School Board Meeting - 4/6/2023 - 5:00 PM

001foreign good evening everybody I'd like to call this regular meeting of the Bedford County school board for April 6 2023 to order Ms Johnson will you please re-roll Mrs Kirby here Mr Hill here Mr Daniels here Mrs Hairston here Mr Holbrook here Dr Mealy Mr Nelms here Madam chair you have a quorum thank you ma'am and Dr mealy has advised me that she does have a family situation she cannot be here this evening do I have a motion to approve the agenda I have a motion by Mr nilms to have a second second second by Mr Hill any discussion all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed the agenda is approved do I have a motion to go into closed session Madam chair make a motion that we go pursuant Dakota Virginia we

002go into closed session pursuant Dakota Virginia 2.2-3711a13-1 to discuss the assignment appointment performance disciplining and release of contract for specific School Board employees including the evaluation of the superintendent as provided in his contract of employment three for the discussion or consideration of the acquisition of real property for public purpose or 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 okay I have a motion about Mr Hill do I have a second second by Mr Daniels any discussion all those in favor signify by saying aye aye we opposed we're in closed session foreign [Music] voice activated you don't have a motion to come at a closed session don't move I have a motion about Mr nelm still have a

003second second second by Miss Hairston any discussion all those in favor signify by saying aye aye opposed or out of closed session Ms Johnson will you please certify the meeting where's the Bedford County school board has convened a closed meeting on this date pursuant to an affirmative recorded vote and in accordance with the provisions of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act and where section 2.2-3712d 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 exempt it from open meeting requirements by Virginia law were discussed in the closed meeting to which this certification applies and only such

004public business matters as were identified in the motion convening the closed meeting will heard discussed or considered yes yes yes yes yes yes moving on to staff reports item 3.01 Central Virginia computers science integration team update Dr Bergen yes ma'am so tonight board members you're going to hear from Allison kapler our supervisor for science and computer science and Allison went out secured a grant to help us improve upon the computer science instruction offerings professional development for our teachers that translates to more computer science instruction for our kids we're just so proud of her leadership not just here in the division but across region 2000 because this grant not only benefits Bedford County but all of the region 2000 School Division so we wanted you to have a deeper dive as to what the grant provided

005and and how we're able to expand upon computer science instruction Allison good evening the first goal of the strategically just introducing that's all it's mostly all different uh just to set the stage for what we're doing it this first goal of our strategic framework is to hold High academic expectations for our students and two of our stated core values are focused on students and collaborate with staff families in the community to support learning so an outcome of these high academic expectations is post-secondary success for our students and we believe that post-secondary success is demonstrated when students or college career and are life ready so Bedford County students who are college career and life ready we hope will be critical and creative thinkers we'll collaborate with others and ultimately become productive citizens in their community so

006one way that Bedford County develops these skills is through advancing computer science Knowledge and Skills in K-8 classrooms so we're here to talk about a regional opportunity that supports goal one and encompasses both of the stated core values so Miss Allison Kepler again who is our supervisor of Science and Computer Sciences the grant writer and Regional leader for this opportunity and she's going to provide the update for you this evening good evening I'm here tonight to share information informational updates about the vdoe axi advancing computer science education grant that we received in December 2022. in September we received a memo from the state superintendent announcing available funds to promote the advancement of Computer Science Education for all students and support the high demands of the Commonwealth's Workforce there's a high demand for computer scientists across

007the country specifically in Virginia there are currently over 25 000 open jobs in specific computer science Fields such as software development web development security analysts computer Engineers Etc but Virginia produces fewer than 3 000 computer science graduates each year because of these statistics in 2017 Virginia was one of the first states to adopt computer science standards for grades K-12 computer science is not something that was studied in higher education for majority of our K-12 teachers so training and resources are needed in order to integrate computer science Concepts effectively I shared ideas with Dr Trosper and Dr Woodford code Virginia and some contacts in neighboring School divisions and was able to submit a proposal in October after receiving word that the axi grant proposal was fully funded for 174 thousand dollars in December 2022 the CV

008CSI team was born the cvcsi TEAM stands for Central Virginia computer science integration team it's a regional partnership including five School divisions with our within our Central Virginia region Bedford County Lynchburg City Campbell County Amherst County and Appomattox County as well as code VA our non-profit partner the goals of this project are to provide a team of teachers integrated training on computer science Concepts to share and develop strategies for integrating CS into con all content areas which is the focus of the vdoe K-8 CS standards as well as to create accessible easy to follow ready-to-use integrated lesson plans to be utilized in all five districts as well as throughout the state 95 of the total 174 000 awarded funds are being used for Teacher stipends to complete computer science training modules and to create the

009integrated lesson plans and the other five percent of the funding is used to pay our partner code VA for providing targeted training for our team members the cvcsi team members were selected by their division liaison through an application process each division was given a certain number of team member spots proportionate to the division student enrollment numbers there are 68 total team members 19 of them from Bedford County grades K through 8 with representation from all three of our zones and include classroom teachers instructional technology coaches instructional Specialists instructional coaches library media Specialists and gifted education teachers each district also identified one project coordinator who serves as the main line of communication between myself and each division team as well as to provide input on teacher needs and provide feedback feedback to each teacher within their

010District on their individual lesson plans I serve as the regional project coordinator to see the project through to completion while providing guidance to all team members so far teachers have completed two training modules launching computer science and computer science integration through code VA with feedback from their facilitators they've attended a one-day in-person training a curriculum writing Workshop that was led by code VA curriculum Specialists and myself they've written three integrated lesson plans for their assigned grade level and subject and they've also attended an evening virtual check-in meeting for more collaboration feedback and targeted training led by District project coordinators and myself between now and mid-june each team member will create three more integrated lesson plans and be given feedback as well as attend a three-day in-person training led by code VA called computer science coaching

011which will Empower our team members to go back into their respective divisions and schools and be computer science leaders by sharing modeling and encouraging others to use our developed plans and other resources in order to provide all of our students in Central Virginia with computer science experience beginning in kindergarten our teachers have expressed the value they found in collaborating with others across our region and many have even found teaching friends that they can call on and work with for other needs outside of computer science integration through this experience I'm so excited for this partnership to continue to grow and flourish and thankful for our enthusiastic teachers who have asked to be a part of this experience so that all of our students have access to computer science at this time I'll take any questions Harrison

012you um my question is regarding let's see your classroom teacher um Representatives I'm just curious in terms of the representation of our classroom teachers across our division so do we have a certain number of of teachers from our Stanton River Zone from our Liberty Zone and so I'm not sure how many I would need to go back at my lit and look at my list to see how many actual classroom teachers from each Zone off the top of my head I know that there's at least three classroom teachers from each Zone and then our other we have gifted resource teacher ITC who they're kind of shared between different schools so of those teachers are re-representing elementary middle and high school elementary and middle it's just kindergarten through eighth grade at this time okay wonderful all

013right um I'd be curious if you at some point could just maybe give me that information I'd like to know okay thank you and wonderful presentation this is exciting questions okay uh Miss Kepler so great presentation and and great job going and getting the funds to make this happen um question what results are we expecting from this so based on what we're doing what are the results we're hoping to see in these K-8 grades so so the results would be giving each student experiences throughout the year tied into their core content areas so we have lesson plans being written for English math science and social studies and then along with some other that are just computer science kind of Standalone lessons that would be done maybe in by library media specialists but the outcome that

014we would see is that our students you know as young as kindergarten would begin getting these experiences and then as a result our electives in middle schools and high schools would grow hopefully our computer science elective numbers okay which is great and so and you guys may not have figured this out but as far as the measuring of success I'll be interested to know what you come up with and again I'm not trying to put you on the spot but that is something I'm going to be looking for or asking for and then to encourage you to come back to us frequently and say hey remember this grant remember what we did these are the results that we're getting and that way you know this was grant money are we seeing positive results of things

015that you can then bring to us for future budget reviews to say this is working let's go do eggs so just an encouragement not trying to put you on the spot but but thank you for bringing it anything else Kepler thank you very much okay 3.02 Community Partnerships through student support Dr Vernon yes ma'am so we just uh had a nice update on some of our ongoing work relative to goal one of the Strategic plan we're going to switch gears and Beth is joining us Mrs Robinson is going to be sharing more about one of our Focus areas and our fourth goal of our strategic plan which you might recall is further developing mutually supportive Partnerships with families and Community organizations to enhance our student well-being and so Mrs Robertson in that vein will be

016sharing some information about a wide range of services that are available to support our students good evening Beth Bergen and good evening Madam chairperson and members of the board as Dr Bergen shared we're highlighting programs and Community Partnerships that have been at work this year in support of students in Bedford County Public Schools and their families as you know great things happen when you have teamwork and we've seen the benefit of really really use utilizing Our Community Partners to continually expand our Resource Network this is work we can't accomplish alone so we're very fortunate to have partners that are willing to join us in this journey I'll first begin to highlight some of the mental health Partnerships and programs that we are are pleased to partner first and foremost as you know the work of

