001I have children [Music] foreign good evening everyone I'd like to call to order this regular meeting of the Bedford County school board for May the 11th 2023. Ms Johnson will you please call the roll Mrs Kirby here Mr Hill here Mr Daniels here Ms Hairston Mr Holbrook Dr mealy here Mr Nelms here Madam chair you have a quorum thank you and Mr Holbrook did text me at the 11th Hour saying that he will be unable to attend this evening something unavoidable has come up do I have a motion to approve the agenda I have a motion by Mr Nelms do I have a second second by Mr Daniels any discussion all those in favor signify by saying aye aye opposed motion carries do I have a motion to go into closed session Madam chair make
002a motion that would go into closed session pursuant Dakota Virginia 2.2-3711 a13 dash one to discuss the assignment appointment performance discipline and release of contract for specific School Board employees for the discussion or consideration of of the acquisition of real property for public purpose or of 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 I have a motion but Mr Hill do I have a second second by Miss Harrison any discussion all those in favor signify by saying aye aye opposed we're in closed session foreign have a motion by Dr Miley do I have a second second by Miss Harrison any discussion all those in favor signify by saying aye aye opposed motion carries Ms Johnson will you
003please certify the meeting closed session whereas the Bedford County school board has convened a closed meeting on this state pursuant to an affirmative recorded vote and in accordance with the provisions of the Virginia freedom information Freedom of Information Act and where section 2.2-3712d of the code of Virginia requires a certification by this school board that such closed meeting was conducted in Conformity with Virginia law now therefore be it resolved that the 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 the certification applies and only such public business matters as were identified in the motion convening the closed meeting were heard discussed or considered yes yes yes yes yes yes
004yes yes yes yes Miss Johnson moving on to 3.01 staff reports quarter three data Madam chair so I'm going to invite Dr Trosper to share with the board the results from third quarter formative assessments that included benchmarks that were developed by the by the curriculum team in English math science and social studies these formative results are used by teachers to help prepare students for their end-of-year testing and as I think you're all very well aware students are currently completing those end-of-year Sol assessments and will return next month to update the board and the community on the results that we have in hand at the June meeting but we would like to ask Dr trosp at this time to share those formative third quarter student assessments Dr Casper this evening I'll be sharing student achievement data
005from the third quarter Miss Jennings was unable to be here tonight but I am joined by supervisors from the special ed and the instruction team so I want to thank them for being here and so they have been supportive as we've developed benchmarks and kind of worked through this with our schools in February I shared an update from the first semester the report showed that students are continuing to progress at the recovering learning that was stalled during the pandemic I shared that we have seen improvements but they are still foundational gaps that need to be addressed this evening I'm going to report on the data gathered during the third quarter testing window the data is from IXL math for students in grades one and two benchmarks from core subject areas and savvis growth measures for
006students in secondary English there's no new Pals or vkrp data to report tonight some students will be taking end of the year Assessments in May the value of giving a benchmark assessment is that teachers and other Specialists can use this data to analyze how students are progressing towards Mastery of grade level content standards and tells us what they still need help with as they develop remediation plans before I share the data Note that subgroup data is displayed because overall student performance is not the only part of the accreditation process we are expected to show that the following groups of students are making progress in math and English African-American white students with disabilities English language Learners Asian and students of multiple races because our students with disabilities in Bedford County and across Virginia are consistently an
007area of concern I'm going to highlight the past their Pass rates in addition to overall Pass rates the remaining subgroup data is displayed for your reference for elementary Reading students took division created benchmarks using masterconnect or division testing platform our Pass rates for elementary school were grade 3 81 percent grade 4 74 percent grade 567 percent and overall 74 percent of students in grades three through five pass the reading benchmark and 42 percent of students with disabilities pass just a few comments about these scores overall Pass rates were from mid-year to the third quarter increase by Four Points fourth and fifth grade scores were slightly lower from mid-year to Q3 but third grade actually increased their scores by 19 points also note that students who were not on grade level based on mid-year pal scores
008continue to receive an additional two and a half hours of reading remediation each week for secondary reading students took growth measures in Savas these assessments measure growth from Fall to Spring note that the Savas testing platform does not give us subgroup data like our division testing platform we expect our schools to collect and analyze this data we did not ask them to report this so close to testing because we did not want to interfere with the final test preparations but we do have plans to track this data more efficiently next year and I'll share about that in later slides Pass rates in Middle School were sixth grade 59 percent 7th grade 46 percent 8th grade 49 percent and the total pass rate was 51 percent which actually showed a five percent growth in the first
009semester so as you can see Middle School results are still a concern while Pass rates have increased slightly Middle School reading scores are simply too low in high school only students in grade 11 took the Benchmark because they are the only Sol tested course in high school other grades will take an end of the year assessment at the end of this month but as you can see our students in 11th grade perform very well within 84 percent pass rate this is a 22 Point improvement from mid-year data for elementary math the IXL diagnostic data for grades one and two show the percentage of students on or above grade level students have shown an overall 13 percent growth since the first semester pre-sol math benchmarks for grades three through five are cumulative and cover all content
010for the year scores for grades three through five and the following Pass rates grade 3 78 percent grade four seventy seven percent and grade 572 percent so overall students in grades three through five had a 76 percent pass rate and students with disabilities had a 41 pass rate compared to these Pass rates on the same benchmarks from our last school year grades three through five have shown a five to eight percent growth overall depending on the grade level as I review secondary math data keep in mind that all students will take Sol's from Mass six through eight and algebra 1. however all students in geometry and Algebra 2 all take a benchmark but few of these will actually take the Sol due to federal and state testing requirements so at the secondary level benchmark scores
011of the following Pass rates Mass 6 was 63 percent Mass 742 percent math eight forty percent overall fifty percent of our students in grades six through eight pass the math benchmark and 21 of students with disabilities passed as you can see middle school students continue to progress in math at a slower rate than we want to see but even so they have shown moderate improvements over benchmark scores given at this time last year and our upper level math courses Algebra 1 was a 75 percent pass rate geometry 59 Algebra 2 88 percent and overall 71 percent students passed our upper level math courses and 48 percent of students with disabilities passed so overall compared to pass rates on these same benchmarks from the last school year grade six through Algebra 2 actually have shown growth
012with some subjects such as geometry showing a 13 growth in science only the Sol tested courses have taken into the year benchmarks into the year tests for grades four six and chemistry will be taken at the end of the month also note that third grade science completes alternate assessments instead of an Sol test so looking at the data grade 5 science had a 72 percent overall pass rate while 41 percent of our students with disabilities passed physical science had a 53 percent pass rate while 14 percent of students with disabilities passed earth science had a 56 percent overall pass rate while 20 percent of our students with disabilities passed biology had a 44 pass rate while 14 of students with disabilities passed a few notes on that grade 5 science course had a five percent
013decrease from mid-year scores but the end of the year Benchmark assesses both fourth and fifth grade content previous benchmarks only assessed grade five content so our teachers are specifically using this data to identify gaps from fourth grade science to review prior to the Sol likewise the physical science benchmark covered sixth grade science life science and physical science content even though it covered three years worth of content division scores increased by nine percent since the mid-year test teachers are using this data to remediate gaps from the previous two years of science prior to taking the grade 8 science SOL earth science and biology scores are areas of concerns with a slight decrease from mid-year benchmarks for earth science while biology actually remained the same and then one final note is this is the first year of
014testing our new science standards typically scores are lower during the first year of testing so we're going to be monitoring that just to see if that Trend holds in social studies keep in mind the only Sol tested courses have taken into the year benchmarks the rest will either take an end of the year assessment or complete an alternate assessment at the end of May social study scores do not factor into accreditation but they are reported on school quality profiles Virginia studies had a 74 percent overall pass rate while 44 percent of students with disabilities passed Civics and economics had a 67 percent overall pass rate while 19 percent of our students with disabilities passed world history one had a 63 percent overall pass rate while 26 percent of students with disabilities passed and just a
015few notes on social studies Virginia studies and Civics actually increased since the mid-year while world history slightly dropped our Benchmark Pass rates actually have shown improvement from our Sol scores from the 21 and 22 school year so for example in the spring of 22 Virginia studies actually had a 72 percent pass rate which means it's up two points from last year and then in Spring of 22 students taking the Civics Festival had a 57 pass rate which means we're actually up 10 points so as we reflect on the Q3 data Middle School Remains the area of greatest concern these are the students that develop the most significant gaps over the past few years our teachers are still spending a lot of time reteaching foundational skills in addition to teaching grade level content this is a
016very busy time of year administrators and teachers are making final preparations for end-of-year testing this involves reviewing and re-teaching and remediating content and skills that students need to pass into the year assessments schools are also working with students to ensure they pass courses needed to graduate as the division instruction and special ed teams have reviewed and analyzed the data we are reflecting on how to support our schools as they're making final preparations for testing all schools were required to develop and submit 45-day plans our supervisors assisted them as they are developing these plans likewise teachers and reading Specialists algebra radiation tutors and other Specialists are working to prepare these students currently supervisors are meeting with departments to gather input on benchmarks and to support them as they analyze data create remediation plans or even leading
017remediation sessions at some schools high schools are supporting seniors especially those at risk of not graduating and are implementing steps to support them during the final month of school this is also the time of year where we are also making plans for upcoming school year once Sol testing is complete we'll look for correlations between Sol scores and Benchmark Pass rates to improve the quality of our testing reading is the area that remains the highest area of concern and we're still worried about our students with disabilities so to prepare the instruction and sped teams are taking the following steps as you know the Virginia literacy act goes into effect during the 24-25 school year and currently a division team is attending the letters training which trains teachers on teaching the skills needed to master the foundational
018and fundamental of reading and written instruction and this is essentially helping teach our students how to read the next step is for reading Specialists and all k-3 teachers to be trained in science of reading teaching techniques in our elementary schools our Focus will be on Fidelity to the new reading curriculum Benchmark Advance professional development plans are currently being developed for our current and New Bedford County teachers and so they're going to be ready to implement in August this year the Sunday reading curriculum was implemented as an intervention tool for students it is a structured systematic and multi-sensory approach that is used for response to intervention efforts and is implemented for students with disabilities and students struggling to read by special education teachers and by reading specialists in secondary reading next year will be the second
019year of using the Savas reading curriculum we are reflecting on the quality of implementation where our teams need to provide supplementary support in math we have purchased moving with math curriculum this is for elementary and secondary teachers it is a scripted math curriculum that supplements regular class instruction and can be delivered to students with disabilities or to general education students it focuses on building conceptual understanding first to the use of manipulatives and Hands-On lessons in other words moving with math brings in real life problem solving to make math more relevant for our students for students with disabilities we are collaborating to create and Implement steps into our strategic plan that will help them progress this year supervisors and other division staff have conducted joint walkthroughs focused on co-teaching practices they have also provided training to
020improve the quality of instruction in our co-talk classes a division team consisting of high school principals counselors special education teachers psychologists testing coordinators and other division staff recently met to develop strategies for implementing credit accommodations in our high schools and ultimately improve graduation rates for our students with disabilities there's one major step that we have taken to prepare for next year recently Bedford County has joined the comprehensive instructional planning known as the CIP the CIP is a Consortium of public school divisions in Virginia that began working collaboratively to improve student achievement as measured by the Virginia standards of learning assessments it is designed to help instructors by providing activities and assessments that are highly aligned to Virginia's curriculum Frameworks and content and rigor these resources have been submitted by teachers who have demonstrated Superior performance
021as evidenced by their student scores on the Virginia sols the CIP also analyzes data across the Consortium to identify successful schools and divisions and share their practices with other Consortium members region 7 superintendents came up with the idea for CIP in 2014 to help with accreditation these superintendents went to divisions with high scores and asked what they were doing teachers began to create tests and resources to share with other divisions and they formed a Consortium currently CIP consists of 53 School divisions 234 schools over 4 100 teachers and over 45 000 students there's a number of benefits for our administrators and teachers the CIP website is where teachers in Bedford County and across the Consortium can share resources and view data benchmarks are also available to member divisions they are common to all of our
022divisions and they give us data points to see how we compare these benchmarks are developed by teachers through a collaborative process and then finally a number of data reports are available through CIP so obviously Benchmark data is available and at the conclusion of each of our testing window we received these reports on a daily basis during Sol testing daily Sol and growth assessment reports are shared with principals and division teams they share scores related to relative performance for the division for schools and for teachers they share reports about accreditation and for the CIP growth model additionally we will receive reports that analyze final grades attendance and Sol proficiencies final course grades will be compared to Sol test outcomes and attendance reports will look for correlations between attendance rates and student performance so we are excited
023about the benefits of joining this Consortium we believe it will provide effective tools for our teachers consistent sources of data and opportunities to collaborate with other school divisions around the state to share best practices so as we finish the year our goal is always is continuous Improvement we did see Improvement in reading and math from the spring of 21 to the spring of 2022 we certainly expect further Improvement in the spring of 23. our testing data shows that in some areas we're in a good place to meet that goal of improvement and some areas we still have a lot of work to do so at this time I'll be happy to take questions looking at the slide in regards to our elementary students data I think it kind of goes without saying that um information
024the data is troubling um it's also very depressing to see that our subgroups are not performing very well at all so my question to you is regarding subgroups what do you and your team believe are the barriers for this particular group in subgroups meaning our special way it's students also our African-American our ell what are the barriers what's been identified thank you Miss Harrison that's a it's a tough question but it's one that we have to ask ourselves and be able to come up with answers as we plan for next year and you know and the other thing I want to say is when I when I talk about barriers understand that this we're not making excuses for their performance I think it's important to seek explanations so we can address it but this none
025of this is meant to be excuses whatsoever what we are seeing and again we're starting to get initial reports from that other member divisions is that this is consistent with with what's happening across the state it doesn't make it acceptable but this is something that we're struggling with as we've seen the last few years the subgroups have struggled the most and their scores dropped and we are really fighting to recover that we're we're fighting issues such as attendance and um many issues quite honestly that it's new to our administrators and new to our teachers and so what we've got to do with our instruction is we really have to think about how to differentiate instruction in a way that we never have before we've been saying that word for long time long as I've been
026in education but if we don't start thinking about how to get our edu our instruction down to the individual level by improving our small group instruction individualized instruction then we're not going to be able to reach those and so it starts with the data culture and that's something we've been promoting on my team for since I've been in this position and and my supervisors have been there and we've really encouraged our principals to establish those cultures where conversations are constantly happening where we're responding to student needs as opposed to waiting until it's too late and then that next step is how are we monitoring those throughout the year are we making adjustments particularly that is not making progress and then how do we differentiate that um as a high school teacher it was if if
027I was told to do a small group I probably would have not have known what that was that has to be a present in all of our classrooms so we can Target those skills that are needed um and and so that's I think that's kind of the big picture we could probably talk for hours about why we're here um but again it's it's not inconsistent with what we're seeing in other places but certainly is not acceptable and that's the focus of our professional development and our planning as we as we finish out this year and move into planning for next year I I do believe that certainly part of moving forward and improving our students achievement is to recognize what the problem areas are and to have the data that you have shared with us
028um the CIP program that you guys are using it certainly appears to be a pretty effective piece of uh just a program to use data to me has always been extremely important and I know that members of the board have talked about um data and we want as much as we could possibly get in order to certainly understand where our students are so I'd like to pose a question to you regarding the CIP to have to give the board access to that data I would certainly I don't know about fellow board members but for me that data is important I I want to know and I appreciate what you're sharing with me but to be able to have access to it I think would be very beneficial so I would like to ask um for
029the board those who wish to have it to be given access to it now how does that how would that how difficult would that be I guess would be my question because in uh so yeah I think I'll take a stab at this so as we are getting the data on a daily basis we even have to be careful ourselves not to make assumptions about that data because we are getting it now fairly quickly and so understanding that one day you may have a failure rate that looks really large but we're not taking into account there are retake opportunities and expedited retakes we have even cautioned ourselves as we're getting data not to really analyze it until we get the final data points you know as a principal you want to kind of know how
