148have 9,000 kids times three that's 27 positions being funded by the state that hasn't been funded previously and that change in the support cap isn't just for this year but then it it has we've taken another whx so in future budgets it's back into the Baseline budget so that's a really great news for K12 education there's another $54 million employees are going to be very interested in this uh the governor has proposed another 2% salary increase and has funded that for $54 million that's the upside here's the challenge for us it's $54 million for the state's share of s soq funded positions now there'll be a local match required and we've got as many people who work for us who are nons soq who are s soq and we're not going to give or I
149wouldn't propose to this board through your budget finance committee that we only give a raise of the so soq funded position so to fund everyone one we're going to have to come up with all of it for nons soq we're going to have to come up with our part for soq but still is great news and uh there's $52 million towards that effort from the governor and the legislature there's another 20 million in there for flexible grants for school security and another 6.7 million to expand the Virginia literacy act so all in all really great news it's a bipartisan budget agreement uh it also there's language that establishes or requires a legislative work group to review and prioritize the recently released jlar recommendations and develop long range implementation plans due back to the general assembly
150by next November I'm just going to caution uh board members we've not received the Cal tool the Cal tool drives everything that's where we get the specific numbers so once we do receive it we anticipate getting it in the coming days or weeks if not sooner we've already scheduled a meeting with the budget and finance committee to meet on October 9th and at that time Mr Haggler and I will be prepared to discuss some proposed revisions to our current budget based upon there's requirements for this new funding so there's not much to discuss there but uh to discuss with with the budget finance committee first how we would like to use the additional funding when we make some budget adjustments um but here's some of the detail I can share with you because Mr Haggler
151and I received some information uh through through I think it was through vas I received this information um we're projecting that we should see approximately five million more in funding towards uh bedord County again the majority of that five million or 3.3 million is going to be required to go towards all in Virginia to combat chronic absenteeism to accelerate uh the literacy act and to provide high-intensity tutoring services so the money's there uh the remaining after that 3.3 million we anticipate we're going to see about a half a million dollars in state funding towards that 2% salary increase for S soq funded positions and then as I shared earlier we're going to have to figure out how we're going to make up the local share and uh how we're going to um you know see
152that all of our employees in a non-sq fund position also see however there is we anticipate about $1.2 million in funding because of that adjustment on the support cap so Dr mey that's that's really the money that we're going to talk with and Mr Nels with your committee it's how to use that 1.2 million how much of that do we put towards uh meeting the the salary increases for for all staff uh once we've worked through that then we'll talk about the other priorities of the board you know is there any funding left to go back and look at the compensation study and finish out those employee groups that we weren't able to accomplish previously is there any any money left to put additional funds aside for the pending reversion Cliff is there any money
153left for the expansion of Middle School sports so that'll be a conversation that we'll have first at the committee level and at the next board meeting we'll look forward to Bringing recommendations to you after it's been Ved by your committee um so that's that's that on budget I'll just pause there to see if there are any questions about about the budget information questions all right next I'd just like to add a couple more comments about the accreditation results that we shared with you earlier this evening the results they certainly do provide further evidence of our challenging work uh but we have dedicated administrators teachers and support staff and they are working every day to help lift our students up and move us forward and past the pandemic and the effects of the pandemic we provided
154a high level review board members for you tonight of our division accreditation status however parents if you'd like to have a more Det detailed view of your child school and their results we've added a new link on our division website as of yesterday if you go to our landing page and you look for the areas of support from that drop- down menu there's a link for strategic planning on that strategic planning site is where you'll find this new link that takes you directly to the Virginia Department of Education to the school quality profiles they are published annually and have just been updated with this newest data published by the vdoe those School quality profiles provide detailed information at the school level on student achievement College and Career Readiness program completion school safety teacher quality and