017our mental health support team members are critical for Student Success but the work of addressing mental health needs is not achieved by School staff alone we are very fortunate to have developed Partnerships with Community agencies to provide supplemental services to our families and students first I'll mention that we have developed a relationship with national Counseling group for the provision of therapeutic day treatment services and six applying schools Bedford primary Bedford Elementary Liberty High School Stanton River Middle School Stewartsville Elementary and Goodview Elementary any school May apply with national Counseling group for the provision of therapeutic day Treatment Services although to be a recipient of those in-school Services there must be a sufficient pool of eligible candidates and eligible candidates meaning Medicaid eligible candidates for services our goal this year was to bring a consistent provider

018previously we had had multiple service agencies providing therapeutic day treatment services so in partnering with national Counseling group we have a consistent provider which has allowed us to really streamline communication and make sure that we are adhering to partnership agreements across School sites just as a information piece for members of the board therapeutic day treatment services are provided for students who may require specialized Mental Health Services in order to prevent a more restrictive service and generally each provider will have a caseload of three to four students maybe more depending on the site and needs and they provide daily check-ins and individual counseling sessions for students I'm also pleased that National Counseling Group our partner has a Cadre of training professionals so that any school can explore their professional training library and invite guest speakers on

019specific topics in fact we offered a training this year for mental health support team members and motivational interviewing through National Counseling Group I'm especially excited to talk about care portal um we've partnered with Patrick Henry Family Services to become one of the first school systems in our region to be a care portal requester care portal is a national network but it is organized to our local community so when we are talking about care portal it is within Bedford County users but care portal serves as a conduit for family support the platform allows right now Our Youth and Family specialists in the school to vet cases for families that can have any variety of primary care and basic needs they then partner with that family to identify what those specific needs are and they are going

020to post those to the care portal site the care portal site is anonymous it is information about a need but the beauty of care portal is that by posting through that site local faith-based or Community organizations can say we want to sponsor that need and then with consent from the family at every step of the way a relationship is made between the family and that provider organization and the goal is to really reduce the transactional nature of many social services so that you are building a relationship with a family and a neighborhood support team member whether that be through a faith-based organization or Community organization as I said the goal is building those natural connections to your neighborhood and Bedford County Public Schools my note said 21 but as of two days ago we've had

02122 children and their families supported with services that have included General financial assistance well and plumbing repairs clothing utility assistance beds mattresses and groceries we're also pleased that Central Health and Horizon Behavioral Health have agreed to partner with us to provide another virtual screening for parents and in-person screening for students with the movie entitled screen agers the next chapter some of you may remember a few years ago Horizon organized the initial film screening with all middle school students and hosted parent events at the school that film focused on the impact of Youth exposed to high levels of media and gaming technology including social media this follow-up event in this follow-up film is anticipated for May and will emphasize how schools and families can best support our youth in building the necessary skills for stress resilience

022in a digital age our senior leadership team have previewed the film and parents will have an opportunity to view in advance of the participation uh in in the school day and will can plan with the school for their child's participation Horizon Behavioral Health is also an excellent partner in the provision of outpatient services and case management for our students in secondary schools in the Stanton River and Liberty zones that does not intentionally exclude the Jefferson Forest Zone they had a change in Staffing I just received information today that they believe they've got that Staffing need filled so that will be resuming Horizon also obtained additional grant funding for an elementary Expansion Project with Bedford County and we currently provide outpatient and Case Management Services through Horizon to students at Bedford primary Bedford Elementary and Montvale

023and we anticipate the number of elementary schools to grow these embedded Services allow students to access their Community Resources without missing much instructional time or without parents having to transport and take time away from work while the secondary programs are dedicated to Medicaid eligible students the elementary expansion Grant is based on referral need and open to children in both public and private insurance programs Horizon also partnered with Bedford County to sponsor one in person and two virtual participants to the National attachment and Trauma Network Conference in Houston this year this conference provides exceptional opportunities for our staff to learn more about how to effectively intervene and strengthen programs for students impacted by trauma and it's the third year we've had benefit of such partnership with Horizon in previous year years Liberty Middle and Stanton River

024Middle have participated and we've had two Elementary counselors from Big Island and Otter River participate this year finally with regards to our partnership with Horizon I was very pleased that Horizon and Bedford Town Police provided an excellent demonstration for parents with hidden and plain sight recently this event provided parents with an overview of current drug Trends and guidance on how to be aware of potential drug use behaviors in adolescents parents were provided guidance on popular concealment apps on phones social media risks mental health trends the presenters also provided informational resources including medical disposal and lot kits and if weapons locks and if requested training and provision of Narcan Administration Bedford has also had the benefit of some terrific programs dedicated to Health Services I'd like to start by highlighting that this school year Bedford County

025Public Schools took advantage of a partnership through Virginia Department of Education to utilize Connexus as a third party provider for the mandatory vision screening in grades K3 7 and 10. prior to this Bedford County had used very traditional vision and hearing screening methodologies I will highlight that this partnership came at no cost to the division but Connexus does provide an exciting step forward in vision screening by utilizing a portable digital screener this advanced technology allows the screening to evaluate a wider range of vision needs including near far intermediate Vision astigmatism eye muscle function unequal Vision power eye misalignment I structure problems things that I do not understand but the technology provides a digital image to each family an individual student printout for each student which will allow a family to more easily communicate any detected

026defects in a follow-up evaluation we had 2 388 students screened with 723 detected concerns and recommended referrals the efficiency and effectiveness of this screening LED our team to think about our practices and we wanted one for ourselves we are thrilled to announce that the Bedford Community Health Foundation stepped up with this and we have purchased a digital screening device for use exclusively for Bedford County Public Schools which would allow us to always provide digital screening one day at it in one day at a school it takes a mere matter of seconds per child and will increase the quality and efficiency of our vision hearing procedures moving forward we've also been excited and you may have seen the big RV in front of some of our elementary schools Johnson Health Center has resumed mobile dental clinics

027at our elementary schools it is a fully functioning dental clinic which offers preventative exams cleaning and even panoramic x-rays for students six and up students with public or private insurance could participate as long as there was not a visit six months preceding the date of the clinic those families who were uninsured were provided financial assistance to participate again with the help of the Bedford Community Health Foundation these mobile dental clinics are of critical value it's estimated that only about 30 percent of clinics in Virginia accept Medicaid so for families on public insurance this is an important offering we've had about 400 students sign up they are generally conducted on Wednesdays and will be running throughout the remainder of the school year Johnson Health Center does facilitate family support for additional referrals if needed and I

028want to say I I thank Mrs Kelly Thomas our supervisor for health services and our school nurse team for coordinating these activities on campus sites I'm also very pleased to share news of a grant following up to Allison's information we've applied for a Workforce Development Grant this school year and we applied last year and it was awarded this year we are awarded 108 960 dollars this grant was specifically organized to provide for the growth and expansion of the school nursing Workforce that was the intent of the goal so as such we've been able to fund State conferences for the fall and spring events with the Virginia Association of School nurses at no cost to the division we've also been able to provide the most current resource texts for the school nursing clinics at each School

029we've allocated eligible funds towards Recruitment and Retention with signing Awards and retention bonuses but the one thing that I was especially excited about and the reason for the photos on the screen is interestingly the grant allowed for one specific equipment purchase and that was AED devices and prior to the amazing and life-saving event at Jefferson Forest High School we had already purchased 20 additional AED devices to be placed out in our schools along with wall mount alarmed cabinets and our goal in that Expansion Project was to ensure that we have consistent AED placement storage and signage but also recognizing that aeds do require maintained upkeep you have to replace those pads regularly so we want to make sure we don't expand our inventory more than we can maintain with supplemental supplies and finally I will

030just add that our school nurse team and as well as our school psychologist team supports Medicaid billing for special education eligible students we are always looking to ensure that we identify Revenue opportunities and we are even more excited to move forward with those greater Revenue opportunities when the expansion of free cares would expand Medicaid billing to any eligible student for both physical and behavioral health needs so I appreciate your time this evening to highlight those Partnerships with our Community Partners and agencies and share the benefits to our students and be happy to answer any questions you might have foreign yeah yeah okay um so Beth thank you for putting this together uh I appreciate the time you've taken and this is lots of good opportunities for our students a couple questions around the Partnerships I