030your kids are doing you want to know how many expedited retakes on sols what do we need to do benchmarks will be even a little bit different because you don't do all of those retakes you know I think what would be concerning is and I'm just going to be very transparent is understanding what you're looking at and our fear even as we've talked about schools you know how much data do we share from school to school because we don't want people to take that and put that out in the community or be talking about it or be concerned about something that we're not ready you know you're not at that level to be concerned even with Sol test we'll start getting results fairly quickly but even the state doesn't finalize those until after we do
031retakes in the summer and so I think you know my concern with providing that data daily is that it's a lot of data to look at and you have to just it almost is even hard for me at the division level because I don't know every school I don't know exactly how many kids are going to be taking that test so I'm making us assumptions and I've actually even stopped looking at it every day because it'll scare me one day and then the next day I'll look and I'll be like oh my gosh we're doing so great I think you know you've asked us to share data every month and I think that's a safer place to be for us because we don't want people to Panic by looking at that data we are trying
032to respond to that data principals are responding to that data in real time even with these you know scores we're already seeing Sol scores that are coming in that are a little bit you know better so I just don't want people to be scared looking at data that they may not truly understand because it is it's it's pretty intense I I certainly understand that I do still believe very strongly that as a board we should have that information and while it certainly will be perhaps maybe for some of us um a bit um overwhelming or maybe we're not quite clear as to what that means um but having access to it um being able so that we won't have to constantly bother you guys we'll have it at our fingertilt and um and we can
033always ask questions but I think it's very very important and I would like for us to have it I would like for the board to have it I guess I'm there's a little bit of me trying to understand um are you trying to understand why a board I guess I'm trying to understand why you would want the daily reports rather than the finalized reports um because in real time it's most it's most helpful for teachers and principals to have that data that's where it's the most helpful and you know the daily I can't say that I'm going to be looking at it daily I'm going to be honest with you but I want to have access to it to be able to take a look at it now to say to you that I would
034be looking at the data daily no but um in fact I can definitely say to you I won't be doing that all right but this is troubling and I know you guys are very very concerned about it and one of the the goals that we have as a board and I think is our responsibility is to our students and to know how well they are doing and to be on top of the data to fully understand it and so I um I'm adamant that I would like for the board to to have it hour I would certainly like to have access to it and I won't be looking at it daily and I do have some other questions that I wanted to ask as well as far as well we need to resolve this before
035we move forward absolutely maybe there's other board members that have thoughts too yeah because I mean I don't want question to come back later somebody say that no we said this no we said that yes so you're making a request for daily access to have access to it it doesn't necessarily have to be on a daily basis is there any way that we could do that because I know you guys are swamped right now too um what would be the easiest way to call you know personally I'm fine with once a month uh one or you know once every two weeks even will be fine with me but is there an easy way to do that because I know you guys are coming down to the wire with into school and and collecting interviewer data
036so Madam chair can can I weigh in just one second I think I'd ask Dr Woodford what what she thought would be the easiest way but if you want to defer to Dr Burton I don't know that there's the easiest way I mean I I Dr Bergen if you'll take it but I I can add my thoughts too sure well some of my comments are going to be repeat comments with all due respect the role of the board and the role of the administration the board should hold me accountable for the successes and failures of the school division and I should be and I am transparent with this board in this community about the successes and those challenges we're presenting this data tonight I'll be back next month to talk about Sol results I'll be
037back the month after that to talk about accreditation I'll be back the month after that to talk about what our strategic planning is to address those concerns because I am accountable to this board as your superintendent and you're responsible for policy and you're responsible for budget but day to day monitoring of data and Student Success in classroom instruction is the responsibility of this fine staff here our principals and our teachers that's my first response my second response is this is formative data so the most important consumer of any formative data is the student their parent and their teacher and so Dr Trosper talked about a data culture and we need to continue to improve all of us as consumers of data every parent should know how their child is doing on their assessments uh every
038parent should be advocating for additional resources or support for their child if they feel that we're not meeting their child's needs every teacher should know how each of their students are doing and have a responsibility and accountability for the students to show Improvement every principal should know how their teachers are doing and should be supporting them and monitoring for the instruction in their classroom those are you're you know are two experienced principles no that's how that's school you know that's a students parents teachers working with one another for children to learn and have success in school uh maybe I'll stop there it's philosophical um I I if the if the board would like more data reports and I have heard consistently the board would like more updates I've made a commitment to you that we
039will continue to provide you updates when we have the information as we're doing tonight as we'll do next month as we'll do the following month that would be my response but I'll accept the direction of this board I work for seven of you and if the corporate board wants us to turnover day-to-day responsibilities to you then then we certainly will I don't think we're asking for day-to-day operation to be turned over to us Dr Bergen yes I just would ask because I feel the same way and and I absolutely understand that maybe some people would not want that they've not uh that's not been part of their lives um maybe it has I agree I would like to see it my so my question is how do you sign up a teacher for this program
040teachers don't get the daily data record any a supervisor how do you sign up a supervisor we just informed that there's one individual that works for CIP and they we tell them is it an email for instance yes ma'am yes okay so then it's not hard to get us on there by saying we can just have our email correct I mean this is not going to be additional work in fact it'd be less work because it's just an email I think I'm just going to be transparent I think the more work is the concern that you're seeing daily data that might not always be accurate in real time and even though we we want to say we're not going to make assumptions about a school or a teacher or by looking at data we do
041and then the question and I'm I'm and there are lots of times there are questions about specific schools and teachers and you know what are they doing and we're trying to support them and also answer those questions from you when the data might not be finalized like we know that the state is not final because there may be 30 retakes coming next week I guess what I'm trying to say is I feel more comfortable releasing data that is actually accurate not in the day-to-day of Sol's being given because that's I mean if you think about as a principal you are seeing your data and you're trying to respond to it quickly knowing that there are others like I I just I guess my question is are you you're not the one supporting the teachers in
042the schools you're seeing the data um but it for me it makes more sense that you see it when it's finished like the actual performance and what are we doing to address the issues in the data rather than the day-to-day that it changes every 24 hours during a testing window and this Sol testing window has been going on now for three or four weeks and it's continuing every day benchmarks would be different I would say if if you're asking us to provide that data this particular spreadsheet that we get is very in-depth and detailed we've actually had to create a video even so that our principals will understand that what's coming from CIP I would much rather take an hour and put it in a better format to send to the board so that when
043you see it it's as accurate as possible without all of there's a lot of information in the spreadsheet that I just think is sometimes unnecessary for anyone to see because it's showing calculations and I would much rather weekly if that's what the board wants send you an updated weekly report rather than you get the daily and it's not that I care that you see it I just I guess I'm trying to figure out how if you're seeing it that often how that's going to change over to supporting teachers and schools like I think where we need the help is when we come up with our plan of how we're moving forward the support of you know um having support for our new teachers professional development you know when you're looking at the budget thinking about
044how we can provide more support in classrooms so I guess that's where I'm struggling a little bit with with the request well you have two people I think that have looked at data for their entire you know career so and you've told us yes it changes every 24 hours and so did Pearson and and other programs we've used in the past so yeah I get that but I still like to see it it's a program that we're using so I'd like to see it okay so back to the the decision of the access and the frequency of getting it so you two are still with the daily you know I would be okay with a weekly having access to it weekly I want to have access to it and so if there are parameters or
045some way in which you can limit my day-to-day being able to look at it that's fine and I also want to say that accreditation is not day to day it's not day to day um I just feel it is my duty to the students and as a school board to have this information to be fully informed so now you're at weekly personal access to it I think there's I think there's some question as to whether we can even have access to it right right okay there's there's no way to set up a weekly report straight from CIP it's either all or us downloading the the particular overall scores what what's your feelings um go I know down here let's go down here Mr Daniels what are your feelings on this I'm fine getting it monthly
046monthly yeah the only thing I would request is I just want change so where were we with certain testing of its previous quarter year over year I'd like to see that next to the overall that's the only thing I'd like to say like growth from okay okay so we have a monthly what how what are your feelings Mr Nelms I'm good with monthly just for a simple fact that I mean if we hired them to do a job and I think we're getting that slippery slope of day-to-day operations and we have to get out of that mindset we all look at data daily for our day-to-day jobs that's what we do those are a day-to-day jobs this is something that we've hired them to do to give us a monthly report every month we get
047a report we see the status then we get the feedback from them okay so we have two for monthly two for Open Access what is your feelings Mr Hill well I have a couple questions so if we were to have the data could the data be redacted certain things that we don't need access to so for example schools certain groups things that shouldn't be shared until we have accurate finalized data not unless we create that report weekly using cips information and I would say the only other concern before I tell you if if we did have access to it we cannot create fire drills for our staff and that's what's going to happen because we're going to look at data and we're going to go this fell Karen what's going on here and then Karen's
048got to repeat the seven people well this is not a finalized number here's what we're looking at this is what we think so it's not good time spent for our our staff and team so um I will say and I've had conversations sidebar of what I'm looking for from this data what are the things that we're implementing where where did we not do so well what are the things we're changing Dr Whitford and I have had this conversation we can't keep doing what we've always done that's the deaf and expecting a different result that's the definition of insanity and so when I get these reports I'm looking to see what is it we're doing where are we what are we doing different so I think the data that we're getting in these monthly reports definitely
049have to be beefed up but if you can show me here's you know we talked about charts you know here's here's where we were here's where we're moving to these are the things that we are implementing to get that higher number I mean I've got to trust my staff and that's what you guys are here for and so I don't want to create a hundred fire drills for you to go you know squirrel squirrel squirrel you know when you're focused on one thing so I'm going to stick with the monthly and and the reports that we're getting but certainly I think we should be able to provide feedback and saying hey I don't think I'm getting this and here's what I need differently but I think that is not that is not something we need
050to spend an hour on tonight it's more of a phone call to our staff to say here's my recommendations of how here's what I'm looking for that I'm not getting [Music] Okay so and I'm from monthly I would like a little more detail um personally as to comparison I know with this is the first year of a new program that comparing to last year or even maybe pre-coveted numbers um B apples to oranges but if there's some way that we could figure out how to make that to where we're looking at apples then then that would be fine with me so we're monthly monthly all around except for two so monthly with more detail okay well I'm going to go ahead and pass this down to Dr Bergen if you just pass that down that's
051foyer request for that information from CIP and it's for every day there's one in there for every day I do have some additional questions sorry make sure you charge her for that for you I'm happy while these two is put my email on there yeah so we're gonna we're gonna waste that time for our staff to have to for you that data and send to you well if you put my email on it you don't have to do anything but put my email address on it so there's no no work for them except to input my email I do have other questions for them well actually I was thinking given the hour of it being 6 30 we'll pick up with a dish we'll pick up with the remaining of 3.01 when we get back
052to item eight for things not addressed and we'll pick up and finish there and then pick up with the rest but right now I think we should adjourn for dinner okay good evening everyone I like to reconvene this regular monthly meeting of the Bedford County school board for May the 11th 2023. [Music] Wood please join me for the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you very much moving on to item 6.02 recognition of students and staff can I have chairperson Kirby Mr Vice chair Hill and Dr Bergen up on the stage [Music] [Applause] all right our first uh group we're going to recognize is the Jefferson Forest High School
053Deca championship you guys can go ahead and up Jefferson Forest High School put on a great performance at the state Deca competition Deca which is short for distributive education clubs of America encourages students development of their business and Leadership skills through their academic conferences and competitions in the state competition for category of impromptu business presentation and the travel and tourism team decision making event we have Bella Parker and Lizzy Hoyer they placed first we also go ahead in the same category we have Kiera fabri and Brianna McCauley who are not here but they were the buying and merchandising team decision making event champions we also had Landon vital as the state winner for the category of impromptu sales presentation of the selling event and brought home the title of first place overall he is also
054not with us today but not only is JF Deca a great team they have a great leader in Mike Hoisington who was awarded the second place silver award as an outstanding chapter advisor [Applause] oh my God [Applause] our Lauren wise and Haley Smith they did not come our next one we have Liberty High School um Marisa perique she is here for the Via vhsl State forensic state champion this is her third state champ or class three forensic state champion I'm sorry for the second year in a row in this competition students deliver an original factual speech on a subject of their choosing this speech is frequently persuasive and normally about a slightly controversial topic they are judged on the effectiveness of the development and presentation congratulations on your achievement [Applause] thank you our next student
055is Fenton Forbes he was the state runner-up for forensic in extemporaneous speaking for all class three schools in Virginia this involves weeks of independent research on a variety of broad topics published a month in advance and then after they draw their specific topic question they're given a 30-minute preparation period in order to deliver a five to seven minute argumentative speech using only an index card for reference congratulations [Applause] our next student is Graham Woodruff from Forest Middle School he is an 8th grader and is a regional spelling bee winner for the second year in a row he competed against six students from other school divisions and made it through nine rounds sponsored by the news in advance he will move on to the National Spelling Bee on May 28th in Washington DC we couldn't be
056any prouder [Applause] [Laughter] all right our last group that we are recognizing today is the Jefferson Forest High School Odyssey of the Mind team go ahead the Jefferson Forest High School Odyssey team of the Mind placed first in the state competition on April 15th in Leesburg Virginia and their problem the walls of Troy they received a score of 318 points out of a possible 350. they will now move on to the World Finals at Michigan State University in the last week of May to compete against teams from the U.S and other countries we have Ella weikel Jake Coleman Olivia McAvoy Emily jacoba Sanchez and Riley Ferris who is not here foreign [Applause] and keep doing great things um moving on to item 6.03 public comment the public comment portion of tonight's agenda is limited to
05740 minutes speakers are asked to State their name and voting district the school board is here to listen to your comments but will not engage or respond to speakers during this 40-minute period please remember that this is a public meeting and that we expect all speakers to refrain from any foul profane abusive or hateful language during their comments or at any time while in attendance during this meeting we also ask that speakers keep their remarks objective and about the school of nature please keep all comments limited to matters related to to the public schools and any comments that are harassing or amount to personal attack against any identifiable individual whether board member or staff or student are having the potential to cause unnecessary delay or disruption to this meeting are prohibited this is a public
058meeting for public matters individuals will have four minutes to address the board an alarm will sound when it when an individual has 30 seconds remaining and a second alarm will sound when the allotted four minutes have expired when the second alarm sounds please discontinue speaking and allow the next person in line to come to the podium should you be unable to finish your comments please send or give them to Ms Johnson and she will give them to board members we also ask that you please do not adjust the microphone at the podium for it has been positioned for Optimum audio quality our first Speaker tonight is Cindy Young House good evening excuse me my lyrics is having some technical difficulties my family lives in district 7 and thank you for this opportunity to address the
059board policy INB teaching about controversial issues is up for a vote tonight this policy prohibits teachers from any discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity it also limits staff continuing education options policy INB is itself divisive and controversial it violates free speech it's discriminatory it violates titles 7 and 9. also this policy is indoctrination as its premise is so-called Christian legalistic moralism this worldview wants to nullify lgbtqia students and families of Bedford County INB contradicts Itself by neglecting to reflect the diversity of Bedford County as for labeling our students brought up in the last meeting's comments which compared individuals to the products in a market sure labels can be negative they can also be positive or neutral labels do not have to limit individuals humans are complex with many more of less capacities talents and
060attributes needing accurate descriptors positive labels can foster growth and a healthy individuated sense of self negatively negatively labeling the use of preferred pronouns as bad misses the importance of respecting an individual's personhood these pronoun labels we all have as core descriptors of Who We Are denying use of preferred pronouns is destructive because it denies this core part of ourselves also this painful denial violates the Christianity some of you claim motivates an anti-gender diversity policy like INB loving your neighbor has nothing to do with forcing your version of moralism onto another rather that as a decidedly unloving violation of psychological boundaries furthermore students are not robots which need only sterile strict adherence to pre-approved curricula students and families need a holistic approach for optimal academic and personal growth a holistic approach includes pronoun freedom and some
061discussions of personal and family life please strike the prohibitions regarding gender identity sexual orientation and continuing education from INB prior to this evening's vote your legal team can't possibly be happy with this policy thank you for your time and to enjoy your Mother's Day weekend thank you miss doing house Christina Childress hello my name is Christina Childress I'm a resident and parent in district one and the BCA president and a proud Stan River forensics coach so um tonight you will hear from a variety of concerned people staff parents like you just heard and even some students but who you will probably not hear from are the BCPS staff members who identify as part of the lgbtq community because certain portions of policy I and B have them scared if instilling fear and lgbtq staff and