155many other topics of Interest we've also added another link as of yesterday on that strategic landing page and that is to a progress monitoring dashboard for our School Division strategic plan this progress monitoring dashboard will be updated on an annual basis so that we can provide our community the latest results on our key performance indicators that are included in our school division's 5-year strategic plan as made clear in the accreditation presentation earlier tonight the challenges here are the same challenges that every other school board is learning about in their school board meetings this month in fact I just want to quantify that for you this is might shock you there were 18 School divisions in total 18 out of 132 across the entire State who either maintained or increased their standards of learning Pass rates
156based on this latest data say that one more time 18 out of 132 were able to better themselves not that I'm proud that we're in good company but the struggles are real and they're real everywhere and that's why the governor is as bold as he has been that the time to act is now we must be bold all that stated we do have much to celebrate here in Bedford County I dug down into that that accreditation information and I'm really proud to share with you that Bedford County ranks near the top third of all the 132 School divisions in our accreditation status and our SS so we're in the good group if we were using those three bars we're in the green group we're not in the D group or the red group but we
157still have work to do we're we're doing as well as we are because of the commitment of our teachers and meeting the unique needs of every one of their students so I also look down into the data a little deeper because I wanted to see if we had any teachers who had 100% Pass rates for the students in their classroom I used to do that as a principal I'm sure Dr me Mrs Harrison you always looking for those nuggets and we have them so across the School Division we have dozens of teachers who had 100% pass rate so I just want to lift up three teachers tonight and just name them and thank them for their dedication I'm going to start with Nicole Francis Nicole is a third grade teacher at Thomas Jefferson Elementary School
158and Nicole had all of her students pass their third grade SOS in both reading and math congratulations to you Nicole and to your third grade students Rachel Manley that last name might be familiar to you Rachel Manley was a firste teacher last year at middle at Liberty Middle School first year teacher with 100% pass rate for her algebra one students at Liberty Middle School way to go Rachel and Shannon Thomas right here at Stanton River Middle at Stanton River High School had a group of students who passed both their end of course reading and their end of course writing assessments thank you to Shannon Thomas for your commitment to your students here at the river and thank you to all of our teachers for your unwavering support and dedication to your students all right so
159now I'd like to get to our traditional slides uh we have some celebrations of our staff and student accomplishments I'll clip through these this first slide is pack the bus in case you missed it we want to thank all of those who didn't miss it and participated in our annual pack the bus event it was held at the Bedford Walmart in partnership with the Bedford County Department of Social Services to collect school supplies for families in need there was so much generosity from our Community Partners we were able to fill 200 backpacks with all the supplies that kids would need for that first day of school and in addition to that there were boxes of supplies given to every school to keep on hand for other students who may be in need of supplies so
160we'll do this again every year thank you to everyone who contributed this year once all those supplies were handed out and students and parents met with their teachers during back to school night our students returned to school on the 14th of August and during that first flow week I had the pleasure of driving around like a crazy person to visit all of those schools in one week but I had a chance to meet and greet every one of our teachers who are new to Bedford County in their classroom or their workspace and while visiting schools I was so pleased to observe our students and our teachers and our staff looking very confident and comfortable in their environments I I saw engaging instruction and I saw safe and orderly routines already being practiced on the first
161day of school as they should be I'll continue to visit our schools regularly and school board members as always I encourage you to visit our schools just as often as your schedules allow as with the start of every school year we're extremely grateful to the support of our parents who assist our schools in so many ways on a related note our school ptas are instrumental in helping to plan and sponsor project to help our teachers and staff to feel uplifted and appreciated I recently attended the first countywide PTA meeting for this year and I asked this group of dedicated parents if they would serve in an advisory capacity to me and our executive team as I shared board members with you in a memo several weeks ago I'm restructuring my traditional superintendent advisory Council that
162I inherited and instead of having one group with a couple of people from each stakeholder group I'm meeting with three different stakeholder groups so I'm using the division-wide parent uh PTA meetings for parent advisory I've met with them and I've asked them to develop what I call a problem of practice an area where from their parent perspective they feel we can do better uh where we can improve in how we're meeting the needs of our parents and then I'm they're going to talk amongst themselves and talk with other parents and their school communities and when they come back together as a group we're going to receive their ideas we're going to make a plan together for we can address that problem of practice as I shared with you in the memo I'm doing the same