031know you mentioned National Counseling Group you mentioned Horizon I didn't catch the name of the group that we got a Bedford digital equipment donated but in saying all of that I know you mentioned some of the cost was around grants but my question are we required to do anything in return so for example what are the strings attached are we selling data back to these companies no okay um so with national Counseling group and Horizon they complete their own intake we we initiate referrals for eligible students they complete their own intake and they make a determination of eligibility for Medicaid eligible or Insurance eligible clients so they they are the communicating agency with the family on any billing we are so if if they treat or have access to our student then they are getting

032that data but it's based on the fact that they're treating that student is that right yes okay but we are not giving data outside of our students that are working directly with them so they don't have access to student data like PowerSchool accessor that no sir okay all right um as far as I know you said some of these were donated or Partnerships are there cost to us for these Partnerships at this time that the costs are not Financial costs for example having a therapeutic day treatment provider in a school will cost a dedicated space you know that's that's one of the agreements they have is that they have a private meeting space it um the same is true for um The Horizon staff they they have dedicated space but there is no cost to

033us for the provision of those facilities I it's time staff time to coordinate on those days that we have dental clinics we we have different staff supporting those events but no Financial costs okay and it's available to all students which I just want to clarify um so talk about tonight I just want to make sure that we're not saying hey you student a can go do this student B sorry you don't have the availability absolutely so to to kind of talk through the different agencies that we work with therapeutic day treatment is a Medicaid based service so if you are Medicaid eligible you would be able to apply for those services or we would make a referral if we felt the student was eligible with the Horizon outpatient and case management secondary schools that's Medicaid

034eligible the elementary expansion is any student that would have a referral need the vision screening was mandatory for the age grade excuse me the grades K 3 7 and 10 and the dental clinic was available to any parent that completed the paperwork that they wanted their child to participate regardless of insurance care portal is obviously the parent has to sign a release to partner with Our Youth and Family Specialists to share that information and then you mentioned um Bedford digital equipment was donated and we can use that on a daily basis at the school so my question is who is using that equipment and then the second part of that question is Who provided the training on the equipment um well the nurses that were doing the vision screening previously are would be the individuals

035conducting the screening with the digital uh the the digital device they they will receive training and and that digital device I don't want to Discount the value of our School nurses is designed to be used as an instant image of the eye that's diagnostic so that nurse is not providing the interpretation it's the image output from the eye that is providing a printout that gives an indication of if there's a defect that's detected but the nurses are being trained oh yes but who are they being trained by they will be trained by the the there are modules that come with the device and in its usage it's like online training yes sir okay and do we have the equipment yet has it started being used it's been purchased um as with many things in the

036medical equipment field there's a delay in a back order but it was the Bedford Community Health Foundation that sponsored the purchase of That So and I've mentioned this to staff my main priority is it's great that we get equipment but equipment does us no good if we're not trained on it so I want to make sure we have a training plan not saying you don't but I'm interested to know once the training is completed that we're following back up with our nurses to say how is it going um and so I appreciate the fact that there is online training I want to make sure I'm sure you're going to take it or or Kelly's going to take it once you have that is it sufficient for us to be able to use the equipment um

037and then my final question is you mentioned a hundred and eight thousand nine hundred and sixty dollars specific of growth for school nursing and you mentioned that it would allow us to send our nurses to State conferences what are the topics of those conferences at I'd have to communicate that through follow-up information I don't have the agendas with me um the fall I can provide I don't know that the spring agenda has been announced yet um but I can certainly if it has I'll share that as well and how does that process work who approves that travel and the topics that you're going for well the the travel approval goes through our professional learning uh system just like any other professional learning opportunity what we do is we just code the expenses to the workforce

038Grant but it goes through the same approval process I'm definitely interested in the topics that we are sending our nurses for so I will be interested in that um that that's all thank you Davidson did you have questions two okay how many do about two okay anybody else gonna have any questions okay go ahead okay okay I was just looking at the time I'm not pushing you listen I don't want to interfere with dinner that's for sure um but I have to say to Mrs Robertson um you just made my heart just so happy just to hear the things that we are doing for our students I know firsthand that um there is a great need for these programs that we have in place for our students and that need continues to grow not just

039in our division but across our country there is tremendous need for so many programs you know in kudos to everyone to you Miss Robertson to your team who whoever for the fact that we are the first school system with the care porter portal region okay well that's to me is pretty significant that is really really wonderful I'm just super excited about it um my other question um our statement is regarding the day treatment program um is Horizon the organization that we're using National Counseling Group okay so Horizon is being used primarily for outpatient counseling and case management for students um that that have already qualified for those Services through their agency well thank you and to your team just keep up the good work it's really supporting and helping our students tremendously thank you that's

040all I have thank you Miss Harrison and actually I do have a quick question Ms Robertson I'm sorry you're not totally off the hot seat yet okay okay um when you mentioned the schools that were involved with the national counseling um you mentioned good view storesville and Stanton River Middle why not Stanton River High School especially if those schools are feeders into the high school because the high school has number one some embedded mental health programs that provide alternatives for students it also has that um well-established case management and outpatient counseling with Horizon that's actually been one of our longest relationships so generally students that have needs are well supported I think we have a provider almost every day on campus at Stanton River so there there are those mental health supports there both through

041the national excuse me through the Horizon provider but also our other embedded programs that provide opportunities for students on campus and you mentioned a couple of things I just wanted to shout Kudos out for um you mentioned the um screen agers next chapter thank goodness um I I went to was the last one was about two years ago it was something like that and I went to that as a parent and two years later it still made a profound difference in the way I think about things with my children so thank you for doing that and thank you for following up with that and when you mentioned Johnson health centers for dental and then the eye exams within the school especially for the Medicaid patients that's wonderful um I know that Medicaid as far as

042Dental where you said 30 percent providers it's less than that um some parents are Years Years finding a dental dentist that will accept um Medicaid so thank you for helping out with that okay any more questions comments okay do you are off the hot seat now thank you very much okay given the time we will go ahead and break for dinner and come back and pick up with item three point well when we pick up with things 3.03 well our two students for student recognition please come forward that's a big binder I keep all my when I start that everything to do with crew Wyatt and Jason Chen like City they asked what the Staffing standard that's so cute oh that's in here hey friend you tell them just in case good evening everyone I'd

043like to reconvene this regular meeting of the Bedford County school board for April the 6th 2023 if you would please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you all very much Mr Edwards [Music] Madam chair Mr Vice chair Dr Bergen would you please come forward the Virginia school boards association's Region 5 in Virginia is the largest of its eight regions there are more than 20 School divisions in this region which makes winning any of the contests throughout the year extremely difficult and that's why we're so proud that we have a student whose artwork was so outstanding that it could not be denied for

044the vsba's art contest divisions in Region 5 bring their best artwork from their own contests to be judged at the regional level and that includes hundreds of elementary schools and after judges confirmed Boonsboro Elementary School's crew Wyatt had the best elementary artwork in the entire region vsba Regional artwork contest winner Boonsboro Elementary School's crew Wyatt foreign [Applause] all right one two three and one more one three thank you very much One Last Time Jason Chen okay we will go ahead and read Mr Chen's accomplishment but apparently he was not able to make it tonight the 51st Central Virginia Regional science fair was held recently the competition is an affiliate of the regeneron interaction international science and engineering Fair students from Amherst Appomattox Bedford Campbell counties along with Lynchburg City Schools participate in the competition there

045can only be one grand Award winner and the winner is Jefferson Forest High School's Jason Chen for his project entitled got milk comparing the acid production of bifodobacterium infantus when grown in different milks Jason now moves on to the regeneron international science and engineering Fair the world's largest pre-college stem competition May 14 through 19 in Dallas Texas and we will uh we will celebrate him as many ways as we can in his absence uh here tonight we'll social media and everything else so that does conclude student recognition thank you foreign [Music] okay moving on to public comment the public comment portion of tonight's agenda is limited to 40 minutes speakers are asked to State their name and voting district the school board is here to listen to your comments but will not engage or respond

046to speakers during this 40-minute period please remember that this is a public meeting and we expect all speakers to refrain from any foul profane abusive or hateful language during their comments or at any time while in attendance at this meeting we also ask that speakers keep their remarks objective about the school of nature please keep all comments limited to matters related to the public school and any comments that are harassing or amount to a personal attack against an identifying 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 meeting for public matters Mr Edwards will serve as timekeeper for the individual speakers with a ringing Bell indicating the person has 30 seconds remaining and a second bell will

047ring indicating a person's four minutes have expired Mr Edwards also serve as timekeeper for our cumulative 40-minute period well Mr Edwards four minute timer bell rings please discontinue speaking and allow the next person alone 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 also we ask that you please do not adjust the microphone at the podium as it has been positioned for Optimum audio quality our first Speaker tonight Cindy Young House good evening I'm Cindy young house district 7. thank you again Madam chair for this opportunity to address the board regarding policy jjag and symptoms of heat stroke parental rights do not include putting one's Child In Harm's Way parental rights are removed in courts