062students is not your actual intention then we ask that you consider amending policy INB to delete certain phrases of concern this proposed policy Edition especially the section that starts with the words quote in addition is of deep concern to many staff members no matter their gender or sexual orientation for the record it is worded as follows quote in addition teachers shall not engage in discussions with students about sexual orientation or sexual identity end quote over the past month my email inbox has been flooded by staff members who've brought up concerns over this very specific section of the proposed policy we probably disagree on whether we even need the policy at all but we know you will vote to adopt it however writing this language into policy a policy for which staff can be disciplined and
063even dismissed that no teacher can even discuss such things as sexual orientation or gender identity that is too far and we would ask that that portion be removed from the policy INB before voting to adopt it tonight on a basic human interaction level this addition to the policy doesn't seem to be logical all staff in this division go by a title most of which imply gender you yourselves refer to each other as doctor and Mr and Mrs and when you talk to staff and yourselves and you frequently refer to your own spouses and your families and that's perfectly fine but logically how is that not discussing sexual orientation can we no longer comment my husband and I went to your basketball game or if we have a photo of our spouse on our desk do
064we call them a partner I'd the language is vague and unclear at the last board meeting a similar question was asked and the answer was if it's in the approved curriculum they can discuss it I'm not sure that's really true if you leave this wording in health teachers have pointed out that this no discussion portion of the policy violates multiple sols regarding relationships and their curriculum and not just family life sols in history how can we not discuss the role of gender or marriage and geopolitical conflicts literally verbatim from the English 11 curriculum framework is Sol 11.4 quote analyze and criticize themes and issues within and across text related to religious diversity political struggle themes I'm sorry ethnic and cultural mores and traditions individual rights gender equity and civil rights if we can't discuss these
065issues then we can't teach our approved and mandated curriculum any rational staff member knows that this policy would not be enforced among heterosexual cisgendered staff it would only be enforced among lgbtq plus staff or students no teacher employed by BCPS is trying to convert or sway or indoctrinate any student none of us we would just ask that you remove this language before passing your policy tonight thank you Miss Childress Donna Sinclair [Applause] Donna Sinclair good evening my name is Donna St Claire I live in District Four in forest I realize this year there have been a couple of contentious episodes regarding third party rental of Bedford County school facilities and I want to bring to your attention tonight a couple of things that could be done relatively simple modifications that might make life a little
066easier for all of us one of the problems concerns signage up outside the contract hours let me give you an example a year or so ago I went to one of your meetings at Jefferson forest and the doors into the auditorium area were just peppered with Impact Church Flyers the Optics of that are troublesome because it seems to infer some sort of Alliance connection between a public school and a church which we don't want to do and it makes no difference I'm not picking on Impact Church it makes no difference who it is it's equally inappropriate so I would suggest to you I would ask you that you consider changing those contracts to specify that the organization renting the school may only have their literature their sign during the paid contract period the second thing
067I'd like to bring to your attention and this is so common I'm kind of amazed that it hasn't been done before there should be a not affiliated with Bedford County Public Schools disclaimer on every single web page ad in the newspaper anywhere that somebody is going to rent this Auditorium Jefferson Forest Auditorium wherever they should be required to say not affiliated with and by doing that anybody can see that you have not sanctioned this church or that church or this organization so I would ask that you consider the addition of those two items to Future contracts one no signage whatsoever outside the hours of the contract and two that all materials bear a disclaimer getting you off the hook thank you for your time thank you Miss Sinclair Dave Dietrich good evening I'm Dave Dietrich
068from the fourth ladies and gentlemen I wish to discuss what many folks view as soft persecution and lack of religious toleration as many are aware America has been facing a kind of cultural War this war involves both spiritual beliefs and unbeliefs and standards of conduct Bedford County has not been immune to that conflict when the founders concede the United States of America they were concerned about religious freedom among many other issues the history of Europe had been one of gross injustices related to religious persecution the founders wanted to avoid a repeat of that ugly history here They promoted both religious toleration and the concept of separation of church and state separation of church and state is misunderstood by many today the concepts excuse me the concept was never intended to be separation from religion rather
069the Constitution prohibits the federal government from creating a state religion the Constitution also prohibits the federal government from interfering in private matters of religion the 50 states follow that overall prescription Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries was much different religion was determined by The Realm by the religion of the king the 17th and 17th century France Frenchmen had to be Roman Catholic why that was the religion of the Sun King Louis XIV Protestant huguenotism was not tolerated it was illegal persecuted and banned in 18th century England and in the early American colonies subjects of the realm were members of the Anglican Church why that was the religion of King George III at times they were there was mild religious toleration at other times there was outright religious intolerance and persecution in France of Louis
070XIV Protestant huguenots were persecuted unmercifully in today's post-modern world many perceive a similar pattern emerging many believe judeo-christian beliefs and values are being persecuted by a new kind of religion of the realm post-modern atheism pantheism spiritualism and moral relativeness are said to constitute its belief system unbelief is not tolerated many believe also this form of self-persecution is permeating our schools they make a cogent argument indeed is judeo-christianity being treated at times like the Protestant huguenots of 1773 France The Great Frederick Douglass wrote the moral life of human society it cannot die with while conscious honor and Humanity remain let us consider these words as we move forward thank you thank you Mr Dietrich Jennifer Faust good evening I'm Jennifer Faust I'm a school psychologist in Bedford County I have worked here since 1989 and I'm
071speaking on behalf of my fellow School psychologists to you I apologize I don't know my voting district number I do vote but I don't want to know my number and I certainly don't know their numbers but I'm speaking on behalf of all of us tonight we voice Our concern regarding proposed policy INB which prohibits teachers from engaging in discussions about sexual orientation and gender identity this prohibition stands in conflict with other guidance and values and we believe if it is enacted there will be unintended negative consequences as Educational Employees in the state of Virginia the work of school psychologists supports the teaching of Virginia sols there are multiple standards at each grade level which could evoke prohibited discussion we've already heard some examples and concerns in that area if this proposed policy is adopted will
072teachers be expected not to teach certain sols because of conversations that might ensue will they be given guidelines about how to stop a conversation if it becomes controversial the proposed prohibition against conversations will most certainly create confusion for teachers a school psychologist in Bedford we also support the BCPS strategic plan the proposed policy stands in contrast to goal number two regarding safe and supportive schools we believe it will not enhance student sense of belonging nor will it strengthen student-teacher relationships we know that relationships are built on the day-to-day interactions that students and teachers have at school it includes both formal and informal discussions that happen every day a common practice in elementary schools is to hold morning meeting you're probably familiar with that if you've had an elementary school student this is a structured time
073for students to share with one another and as a research-based method to enhance classroom organization imagine a morning meeting in which a teacher asks students to share what they did over the weekend one student may share that he went to visit his cousin and his cousin's wife that recently had a baby perhaps another student shares that on Friday night she had movie night with Dad then on Saturday afternoon went with Mommy and stepdad to see Brothers ball game would these conversations be prohibited they certainly involve information regarding romantic relationships what about the student who shares that on Sunday she went to get ice cream with Mommy and Mommy's new girlfriend how would a teacher be expected to manage that discussion because how a teacher treats any conversation will have significant impact on the relationships within
074the classroom and relationships in the classroom are the foundation for how that classroom and indeed the entire School operate and this highlights our greatest concern regarding the proposed prohibition the proposed policy will most certainly alienate specific students when specific populations fail to receive support all students suffer Research indicates that school climate is improved for all students when specific populations are included and supported rather than alienated a school psychologists we support all students because that is what is best for everyone we strongly urge you to reject the proposed policy thank you thank you Ms Bells Dana Moore good evening my name is Dana Moore and I'm in District five district seven I'm sorry first of all I wanted to say thank you to the school board members for serving your community my husband Jason and I
075have three kids in Bedford County Public Schools one at Liberty Middle School and two at Otto River Elementary School today I want to talk to you about the topic of class sizes my son Andrew I've got a picture of him here he's in first grade at otter River Elementary School this year he was in a class of 27 a first grade class at outer River Elementary School was one class of 27 students they had a teacher and a paraprofessional this year teaching them I wouldn't consider this ideal and I'm trying to prevent this from happening again next year um I think there are a lot of benefits to smaller class sizes the children can engage better with the teacher they can listen better the teacher can respond to them that's probably going to result in
076Better Learning outcomes better test scores the teacher can control the the classroom better I honestly don't think anybody wants larger class sizes I don't think the teachers want it the principles anybody at central office you guys the parents I don't think we actually want larger class sizes in K through three it's just a matter of priorities and funding I mean that's just the reality we all know that so I did try to get educated about how the school came to have 27 kids in first grade this year and so I learned about the Staffing standard and the budget and how that calculation can is based on the average number of projected students in that k-3 range and sometimes it just turns out that the calculation doesn't give as many teachers as maybe the parents would
077like um I think that this past year at otter River Elementary School they actually uh had three fewer allocated teachers initially than they would have liked that would have resulted in three uh single grade levels of one class each and my understanding is that some cares grant money was found so that two additional teachers could be added first grade did not get that additional teacher so they stayed with a class with one teacher and one paraprofessional um so I'm I'm just trying to Advocate that we try and find those resources use the resources that we have efficiently so that we can make sure that we have resources when when we need to bring those class sizes down we can have resources available to do that what I've done as a parent I've tried to get
078educated about how this works and then I've also followed up with my principal at honor River in the last couple weeks just to ask how the allocation process is going um and if she just encouraged her to come to central office and ask for additional Staffing if it seems like the class size is going to be the same next year for the second grade class um I would ask you guys as a school board members if you would just consider allocating funding for this and also just do some oversight of central office to ensure that they are using uh what funds may be available to ensure that we can bring those class sizes down I'd like to see those class sizes in the lower 20s I know that the state of Virginia allows that grade
079level to go up to 30. I just don't think that's ideal for learning outcomes private schools are always touting they're small class sizes I don't think I should have to send my kids to private school just to get a class size of 20. I think the purpose of education is prepare our children to be competent in independent adults who can earn their own living and if we shortchange them at the beginning in the education process we're just going to risk those outcomes thank you very much thank you Miss Moore Kristen Honeycutt good evening I'm Kristen Honeycutt I'm employed by Bedford County Public Schools and I first want to take a minute and publicly thank PTA at my beloved Big Island Elementary and the colleagues at my school for going the extra mile to make our
080teacher appreciation week amazing um but it was a little strange because I'm so being shown love from everybody but then I'm also knowing that there are people publicly scrutinizing me and what I do secondly I want to talk about the new policy INB that's being voted on tonight I spoke about it last month also and I just want some clarity so that I don't accidentally cross any lines um our handbook says Bedford County School Board is committed to maintaining an educational environment and workplaces is free from harassment in accordance with the law the board prohibits harassment against students employees and others on the basis of sex sexual orientation gender gender identity race color national origin disability religion ancestry age marital status genetic information or any other characteristic protected by law or based on the belief
081that such characteristic exists well if someone is feeling harassed who are they allowed to talk to because we're not allowed to have these discussions I'll repeat my question from last month what about discussions about my family or my children or my students families what about the children's books that we love to enrich our children's lives with but they discuss relationships or they used pronouns I'm fairly sure anyone who's watched school board meetings over the last few months can predict how this vote will go but I'm just going to ask what are you afraid of do you really think we have time to sit around and plan how to best indoctrinate our students I'm trying to teach critical thinkers who are kind to each other because sometimes that just doesn't get taught at home I feel
082like this Niche policy is going to make my job that much harder thank you for your time thank you masonica Rachel Jones hi everyone um my name is Ebony Foster and I live in Lynchburg City so I don't have a voting district I am here on behalf of the Jefferson Forest High School track and field team we are asking for funding for a high jump in Provo pit and we were just going to show we'll voice some of our opinions on why we would need some funding um just to give you some background I am an employee of Bedford County I teach at Jefferson Forest High School and I'm the head coach at Forest I graduated from Jefferson force in 2001 where I had several championships individually and as a whole for the team I
083then got a scholarship in North Carolina State then follow that I was All-American and then I had a contract with Nike the reason why I gave you that background is just to give you um just some knowledge of what I the importance I see of the kids having the things that they need I do have some of the kids behind me the high jumpers mainly just to give y'all a visual that they really care as well okay so because some of the stats that we had was um as a team we had five times state championship titles which is for track and field we were three years runner-up for indoor and outdoor and we definitely think that if we had a high jump in a povo pit that we would be able to host Meats
084there so we can then show off our beautiful facility um give people a reason to come back down alumni family friends um and then that way we can also host like Championship meets there um the last four years we've had a state champion in the pole vault and then we also had a top three um participant as well in high jump we had five titles with three athletes one of them got second at the state meet and then he also won a national championship one year and then we had two others that were placed in the top five and part of the reason why we're asking is because we spent a lot of time between traveling to different places for our kids to high jump they have to either travel to University of Lynchburg or
085they have the pulverters go to Amherst and if you know where Jefferson force is you know that drive to Amherst does take some time so we would have more time to practice more time to perfect their skills and just more time for them to be able to spend doing what they they signed up to do okay the last time a pole vault pit was purchased was in 2000 and just so you know I graduated in 2001. um so see in the high jump pit was around 2007. we've done a lot of different fundraising and we've reached about nine thousand dollars so of course we wouldn't ask for the full amount which would cost approximately sixteen thousand dollars but anything that we could get we would definitely appreciate um the major concern that we would have
086um for not having these things or we do have a high jump pit but it's not in really good shape and I brought pictures of videos but I don't think I can show them um is just the safety of of the kids once they high jump them they either go in the middle of the pit and then we have a lot of pollen and stuff that comes out of it or um they get caught up on things and they could potentially hurt themselves so with these things said I don't know if we are able to have the kids come up to speak one at a time if they can do it within 30 seconds all right you get one good afternoon my name is I'm a high jumper at Jefferson Forest High School um we're
087here to talk about the high jump mat it's in very terrible condition um I've jumped on the mat I've hit my back on the floor going through the mat because they have gaps in it um every time I jump I get pulling in my nose and my eyes and I get difficulty breathing sometimes I've caught ratchets on my neck rashes on my back and my face due to the poor quality of the high jump mats thank you very much for your time [Music] thank you Zane Ellis hello my name is Zayn Ellis I live in District 2 and I'm a junior at Stanton River I come here today as an incredibly worried student and one who's seen the evolution of this school system for years the most recently proposed policy INB teaching of controversial issues
088is a rehashing of similar policies throughout the systems it's a Clashing of opposing cultural and social values which has no place within our school system sexual orientation is an ever-changing front for debate obviously but I believe the root of the problem lies in how it is contextualized through communities through religious environmental and social obligations my goal is obviously not to attack any one group but this was worth noting my goal is to break this issue down to its very Basics from my standpoint from that of a student my secondary fear with this policy is that it could be molded to mandate teachers as reporters from both conforming and non-conforming students who can't who discuss identity within their classrooms INB forces them out of considering topics such as sexual orientation and gender identity and holds little
089to no benefit for the active student population though its real impact will lie in Victory for external and internal political groups sexual orientation is and arguably a fundamental aspect of what defines us as humans we've all met people we're attracted to people we love each and every person here knows that it's not a choice it's why breakups affect us for months uh it's why we cannot get over that one person is a reason for our affection for other beings this policy attacks this idea the fundamental idea it marks communities such as lgbtq plus is Unworthy of validation and equating controversy to sexual orientation we admit that we related to bias to Prejudice to inundation with possibly hostile ideas now in our community a vocal minority counter argue this believing that our youth shouldn't be exposed
090to these subjects especially non-gender or non-sex conforming students that this expression of identity is thought to cause a radical change in children is completely unfounded could not also be argued that our non-conforming populations are even more oppressively pushed to be straight that is why I'm here today this policy puts students out of comfortability with their sexuality around often neutral supporting staff forcing them to environment of hostility I cannot tell you how many times as a student I've seen people unfalteringly unleash acts of incredible discrimination upon these questioning communities by eliminating School staff as possible support structure and in fact hinting at further action and mandating reports of discussion about identity this policy will cause irreversible harm to students who could previously confide in their teachers for example a bisexual friend of mine just this year