163thing with our with our recently crowned teachers of the year so I'm going to meet with that group and I'm going to call them my teacher Advisory Group I'm going to ask them to develop a problem of practice and we currently have applications out through High School principles for expanding our student Advisory Group and I'm going to meet with a group of students large group of students from each of our three high schools again to develop a problem of practice from a student perspective and work with them together what we can do to improve the experience for them that will all culminate I'm going to ask those students to present to you at the end of this school year so you can see what we've talked about and what uh what they've had to share
164I'll invite the parents to do the same and I'll include the teachers as well if you missed it on our Facebook page gosh these two folks are just amazing uh I had a chance to recognize through our bedford's best uh program which again is a partnership we started last year with the Bedford area Educational Foundation to lift up two staff members each month who just go just above and beyond uh as teachers and as humans to make the world a better place congratulations uh to this month's bedford's best recipients Bedford Primary School's Katie Clark just a wonderful person enforced Elementary School Sarah Jean harf I had the pleasure of visiting with both of them in their classrooms to present them with a gift of appreciation for all that they do if you would like to
165nominate a teacher or a staff member I just love to do this please send us your nominations and we will we will pick two people each month and look them up while we're honoring important figures I thought it was appropriate that we pause because this year marked the 60th anniversary of Dr Martin Luther King's I Have a Dream speech which he delivered on the 28th of August 1963 I'm not sure if that dates anybody in the room but that was 60 years ago this speech is widely considered to be one of the most important narrations of the 20th century while it's Universal while it has Universal appeal it's the enduring phrase I have a dream that has helped to secure and that helped to secure the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964 and
166Dr word Dr King's words continue to resonate today this past Monday marked the anniversary of the attacks against our nation on September 11 2011 someone was commenting me to me recently our children who are in our school now were were not alive on September 11 2011 we've reached that point where all of our students were born after that time so it's even more important now that we talk about this so that they understand that experience that we all live through so each year on the 11th of September which is known as Patriot Day we honor those firefighters those Law Enforcement Officers those service members and all those First Responders who answered the call of duty as well as all of those Brave civilians who either lost lost their lives or who rushed into the action
167to save the lives of others their courage embodies the American Spirit and resilience their heroism continues to inspire generations of Americans so our schools do commemorate Patriot Day each year by flying the freedom flag and by teaching students about the events on that fateful day so just by way of example as I've shared on this slide Forest Middle School played TAPS at 8:46 a.m. to Mark the time when that first plane hit the twin towers and Montville Elementary School and Big Island Elementary School both invited First Responders to come out to the school and speak with the students and share with them more about the work they do today to save lives and about remembering the importance of that day and all those First Responders who gave their lives that day also as celebrated in
168September is Constitution Day this recognizes the adoption of our United States Constitution on the 17th of September 17 1987 in Philadelphia by the delegates to the Constitutional Convention to celebrate the anniversary of Constitution Day teachers incorporate interactive games activities and videos for the students to help them learn more about the importance of the Constitution the School Division also received and distributed donations this year to all of our seventh grade classrooms from the 917 or the 917 society which is a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering the next generation of American am citizens and so now I want to come back to that previous topic about our student parking contract and frame it in this conversation in my updates tonight about patriotism as we shared in a news release several weeks ago several local patriotic organizations have
169stepped forward including the American Legion Post 54 the national D-Day Memorial and the Bedford Boys tribute Center each of these organizations has been and will continue to receive donations in order to purchase and provide complimentary American flags of an appropriate size to be safely flown on vehicles for any student driver who wishes to receive one all of the donations that are being collected are being receded by the owners and operators of the Bedford Boys tribute Center Mr and Mrs Ken and Linda Parker to other wonderful human beings matter of fact I spoke earlier today with Mr Parker for about the fourth time on this he is just so energetic and enthusiastic about this community fundraiser and he shared with me today that there has really been recently an outpouring and he has received hundreds of