048of law for such poor judgments when a trained professional assesses troubling symptoms which may endanger a student parents need the good sense to comply with safety policies including medical evaluation prior to resuming activities if parents must override the professional recommendations then parental rights to sue must be waived with a signed form jjag must reflect the need to assess and intervene based on the symptoms presented at the time not based on opinions of medically untrained parents who might not even be present [Music] additionally last summer there was some controversy over the resolution and supportive teachers and staff resulting in the defensive claim that the resolution's warding was already contained in staff contracts similarly the same defensive claim has been used to disregard endorsement of the vsba code of conduct that the 12 items are already included

049in the BCPS board bylaws review of the bylaws revealed need for clarification while the bylaws and vsba code of conduct do have some commonality the bylaws lack specific language encompassing the character of board members for example having personal Integrity in all matters avoiding personal partisan gain avoiding even the appearance of impropriety making no individual choices that might compromise the board and administration and supporting the full development and Welfare of all children are all points lacking in the bylaws just to be clear so finally the proposed policy INB which states in part quote in addition teachers shall not engage in discussion with students about sexual orientation or gender identity end quote it sounds like BCPS has its very own don't say gay policy as indicated by my email I don't think this rule was well thought

050out in fact after all the concern over indoctrination several points in this draft policy are blatantly presupposed on far right wing misinformation rather than facts as a result this policy violates free speech and discriminates broadly I've emailed for the board a copy of the U.S Department of Justice civil rights division memorandum dated March 26 2021 regarding the application of Bostock V Clayton County to Title IX the doj concluded discrimination on the basis of sex absolutely includes sexual orientation and gender identity just ask Justice Neil Gorsuch determined for Title VII principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Pamela s Carlin concludes quote I hope this memorandum provides a starting point for your agencies to ensure the consistent and robust enforcement of Title IX in furtherance of the commitment that every person should be treated with respect and dignity

051the Civil Rights division is available to answer any questions your agencies have as you implement Title IX protections against sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination end quote in conclusion I get that some of you don't want to normalize the idea that lgbtqia Community has human rights however what needs normalizing is that no matter one's religious view or actually because of your religious views every human under God needs dignity respect equal rights and love thank you for your time thank you John house Jason Johnson good evening members of the board my name is Jason Johnson I reside at 6735 White House Road in Moneta District 2. normally when individuals come to this Podium it's to share concerns about their child's school or address rumors they've read but tonight I actually have a couple of positive things

052I wanted to share with you first thank you for prioritizing the new auditoriums at Stanton River and Liberty High School as we stand in this gorgeous facility tonight I can't help but think what how awesome it would be to give our students on the south side and in the town the same opportunities as well as the community members that use that for religious services or public meetings to have access to the same high quality space as you know takes a long time to get these projects rolling it's it has taken a sense I believe Ms Harrison and I have been working on this since 2017. it's taken a long time to get to this point Thank you for pushing it this far please keep keep pushing until one night we can stand in such an

053auditorium the other is it takes a lot of people to make an educational facility work people that allow students to feel safe and comfortable opening their minds and being willing to learn it takes a lot of different people teachers janitors custodians everyone but there's one unique role that's been very critical in helping Bedford County Public Schools be a place that students feel comfortable learning and I understand this individual is getting ready to leave and I wanted to just say a few words tonight about how awesome this person has been and what a great representative of the school division he has been as we heard just a few minutes ago there is a voice in Bedford County Public Schools if you put Barry White and Paul Harvey in a blender you would get this individual and

054you get the voice the voice that makes every child recognize before this board and introduced to this community feels special whether they're here for an athletic title or because they want a science fair or the spelling bee every child has a moment when their name is called and they feel like they are the most important accomplished person in Bedford County because of The Voice a few years ago families across the County Teachers too would wait with baited breath to hear those five golden words it's a snow day baby and he didn't just announce it in his typical Flair there were videos with such hits as I got friends in snowy places a Star Wars video that went viral and got attention Nationwide eyes on Bedford County but my personal favorite the video that gave us

055a behind the scenes peek at how Grayson Overstreet TJ tester and Caleb Jones along with some other friends in the county made it snow in in our County all of these showcased the best and the brightest that we have in our County and made us all look so so good beyond that he worked so hard on social media to get the information the good news stories out and made the School Division a place that staff wanted to teach that students wanted to go and learn and that families wanted to send their children all because of the hard work of one individual showcasing all of the good work going on behind the scenes we hear a lot of things about public education today but those good news stories sometimes get lost but when you have a

056good public information officer he makes sure those good news stories make it out where they need to go so as this individual prepares to ride off into the sunset you can hire a new public information officer but there will ever only be one voice of Bedford County so Mr Edwards it's retirement baby go enjoy your next chapter and thank you for everything that you've done for our community over the years thank you thank you Mr Johnson Dave Dietrich I'm Dave Dietrich from the fourth we've participated recently in public commentary on the Virginia Department of Education history curriculum review public statements showed how divided the public appears to be over educational standards two distinct views were apparent one side seemed to favor the children their quality of education and parent and public participation in the educational

057process including curriculum design and standards of learning that side also advocated less Central and top-down bureaucratic control and even questioned the need for centralized sols the other side seemed to focused on the special interests of activist groups including what might be termed professional big administrative educational interests so what does all this tell us first it indicates the public is divided although to what degree is problematic second it indicates that that special interest groups are well organized and deeply committed to maintaining centralized influence on education third it indicates special interests may be in general Alliance but not necessarily in total Alliance over specific interests that creates opportunity fourth by virtue of what they had said had to say and how they said it these special interest groups offer little compelling evidence that their understanding is anything

058other than superficial dogmatic and self-serving there was historical ignorance on display as well here are two examples one speaker claimed the New Deal did all these great and wonderful things for labor yet the New Deal only deepened and prolonged the Great Depression it accomplished little other than significantly expanding unaccountable big government taxes and increasing the misery index for Millions as the economy got worse free market capitalism and the post-world War II economic boom got us out of the Great Depression another speaker claimed the preamble to the Declaration of Independence did not apply to blacks that is historically and factually incorrect that Preamble addresses god-given natural rights for all people in all places and in all times it is the very ideal upon which this great nation was founded it is precisely why the institution of

059slavery was opposed by so many of all Races ethnicities and Creeds including many Southerners and eventually abolished these wrong historical views spoke volumes about the his the human tragedy of an ill-liberal education today for those who apparently possess it seem to demand that the young and impressionable wines receive it I wish to share a quote from a former slave and Great American Booker T Washington he wrote I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position one has reached in life as by the obstacles which have been overcome while trying to succeed thankfully many continue to learn from that great American teach virtue teach moral growth teach intellectual flourishing teach critical thinking reject Dogma pointless bureaucracy and destructive indoctrination that is our duty as parents citizens and Educators thank you

060thank you Mr Dietrich Richard Hendricks [Music] conduct counts late in last month's school board meeting long after those of us who had commented on various issues had left there was a brief discussion about the issue of bullying in the district schools I apologize but in watching The Exchange on YouTube I was unable to determine exactly which two members we're in we're in on this exchange the first individual a woman pointed out that there were remedies in the student code of conduct where reports could be made to the administration I believe it was on pages 51 and 53 and the administration would then take corrective action the second individual quoted from scripture which said that in effect you should stand up for those who have been bullied his take appeared to me to downplay the necessity

061of going through the administrative process as outlined in the above code of conduct but seemed to approve of students taking action on their own to prevent other students from being bullied he stated words to the effect that you should take action you should be a man in a different world from that in which we currently live this might be an effective strategy back in the old days when there was a dispute between high school students you might have a rumble in the parking lot or maybe a drag race at midnight on a deserted Highway however as we've seen as we've seen far too often in the last 10 years or so disputes among students or reactions to real or perceived bullying may be settled with assault rifles 700 rounds of ammunition and body armor in

062many of the horrendous student school shootings that we've seen since Sandy Hook and Columbine we found that the shooters have either been bullied or were bullies because of this we need to tread carefully in how we react to incidents of bullying in our schools giving free reign to allowing students to settle their bullying issues among themselves could lead to a terrible outcome although there is a very small possibility of this occurring my question to the board is do you as members of the school board want to cast a blind eye to the kind of behavior which could result in an unspeakable tragedy you will refute this by saying our kids are good kids we're responsible gun owners here and our kids know gun safety the kids in Bedford County can settle their disputes without adult