091would frequently discuss topics of orientation both with us and with teachers but why specifically the loot to us for validation and as I later realized in fear and I've seen a countless example since many lgbtq plus children come into school scared of their own parents of being screamed at abused abandoned imagine walking into school and knowing that your status as a human being can be ignored only because of your identity some teachers most valuable talents lie in providing a safe environment for the expression a Haven away from home and this policy would silence both these talented staff members and the students themselves think of your own children your relatives your brothers sisters nieces and nephews think of the future of this nation what would you do if your very own family were rejected by the
092very accepting school system for the very base of what makes them them if your very ability to discuss who you love what your identity means to you within a safe environment were snatched away in order to provide a truly accepting school system it is imperative that we do not remove these support structures this policy will not only predictably lead to inflated rates of suicide or unreported abuse it will not only lead to outrage as seen within communities of passings of similar policy but it will debase our students at with the heart of what makes them human thank you for your time thank you Mr Ellis Robert Asheville okay good evening I'm Robert Ashwell I teach biology and chemistry at Stanton River High School I would like to thank the school board members for unanimously supporting
093the capital Improvement plan to renovate the auditoriums and to fix the dilapidated awnings at Stanton River and at Liberty I attended the Board of Supervisors meeting several weeks ago where this matter was discussed to be honest I was taken aback by the blatant disregard for the students at Stanton River in Liberty that was voiced by some of the people that were present at this meeting I graduated from Stanton River in the year 2000 and even as an 18 year old kid my classmates and I were acutely aware of the deteriorating state of the campus and the disparity that existed in terms of funding in the county can bet current students are aware of it as well supervisor Tammy Parker addresses much more eloquently than I can I'm going to quote a few of the things
094that she said I quote people that don't want to be redistricted to Liberty and Stanton River they don't get the same educational opportunities what can you say when there's so much disparity and there's been so much money funneled in One Direction and not the other two I applaud Miss Parker and the other supervisors who voted in favor of the capital Improvement plan for speaking up for the South Side I would also again like to thank you all for unanimously approving it we need people in this County whose motivations are in the best interest of students not in following a political agenda so again I thank y'all the parents from south south side and I look forward to y'all working with the Board of Supervisors to get this done thank you all for your time I've
095been keeping track of the time that's been left over from speakers so we do have time for one more Alicia wood good evening my name is Alicia wood and I reside in District three as we all know the Board of Supervisors voted four to three to approve the 41 tax rate at their April 23rd meeting some of the board members spoke in favor of the awnings and Auditorium projects that LHS and Stanton River and also the gym project at Bedford primary they also stated and agreed that it was a need and not a want so now I'm coming before this board and asking you all to please move forward on these projects sooner rather than later and I'm also asking that you follow Mr Tuck's suggestions and assemble a joint construction task team made up
096of representatives from the Board of Supervisors this board along with our County engineer as opposed to outside consultants and one citizen from the area with extensive construction experience to oversee these projects from concept to completion thank you thank you Miss Wood [Applause] okay that concludes public comment for this evening moving on to item seven do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda I have a motion by Mr Nelms do I have a second second by Mr Hill any discussion all those in favor signify by saying aye aye opposed motion carries item eight we're picking up with informational items not addressed at five we were going to pick up with item 3.01 and where were we I had an additional question to ask of Mr Trump hey Miss Harrison okay thank you uh Dr
097Trosper um the other question that I have is regarding our middle school students particularly reading um the scores are very concerning what are we doing to address those scores in Reading what's our plan forward yeah and I discussed this a little bit in the presentation you're correct the middle school scores are concerning and we know we have to do better and I know our Middle School staff and principals are working hard and they have a lot of challenges but at the same time we've got to get our students performing better so um one in addition to what you have shared with us I think one of the things I really want to emphasize is that our teachers in a position where they're teaching foundational Concepts that they're not used to teaching in addition to grade
098level content and so kind of we thought a lot about this if you look at for example an eighth grade student this is the first year the First full year without any kind of mitigation that that student's been in if you go back to last year there was some mitigation then there were some real school year prior to that there was the hybrid where they were on campus two maybe three days a week and then before that was a year of school closure so they're not used to normal school and and this is kind of the first time they've had a chance to do that and I think that makes those foundational skills there's just developed some gaps and so a big part of that is implementing structures and and resources like the Sunday system
099like emphasizing Fidelity to the curriculum we bought a good evidence-based curriculum last year and the first year is always difficult with implementation but we've started to see progress as I said it's incremental but it's there's still progress we've got to go back and look at that and see where those gaps are formed where we start to see improvements and that comes with really breaking down the data from our benchmarks and our sols the other thing we've got to do is we're going to we're going to look at our writing we've got to really think about how to create a plan where there's consistent effective practices for writing in all of our classrooms and quite honestly that starts in elementary school our kids have to be better prepared as they go to Middle School to to
100get those scores where they need to be you know and so there's a lot of areas but but for us it's just really consistency as I shared earlier learning how to differentiate and really meet the needs of individual students letting that data Guide their instruction adding some supplementary curriculums which are going to build some of the foundational reading skills and again just a consistent writing plan that's going to help all of our students improve in regards to reading recovery programs are we using any aspects or doing anything in regards to that particular format like as a remedial program and helping yeah our students who are struggling well you know we we have remediation budgets that schools use individually so we leave a lot of that to the principal's discretion so that could be bringing in
101another staff member uh or someone a teacher in the community to to provide that targeted remediation um the the service has a lot of of even remedial portions to their curriculum um and so one of the things that we're doing now is is for those that are going to summer school the summer remediation program we're going back and looking deeper and we're finding out lessons that need to address some of those skills that have been lost so we're hoping to develop a mentality here in summer school where students are better prepared for that next grade where they have a better skill set moving forward so there actually is a reading component a remedial component so we want to make sure we understand that better and use that to the fullest of our our abilities in
102addition and I feel like I'm repeating myself that Sunday system builds the foundational reading and that's what we're seeing is when you get to middle school you're learning you're reading for comprehension and you're expected to continue to progress but if you don't understand or you don't have the the basic foundational skills it's going to be a struggle so we're we're laying the foundation as we're kind of building and that's that's just so challenging for the teachers right now you know sometimes at the middle school level those students tend to really connect with their peers if they're struggling say if they're a student that's in need of some some support and pairing them with a student who is excelling often can be helpful so I'm just curious if there's been any consideration in utilizing some of
103our high Achievers at the high school level in supporting some of these students at the middle school level with their reading principals have not discussed that with me I can't say they haven't discussed that leadership team meetings but but you're correct that is a great strategy I I appreciate the suggestion I would also like to say we've been looking at some other data that we feel is a huge influence and that's absentee data we have significant numbers of students who are truant especially at the middle and high school level we've processed many many cases this year and shariers and I are going to meet with judge Ayers and judge Harrison on Monday to discuss how to get our kids more engaged and how to connect our schools and our families to see the importance of
104being in school on a regular basis and we're going to try to take a more proactive approach um and a lot of it boils down to engagement in the classroom relationships with teachers wanting to be in school I think we have a lot of students through the pandemic who were able to say I'm not feeling well so they got to stay home and so it's really changing that mindset of you can come to school and we're going to work through that but we have high truancy numbers and that is concerning for me because I think they're missing a lot of instructional time at the middle school and as we've discussed as a team there are strategies for remediation but we also have to get them there for the instructions so we're also focusing efforts in
105truancy and just you know discipline and getting them focused and staying in the classroom okay um I just have a question on the the data that we're receiving are those raw scores their actual scores or is that based on a cut score what percentage of pass rate based on Cut score this for masterconnect so that's all the subjects except for English are based on Cut scores and and how he established it's it's the doe has established those and they've been the same for a long time so you're just using those yes okay um you had said that um you you are working with schools and administrators and you expect schools to collect subgroup data do you in fact know that they are doing it and analyzing it on a continuing basis and and how do
106you know that yeah so our supervisors attend department meetings frequently and so those there's discussions about that we also have uh central office staff who attend leadership meetings each school is assigned someone to go to those meetings and so we do debrief and discuss those um so so that's where a lot of those happen and as an additional layer of support and accountability any school that has a level two indicator or above the principle actually comes to central office and they report on that data and one of the questions they ask is what is the status of those struggling to learn or not making progress and they're expected to answer that question what are we doing about it so they would present their data to us and we would talk about strategies and how we
107can support them but yeah so there's we've definitely recognized that while we expect that there's got to be some some inspection to make sure it is happening um you know the the um you you uh really zeroed in on students with disabilities I know you're familiar with the rest of the data um I I am too extremely concerned about our subgroup performance because some of it is extremely low you know even in places like oh I'm sorry I can not hear even in subjects such as social studies which you mentioned you know is not you know and for accreditation in in many instances but we still have and I know you know this but I just feel like I have to say the a responsibility for the students to um not underperform in those areas
108as well that's just part of being a well-rounded responsible uh citizen so in in when you talk about what you're going to do next year um and I say this lovingly I don't say it really as a criticism it's just um I think sometimes you have to do a lot of self-reflection when you're in a situation like that um having been there many times are we going to concentrate on really exploring other avenues because you know what we're doing right now doesn't seem to be working as well as we would like it to um and that doesn't mean that I think teachers aren't doing their jobs some children just respond to some ways of of learning and some don't so how are we you know what are your thoughts with regard to what were how
109we're going to address that so I I'm going to jump in just because Mrs Jennings isn't here and she and I've talked a lot about the special education and our concerns together one of the things we're specifically looking at is having t-tac from JMU come in to do some training for our administrators and for our teachers on high leverage practices and how and some of those practices are explicit instruction you know systematically designing instruction specifically for students with disabilities the other thing we really need a lot of new teacher sped support we have a lot of special education teachers who are getting provisional certifications because we're having a hard time finding special education teachers and so they need not only a lot of compliance training but they also need instructional strategy training and how to
110do inclusion how to do good teaching and we've kind of made a promise that we as an instructional team are going to be modeling those practices for our principals Dr Trosper and Mrs Jennings and their teams have created a very specific guide so that when principals are in classrooms they are looking for specific strategies that are being used by the teachers for special education students for Gen ed students but we've actually created one that's specific to our students with disabilities because you just have to do some things differently and honestly we are learning we are trying to say what's working out there who's being successful we need to model that we need to go see what's going on the other big change that we're hoping is really going to help is that we are restructuring
111um our special education teachers to have one sped teacher who is going to focus on retesting and testing of students making sure that management of paperwork compliance attending a lot of those special education meetings that our teachers are being pulled from one person to really focus on that and then the other special education teachers focused on supporting the students in the classroom and so we're hoping that changed so that everyone's not worried about a large caseload paperwork and supporting students so we're going to try that we've just at some trainings we've been hearing that that has provided some success for school divisions but we really are reaching out to ttac because we recognize that there are a lot of things we need to do I think Dr Trosper mentioned that we were also looking at
112how we can support our special education students at the High School through credit accommodations we've done significant training there to see how can we support our students so that when they're at the high school level they're not just retaking and retaking and retaking tests we are spending a lot of time remediating them and then how can we meet those verified credits and Alternate Pathways so that we can spend our time teaching students rather than just teaching them how to get that verified credit through an Sol test so um you know I think we've got a lot of things on our mind and we're trying to kind of firm them up once we get that final Sol data but those are a few big things that we have already started putting in place and that we're
113planning for the summer and fall okay and just one more question sure when uh in making these changes I know you know how important it is to have it out there not the day before we start school again so what is your plan for that so that teachers have a chance to process it digest it and figure out how they're going to apply that in their classrooms are you speaking about all of it or just a piece of it or we've already so we've already started training on the credit accommodations not only with our teachers but our counselors who also and our testing coordinators to so we're supporting one another um we've already identified those teachers who will be kind of guiding the paperwork compliance because we want those to be veteran teachers who who
114understand that so we've already started having those discussions with those teachers those principals as far as the the t-tac and the high level strategies and training we are going to start that at the leadership conference which is the third week in June with our administrators and really kind of set the vision with the Strategic plan and what we're doing um we don't have a lot of training time with our teachers so um part of what there's been some discussion how do we introduce maybe one high leverage strategy at a time let them practice that let them focus on that instead of all of them all at once so we're trying to be very intentional with the training time that we have and focus in on where we have our our more significant concerns Middle School
115is a significant concern for all of us and and we're really trying to figure out how to pinpoint how we can make the biggest difference there and a lot of that's taking research for us because what we're finding is what we have been doing isn't working as well as it used to so um we ourselves are learning and trying to find good strategies so any further anyone else Mr Hill so first of all thank you for you guys for what you've looked at what you're implementing plans in place Etc um everything that I've heard is around administrator and teacher and you don't have to answer this question tonight but I want you to know I'm going to be looking for some responses um how are we holding students accountable so we've talked about the teacher
116we talked about the administrator things that we want to do things that we want to put in place going back to data and let me be the first to say not every kid is a test taker and so just because these results show one thing does not mean that there's not achievement so I want to make sure everybody hears that loud and clear um but what I'm interested in is how does classroom grades compare to what we're seeing in these results so that's one thing that I'm interested in seeing data on the second piece is based on these results and again I have to wait to see what the classroom grades compare I would say we probably should have about a 30 percent retention rate of all these grades that I just looked at and
117so I'm interested to know how many students are we retaining in these grade or yeah in these grades based on these results one thing that your first question about the grades versus results you're absolutely right there ought to be a correlation between that and if a student is failing an Sol but made all A's then that's a problem and that means the instruction the assessments weren't aligned um that is one of the the appealing parts of CIP they actually started doing those exact reports last year now I haven't seen it and it's new but I am anticipating getting that report well they can correlate grades with SOS so I'm hoping to be able to share with you over the summer um but but you're absolutely right that there needs to be a correlation um second
118part of your question I'm sorry can you remind it's around student accountability accountable because we put so much on our teachers and staff and administrators but I'm sorry our students should have just as much accountability for what they're learning they're not here to just be here it's how are we holding them accountable and I understand every kid is at two totally different ends of the spectrum as far as how they learn at what pace Etc so I get that but what I want to know is what is the accountability for our students because if I'm seeing this data and again the testing doesn't always show achievement but are we just passing students through and I'm not saying we are I want to know how the student is being held accountable because if the test grades
119either in the classroom or what we're seeing on the screen is not where we want it to be we should be retaining students so we may have a bigger third fourth and fifth grade for a couple years but if that's what it takes to make sure our students are successful and again I'm sure there's some State rule that whatever counts against us I I want to erase all I want to focus on our kids and making sure how do we make sure they are successful just one comment about that the guidance that we've really given our administrators on retention is if you're going to do it we need to do it early and that's kindergarten first grade and really try to build up those skills um it's there's really no State role that I'm aware
120of so correct me if I'm wrong but it's it's really there's there's not a lot of research to support that retention is good for students particular as they get older in fact I I worry about a middle school student or even Upper Elementary I worry that we're creating dropouts we're creating kids that are significantly older than their peers it hurts their confidence your point about accountability is well taken and I think one of the ways that we can have that discussion is really communicate to students and staff your grades are not fixed until the end of the year that means we're going to continue to work and we're going to continue to hold you accountable we're not going to say I'm sorry you failed this quarter we're done with that we've got to really think
121about how to remediate and send that message that we're not finished you didn't get it today but we're going to continue to work until we get it so retention can be a good tool but I do worry research shows it's not necessarily effective especially as they get older so but but what's not effective retaining someone right attention every student holding them back so if they're not getting what they should be getting in fourth grade studies show that it's better just to pass them to fifth grade it really does that sounds so simple but it there's got to be some intense remediation interventions during that school year I'm not saying never I just think we should not argue that point but I am interested in the data and I want to know you know what is