170dollars in donations and he hasn't even checked in yet with with the American Legion or with the U National D-Day Memorial but all funds will be receded by The Parkers uh they are going to be accountable for those funds they've already done the work and they have uh they're ready to order Flags however they would like to ensure that every student who wants to have a flag can receive one so if anyone in attendance here tonight or anyone listening has not yet had an opportunity to make any monetary contribution please go by the Bedford Boys tribute Center or by the national D-Day Memorial or if you know someone who is a part of the American Legion any of those organizations will receive your monetary donation and get them to The Parkers uh board members in
171front of you tonight uh Mr Parker gave me some flags for you he wanted you to have these are the flags that The Parkers intend to order again they'd like to have enough for every student these are flags that if when you're driving uh to H to a sporting event you see folks have their their school colors out and they're flying their Flags off their their side me you know what I'm saying it's got a clip that you put on your window and and the flag flies that's what these are uh The Parkers found them and they're ready to order them and uh they would like again to have enough for every student driver who would like to have one Mr Parker I think has a great idea that we uh work with the budf
172for boards tribute Center to distribute these flags honor about November 11th Veterans Day so that we can yet have another way of teaching the importance of patriotism and respect and honor for the American flag with our students all right now wrapping up my comments here are the three things you need to know for this month September 19th is National voter registration day so I really want to make sure that our high school students who are of age to participate in our democracy are paying attention September 19th is National voters registration day if you're interested in voting in the November 23 elections you have to be registered to vote you have to do so by Monday the 16th of October in here in Bedford County if you're not already registered you can do so in person
173you can do online or you can do so by mail if you wish to register in person visit the Bedford County Office of Elections on Turning Point Road number two Hispanic Heritage Month begins on the 15th of September and continues on through the 15th of October and this is a a sustained period of time for us to honor the history diversity and contributions of Americans with roots in Latin America and Spain and as we do with other celebrations like this this we do offer suggestions to our teachers for how they can lift up and help students within the curriculum learn about the importance of our Hispanic uh students and those in our community and across our country and number three just a reminder coming up in a couple of weeks on Monday September 25th students
174will not be attending school because we need time to continue with professional development for our teachers so that is a professional development day Madam chair I apologize for the length of my comments but I had so much to share with you and at this time I will turn the meeting back to again thank you D Bergen we'll start off with matters from the board on committee reports Miss Ariston U yes Madam chairman on the 29th of August um the facility committee met and um Mr hobber please chime in if I forget anything okay um and of course at the meeting we talked about a number of things um one being a a good post review and discussion on some of our current projects um talked a little bit about those things that have been uh
175taken care of for example um U some of the Ken projects is Stanton River High School's uh waste facility uh being something uh that we had spent some time talking about also our HVAC systems uh at some of the schools um being taken care of uh also as well playground equipment uh being installed at some of our schools and I took some time just to kind of go around and look at some of the playground uh equipment that uh has been placed at our schools uh be for primary being one of them and I certainly want to applaud our School Division for the work that they've done and just in um putting those uh safe playground equipment um there for all of our students so thank you guys for really a great job there here
176um one of the topics that we talked about and I want to applaud um Mr Haggler and his team in terms of uh providing us with a fiveyear maintenance plan now if you all remember board members this is something that the facility committee and and of course Mr hegler has shared with us in the past as well um and so we just kind of went over that a little bit and talked about it um um and you all should have a copy of that I believe we didn't really make any changes or anything like that to it um and also um we discussed our maintenance plan uh in terms of uh looking further out such as uh maybe 20 years and 10 years from now so and I think that was really uh a good
177uh strategy and also a good layout of just uh where our needs are um for example you know in Stewartsville we're looking here um at some HVAC systems there um where it list the last time that it was done and then a recommended date which is you know um couple years out here and then also Liberty High School and just on and on uh focusing on HVAC and then the boiler and our roofs and also painting as well so creating um a plan here uh for those longterm projects um so we had a really good meeting um we'll probably schedule I guess another meeting in a couple of months or whatever we didn't really set a a date for that um but Matt did I forget anything chime in on that okay so the Laurel
178School uh meeting was held on August the 30th and so that was at 10:00 at the Laurel School and Dr Clay Stanley is is the superintendent that's in charge uh for this year and Dr Stanley of course uh is the new superintendent for Campbell County public school and had a chance to just chat with him and um certainly I think he's going to do a fine job for the school division there um also we talked a little bit about um some of their openings that they have uh unfortunately the school is still like so many schools are still in need of teach ERS and also pair professionals so uh Dr Lewis is certainly busy trying to fill those positions um and we have currently one student enrolled uh at the Laural School uh and that