063interference it can't happen here etc etc basically I agree but all it takes is one troubled individual to go off the rails and cause a tragedy I'm sure that the folks in Nashville where we had our most recent school shooting Uvalde Texas Parkland Florida Sandy Hook Connecticut and dozens of other localities believes that this tragedy couldn't happen in their schools but it did and then you have to deal with the repercussions of these horrible tragedies and the progression always seems to be the same one part of the progression is that parents grieve bury their dead children and then sue everybody who they feel was responsible for the deaths of their children as members of a school board who may have encouraged students to fight bullying by being a man I hope that you have good

064attorneys on speed dial because it won't take long for plaintiff's attorneys to find this footage which won't be helpful when it comes to avoiding potential liability the liability can be personal as well as having a negative impact on the community eyes of Bedford County taxpayer would not welcome having thousands of my tax dollars spent on legal counsel in a liability trial also in the event of such An Occurrence there will be a negative impact on the entire Community thank you conduct counts thank you Mr Hendricks Kristen Honeycutt good evening um just well I'm a Bedford County employee so I just have a few bullet points that I wanted to bring up to all of you uh one I understand that a suggested calendar is coming up to be voted on and I'm hoping you all

065will consider that we could really use those two days um second like I did last year I'd asked some colleagues questions that they would like brought to your attention but they don't have the capacity your ability or whatever to come up here um in my school in particular um we still have the heat on it seems like um I'm not trying to throw anybody on the under the bus in maintenance or whatever um but we have third fourth and fifth graders trying to take benchmarks in extremely crowded classrooms and really hot and our tempers are starting to flare um somebody else mentioned that in some of the benchmarks some images were not showing up properly on the student Chromebooks so if there was some way that we could test that before we push it out

066to the students because it was getting a little frustrating for the teachers and the students um and then some people I shared the um policy that you all are voting on next month and um there were just some questions and concerns um and I I have become really good at playing Devil's Advocate so this is my role right now um and I'm not gonna read the things but in paragraph one and two um yes we feel like that is very important but when we do that as Educators uh we get pushed back from the community um and I apologize for not reading these so it may be really vague to anyone who's not read it um paragraph three number two where it talks about somebody not being racist sexist Etc um yes if they're targeting

067other people then they are uh and then when we get to the gender identity um when we cease to call people Mr or misses or yes ma'am or no sir uh can I say something funny you know a funny story about my husband or could a male teacher say something funny about his wife or if we have same-sex marriages can they say something funny and refer to my husband or my wife I have a primary school teacher we read lots of books am I going to have to really look hard now for books that don't have any adults that are in relationships I mean little bear I love little bear but there's a mama bear and a papa bear um where will we draw the line are we going to if we're talking about gender

068and identity where does the line get drawn and then how are you going to monitor this and what will be the the consequences if we don't meet this policy um so these are just all things that I really hope you all will consider like said I've really in my senior aging um taken on being Devil's Advocate and so this is the role I'm playing today uh so yeah thank you very much thank you Mr good Jessica Scott hello thank you I'm Jessica Scott thank you all for serving um I live in District three I'll also be speaking to INB to begin with some of the things I really like about it I really appreciate appreciating the document the emphasis on individual dignity and intellectual honesty and non-discrimination I've been moved to night to speak about

069to the part that in the document that states quote in addition teachers shall not engage in discussions with students about sexual orientation or gender identity so first is just a semantics question but I think that it could be very important like what exactly like exactly would the policy be prohibiting and what would it be allowing by the term discussions can plain facts be stated like is the use of the word discussion on purpose like a long distance there are many definitions anyway um so like like she said can I say to my students if I'm a teacher my husband and I went out to dinner last night because that would suggest my sexual orientation and I'm assuming that that's not what the policy would mean that that doesn't constitute discussions but we know what happens

070when with when you assume so I think that would need to be spelled out incredibly objectively next is the policy saying that a person's sexual orientation can never be a part of a lesson no matter how relevant it is to the topic like for example in a history lesson the Nazis rounded up People based on their sexual orientation um so if so that would be completely inconsistent with the statement of intellectual honesty above so I'd like clarification on that next I very very much oppose the Judgment that only counselors and administration and not teachers are qualified to discuss this topic unlike so many other topics that arise with valid reasons for tying um because they tie into situations relating to bullying or depression or safety or housing these are all things that interfere with academic

071progress and arise in the course of teachers jobs we know that suicide is one of the top three causes of death for teenagers we know that the rates of suicide for lgbtq teenagers are much higher than that for non-lgbtq teenagers in 2018 the JAMA Pediatrics Journal published the meta-analysis that found that lgbtq youth are more than four times as likely as their peers to attempt suicide coincidentally I did not know I was coming tonight did not I wasn't paying attention to the calendar it wasn't on my radar this past Sunday at church we sang the hymn let your heart be broken let your heart be broken for a world in need let your heart be tender let your heart be broken for another's pain again the JAMA pediatric study found the lgbtq youth are more

072than four times as likely to attempt suicide than their peers all of us in this room we know I know have the shared goal of the health and safety of all children I know that's why we're here and my questions are and I'm asking this seriously even though it sounds sort of rhetorical how will this proposed policy decrease those rates of attempted suicide those rates of actual suicide which we unfortunately have had in Bedford County and what is the justification for the expectation that this policy will not increase those rates thank you give me Scott Lindsey Leonard hi my name is Lindsey Leonard I'm a local attorney in the area I'm in District Five I'm also the mother of two children who attend Boonsboro Elementary School I want to speak today about something that is

073becoming increasingly apparent Nationwide school shootings are occurring at an alarming rate where shootings used to be rare and committed by students there's a trend now that shootings are being caused by non-students people who just walk in and decide to commit some horrible act of violence and even worse they're occurring against younger students even those that are as young as five six years old we spend a lot of time in the community talking about how to stop these events from occurring and while all these dialogues are essential and they must continue I think we're focusing a lot of times on the wrong area Every Act and every crime has three elements you have means you have motive you have opportunity means are obvious a school shooting naturally is going to occur with guns and we can

074go into the gun control debate but let's be realistic uh nothing's going to be done at a local level unless something happens at a state or federal level we're going to have to presume that the laws we have now are the ones that are going to exist for the foreseeable future so then we move on to motive and unlike means this is the most difficult area to get into we know people and students get depressed and angry but it's very hard to determine what is going to make a person decide to take that and hurt innocent children we should continue exploring this area and we should take strides to understand others and speak if something comes up or is a Miss but there's really truly only so much that we can do to anticipate this

075type of event so then we shift our Focus to the one element we can control and that is opportunity we're doing things now like making our schools gun-free zones but we can see that that does very little to dissuade people who are intent on committing acts of violence we require visitors to stop by the office and check in we lock exterior doors we have locked on drills for students we do have procedures in place this is all great and it's terrific but if a gunman enters it becomes a total panic and many of these procedures hinge on everyone cooperating and there being enough time before anybody is hurt the area I want to focus on involves the entrance to the school buildings in Nashville as well as Sandy Hook Red Lake Columbine and so many

076other recent shootings the shooter has entered the building by shooting out the glass on the locked door every time I go to Boonsboro Elementary and even walking into this building tonight I find it discouraging that there are fully open glass doors leading right into the building and a fully glass enclosure around the office leading right into the school this does absolutely nothing to stop a gunman it'll stop Intruders who don't have any weapons or can't do a whole lot of damage but it's not going to prevent a shooting replacing current doors with steel doors or replacing the glass and doors with bullproof glasses ideal but obviously it's costly and it's a lot of work involved there however there are a lot of cost-effective options now there's tempered glass you can have Windows security film or

077even a wire mesh over the door fronts if you look for something quick and simple to do the tempered glass will fracture but it actually does not break until enormous amounts of pressure are put on it these are all low cost Alternatives with potentially high security results the goal is simply to frustrate a shooter to make it so difficult to enter a building that they either move on give up entirely or if anything it's going to slow them way down getting more time for police to arrive and less time for students and teachers to be in danger um as an analogy terrorists still have the exact same means and motive available to them that they had on 911. we just reduced their opportunity with substantial security measures that make it more difficult than it's worth

078for school shootings we may still have the same means of motive and we should still be talking about those and we should still be working to combat those but we can reduce the opportunity by implementing some low-cost and effective security measures like removing or restructuring the exterior doors I urge this board to set up a committee of some sort to explore these options put funds towards making these security changes you could be the first school district in this area to take an Innovative measure to keep our kids and teachers safe thank you Miss Leonard I have the availability for three more speakers would anyone else like to speak this evening okay Amy thank you for the opportunity to speak I did not know I was going to be able to be here tonight but the

079rain canceled soccer practice so here we are um there's been a lot of heavy topics tonight but I'm going to share something a little lighter um I am in District Seven and I am with moms for Liberty as many of you know we have four boys and nine days out of ten when they come home from school and I ask them what their favorite part was they say recess and so um there's been a lot of conversations lately about Playgrounds and different ptas that are raising money to either rebuild playgrounds or enhance their existing structures so I just wanted to share some resources for both the board and for our ptas and I thought this might be a good opportunity to do that it can be a pretty daunting task trying to figure out how