122the percentage of those thank you anything else okay we'll move on item 4.01 gifted annual plan yes ma'am so this is our first information item tonight on which the board will be asked to take action next month this information that you're receiving tonight has already been reviewed with our school divisions gifted advisory committee which meets throughout the year there's also an attachment in board docs for this agenda item which lists the changes that we are proposing to the gifted plan and to give more detail on these changes and the process I'd like to turn over to Dr prosper so as Dr Bergen said this is not a new plan this is the existing plan but every time there are changes or revisions the we the board is required to review that and so our next
123five-year review will be in 2025 and and so essentially we've provided a list of bullet points that summarize the changes made and also attach was the actual gifted plan so um unless you'd like me to I won't go through the points but I'm happy to answer any questions you have about it questions good thank you okay moving on to 4.02 title grants yes ma'am uh that time of year on an annual basis the board uh is asked to review the plan that we have for spending our our federal title dollars so you're receiving this tonight for information and we will ask you to take action next month uh those Federal title dollars are you familiar are Title One title two title three and title four and I think we're going to have some more information
124as part of the presentation from Dr Woodford so just a reminder this is an annual um thing that we do with approval of the title federal grants Title One Part A provides resources for eight of our qualifying elementary schools resources include funding for additional teachers for smaller class sizes instructional support staff professional development and materials to support schools with larger disadvantaged populations our Title II Grant application provides funding for some division support salaries tuition assistance for our employees and professional development in support of improving instructional quality the title III application provides support programs to address English language proficiency and academic achievement of our Els or our English Learners including the provision of language instruction education programs and activities that increase the Knowledge and Skills of teachers who serve our Els the title III programs also
125provide enhanced instructional opportunities for immigrant Children and Youth the title IV part a grant provides funds for programs and activities to improve students academic achievement by increasing the capacity of our school division to provide all students with a well-rounded education improve School conditions for Learning and improve the use of Technology through this grant we will be able to provide some professional development for um technology and for elementary intervention design Specialists to support students these applications must be approved by the school board and signed by the superintendent and board chair and submitted prior to June 30th each year so we are providing them for information tonight and for Action next month questions okay good okay um Dr Woodford in uh section B program overview continued I'm sorry I don't see where the page numbers are on
126this and my computer program it says six are we in the title Title One Title One I apologize um in that particular again uh section B program overview continued it talks about the historic underperformance of students including um disadvantaged students with disabilities and English learner students as subgroups but our African-American Community also fits in that or do they not and can we add them to that we could add that okay um I also want to say it was a very well constructed Grant so please Dr Eisenhower isn't here but she really did an excellent job with that um in section B3 I'm interested how many family engagement activities were there this year I if I remember from last year I want to say they were going to do two they were required to do two
127and some schools did more than that because they were so excited to be back at Family engage activities I could put together a list with Dr Eisenhower's help and send it out but they at least they had a minimum of two they were required to do and use funding for but some did more than that are we going to continue to try to um do more of those so that there's hopefully at least one per quarter absolutely and we also want to tie some family engagement opportunities into truancy and other aspects that not just our Title One but supporting that in all of our schools and working with our ptas so yes objective number one again I'm on page eight here um it says 80 percent of the students um 72 percent of the students
128in grade K-5 are meeting it and by the end of it 80 percent of the students in grades K-5 not meaning the pals Benchmark in the fall will show measurable progress do we know really how many students were talking about um I'm sure Dr Eisenhower does okay but I off the top of my head I don't know objective number two um hold on just a second I was growing the instructions um eight if that helps when the people yeah I know I I think I don't have the correct page here because I'm a little or correct objective here I'm looking for there was a Structure mentioned in the program who is providing the structure mentioned in the objective and when is that but I can I can refine that for you so don't worry about
129that um what computer-based programs in reading and math are we using right do you know um we are using Dr drossberg may have to help I know I excel um a lot of our schools are using a variety of things like reading Eggs and um we need to see yes reading a to z things like that um we have been we were providing those at the division level for a lot of schools and we weren't seeing really good usage that was equaling really good data so that's one of our goals for next year is to really look at what is everyone using and is it really working um you know we if we pull away that money things that teachers have been trained on and are using at their individual schools um that can be
130very frustrating for them so we allow them to have those programs and I what we're really asking our principals to do is are they working is it worth the money is it worth are you getting um any Improvement by using those programs and also being really smart about how much time kids are are on those programs on their computers rather than just engage face to face with people in person I think that's I'm so glad to hear that because I think that's really important this is 1.547 million dollars yes and I think we need to be sure that whatever it is we're using and I certainly don't mean to insinuate I know what you should use or shouldn't use but whatever it is you're choosing to use um is it is it worth the money
131that we're paying for it there have been programs in the past that really weren't worth what we were paying and we finally let them go right um another question is I see SFA initiatives and some SFA um allocations here so we're not all using the same reading program we we are using the same reading program there are a lot of pieces of SFA that we feel are really good for remediation and supplemental programs the doe is um just finishing out phase one and they are starting to go into looking at supplemental and Remediation materials and then they'll give us an approved list so we've had so much training with SFA that and and we still have a lot of materials we are still supporting some of that for remediation but it in the same main
132reading core program yes ma'am everyone will um with Fidelity is our goal yes [Music] I just want to say to the section on reduction of exclusionary practices and I know this is uh Miss Robertson's little baby and I just want to say thank you to all the IDS people and the counselors and the social workers and the school sites because um I really the nurses I I just don't know what we would do without these interventions especially with kids coming off of the pandemic and all of the problems they're bringing with them and and trying to regulate them enough so they can be instructed and and be successful in the program so thank you so much that that was a really nice section of this brand and I just really appreciate all the work I
133know you've put into that and and please convey to your teams plural there how much I appreciate that because having been in that situation we just don't have all the answers I know you all don't have the answers either but together we have way more answers so thank you for that um are all the title one schools doctor Woodford aware typically aware of their Title One allotment like they know they're getting I don't know 252 647 they have their estimates um we have not had the title one great work on so a lot of it were basing on last year's allotments um but we have a good estimate so they know what staff they want to use the majority of our Title One principals have found that additional staff support has been the most helpful
134and then we will get a more detailed budget once we get the actual allocations from doe but we have given them an estimation so they can do their Staffing pieces okay and do you require them to submit a budget to you with regard to how they're spending those dollars yes ma'am David submit that to Dr Eisenhower okay yes all right thank you so much and again please tell Dr Eisenhower is very well thank you anybody have any questions okay Dr Wilford so make sure I'm understanding this right there's eight elementary schools that are Title One yes sir and it's one point some million dollars that they're getting so yes or no I'm assuming that those eight elementary schools because we're dumping 1.45 extra million dollars into those eight schools smaller classrooms and more head count
135they're outperforming our other elementary schools is that a correct statement um no that wouldn't be I'm 100 accurate okay thank you thank you Dr Woodford moving on to 4.03 superintendent's designees Dr Bergen yes ma'am this is an important and obligatory annual requirement of all school boards in the rare occasion that I should not be available and we need to appoint a designee in my absence I'm going to be asking the board to approve the same designees we've had this year so Mr Randy Hagler our assistant superintendent of finance and operations would serve as my designee on any financial matters and all of the matters would be my designee would be our Deputy superintendent Dr Karen Woodford just sharing this with you for information tonight and I'll ask for your support of that through an action
136item next month questions for Dr Bergen moving on to 4.04 County budget transfer correct this is our last information item for tonight uh so we're again not asking for any action tonight just for you to receive this information and then take action next month Mr Hagler is seeking or will be seeking your approval for a categorical transfer of approximately four hundred thousand dollars from instruction to Transportation the majority of that transfer is due to fuel costs but there are some other factors in Mr Hagler is prepared to provide some additional information and answer questions Randy yes good evening at a prior meeting I presented the third quarter financial review and based off that review we had several supplemental Appropriations that the board approved and I took to the Board of Supervisors and they have since
137approved those so those have all been taken care of there was one category transfer that I requested from the board that was approved to the maintenance major category when I put together my third quarter forecast there were some bills um that were late or we had not received yet that did affect the transportation department so I did not at that time ask for any category transfer into the transportation department upon looking at the financials at the end of April some of those larger bills for fuel the other one is contracted Services that's where we are transporting uh special ed students by car and we do not have enough car drivers or buses in remote locations and we have to contract out for that so both of those lines have had significant uh increases in those
138and so this request is to see us through to the end of the year on the contact on the contracted Services I'm working with the transportation department so hopefully we only have to work with that Outside Agency next year so I think we're going to be able to mitigate those costs in the future and even have some significant savings and eliminate that budget line item on the fuel we do need to go back just like with the maintenance department and as the executive staff is looking at the budget for next year we do need to re-look at those line items and we're in the process of doing that so to complete this year there is um from some of the same line items and instruction where we're coming in under budget my request is to
139move some of the fund from there over to the transportation to complete the year I'll be happy to answer any questions you may have questions for Mr Hagler okay thank you very much okay thank you okay moving on to the action items for this evening um 9.01 approval for the propane bid do I have a motion to approve the propane bid oh wait a minute this is the one that we have to waive the okay this has to be done be due to a time constraint um so do I have a motion to waive the rule to wait a month before we vote on and represent an item have a motion by Mr Hill do I have a second okay take above Miss Harrison any discussion all those in favor signify saying aye aye opposed
140okay that motion carries now do we have a motion for the approval I'm sorry excuse me are we doing did you all approve one year or two year for the there's a one year and a two-year bid it's the same price for both years just so I can let the vendor know which one you would like to proceed with excuse me if we were to approve the two-year and the prices drop or we locked into that two-year we're locked into the two-year price so we cannot renegotiate um that's my understanding is that we would we're locked into the contract with them it's a fairly favorable price right now a dollar and 17 cents currently rack price we're paying a dollar fifty one a gallon so what what do you think will be the best do
141you want us to vote on the one year or do you want us to confirmation on one year or two year it's whatever you all would like to do we do we the vendors have suggested that we offer uh two-year pricing and so we went ahead and solicited that and these are the prices that we got back it's totally up to you it provides budgetary control really so that the prices we know what we're going to be paying for fuel but Mr agler if you'd like to I'd just like to add um vendors had recommended this we have not done it this way before I think it's a very aggressive price so it may be something we want to consider to lock in it probably my recommendation we lock in for two years on this
142um just for for clarity anybody that's watching and stuff it's it's always been my premise that we're not in the position to really take risk in the market and we don't know where fuel prices are going this is really a budgetary control thing where we know that we have enough money budgeted into our maintenance department for this type of fuel and you can go to sleep at night not worrying about the price tripling um by locking at this lower price we just said it for two years and we know we wouldn't have exposure it would be my recommendation that we go and prove it to your lock-in price on this there's no guarantees the price doesn't drop below this but that's with anything on that typically our vendors and why this is sensitive our vendors
143typically as soon as it's they're locking in this price and they will go out have their own contracts for you know some of this fuel so that's why it's very sensitive and time sensitive uh to approving these so it's I'll defer to the board whether it's one or two years now Madam chair I make a motion that we approve the two-year bid for the 2023 propane bid analysis yeah I have a motion by Mr Hill to approve the two-year plan do I have a second second but Mr Daniels any discussion all those in favor signify by saying aye aye opposed motion passes thank you do I have a motion regarding the elementary Staffing standards the opportunities for questions if we do the motion I always call for a motion a second then discussion okay I
144don't have a motion make a motion hey have a motion by Ms Hairston for approval of the staff and Sanders okay do I have a second no no I thought we were going to be discussing this well we're gonna make emotions I completely retract what I just said okay well we discussed it we discussed it last month but yes so Madam chair what what I'm seeking so just for clarity what we're asking for a motion and a second and discussion and a vote on is that we determine the number of what this board will will provide direction for the administration what number is too many and how will we address when it is too many so we gave a number of options we do have a recommendation uh perhaps it would be helpful for you
145all if we provided more context about what our recommended number is and our recommended strategies and then after you've heard that information you could take a motion for accepting our recommendation as we're going to explain it tonight if that would be helpful it would be okay so as we've already established we did we've had a fair amount of discussion about this uh over the many different meetings over the year and a lengthy one at the last board meeting so this is a follow-up action item we are seeking your affirmation tonight of an elementary Staffing standard to provide direction for us on how we're going to address those large class sizes at the elementary level and we need this direction so that we can finalize our budget recommendations for next school year so based upon the
146action that in the direction that you'll provide tonight we will then meet with the budget and finance committee on Friday May 19 to present any modifications to the preliminary budget that you've already seen and then back to the full board on May 23rd for the special called budget work session but this information is critically important to us so you know are we going to need to hire additional staff or we're going to use other strategies so Dr Woodford is prepared to share what our recommendation is and what our strategies are and then perhaps we could take up a motion at that time Dr Woodford good evening members of the board at the April 6 board meeting I shared information about elementary class sizes within our current approved Staffing standards with options for the board to
147consider as we continue with budget development at the April meeting there were some questions regarding multi-age groups and I'm going to share a little bit more information about that tonight also as Dr Bergen stated at the end of the presentation I would ask that the board provided clear direction for the executive team to take regarding finalized Staffing standards or that really the interpretation of those standards to enable us to provide accurate costs for the budget work session scheduled for May the 23rd just as a reminder our current elementary Staffing standard is here on this slide one full-time teaching position for every 21 students and average daily membership in grades K3 one full-time teaching position for every 22 students and average daily membership in grades four and five and then the additional no multi-age classrooms and
148in the elementary school um if you'll notice that there is information in red at the bottom of this slide and it's based on prior discussions the board had in November 2022 regarding the ideal individual Elementary class size this discussion ended with a consensus that an aid would be added to any Elementary classroom that had more than 27 students last year or during this school year at that time the board was clear about their concern with having larger class sizes but recognized that we had coveted learning loss money for this year to assist with the additional staff members we added but that these positions would not continue into the 23-24 school year at the April board meeting I shared calculations for no more than 26 students in the classroom however when I reviewed some of that
149information with Dr Calvert from her presentation I realized she had based her calculations on 27 no more than 27. so I've adjusted those numbers in the next slide and I just wanted to be transparent about that so this is one of the the pieces that we would ask for clarification on tonight is the number of students per class that the board finds acceptable before we add any additional staff or use a different strategy um So based on the approved Staffing standard there will be impact to the draft budget presented and there may be some adjustment needed so we can finalize the budget last year I shared I mean sorry last month I shared three options that the board could consider to balance our school budget use the standards of quality from the state of Virginia
150to just determine staff allocations fund more teachers in the final budget or consider looking at policy jcd which is known transfer request information or revocation of Zone transfer request I've also added the reconsideration of multi-age groupings as this was briefly discussed at the last board meeting um so again our first option would be to look at soq funding levels and just as a reminder this is what we talked about last month our staffing standards are much more favorable than the state soq standards so by using the state soq maximums and classrooms some of our smaller schools would have larger class sizes at certain grade levels the soq standards are 24 to 1 in kindergarten with no class larger than 29 students the caveat to that is that we're required to add an aid once we
151exceed 24 students 24 to 1 in grades one two and three with no class being larger than 30 students and 25 to 1 in grades four through six with no class being larger than 35 students along with our staffing standard that we have approved um where we allocate our teachers we've always used these maximum numbers when looking at class sizes because when we have an average over the school we do have some classes that are larger so we either can go to these maximums using our staffing allotments or the other option is to fund more staff in our budget that we look at on May the 23rd so again the current Staffing standards are based on average daily membership so this formula is applied to projected enrollments to meet the changes to the standards at
152the last meeting and to keep all classrooms at or below 27 which again is a number taken from November discussions again that's the number I'm asking for you to give us guidance on tonight we would need to fund additional staff members in some of our schools and again after Dr Calvert and I re-looked at some of her presentation I readjusted these numbers so if your desire is to add additional staff if class sizes become larger than 27 if you were to add additional teachers we would need about nine teachers in these schools that are listed at total for a cost of about 684 000 if we were to add Staffing through the use of paraprofessionals the estimated cost of that would be two hundred and forty three thousand dollars and again that would be additional