179certainly is very fluid in subject to changing um we also discussed a little bit about um field trips at the Laural school and in terms of Transportation sometimes that school finds that they have a difficult time finding just as we do bus drivers to transport their children on various field trips so we spent some time just kind of brainstorming on um how we could better meet uh that need that the school has and of course our next uh board meeting for the laal school will be on December the 6 that's all I have for committee thank you misson Dr mey do to report we have a an upcoming finance committee meeting at the beginning of October we just have a CTE committee uh meeting uh on uh September the 28th in my general way will
180you start off with the comments now yep um I don't really have much to say uh other than I'll we heard a gentleman tonight speak upon uh it was 1993 when it was was talked about Renovations and you know some of the things that need to be done here and at other schools so like you said 30 years later it's time this board has actually put action or put words into action so I'm just thankful for the board um that we all agreed upon that something needs to be done and something will be done um so to the public The Best Is Yet To Come thank you Mr Nels Mr hook no comment Dr yes I just want to extend a very special thank you to the East Lake uh Christian Community uh they had
181a welcome back to school uh event uh which was absolutely terrific Pastor Troy and Jonathan Brown um everyone who helped with that event there was a great turnout uh there were school board members from Franklin County there were school board members from Bedford County uh the Franklin County Superintendent was there an assistant superintendent was there um so it was it really just a lovely lovely way to uh uh pray for the students and the parents the families the teachers everyone involved in in education so just want to extend a thank you to them um I also she said this during the consent agenda but uh I just want to thank publicly thank um um Miss Johnson again for her work with our minutes all the time they are always just uh exemplary and I appreciate
182it I do read them I I used to send you an email all the time but I do read them every every month so thank you for that um and just again I I'm probably gonna say this for the last few months that I'm here which is um just a special note to our lgbtq uh plus Community um as I've said before you're always welcome in my space and I think it's really important for you as people as As Americans to remember that um no gets to tell you who to love how to grow how to live your life and what you believe in so continue to uh stand up for you and um and do what makes you happy that's what being an American is all about you know it's very difficult sometimes because
183we need to support people that we may you know have have disagreements with um uh but that's what America is about and I and I hope the LGBT community uh knows that you you are welcome in my space all the thank you m Dr Miss Harrison yes thank you madam chairman I want to um applaud every single staff member of our School Division for creating such a positive start to the school year it's not an easy feat that's for sure and you all deserve each and every one of you um just an applaud for your hard work and your efforts um while we heard the reports in terms of our Statewide assessments and and everything um I think when I think about um just Statewide the results and what our school division of course we
184have more work to be done but I also think that it's important for us to also applaud ourselves for the work that you have done for the ACH achievements that have been made they weren't easy uh and I know there's more work to be done absolutely uh but I do think that um I want to applaud you all for the efforts and for uh the accomplishments and I look forward to uh seeing and uh reviewing and knowing that our students are just going to soar even further um I want to thank uh Mr and M Parker for the flag that's so generous to them and thank you so very much um that's all that I had okay thank you Miss Ariston as always I'll get to bring up the end um first of all belated
185happy birthday to you Miss Harrison well thank you yeah 28 holding right there well actually she's 21 with I don't know how many years of experience but but good for her um and as Dr Bergen said earlier I'll put in a Shameless plug just about every month so I'm putting in my Shameless plug for substitute bus drivers and for pair professionals um we definitely need substitutes to pick up the um routes when drivers cannot be there but we also need them for activities um I notic that I got an email reaching out to parents that could drive the activity bus and so if we're calling on parents drive Drive buses it reminds you of the days when the students used to drive bus routes so um we need to get some people in here if
186you know anyone please ask them to get in touch with us it's National Suicide Prevention Week I know this is a topic usually avoided but it's necessary to talk about parents please educate yourselves of all of the warning signs and may make a true effort to keep the lines of communication open with your child as Most teens are you like mine they think parents won't understand they won't listen or just playing dumb um but make sure that there is someone in their lives that they can go and talk to someone they trust whether it's your pastor whether it's a mentor whether it's a coach whether it's their uncle aunt whatever make sure that they have someone to talk to a counselor and encourage them encourage their involvement in extracurricular AC activities um I know I