080to raise the funds or even where to begin with some of these playground remodeling um it just so happens that the town next to where I grew up in central Pennsylvania is home to one of the largest playground manufacturers in the world it's called play World Systems if your kids have played at Falling Creek Park in Bedford they've played on a play World System equipment set I do not have any affiliation with play World specifically at all this is purely me hearing a need in the community for resources for playgrounds and thinking hey I wonder what play world can do um so I have been doing some research on their website and there is a slew of information available there on specifically how to fundraise and it's Way Beyond you know cookie dough sales or

081fun runs which I know a lot of the ptas have been working really hard recently to get those taken care of and they've raised a lot of money but it's a big it's a big item so in just a few minutes you can download multiple packets of resources like this one that help you get started on how to fundraise and the other part of this that I think perhaps the board might be interested in is that there are multiple grants available that could be applied for so for example a couple that they list you can apply for a grant from Project fit America it's a national agency that works with schools and Frontline Educators to try to create opportunities for kids to be active fit and healthy there's also grants available through Home Depot the

082Walmart community giving Grant the Christopher and Dana Reeves foundation so those are specifically awarded to organizations that impact and Empower people living with different child living challenges and as well as their family and caregivers there's the W.K Kellogg Foundation Grant and they have an entire guide on their website that's dedicated specifically to Grants so if that would be something that would be able to be applied for from the board level and some of those funds could be distributed to the individual ptas it might find a way to make it easier to fundraise and get some really awesome equipment for our kids to play on so my goal tonight is just to share some information to make recess even more awesome for our kids because I think we can all remember the fun that we had

083as kids playing on the playground at recess even though the stuff we grew up on now has been torn down because it's not safe so I hope that these will be helpful if anybody has any questions you're more than welcome to reach out to me but I really encourage you to check out playworld's website and see some of the things that are available there so thank you thank you Miss need I have available for two more would anyone else like to speak thank you I too didn't expect to be here tonight my name is Debbie Harvey and I'm in District three and I appreciate you guys so much for doing what you do you have to make very tough decisions and I just want to talk to you about the proposed proposed budget that I

084believe you have already given to the Board of Supervisors and it's resulting in possibly well definitely if it gets faster you get everything that has been asked for a tax increase um I've lived here in Bedford County for a long time I remember when two elementary schools were being built in Bedford County and then there were comparisons done and the public then realized that we as Bedford County were paying millions of dollars more for our schools and the as they were being built then neighboring counties were I remember that we built a school with a curved front so that students would feel welcome and feel as if they were being welcomed with open arms into the school was they were coming into their school day which again was wasteful spending of other people's money my

085son was the first kindergarten class of Thomas Jefferson Elementary School it's a beautiful school but it's one in was that which there is another waste of taxpayers money to include a minimum of a two-story halfway here and a long main hallway and now it costs us more money to keep that area heated it's true that none of you were on the board when those decisions were made but I have witnessed project proposals and purchases come before the school board this year in which you were presented only one bid for the projects and it was my interpretation that that had become status quo but a few of you and one in particular Mr Daniels challenged that practice in hundreds of thousands of dollars were saved after all we would never allow such status status status quo

086methods to dictate decisions in our own personal life when we were spending our own money just getting the first bid that came along and taking it I'm asking you to work with the Board of Supervisors to equalize the tax rate some of you support the proposed tax hike on citizens that had no part for the decisions of the board in the past as you have haven't as well but this includes those on fact fixed incomes who are already suffering due to the impact of this economy and inflation most of you would never sign on to the Biden student loan bailout that would be requiring taxpayers to pay for the decisions that they made apart from the one that they're asking to pay for but that's what you're asking the taxpayers to do for the historical

087core decisions of the board I'm asking you to reprioritize the budget which may include some administrative cuts it seems like it's a very top heavy and I know that you've been presented that by other speakers in past meetings that the costing very cost heavy um I am asking you to be responsible and make cuts investigate the budgets given to each department and never use the word just like it's Just Gonna Save Us that much or it's just that much so let's put it in the budget so both ways I'm asking you to consider both ways when I was a teacher in a public school system uh not this one but one neighboring I remember a time it was at the end of the school year and our department chair came to me and said you

088need to spend money because if you don't spend it it's not going to be budgeted for us next year and so then we were just asked to look through catalogs and buy anything whether we needed it or not for the fear that maybe we would need that money next year and it wouldn't be budgeted for us I don't know if that's the way Bedford County works but I'm asking you to at least look at that policy and that's one thing that could be very practically changed if you've got money left over at the end that doesn't mean that we're not going to budget that amount for you next year right now Bedford County's is spending 14 347.4 cents per student and the proposal would raise that to fifteen thousand three hundred thirty eight dollars and

089sixty five cents per student and um it's very easy to spend someone else's money it's an easier decision to make and I just want to end with the words of my favorite board of supervisor here in Bedford County the government ain't your sugar daddy every dollar that we spend we take from someone else thank you thank you Mr Harvey one more slot anyone else would like to speak this evening okay not seeing anyone I will close the public comment okay moving on to item seven do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda I have a motion by Mr Hill do I have a second by Mr Nelms any discussion all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed consent agenda is approved okay now we're going to move on to item eight

090where we're gonna pick up with reports and informational items not addressed so we'll pick up there with 3.03 third quarter financial review Dutch Bergen okay we can go straight to Mr Hagler he's the information the full board is about to receive he's already reviewed with the budget finance committee earlier this week Mr eggler yes good evening um here to present the third quarter um forecast taking data as of March 31st and trying to project out how we're going to stand at the end of the year to see if we have any issues that we have to address on the revenue or expenditure side and also looking at all of our funds um as Dr Bergen mentioned on Monday I went over this presentation and later on the meaning there are some supplemental and category transfers

091that we've reviewed also and went through all this data with the the committee on the revenue side um not a lot of changes from what I presented in the second quarter which was ending December 31st um things are coming along about the same as what I expected we're doing very well in the sales tax continues to come in better than expected and also you can see in state funds on basic Aid we're coming in better than expected on that also so the projected supplementals also include category transfers and anything that we're projecting on there so after some of those supplementals are approved tonight this also included supplementals from the prior prior board meetings that I've already taken to the Board of Supervisors as notice have been approved expecting that our Revenue to come in about

0921.5 million ahead of budget on the revenue side so we're looking very strong on the revenue side not much has changed I will say this on the sales tax our board approved in the previous meeting nine hundred and ten thousand dollar supplemental appropriation um for to bring in sales tax for our operating fund for several different categories at the Board of Supervisors they redirected that money towards the maintenance Reserve fund for projects so I had to there's things in this uh especially on category transfer on the expenditure side I'll speak to that because there's some things that we have to move around to make sure we can bring in our operating budget this year of things I identified in the in the uh from the second quarter uh any questions on the revenue side of

093the uh of what I'm presenting tonight okay as I said not a lot of changes on the revenue side still coming in very strong I don't see any issues bringing in the budget for this year on the expenditure side there were some changes um so to deal with the 910 000 that was not approved by the board supervisors um there are some things that we're going to have to move around there are two later on there's two um three supplemental Appropriations later tonight one or two of the two grants smaller grants that I'll be bringing forward but also as you saw on the revenue side one is for 400 000 of sale tax to be recognized um that money um that 400 000 from sales tax will be uh directed towards the technology fund so

094let me speak to that real quick last year we were we typically by our um replacement cycle for our teacher computers in the year before when we just deploy them so usually we're buying the teacher computers for next year about this time and working on those over the summer we uh there was a grant available for us to go after to help pay for the current year teacher computers and so but part of the stipulation is you could not purchase them before the year began and you had to get them out in the same year so we postponed buying that replacement cycle last year I mentioned this to the board last year and we were going to use leftover funds or additional State money to do two cycles in one year and that's kind of

095what we're facing right now so the the 400 000 going to technology is allow us to replace two cycles in one year where normally we do one because we did not do one last year um one of the one of the grants later in the meeting is for 120 000 to help us pay for that and so you know by postponing that we were able to get 120 000 towards the replacement cycle uh for computers and staff um so that's so when you look at uh there is money being moved around um on a category transfer and that's probably the biggest thing I'll discuss tonight and letting the board know on that because it will have implications for next year's budget we're going to have to probably go back and look at at some of