153costs that we've not taken into account in our current budget draft that we gave you and then the final option that we discussed last month would be for the board to approve us using policy jcd as it's already written for Zone transfer request again as I shared in April we have a very flexible school zone transfer policy currently the board has closed three schools to Zone transfers because the capacity New London Academy Forest Elementary and Boonsboro Elementary based on policy jcd the board could also allow us to close the school to transfers based on constraints within the school such as overcrowded grade levels or an overcrowded classroom the policy then gives us the authority to revoke current Zone transfer requests if the factors necessitate um again the factor we would have to examine is that
154by accepting a transfer request in a school especially a small school a class size could go over 27 and would require additional Staffing and additional cost in a school and I gave you several examples last month but one that has we've talked about a lot and we've heard a lot about in public comment is that example of that first grade classroom At Otter River this year that everyone has been very concerned about because it had 27 students in it and looking closer at that zone transfer data five students in that class room were approved for Zone transfers that did not live in the otter River School Zone um so if we would have invoked policy jcd and we would have revoked those five Zone transfers we would have had a class of 22 students which
155is more acceptable I think to parents and to the board so that's an option um there's also been some board discussion about using multi-age groupings to address some of the class size issues that may occur note that I'm using the term multi-age groupings instead of a multi-age full classroom this is because we would consider grouping students into smaller groups throughout the day for subjects like math and reading but possibly larger groups for other content and resource times if you choose to allow principles and executive staff the flexibility to consider using multi-age groupings if needed we would only use it when absolutely necessary there is some varying research from the center for evaluation and education policy that looks at multiple research studies and basically there are advantages and disadvantages of having multi-age groupings you can address
156a variety of skill levels with students in different grade levels by having a multi um age grouping but they are typically on the same academic level so we would want to put students who are at a high reading level in one grade level with students at grade level at the next um and I have to say our elementary teachers already understand grouping and do a great job with that they group throughout the day for math and reading instruction to meet students at their academic level so this does provide for that there is some evidence and research that says that it does improve subgroup academic performance particularly students who are disadvantaged um there is evidence of student growth in Social verbal and problem solving skills because they are working with students at different maturity levels um
157so they are learning from students at different ages but in order for this to be successful and this is really clear in the research you have to have teacher buy-in and you have to offer really good professional development so that teachers are really trained in how to do this well and so I have found some some good professional development at the child care education education Institute and the learner accelerated group both of these organizations offer in-person and virtual courses if needed for teachers who would possibly be doing those groupings and also considering options for K through second grade or grades three through five rather than just two grade levels back to back and I think I shared last time I would really not think we would want to do it in kindergarten just because we
158don't really know the levels of our kindergartners coming in we we really know where our first second third and upgrade great students are one of the biggest disadvantages of multi-age and this is definite a constraint is that multi-age tenants are difficult to match to our graded School requirements so we have second grade textbooks we have second grade sols we have second grades high stakes testing and so for a teacher to have to combine and use multiple sols and make sure they teach them thoroughly that is a difficulty so I would say that we really would use multi-age groupings you know as a as a last resort um so I just want you to know that we do see the potential risk and we also see the potential positives of that um so tonight the executive
159team really needs two items from the board first what is the maximum number of students the board is comfortable with in an Elementary classroom before staff is added that staff might be paraprofessionals or teachers and then number two considering the options we've provided what are your priorities on how the executive staff should address class size issues that may occur and again I'm specifically talking about our smaller schools we see this more in our schools that are smaller because we just can't spread those resources out as much our staff the executive staff we have discussed this we discussed the options in detail as we've planned and looked at balancing our budget for next year so I'm going to just offer you some recommendations that we think might be helpful for maximum number of students that you
160would be comfortable with we do feel in grades one through five no higher than 27 students obviously with kindergarten we would add an aid so that's really a moot point at 25 students you could give consideration to K3 being no higher than 27 and grades four through five no higher than 30 just because older students may be able to handle that better I'm just giving you that thought our recommendation really has been no larger than 27 and then considering the options provided your priorities we feel like the first option revocation of Zone transfers may be the cleanest in the sense of we can get some of our class sizes down to where it would be acceptable for the board I am not talking about revocation of every Zone transfer in every Elementary School we're only
161talking specifically about in classrooms and schools where it's causing us to have to add additional staff and put more money into the budget so we would look very specifically at schools and grade levels um and then the second option really looking at larger student to teacher ratios that match soqs which has basically been what we've been doing we've said you know the soq says you can have up to 30 and we have kind of used that as our gauge and our Mark before the only reason that's different now is because of the board's concern about this in the fall that we we are kind of bringing it back to ask do you want us to use the soqs as our maximum guide or not third would be multi-age groupings and again multi-age groupings would only
162be when necessary if we were to use the other two options first and then last would be adding more money to the budget by adding staff so that would be our recommendations as an executive staff and I'm happy to answer or any of us are happy to answer any questions you might have I did send a Wednesday memo with some information about out transfers in and out some of the information we discussed last month that I thought maybe would be helpful you to for you to have to look at um I'd just like to make a comment um you're right the the um research out there is really not very clear a lot of it is prior to 2016 which makes it extremely old research um I think the board needs to really consider the
163fact that [Music] um when you're using research for any reason you want to make sure that the research you're using or relying on is similar to your division so you might look at a piece of research that has a very small sample size that really you can't really transfer you can't really [Music] um effectively say you can transfer the results of that to a division our size so we we would want to see I think evidence-based research which is a much higher standard than just research based because you're looking at the whole program and where it's working and as opposed to research base which could be just part of a program um you know I'd really want to know in the research what sort of limitations they had things that might have impacted the findings
164that they had so I looked at just scanned not read read several in depth but 61 um different pieces of research and and really what I found was that they really felt that it it wasn't including longitudinal studies that involved like 970 schools that the students didn't make as much as much gain as students who were in just regular classrooms so I just cautioned the board that I don't think we have research to support that this is going to work I might say it's not going to work but that it will work I also think that we have to be very careful because when you do multi-age group especially when you're including special education children the materials have to be under the law age and grade appropriate so if you have a special education child
165who's in third grade but then goes back to second grade those materials they shouldn't be using those materials because they're not age and graded appropriate to that child I I am concerned about children moving to other grade levels and it just depends you know how far would you move them or would you move them to grade levels or would it be you know would you take a fourth grader and put them in a sec with second grade students because that causes a whole bunch of emotional issues with children and I as a parent would definitely not want my second grader with a fourth grader for any reason for an extended period of time and vice versa so um I think we would really look in that primary one two three four five and you know
166separated you're right fourth and second graders probably aren't a good combination and not really working on the same skills either in reading math right although you could have a fourth grader reading on a second grade yeah we would have to be very very careful if we're going to do that so just a comment so how do you want us to go about this what's going to be the easiest way is the grades one through five no higher than 27 students that's what we have today so we're not adding anything to the budget correct um that is what we have built our budget on we haven't taken into account if we were we we put a hold on Zone transfers though until we get some direction because if you say no higher than 27 then we
167are going to specifically be looking to deny Zone transfer requests I just want to make sure there was no budget impact so Madam chair can I make a motion yes Michelle all right so I make a motion for the elementary Staffing standards that we take the recommendations of grades one through five no higher than 27 students and that we implement the revocation of Zone transfers and give that authority to the admin have a motion by Mr Hill do I have a second second second by Dr Mealy any any more discussion all those in favor signify by saying aye aye opposed motion carries moving on to 9.03 do I have a motion regarding the policy update Madam chair I make a motion that we approve the policy updates presented at the April 6 2023 board meeting
168motion by Mr Hill a second okay taken by Mr Nelms okay any discussion yes ma'am sorry you go first okay well whoever go ahead Miss Harrison any discussion here um Madam chairman um you know we have heard from so many many members of our community as well as our our teaching staff in particular um and the one area that um I am concerned about as it relates to the Sol's is that we have sols that certainly our teachers are obligated and which to teach and to carry out and those sols many of them certainly make mention of gender uh identity and so I understand clearly how the teachers feel if we don't make this clear for them and I don't think that the policy as it stands now the wording that is being used is
169truly clear for our teachers and so I would ask that the board remove INB at this time for further examination discussion and revision that we pull this out at this time and revisit it looking at those sols that certainly could be um a conflict confusing for our teachers to be able to deliver instruction and meet that particular Sol so that is my suggestion and recommendation that we pull in B out at this time so we have a motion and a second on the floor to approve all of them now you're asking to separate I and B yeah so I need to have the original motion withdrawn to be able to separate it and so that motion is not going to be withdrawn he's knuckle the motion was already on the floor okay um I wasn't
170here of course last month to a medical emergency so um I just like to make sure I understand um you know in the first page of that of INB we say that we're not going to discriminate I'm not going to read the whole thing but we say we're not going to discriminate um but yet we do that on the second page by saying that we can't talk about a person's gender identity or or or sexual orientation so um how do how do we come to help me understand who I guess the IGA group helped me understand how those two aren't in conflict I would say that the policy it states does not prohibit teachers from including in their instruction as part of a course of study utilizing the textbook and other instructional materials adopted in
171accordance with approved curriculum that includes the historical oppression of a particular group of people based on race ethnicity religion disability status or sex as well as based on class National nationality geographic region and or other differences so it doesn't prohibit that but in addition teachers shall not engage with discussions so with students about sexual orientation or gender identity sexual orientation is defined as an individual's physical romantic and or emotional attraction to people of the same and or different gender gender identity is defined as an individual's personal conception of their gender okay so does that mean and I'm not trying to be flipping or anything does that mean I literally can't talk about my husband because that in that sense you I'm identified as straight I'm sorry that's a straw man argument that is a straw
172man argument no I I get it but like there's we are smart enough to know and I think we're smart enough as a Community to understand that some people have a husband some people have a wife some people have a spouse you can talk about that what you can't do is talk about like if you went to dinner you don't talk about what you do after dinner and that's where I'm going to leave it that's not the discussion this is the discussions but okay they do have those discussions okay it's been talked about here tonight that they were matter of fact I'm I'm a little aggravated so I'm just going to get something well I have the floor excuse me okay I'll wait okay I had the floor um so um the second question I
173have is does this policy ensure that our classrooms are safe for all students and what I mean by that is are they safe for all students in the sense that if I am struggling with either gender gender identity or sexual orientation that no one can talk to me about this is that what this means those are for education in my opinion we don't need to be that is education so um in you know in some people's opinion it is so I'm so I'm but whether you consider it education or not the question stands does it ensure that our classrooms are safe and that you know if I am struggling with sexual orientation that I'm not allowed to talk to my counselor or my teachers to counselors or considered teachers about that it's a yes or
174no is he allowed to answer yeah okay Mr Daniels again we need to be totally focused on our children's education it is not fair to our teachers and our kids to put them in that position okay our job our only job is to focus on their success okay they're bombarded with this stuff on TV and on their phones all the time we don't need to be doing this stuff at school if they have questions and concerns that is their job of their parents okay full stop full stop that is the job of their parents we need to focus on the success of our kids five out of 11 people spoke tonight against this policy it's 45 that's pretty close to the uh 50 Mark that was talked about of kids that are passing or failing
1756th through eighth grade math sixth or eighth grade reading and just overall division data when it comes to science you would think that with the grades that we're having notwithstanding the effort that's going on with our teachers and our staff to try to pull these kids along that that would be what all 40 minutes would always be about and it's not it's because we're distracted with all the stuff if we stay focused we are going to pull these kids along and ensure their success there's a lot of difficult things that most teachers and a lot of people are not equipped to handle and I think that if we just focus on what our actual Mission and our actual task is we'd be better for it and I think that someone had said that we shouldn't
176even have to have a policy like this and I would agree but unfortunately we do need to have one because we are getting so distracted with a lot of noise and the signal is our kids are not being set up for success that's the only thing that this policy is trying to ensure okay well I'll give a question another question does anybody know what our liability is if an lgbtqia2 student is struggling and we fail to do due diligence to that student because we're we won't talk to that student and they can't talk at home as students here have already communicated to us so what is our liability if that child should commit suicide especially you know in school we he that child has no place to go it may and and you know I
177disagree with You Chris that you know we're so focused on this it's it's not a focus I mean you haven't been an administrator it's not a focus of of of a main focus of schools but when somebody comes in and says this is this is my human value this is where I am and we refuse to help them I just think that have we asked our attorney if that places Us in any legal Jeopardy whatsoever I'm sure you've probably already asked that question and we love all our students and we should do everything we can to help them but there's certain things that we should not be doing like I said that comes down to the to the parent and all our kids have value and all our kids should be should be loved and
178it should be a space that they should feel comfortable it doesn't mean that that is what we need to be talking about from a t from a teacher to a student's standpoint and I agree with you that okay that that's what should happen but in reality that doesn't always happen so my question still stands suppose that student that you're talking about you know we shouldn't be talking about this and that student commits suicide because because they did had no one to talk to have we in fact have we in fact done our due diligence to help those children we should love all students that's right whether they're lgbtqia2 or anything else I mean when we say we can't talk about your gender identity or your sexual orientation what we're saying is we don't value you
179do we have liability if that same student asks talks to a teacher and the teacher says the wrong thing and that student then commits suicide do we then have liability that would be a question we need to so if we advise them the wrong thing or are we then liable and if a student came to a teacher and said just in general I'm I I have a problem with myself and I feel like I'm gonna commit suicide what what do we do in that situation let's take gender out of it or sexual identity out of it what do we do in that situation well the things we do there would be different because that student not allowed to come and come and see thing the lgbtqia2 student is not allowed to come and say anything
180they could if they said that you just said about suicide like they felt this way and they were going to commit suicide so what would be what would we do in any situation like that well we would absolutely provide help but again the student knows the student knows because we now have a policy that I'm not allowed to talk about that so that student may not come to you you can you can and where they can go to have those discussions so so that so now they can talk about it by advising them they're not talking they're not going into detail I well that's not what this policy says and that's what I'm trying to to establish is that's not what it says okay okay let's reel it in let's reel it in okay do
181you have any other questions regarding this um I may just give me a minute um will um will teachers be able to to support students with mental health issues related to this or are they not allowed to talk about that as well so if the student has is lgbtqia2 do they have and they're having mental out Health struggles are they permitted to talk about that with their with anybody in the school I guess we should say let's slap another label on them for some other label how would we do it today whatever label you want to put on them so take that piece off and put another label how would it be handled what kind of label do you want to put on it I don't understand your labels you're the one that does labels
182so I'm asking you whatever label you put on it how do we handle it today any issue that they bring up how do we handle it today well it depends on what the issue is because this policy is saying that it depends on the label it well if if you want to say that lgbtqia is a is a label I said if you want to say that I'm saying that that that's fine all I'm I'm saying is we we profess to be non-discriminatory and we profess no we are descriptive excuse me we are discriminating against these group of people and and that's fine you can disagree um you know but and we are not pervading providing a safe environment again if I'm an lgbtqia2 student and people are stigmatizing me or they are excluding me
183shunning me the very definitions of bullying and I can't say anything because nobody can talk to me because why are they doing that well they're doing that because I'm gay and then we can't get into that I'm just trying to find out can we doing it in any situation discussion yes but not if you're gay they shouldn't be doing it in any situation if they're being bullied it doesn't matter the reason why they're being bullied The Bullying needs to stop right but I'm telling you it's it's they're doing it because I'm gay you don't that's so that's not a good reason that's not a good reason to do anything not good is it you're just basically saying it's so it's okay that they're bullying because then no I'm saying it's not okay that they're bullying