187boost extracurriculars in sports a lot but I know what that does for a child's self-esteem and that is what we need to do we need to make sure our kids are involved and we need to do the best we can to keep them safe because just in this instance an ounce of prevention is worth something that would be completely completely unfathomable um I would like to extend my sympy to the family of be Fowler former teacher at Beford Elementary School she was the teacher everyone wanted to have and she remembered her students long after they were adults she would come up to me and call me by name and now that I'm looking back on it her way of teaching was amazing because she made learning fun she made the children want to be there
188and you made sure you left her class to make her proud and um Mr nms just handed me a note a few minutes ago too that um wondering if we could have a moment of silence for the 911 victims but I also would like to have a moment to include the Fowler family in that moment of silence if you would join me please thank you very much um I would like to extend another thank you to miss guire and miss gser for the school presentations it's very informative and we I personally appreciate it getting an individual picture of each school as opposed to having a big portrait of our division overall and for them they set the bar high for the next ones coming up um I mentioned this several years ago and this is
189something I would like to seriously be considered at some point in time when we're talking about chronic absenteeism and question I had earlier about students who are involved in extracurriculars and and I just push extracurriculars um if is there any way because I know they're in school the same amount of time flip the high schol school schedule with the elementary school and then that way the elementary school students are starting later getting out later but the high school students are starting earlier and getting out earlier which does free them up for their travel for the days that they have to leave early they may not have to leave quite so early and it gives them time to get to practice earlier so they can get done earlier and get home and hit the books earlier
190so just something to consider in the future um I know we talked earlier too and and we're talking about potentially making changes to our agenda because of the length of of our last marathon meeting um I will encourage because a a large portion of our late night meetings are from questions and from discussions I would encourage each one of you to call and get as many questions as you can answered prior to the meeting um that if you need more clarification yes but but our discussions are what's going on and no I and I've been asked you know about cutting people off no I can't because we all are up here we all represent our respective district and we all have the right to speak so we're going to let you go but if there's
191any way we can have as many questions answered prior to being here it will be very beneficial um thank you for the flag update to the policy um however one concern that I I was listening to um is this going to be in compliance like with our dress code or any compliance or any regulations to what kind of flag can be flown on the vehicles or is it going to be wide open and that's just something to consider for later on um and I want to issue I want to say thank you to American Legion 54 Beford boys tribute Center and dday for stepping up um helping us out with getting the flags distributed that was very commendable and seeing all the flags and hearing all the talk and especially receiving our our free flag
192tonight it reminds me of America on September 12 I know we always talk about what a horrific day 911 was and and goodness knows all of us will that will forever be ingrained in our minds but the America of September 12 was amazing there were flags on every house there were flags on every car you couldn't even go to the store and buy another 12 another flag patriotism coming from every corner and and that is what we should really instill and again I want to thank everyone here for stepping up going the extra mile with Patriot Day patriotism PR patriotism day on 911 you're right these kids weren't born on 911 but the fact of there are still soldiers fighting for us still dying on the front line for us whether or not they were
193alive then unfortunately they're going to have to deal with this in the future and they still need to be proud in our country and they need to be able to stand up for what they believe in um Mr hegler I'm not putting you on the spot I'm just saying earlier you did confirm with me that we are making progress on um the parking lots at Liberty High School and here at St River correct discussed that with the facilities committee and so we'll be making progress on that we'll be bringing data back to that committee on looking at different options so we can uh move forward with that and get those out B so yes sir perfect perfect I just want to make sure we are moving forward and I'm going to Echo what Mr nelm
194said earlier that he's thankful that we are moving forward with these cips we are long overdue I know Liberty as well as Stanton River we've been told for years I know I've been out of school 35 years at least we've been told just wait just wait it's coming it's coming well we've been waiting for years for at least 35 it it's on the way just be patient with us it's on the way now with that being said do I have a motion to adjourn I have a motion by Mr Nils he a wi I heard first second by Mr Holbrook any discussion meeting's adjourn