096our projections in the maintenance fund uh primarily and kind of re-forecast some things and that I think will have impacts on the budget that we're going to have to revisit before we finalize the budget um after category transfers and the supplemental Appropriations as you can see projecting to come in about 450 000 under budget on the expenditure side that combined with the revenue about a 2000 2 million dollar ending balance and as and passed that balance would go towards one-time expenditures I'd probably bring that back to the board and recommend that goes back to the maintenance Reserve fund for Capital expenditures main reason for the bounce being probably that high for this year normally I don't see them that that high but the last few years the sales taxes just come in a lot a

097lot better than what the state projected and where I build my budget so um we don't go out and nestler you just spin that down we have that in email so we can reappropriate for things that are very needed on the capital side so um so good news on that side I don't see any on a cash basis I don't see any issue bringing the budget in this year I will say on the maintenance side as you look at this we do it's my recommendation with a category transfer it's probably more than we need but I want to make sure I can bring the year in without having to come back about a million dollar transfer into the maintenance fund and that's a category transfer that's going to be later in the meeting speak a

098little bit about that um with that 900 000 there was some of that money going into maintenance so that supplemental did not go through so how do I get more money into maintenance because there were some items in there that were running um that were that were coming in higher than expected um in the third quarter I saw electrical and heating go up more than expected um so from December when I took the data until March I saw those coming at a much higher rate than anticipated I I would I look back to make sure we are accounting for the proper months there weren't double months or anything that had carry over from the previous year and there weren't um I think as all all of us experienced our January surprise from the December electrical

099bills where we had a very very cold December and no matter what our set points were at those things were running constantly and so those those bills didn't come in until late January and didn't come into my second quarter forecast so I would say the um the surprise there was on the electrical and also on the heating side that caused me to go up you know I'm asking for more money to be put into maintenance to bring in this year's budget but you cannot put a blind eye to that we're going to have to address that for next year's budget if it's going to continue to run at that we are doing we are doing more analysis on that where the set Point set you know we set those appropriately but we're going to continue

100to do more analysis so when we come back to the budget we can give board some more details on these these two line items so I wanted to speak a little bit more detail on that because that's the thing that causes to probably four to five hundred thousand dollars more than what I was thinking of moving into there on on the second quarter with that I know that's a lot of information but be happy to answer any questions on that but that's what we're seeing on the expenditure side yes sir the electrical was there a rate change that happened in the beginning of the year I did this analysis on Friday so we'll bring that back um I don't remember hearing anything from on that you know in the news cycle but we're looking into

101that and I'll have more information for the board on that as soon as I can so that's what I'm saying we're doing more analysis is it a permanent was it a something on there so I don't want to over adjust on next year's budget if there's some reason that it came in a lot higher temporarily but I I don't want to also turn a black eye that have a budget shortfall next year that we're trying to scramble to deal with either so it does need to be addressed so I'll have more data on this when we get back into budget um there were there there's also what we're seeing on inflation our repair and replace line and contracted Services that's what I was seeing in the second quarter that's still high in the third quarter

102and that's another area we're going to have to address in the maintenance line things are just costing more and and so those lines are not set they're not high enough to deal with what we're seeing so um we're probably gonna have to address those lines also um so just showing you you know where the numbers are coming in and where I'm projecting at this point we still have three months ago don't know if I'm going to need all this if we don't need it we're not going to spend it but um this is what I'm recommending that we move into maintenance tonight any other questions on that um behind that there's more details on each of those major categories as I present to you all the time it's not up on the screen but on

103board docs it's there for the board members to look at um so if you scroll I'm going to go to the last page presentations up here to talk about our other funds nutrition fun um this might be the only time you ever hear me say running in the red is good thing so but as the nutrition fund has gone up with its funds in the previous years I've spoken to the board about that the state's requiring us to spend that money down so you can see we're in the red we are starting to spend that money down and we'll continue to do so um Suzanne Rosemary presented some documentation both the finance committee I think some some of the facilities and we presented to the state on how we were going to spend those monies

104down that money down we got the uh their approval earlier this week so that's been a long process you had to tell them what you're going to do you're planning they had to approve that so they've they've approved that but we've already started buying equipment and still have equipment on order and things to do on that front so still some work to do on that but a healthy bounce nonetheless um so beginning bounce was 3.4 million three million um in there right now we probably need to get that down to about a two million dollar range that's where the state's targeting us maybe even a little bit less than that but still in good shape overall uh on the funds that we have available to run our nutrition fund any questions on the nutrition fund

105okay textbook fun we started buying the textbooks finally that I had money reserved for so projecting that the ending balance on textbook would be about a million dollars about the same as what we began with um State funding coming in there you can see the local appropriation of a hundred thousand dollars next year's budget uh you know uh your preliminary budget that you approved that would go up to 200 000 so when those large adoptions come through we have money set aside and it's not a scramble to try to find the money to do those in the future so textbook fund looks in good shape at this point maintenance Reserve fund boy this this fund is really getting fun to analyze usually the operating fund takes a lot of time this is becoming more thank

106you Barry um more problematic just because of receivables timing differences and bringing money for the cares act but um what I was trying to get at is to show the board as of March 31st my estimate at this point is 4.6 4.7 million dollars unallocated towards projects all the other monies and funds that are receivables or money that's in there is set aside for projects that have already been approved and were in process and working on so um that money can be assigned to projects for the upcoming year we will have additional funds coming in next year for projects also we can talk about that during the budget process but ultimately on our CIP approval from the board anything that we go out for bid on or any project the board will approve before we

107do that and we do have our list of projects for next year but I know we're still working on that and waiting for information back from the county before we move forward with some of those things and then finally very good news self-insured Health Fund we're having a fabulous year on this well thank you Barry um started the beginning balance at 5.3 million dollars in our Reserve to pay claims and uh for medical dental insurance and Pharmacy it's currently at 6.9 we've seen a tremendous increase there we've had very very few high dollar claims this year very abnormal year so those reserves are there for those years that you don't have such a good year but this just gives further backing towards our decision to go out with a zero percent increase on our premium

108next year and if you look at the five-year runway for Bedford County um for those years we had zero one year we had five percent and I I it'd be hard hard to find any other industry or business that's running that well so once again people want to Pat me on the back it's our employees that are you know watching their health and doing things and and working with us together on this plan that's driving this so uh if this continues to happen I would hope to bring back recommendations from our consultants and also for me to maybe um enrich our plan somewhat so these that that help our employees and give this money back to our employees if we continue to run at this rate so we we're looking at those ideas even for

109next year so be happy to answer any questions you might have on these these four funds that I presented here overall very good news I don't see any problem bringing in the budget in maintenance it's just a category transfer and that's for this board approved it's a supplementals that have to go over to the Board of Supervisors and I'll talk about those a little bit more later in the in the meeting all right thank you thank you Mr Edward moving on to 3.04 Elementary class size this is Dr Bergen yes Madam chair this topic tonight is a follow-up uh requested by the administration with the board from the last time we were together on March 9 we were talking about Staffing standards as an outcome of tonight's discussion we're going to be looking for some

110direction from the board on how the board would like us to both Define and address large Elementary class sizes we spent a lot of time throughout this last school year on this topic dealing with things as they were brought to our attention and I want to I want to do a little more forward planning with the board about just how big is too big and how we want to address that so we have we've worked very hard at creating some data Dr woodford's going to walk you through a presentation that we've worked as an executive team together and we have some proposed solutions that we want to engage in some conversation so Dr Woodford good evening Madam chairperson and fellow board members at the March 14th budget work session the board discussed changes to the

111approved Staffing standards based upon that discussion I would like to share some information about elementary class sizes and options for the board to consider as we continue through the spring and our final budget development as a reminder our current elementary Staffing standard says that we will have one full-time equivalent teaching position for every 21 students in average daily membership in grades k-3 one FTE teaching position for every 22 students in average daily membership for grades four and five and then at last month's budget work session it was added that no multi-age classrooms in any Elementary School would be added to those Staffing standards the preliminary budget calculations presented at that work session did not include enough teachers to cover the added prevention of multi-age classrooms so the executive team has been looking at areas to

112support this change to the standards also I'd just like to note there is information in red at the bottom of this slide that information is based on prior discussions the board had in November of 2022 regarding the ideal individual Elementary class size the discussion ended with a consensus from the board that an aid would be added to any Elementary classroom that had more than 26 students at that time the board was clear about their concern with larger class sizes but also recognized in their discussion that we had coveted learning loss money for this year to assist with this Staffing Edition and that the position would not continue into the 2023-24 school year however as I present options in the next few slides I am going to base some of my calculations on that class size

113greater than 26 as the board has considered that a concern for them classes larger than that um the executive team has discussed two options to address the additional costs that will be needed to be accounted for with Staffing standard adjustments we can fund more teachers in the final budget or we can consider looking at policy jcd which is Zone transfer request limitations or revocations and enforce a policy that we already have in our policy manual I'm going to talk a little bit more in depth about each of these options and if it will save money or if it will cost money and try to give you some figures with that first I'd like to give you just a quick reminder that funding from the state is based on the standards of quality or soq funded

114positions the Bedford County public Staffing standard is much more generous than the state standards by using the state soq maximums in classrooms some of our smaller schools would have larger class sizes at some grade levels the standard of quality for Elementary class sizes is listed on this slide and it's based on division-wide ratios of students in our average daily memberships um for instance the first part of that standard is 24 to 1 in a Kindergarten class with no class larger than 29 students if the average daily membership in any kindergarten class exceeds 24 then a full-time aide is assigned to that class second 24 to 1 in grades one two and three with no class size being larger than 30. 25 to 1 in grades four through six with no class being larger than 35.