184but I'm coming to my counselor and saying they're bullying me because they're calling they're they're making fun of me because I'm gay she's now now not allowed to talk about we need to stop the bullying in that instance then so then they have to talk to students about being gay how do you how do you stop bullying him what am I doing well you're you're making fun of that child because they're gay oh you're not allowed to talk about being gay that's it you shouldn't make fun of the child at all you know when you conduct an investigation you have to understand why the child's doing it you just can't say they're making fun of me well what are they making fun of you for you know what are they saying um I just think
185the policy is completely unclear and it puts not only students in an unsafe situation I think it it puts a real burden on our teachers it violates um you know our ability to teach effectively some of the sols associated with it how does it affect teaching effectively based on approved curriculum how does it affect teaching because you're not able to analyze themes that relate to gender equality that's one and it's it again you go back to the discriminatory statement in number three discriminate against kids based on their gender if through this policy yes I do think you're you're doing that based on their gender identity testing your lesson on gender or sexual orientation you are you are I find yourselves in lessons where you're talking about gender equality and that if we're not allowed to
186talk about is it approved curriculum yes oh well then it's a proof curriculum I think the policy states that you're allowed to teach approved curriculum so then we'll be allowed to enter into discussion with the student about that because they have questions curriculum I would say it's in the policy but if it's personal and being said they want to go into how what they're doing and how no no it's not approved just but they can then talk about gender equality okay great so teachers I think it's clear that you okay that you can you can have discussions with students it's a pretty curriculum if it's within the curriculum you can have that discussion okay let's reel it in we have a motion and a second on the floor any further discussion I'd like for it
187to be restated again as to what um the policy is now going to read is no changes at all but that the teachers if it's within their curriculum to talk about gender identity then they're able to do that if that is a part of the Sol curriculum if it's is that correct proof curriculum approved curriculum absolutely which is an Sol I think we had a teacher earlier today that gave us an example of gender identity being a part wording being used in an Sol I just want that teacher and other teachers that I'm hearing from to understand that they can with this policy talk about gender identity as it relates to the Sol curriculum that they are teaching is that correct proved curriculum all right the Sol well our Sol curriculum is state approved I
188have no further comments and I hope the teachers understand that you certainly can because it's approved curriculum any more comments okay I would like to state that I understand the premise behind this and I don't disagree with that at all and I'm not exactly sure how we can word it however I'm not a fan of the wording of this um I think it's too stringent um and from hearing from everyone tonight I can see where the conflict is coming in and that should not be there um there's a song out there I really like Kid Rock saying it amen and I debate on whether or not I should say this bum will say it there is a line in the song that says our nation's race relations had me feeling guilty for being white well
189the way that this is worded and the way that is so stringent it almost makes me feel guilty for being heterosexual because I can't talk about it and I don't like it and I don't and because we weren't allowed to separate this one from the other one I don't like the idea of voting against all the other policies because this wasn't separated but I cannot vote for all the policies to be approved because of this one so with that being said all those in favor of approving the policy update signify by saying aye opposed no Ms Johnson we please pull the board Mr Daniels yes Ms Hairston Mr Hill yes Mrs Kirby no Dr mealy no Mr nouns there's a tie vote with three three Madam chair okay and according to the code of Virginia
190Section 22.1-75 procedure in a case of a tie vote in any case in which there is a top vote of the school board of any School Division when all the members are not present which Mr Holbrook is not here tonight the question shall be passed until the next meeting when it shall be again be voted upon even though all members are not present so would you please put this on next month's agenda thank you very much just clarify Madam chair you want it will have to be the all policies and moving on to item 10 superintendent's report Dr Bergen uh yes ma'am so let me just start uh I just think it's so appropriate as we sit here in Liberty High School's Auditorium to talk just a little bit about yesterday I think everyone here
191is well aware that we had an incident yesterday of concern where a couple of students use the school communication device to communicate inappropriately which in real time the the school administration and hearing that communication of concern couldn't make a determination in that moment in time if this was real or not and so the school went into an emergency lockdown a high level lockdown and uh police were called and there were dozens of police officers who responded within some within seconds or minutes um but what I really want to emphasize here tonight is how proud I am of the response of our students and our staff and our Administration particularly here within the high school I was I was with Mr Tucker throughout you know everything that happened after that 9-1-1 call in his calm demeanor
192and his um staying focused on tasks having command of the situation was just really really admirable the rest of the staff followed his lead the rest of his office staff and his administrative team he just had exceptional leadership on that day and the teachers here in Liberty High School had exceptional leadership on that day keeping the students calm and safe in their classrooms and reassuring them that it was going to be okay um and our Central support team did an outstanding outstanding work that day I just want to commend those that are here in the room and others that are not here in the room for their immediate response in support of Liberty High School and creating Communications for parents first and foremost well for the staff the students and the and the parents affected
193in this school and um huge shout out to our law enforcement partners for their for their immediate response and the thoroughness of how quickly they moved in the span of really an hour uh Not only was the building secure and everyone was accounted for and safe that happened within 10 or 15 minutes but within not very long after that the through the the thorough investigation that the sheriff and the staff undertook we were able to identify the two students that day and they can and they should be held accountable for for their actions and and that's now a matter for for the condos attorney um we're now focused on recovery from this and so we sent a communication to our parents last night all of our parents that when these things happen it's It's upsetting
194it's it's concerning for children they hear this gosh this could have happened right here in Bedford County and we've seen too many of these stories across the country so it obviously triggers uh concern and anxiety for for many we hope parents you know uh we were focused today on that for your children and for our staff as we ask you to you know you know your kids better than we do if you know your child is anxious just tell us call their teacher text them email them be in touch with their counselor any of our mental health supports or the administration and we'll make sure that your child is safe and comfortable being in school so I just thought it was appropriate that we take a minute to pause and thank the staff the students
195and the administration here at the school for their outstanding work yesterday and today we attendance was back kids were in school today was a normal day of learning but there will be residual facts and as kids are feeling anxiety at any time whether they're in this school or any of our schools please let us know so that we can assist all right with that uh stated I'd like to offer some some celebrations then as I typically do oh I think you're all aware and I think it's really appropriate that we start out that this is teacher appreciation week so we all know the critical role that teachers play in educating and shaving our students it is that Vision after all it is our vision BCPS it is our teachers who build citizens and promote success
196and I would think that everyone up here on the stage and everyone here in the room and everyone listening to this presentation can think of at least one teacher who is inspired or encouraged or motivated them to become the person that they are today and so I would just offered this personal challenge to all of you let that person know if you're a student or you're a parent or you're a Community member and you know someone has made a difference in your life or the life of your child or a child you know please let them know in this most appreciate this most appropriate time of teacher appreciation week um we're certainly going to do that whether you do or not so each day this week our school administrators have worked with their ptas and
197other Community Partners to honor and recognize the daily contributions of our teachers and we're grateful to each and every one of our teachers for their patience their passion their persistence and the profound impact they have in our students lives and of course it's not just the work of our teachers that make our schools a great place for our students we're also incredibly appreciative of the contributions of all of our staff including our support staff members so if you follow our Facebook page you'll know that each of our schools has identified a classified support member of the year to recognize their dedication and service to our students parents and community so please make a point to go to our social media channels and review those posts and we encourage you to leave your personal congratulatory comments
198there in our social media or reach out in your own way to those individuals to thank them for their contributions if I can just highlight as a matter of personal Pride I'm delighted to share that the central support team person that was selected by our Central support staff is sitting right here in the room with us tonight Diana Johnson our school board clerk has received recognition for the invaluable contributions she makes Not only to this school board but to all of our School Division thank you Diana for all that you do for us [Applause] and speaking of support staff at the end of last month on April 26 we celebrated national Administrative Professionals Day to recognize not only Diana but all of the outstanding administrative assistants and receptionists and other office support Professionals in our
199school division each day for these Administrative Professionals can vary from moment to moment and so we want to thank them for their flexibility and their organization and their patience as they assist with the public with parents with students and with staff on your next trip to a school would you please make a point to stop and let those folks in the front office know how much you appreciate them for helping to keep our schools running smoothly every day staying in that lane of support staff it was just last week on Friday May the 5th we celebrated our nutrition staff as part of national school lunch hero day between preparing those delicious food items adhering to nutrition standards and navigating student food allergies it's our nutrition staff certainly have a lot on their plate we offer
200our sincere thanks for all of their hard work commitment and service with a smile and it was a it was my privilege to be able to go out and greet several of our schools in the Food Service workers as well as Mr Hagler and other members our support team to let them know in our own personal way how much we appreciate them and then one more group of professionals who play an invaluable role in our schools is our nursing staff so yesterday we showed our appreciation during national school nurse day we thank our School nurses for their contributions every day to improving the safety and the Health and Welfare of our students they always stand ready to help every child bridging health care and education which is so critical for students academic success student academic
201success last Thursday on May the 4th in partnership with the Bedford County Office of Economic Development we held a really terrific Signing Day ceremony at Susie B Gibson to celebrate the accomplishments of students who are entering the workforce or joining the military upon their graduation there were a total of 15 students that we were able to recognize in the presence of their parents and future employers also in attendance delegate Wendell Walker made some very kind remarks there were several members of the school board as well as several members of the Board of Supervisors and many other community leaders up here on the screen this talented group of seniors has worked very hard over the past two years to earn their CTE certifications in a variety of fields including Auto Tech auto body and collision repair
202cosmetology culinary early childhood education teachers for tomorrow and JROTC congratulate each of these students and I just like to remind the board and the community as the remarks I made that day we're just so proud of the lead the leading role we play in this region and the focus that we have on work place and Workforce Development we're equally committed to to these students as we are to students whose path is to go to uh uh to college so we're all about College and Career readiness right on this next slide we're going to stay right there in that CTE Lane for a minute since we were last together at the last board meeting the skills USA State leadership competition was held in Virginia Beach and we had one of the largest group of students on
203anyone's memory from Bedford County Public Schools and students receiving their instruction at Susie B Gibson qualify for state competition so each of these students you see pictured on this slide finished in either first second or third place in their respective State competitions again these competitions included Building Maintenance Auto Tech carpentry and cosmetology congratulations also to our outstanding CTE teachers for their outstanding instruction and helping to prepare these students not only for this competition but for their future employment opportunities and speaking of employment opportunities it's our partnership with the office of Economic Development and local business partners that allows us to continue to offer Bedford one tours which as the acronym 1one States offer new experiences for students so that they can explore some different companies in and around Bedford County and consider if that might
204be a field they might be interested in pictured on this slide are students who participated in tours for hospitality and tourism that included a visit to the Mariners Landing Resort and Country Club and a utilities industry tour which included stops at the Bedford Regional Water Authority the town of Bedford electric department and a local solar farm High School juniors and seniors if you're interested in signing up for a future tour just simply speak to your career coach or to your school counseling all right Switching gears a bit but staying in the lane of recognizing our students we uh we recognize several in our earlier in our meeting students for their amazing contributions we wanted to make sure that we also included these talented artists that you see on this slide each year the University of
205Lynchburg sponsors an Invitational high school art show with entries from students from around the region this year's reception which was again held at the Dillard Fine Arts Center included a total of 48 pieces of Art and we're proud to share the Jefferson Forest High School student Elise Brady won first place for her pastel drawing and lovey Herzberg placed second for her graphite pencil drawing due to their Strong finish JS art program was recognized for the third time in the show's five-year existence as the top high school in the region for their art contributions congratulations to JF high school and to these individual students and their teachers congratulations to all the students pictured on this slide from Liberty High School and from Jefferson Forest High School for their achievements in the Virginia history day state contest
206that was recently held at the Virginia Museum of History and culture in Richmond we're pleased to share that these students will now advance to the National History Day contest which will take place this June at the University of Maryland you can find a full description of their projects and learn more about these students on our social media channels if you look hard you're going to see some really big smiles on the faces of of these students and staff members on this slide pictured here are student staff and parents who are in attendance at our annual big feet meet which was held on April 6 at Liberty High School this event which is sponsored by Special Olympics in partnership with our schools and Community features students with disabilities and their peers from all of our middle
207and high schools as they compete in a variety of track events special thanks to Our Community Partners including the Bedford County Sheriff's Office the town of Bedford Police Department the Virginia State Police and the Bedford County Fire Department for their personal attendance on this day and all their support of our students and staff during this amazing event as the board in the community are aware each month we're recognizing in partnership with the Bedford area Education Foundation two staff members through our bedford's best program so that we can recognize some of those unsung heroes who go above and beyond in making a difference in people's lives every day congratulations to the bedford's best recipients for April as pictured here on this slide Bedford primary schools Joni Overstreet and Forest Elementary Schools Tiffany Berg I had the
208pleasure of visiting their schools and surprising them with a gift of appreciation for all that they do once again Shameless plug if you know somebody who's deserving of this recognition please visit our website and click on the bedford's best link under District news and finally here are three things you need to know for this month first of all parents enter in progress reports were sent home with students yesterday on May 10th so please sit down with your kids and ask them to review with you how they are progressing in their coursework next per the actions of the school board at last month's meeting the final day of school has been adjusted for all students and has been moved up so we're just a couple of weeks away from that now final day of school will
209be on Friday May 26th and lastly graduation is going to be held that following day on Saturday May 27th again we're back to the Liberty University Vine Center the times are 9 30 in the morning for Jefferson Forest 1 30 in the afternoon for Liberty High School and five o'clock in the evening for Stanton River High School streaming services will be provided on our YouTube channel so if you're not able to attend in person please make sure you tune into our YouTube channel so you can celebrate the amazing success of our students on this very special graduation day and Mr Vice chair that concludes my remarks sir all right uh committee reports Ms Hairston [Music] so the facility committee hasn't did has not met um in the last month or so so another thing to
210report regarding the facility committee but I would like to report from the Laurel School we um the board met on May the 3rd and at that time we did approve the 2023-24 school budget with the possibility again that there may be some amendments that will need to be made the school administration team they're currently conducting interviews for some of the vacancies that they have for the 23-24 year and according to Dr Lewis everything's going well there she's pleased to report that she does have a a pretty good number of applicants to fill some of the positions there so that's always good news and then on May the 30th it's the Laurel School graduation it starts at six o'clock and we do have one graduate from Bedford County schools and I do plan to attend that
211graduation and welcome the presence of other board members if you're available to attend that's all that I have on the committee reports thank you Miss Harrison thank you thank you Mr Hill thanks Dr Milly uh yes um we had the finance committee there's really not a lot of news there because we still hadn't gotten numbers from the state uh when we had that meeting so we're going to have another work session on the 19th followed by the special call meeting on the 23rd so we should have more information about our budget at that point and the Roanoke Valley Governor's School had their senior night on Monday and it was just fantastic um I can't say enough about it they're so excited to be graduating they're just their their projects that they've worked on are just
212nothing short of brilliant I just look for really good things as those kids walked off the stage I just thought somebody has the cure for cancer in their head they're just outstanding individuals so it was a really nice night at the hotel and Dr Woodford was up to thank you Dr Neely Israel committee reports yes so IGA we did not have one for April I was not able to attend the gov school um due to some family obligations but what I was able to attend was the accelerate STEM Academy their senior recognition and awards banquet was Tuesday May 9th and so many students from Lynchburg City Appomattox Altavista um Bedford Amherst all around Campbell great group of students and I have to give a shout out to Chris Christopher Wiley Chris Wiley he's one of
213the soccer players over at Jefferson Forest High School but he was named stem student of the year so that was pretty awesome for him to be able to represent Bedford County so that's all for my committee reports thank you Mr Hill Mr Nelms CT committee we've met on April 20th and then of course you've seen the slideshow about the CTE Signing Day our next meeting will be May 18th and then I'll give you an update on what we have very much Mr Daniels okay well I generally tend to start the same in for comments Mr Daniels first off I'd like to say happy Mother's Day uh to all the mothers out there and the and the grandmothers um I don't think you ever get a day off as a as a mother or a grandmother
214and just want to let you know that we appreciate you that's for sure it's a it's a sometimes thankless job but it's one that well none of us would be here without so thank you to all the mothers a major thank you does go out to Bedford County Sheriff department or police department First Responders and teachers and staff here at Liberty High School for their professionalism and Swift response yesterday we have some really good people in our schools that have that were common kids down they were praying with kids offering comfort and calm it's a scary situation for sure and I know that parents were thinking um I know what they were thinking because I was thinking the same thing it was definitely scary I think ultimately what we saw yesterday is that decisions have
215consequences and that there is accountability but I also know that the citizens here in Bedford saw the best of what this County can be I think it's important to note that the physical safety of our kids and their education is truly what is most important that's the signal everything else is noise and distraction um April and May I I like to always make donations I like to say what they're going for I'll also say if anyone has any suggestions for June I'm all ears um but April we are going to recognize Susie G Gibson and their ROTC program and may we're going to also recognize the culinary program there in addition to that I'm always on the lookout for things I think could benefit our students so I'm going to be making a donation to
216every Elementary School I've got two books that we're going to donate the first one in keeping with our promotion of patriotism policy I'm going to donate red white and blue by Dr Ben Carson which speaks to the importance of our flag and why that matters and then I'm a bit of an entrepreneur and so I think that it's important for our kids to understand that they all have opportunities so the second book I think it talks to our kids about that anybody can start their own business and this is written by Damon John from Shark Tank little Damon learns to earn so I think that's a great book that our students would get a lot out of as Dwayne Dr Bergen had said um CTE signing day was just it was great it was a
217great event to be part of to see the pride and sense of accomplishment from our kids and to take what they learned and turned it into a career is just amazing um I attended two of our high school plays um in the last couple weeks and I'm going to tell you this our kids are truly talented and the singing and the acting was top-notch and they should they should all be applauded for that uh here at Liberty High School Mrs Cruz just an unbelievable job it's great to see that grandparents parents and children were completely entertained at the performance I was at of Mary Poppins and the Full House was singing along every step of the way it's great as a parent to be able to get out for about two and a half hours
218and just forget All the Troubles of the outside world um on a personal note I'd like to give a lot of props to the Jefferson Forest High School to Jefferson Forest High School and their sped team uh last week I had my son's IEP meeting and Mrs Perkins and Mr barless and the entire IEP team there is just amazing Mrs Jennings is not here but I just want to let her know that she should be extremely proud of their work I know we talked a lot earlier about special education and and some some great examples you've got a you've got a great team over there at JF my son would not be where he is today without them and I'm you know their head of the class that's that's for sure um as a parent
219of a child with special needs it's difficult to walk down that path they make it they make it easy I always talk about pulling people along and lifting people up and they do that there's such highs and lows when when you're a parent of a child with special knee there's days where you have victories there's days you have setbacks again there there with you every step of the way and I think as a parent I think it's important to know that you're not walking alone when you're walking down this path um and listen my son works his butt off but that's because they don't let him off easy and I think that's important too but so from my entire family from his grandparents to aunts and uncles and brothers and sisters from the bottom of
220our hearts just thank you and then thank you to the teachers and staff and everyone here that makes Bedford County Public Schools what they are enjoy your summer relax eat burgers and hot dogs and enjoy your families but we have much work to do I challenge all of you to think about it over the summer what can make us better how can we pull our kids along faster how can we lift others up how do we improve our students lives and their future even though it just started out like feeling like spring finally summer is coming I know some of our students are getting ready for college or to start their career some Juniors already have senioritis and some some of our kids are moving into high school or into Middle School for the first
221time over the summer just take time to enjoy I know you'll reflect on your school years as some of the best times of your life he learns ups and downs but the skills you learn from your family and school during these years can be a great asset for your future High School seniors I'll see you at graduation have a great summer thank you Mr Daniels Mr Nelms all right my turn I'm just going to kind of piggyback off of what he said Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers my wife mom um happy Mother's Day to everybody you all deserve it it's like he said it's a never-ending job mothers have a lot to do um I also want to say thank you to all the teachers staff and administration for not only this whole
222entire school year but for yesterday as well um without y'all we would not have had the situation we had yesterday y'all kept everyone nice and calm kept us informed and I really appreciate that from everybody um and then congratulations to the class of 2023. I can't wait to see you all um and then I just want to end with a little quote here prayer produces wisdom wisdom gives you strategy strategy produces Victory which brings joy to God Amen and God bless nilms Dr Maley uh yes I'm going to start with teacher appreciation week I want to thank you all of our teachers for their hard work your dedication your effort please know that we hear you when you're speaking to us and we stand by you I know that um I believe that you're you're
223very dedicated to the idea that all students no matter what deserve the best education a quality education because as Educators parents and stakeholders we know that the key to getting out of poverty is education and staying out of poverty poverty uh you give of yourself your emotions your money your beliefs to our students each and every day each day you are with your students you touch the future of America and I for one have hope for our future because of you never lose sight of the importance and value you bring to our country our students matter you matter and I'm grateful that each of you have decided to be a teacher thank you for your effort your dedication and for going above and beyond your contractual obligations to touch each student and make their future
224brighter take time everyone to thank all of our teachers very tenured teachers teachers with 20 or fewer years and all of our new teachers who are just beginning inside of each of you no matter how long you've been here is a great teacher a teacher of the year the future of our country in fact the world depends upon having great teachers who's touched the future every day keeps striving to be even better than you are your work your sacrifices do not go unnoticed and you inspire students in more ways than you know about yet because of each of you I'm optimistic about our future remember the words of Sandy Hook excuse me not Sandy Hook Sydney hook everyone who remembers his own education remembers teachers not methods and not techniques the teacher is the heart
225of the educational system or how about Krista McCullough who died in the Challenger explosion I touch the future I teach so thank you for that um I hope everyone also has a Happy Mother's day and a great summer I also want to thank the First Responders who showed up yesterday for all their work for the administrators and staff who helped yesterday be a lot better than maybe it could have been so thank you for all of your hard work there I also want to thank the sheriff's department Deputy for being here and someone always being here for us thank you so much for being willing to to stand there through very long meetings um Dr Bergen are we now still accepting donations to the library again for books because I thought we had stopped that
226so I have several if they if we're allowed to donate I thought there were some donations that people kind of got right so Dr Woodford we we've had ongoing conversations so help help me recall we do have policies and procedures and regulations in place and we've been working with our library media Specialists to make sure that how do we deal with donations from wherever those are from right so I was just wondering where we are with that like we've done prior to that I mean we like can anybody donate books now because I thought we had kind of put a so built on that the way the Librarians have always handled it and they are currently writing an updated library and handbook they evaluate every donation um and just as they choose books when they
227order they'll run them through the same you know criteria and if parents can go back to donating books they okay gotcha I just want to make sure sure there thank you um also I just want to you know this is something else that I just would like the board to consider they don't have to make a decision tonight but um you know we talked about a code of conduct for our school board members and we've said well that was in bylaws and I looked at our bylaws versus the vsba code of conduct we don't have to use that one we can write our own uh as a matter of fact I'm just but those are the two documents that we commented on and um the bylaws talk about meetings not voting in secret copies of
228agenda materials provided to members closed meeting dates of all regular meetings public participation at school board meetings the minutes you get the idea where the code of conduct talks about integrity coming to board the board meetings being informed making decision based on available facts expressions of opinion open two-way conversation uh training from personal and partisan gain confidentiality of of information improved and enhanced teaching and learning experiences for all students advocating for students to improve public education so I just think there there are only two things that kind of matched or could be associated with the bylaws that was the scheduled board meetings and referring communication board policies things like that to the superintendent so I would like us just to consider whether we can write our own we do ask everyone else to operate under
229a code of conduct so I think it would be great if we could also do that for ourselves so if the other board members would just give that some consideration I think I want everybody to have a great summer I hope you go do something really fun I plan on doing that I also want to just say one more thing about the Liberty High School incident um I got several emails and postings on Facebook that parents felt like they weren't informed fast enough I can I've been involved with several of those kinds of issues as a principal it is frightening to say the least so I can't imagine a parent hearing that and having to you know worry about their child and what's going on but please know that when something like that happens we
230have critical instant plans those kick in everyone in the school has a job and our first priority is your child the first thing you do is make sure that every child is accounted for by sight not just by accounting and that you are doing everything you can to keep that child safe so that's that's the first thing that you do and really the first thing you focus on and things move are very very fluid they move very fast and when a first responder shows up and they come in hordes uh you you know the situation gets turned over to them so to get information to you quickly is really difficult um but the first priority should be the Safety and Security of the students I know when when I was taught to taking flying lessons
231and and my instructors I had three different instructors and the one thing they do among many things they drove into my I had was if you have an emergency you fly the plane fly the plane don't worry about navigating don't worry about communicating fly the plane and this is the same thing we have to really make sure that the Safety and Security of the students is Paramount so we may or may not be able to get a message out as quickly as you would like to have one I would caution you to be very careful about texts that are coming from your children or other people because they don't have all the information either you know when your First Responders come investigations get conducted I know parents have complained we really didn't get a lot
232of information that's right because we really don't want to give you information that's incorrect so I know this sounds ridiculous but patience in in receiving that information is going to be needed because what we're all focused on are your kids and making sure every child is safe so just try to keep in mind we're doing the best we can but it's really hard if you've ever been in that situation it's it's just ridiculously hard thank you madam chairman Miss Harrison thank you madam chairman I'd like to Echo many of the same things that the other board members have shared with us tonight but first off I just want to give honor to our teachers and just say to them that I sincerely sincerely appreciate all of your efforts all of your hard work your dedication
233your service to our students and I certainly commend you for your hard work and just a happy Teacher Appreciation Week I had the opportunity to join a pick Island Elementary School staff for a luncheon a teacher appreciation lunch and it of course was a joint effort by the school administration as well as the Bedford County Sheriff's Office boy did they lay out a spread for the teachers and and staff there and and surf Mike Miller too was there cooking and showing a lot of his cooking skills and so we all just had a lot of fun and enjoyed ourselves and appreciation of our our teachers and the staff there and so I I hope all of the teachers have felt appreciated and honored also I want to publicly give thanks to God for his Divine
234protection over our students and our staff at Liberty High School and also Liberty Middle School you know while the students were not in any imminent danger um the emotional ordeal of such an incident was very difficult for everyone everyone in the community I just want to thank um the staff at Liberty High School Liberty Middle School the administration our law enforcement agencies the First Responders for their Swift action I cannot say that I don't know what the parents were feeling because honestly I didn't um I've been in those shoes as an administrator as a parent to receive a call or to have to put a school in lockdown it's devastating but to the teachers and our staff in our community and our parents you can be assured that our staff paid close attention and gave
235their all in all to make sure that your your children were safe and that everyone was protected and so I'm I'm just so appreciative for everyone's efforts um I also attended the Mary Poppins performance here at Liberty High School and it was just really awesome we have some really talented talented individuals and students that's for sure I've debated about mentioning this but it just won't go away internally right now and so I have to say this um I know that each of us here on this board are very passionate individuals there's no question of that that we're very very passionate in our beliefs and and our goals and the direction that we believe our division should go towards but I think even in that level of being passionate it's very important that we also demonstrate
236what we teach our students over and over again a level of respect for each other a level of kindness for each other just a level of consideration for a difference of opinions I would ask that our fellow board members and even including myself I happen to be a PK kid believe it or not my dad was a pastor and so he would often say you need to if you're going to be critical of someone then you need to be aware and mindful that while you're pointing that finger at someone you have several others pointing back at you and so I want to say to the fellow board members tonight I was very very distraught and very very bothered by the action in the comments that were shown to a fellow board member we each have
237a right to express our opinions to make requests whether we like it or not that is our right and to say to a fellow board member that out loud that you should be charged for something that is within her right to request I'm going to leave and ask that the board do this because I know that we all are very passionate and I believe that each of us have a level of faith and belief but I would ask that each of you including myself that over the weekend and over some time that you take out your Bible and that you read proverbs 16 1 through 32. that's all that I have to say thank you madam chairman thank you Miss Harrison Mr Hill interesting um you know comments made around IMB IMB tonight confirm for
238me that it is the right policy and it's written perfectly sometimes you have to say what you mean and mean what you say I don't apologize for that I never have and I never will don't ask questions if you don't want answers um thank you to teachers nurses we celebrated you this week our staff team thank you for what you do I'll Echo happy Mother's Day and I want to say congratulations to the graduates class of 2023. I am done my baby girl graduates um I have uh successfully raised four beautiful adults who have attended Bedford County Public Schools we relocated here back in 2009 and we started at Boonsboro Elementary and made it over to Forest Middle School Jefferson Forest High School and Central Virginia Community College through the early college program all four
239and so uh Bedford County has been very good to me and my family and I feel that my children have received a solid education and education I took care of the things that needed to be taken care of at home as their parent so again I want to say congratulations to the class of 2023. I will be at the Jefferson Forest graduation I will not be able to attend Liberty or Stanton River but please know that I congratulate you and I'm excited for you we'll be celebrating with Bella I do encourage this board as many as possible to be present at those graduation ceremonies you you definitely if you haven't attended you're missing out but please make sure you put all efforts to get there it's definitely a celebration for our students um yeah I'll
240reserve it I'm good thank you well last but not least bad part is unfortunately a lot of this is going to be a repeat and I'm sorry but here we go I'm going to expand my monthly plug for bus drivers and I'm going to include substitute teachers we're almost at the end of the school year perfect time over the summer to get ready to get going and start us off next year so if you can help in any way please come out and help I know this week has been Teacher Appreciation Week recently his principal recognition School nutrition worker and nurse appreciation so if I have a problem with designating a day or a week to show your appreciation the services all of our employees provide are invaluable and vital to for a lack of
241better word keep the ship running smoothly BCPS keep Happy Teacher Appreciation week but to all employees of BCPS please know I appreciate you each and every day all year round okay this one isn't a repeat a lot of other things I've got to say are repeats but this one is not a repeat big news lieutenant governor Winsome Sears is coming to Bedford for Washington Street Baptist Church anniversary of anniversary celebration and will also be involved in a whole host of activities on Saturday May 27th through Memorial Day board members please mark your calendars for Sunday May the 28th beginning around 10 30 10 45 to hear Lieutenant Governors here speak at Washington Street Baptist Church I've been told we will have a designated seating area for all of us to sit together as a board
242we'll be recognized during the service after the service lunch will be provided by Bedford Professional Women's Club and then after that we'll go over to Susie Gibson from three to five and lieutenant governor Sears will go on a tour of Susie Gibson's signs and Technology Center and councilman Bob Carson will lead that tour then immediately following the tour the lieutenant governor will have a meet and greet with local students in the auditorium of Susie Gibson I've already asked Dr Bergen to reach out to our three middle schools and high schools to recruit students to participate and this is a wonderful wonderful opportunity for them so again please mark your calendars make arrangements to be there and is that that's not big enough Market calendars for the day before because we've got graduation um I'll be
243there early on and be there all day um and following what Mr Hill said congratulations to the class of 2023 best of luck on all your future endeavors and keep doing great things [Music] I heard Dr Maley and and Miss Harrison make reference to you can't imagine what it's like to be a parent during the events of yesterday I can tell you um it was a terrifying day for our students faculty staff and parents here at Liberty and across the way over at Liberty Middle School as you know LHS LHS was on heavy lockdown to an unsubstantiated threat being reported Liberty Middle is also placed on lockdown due to the proximity of the school as a parent as one of the most terrifying things you can hear you feel helpless not being able to be
244there to protect your children reality hits that something horrific like columbine Sandy Hook or Uvalde could happen here unfortunately Bedford is not immune needless to say I hug my children a little bit tighter last night and I thank the good Lord for his protection over our kids I'll like to sincerely thank Bedford County Sheriff's Office for their prompt and thorough response thank you to our sros principals staff everyone who are already there working hard to do their best to ensure the protection of our kids but I also would like to thank my fellow board members we have made it a priority this year especially since Uvalde to ensure the safety of our kids and we have done the most we can to push it and I really want to thank you in one instance or
245I've said it before I'll keep on saying that our kids are our most valuable commodity and in one instance everything can change don't take a moment for granted and last but not least happy Mother's day and happy Memorial Day to everyone as we enjoy the start of summer and the cookouts please take a moment to remember the fallen soldiers who have lost their lives defending our country freedom is never free with that being said do I have a motion to adjourn Mr Daniels I have a motion for Mr Daniels to have a second second by Dr Maley any discussion all those in favor signify by saying aye aye opposed motion carries and we are adjourned hanky