115that leeway in the state does give average daily memberships just like we use in our ratios but it does allow for class sizes up to 30 in grades one two and three and 35 in grades four five and six again based on discussions the board had in November of 2022 we know that larger class sizes are a concern for the board and again for the last past two years we've been able to use Esser funding to lower class sizes and at the height of pandemic recovery we added almost 20 positions to our budget using covid money in anticipation that that money would soon be ending we lowered that to 10 additional positions for this school year and our plan is to have no additional positions for next school year using Esser funding um so continuing

116to add teachers to predominantly smaller schools is really not sustainable unless we find additional funding in our budget so therefore we have the two options you can consider the first one is that the board could reconsider budget priorities for the 2023-24 school year and Slot the funding of more teachers as a higher priority than other items mentioned at the budget work session um the current Staffing standards are again based on average daily membership this formula is applied to projected enrollment which defines a school's allocation to meet the changes to the standards mentioned At Last At the last work session and to keep all classrooms lower than 27 we would need to fund 14 additional teachers at a cost of one million sixty four thousand dollars or add aids to each of those classrooms for an

117estimated cost of 378 thousand dollars should the board continue to limit class sizes to under 27 and this is the direction that the board provides to executive staff then we will ask you to codify this in our current Staffing standards meaning that we would add that caveat of 27 no more than 27 in a classroom based on current enrollment figures we would need to add the following number of ftes to at Stewartsville two at Big Island one at New London three at Otto River three at Huddleston two at Monita and one at Boonsboro as a note our Title 1 schools have been using most of their additional funding allocations for additional teachers however if we fund additional teachers at non-title one schools we are required by law to give that same level of funding to

118all schools in the in the school division so that's why these numbers are fairly High another option that you might want to consider As you move into finalizing the budget is to consider what policy jcd states about school zone transfers we currently have a very flexible school zone transfer policy and allow transfers unless the school reaches 90 percent or more of their capacity currently the board voted to close three schools to Zone transfer requests for next year New London Academy Forest Elementary and Boonsboro Elementary based on policy jcd the board could also close a school to transfers based on constraints of the school constraints of the grade level or constraints of an individual classroom per current board policy but not current practice Zone transfer request could be revoked if factors necessitated one factor that could

119be considered is if a Zone transfer request pushes a class over 26 which by our previous discussions would be concerning for the board um we could consider rescinding the transfer or denying a new transfer request so to explain this a little bit better I've got two examples that I think will help illustrate this my first example is Manita Elementary our first the first thing I would like you to look at is if you're reading the graph from left to right we start with the class size per grade level for this current school year so I'm using actual numbers and actual transfer data then you will see at the top Bedford primary Bedford Elementary Goodview Huddleston Montvale and out of Camp County transfers Associated and there are numbers underneath there associated with grade levels these numbers

120under these schools reflect the number of Zone transfers so to clarify in the column labeled Bedford primary there are two approved Zone transfer requests coming from Bedford primary to Moneta in first grade if all of those approvals that we have currently at Monita which total 48 Zone transfers were revoked the updated class sizes would be the numbers on the right in the last column based on the Zone transfers approved you can see that class sizes were hovering on the borderline between between being very reasonable to suddenly having too many students in a classroom with 48 students removed from the transfers the allotment of teachers would lower but it would also lower the large class sizes for individual classrooms for instance third grade which is at 26 current students in their in their class they would

121lose two of their Zone transfers and their class size would be 24. much more reasonable according to what the the board would like to see in a classroom in some other grade levels you might see a significant change for instance right now in kindergarten there are 31 if we were to remove those nine Zone transfers we would have a Kindergarten class of 22. um another example is otter River you can see the class sizes per grade level again in the second column reading from left to right again we have a list of which school students have come from on a Zone transfer request and what grade level they impact At Otter River if all of those approvals were revoked the updated class sizes would be the numbers you see on the right based on the

122Zone transfers approved you can see that class sizes were hovering again on the borderline between what we would consider consider a good class size to what we would consider a class size is too large um specifically this year we've spent a lot of time talking about the first grade class at Otto river that has 28 students in it if we would have removed the approved transfers this class would have been lowered to 23 students which would be within an acceptable limit for the board and what you have voiced as acceptable what we're asking for the board to think about and to provide to the executive team is really some guidance on the direction you would like for us to pursue as we attempt to try to bring you back a balanced budget for next year

123to consider your priorities I'm happy to answer any questions that you might have about this information then just to be clear in Bedford County we exceed the um the positions soq positions for student size right we do we do much better than the soq that's correct and anytime we do that that is funded locally we get no State money for that right okay and in these larger classrooms where there's full-time AIDS unless it's a special needs classroom we are we are also paying for that with local funds is that correct that's correct okay I just want to make sure that's clear to the public that we are exceeding there's a cost to that but the cost benefit analysis we feel is worth it for our students okay just want to be clear Dr Wolford thank

124you for uh your report on this data um I'm curious as to and would like to request information on um actually the total number of students in our elementary schools in in terms of trans those that have um gotten transferred so I'm just I kind of want to see division wide with the elementary schools all of them I can give you that I have that in front of me okay so we have a total of 3942 Elementary students and 387 students have approved Zone transfer requests if you would like it school by school how many transfer requests are going would you like at school by school too I would okay I would we have 51 approved requests at Bedford Elementary okay now can I ask is this going to be coming from Bedford Elementary going

125to Bedford Elementary these are going to Bedford Elementary 51 51 um we have 16 going to Bedford primary we have 11 going to Big Island 11 going to Boonsboro 27 going to Forest Elementary 69 going to Goodview Elementary six going to Huddleston Elementary 49 going to Manita Elementary 15 going to Montvale Elementary 18 going to New London Academy 25 going to Otter River Elementary 18 going to Stewartsville and 71 going to Thomas Jefferson Elementary 71 yes ma'am okay now I don't know whether you have this information or not but I'm just wondering are all of these these numbers that you gave me are students who are Bedford County Public School students they are not students that have been granted approval from outside of our County now that includes those two and if you'll give me

126a second I can tell you how many total so are outside of our Zone of outside of Bedford County I apologize most of those are employees who are coming in to work for us and they're bringing their children with them we have very few students who pay tuition there are a couple Mark and I were trying to think we think there's maybe four who pay tuition to come in but the rest are all employee employee students I'm going to ask you about the tuition student so you were thinking come on here hey um any questions for now questions for Dr Woodford miss you don't by enforcing this policy for Zone transfers this will solve the problem for other schools that are that we have too many kids in well I think what we would want

127some guidance on is do we do that by school by school um based on if it can make a difference in class sizes I think that what we see in our smaller schools if we would revoke those School transfer requests we possibly could get those numbers lower remembering that those kids always all go back to another school in most of the places that we've looked we've kind of done a reset we've looked at where they're going back to most of the time coming and going it kind of evens out um but you know as an example that auto River classroom that we were so concerned about we had parents who were concerned about revoking even if we just revoked those five in that one classroom we would have gotten that class size down to a

128manageable size so I think the options we could we could be as fine-tuned as possible we could close the school to Zone transfers and send everyone back out we could just look at classrooms that are hovering on those class sizes that would require another teacher if there's so many in there that they already have the teacher and it's not really affecting it um you know I think we could do a variety of things to our attempt would try to be to disrupt as few a families as possible um out of those 36 students that are outside of Bedford County what schools are those affecting um there are a few at each so there are two at Bedford Elementary one at Big Island four at Boonsboro seven at Forest Elementary at Huddleston three at Monita one

129at Montvale two at New London four At Otter River one at Stewartsville and eight at Thomas Jefferson now I will say one thing we have considered about outside you know if a teacher or a staff member is bringing their child to the student their work to the school they're working at that's different than let's say I work at Stanton River High School and I want to bring my child to an elementary school that feeds into the Stanton River High School we could then say this school is closed but you can take your child to this Stanton River school so we we could have some adjustment for employees who don't actually work in that school building they're just picking a school in the zone that they're working if that makes some sense those numbers are not

130as big really as just the actual transfers these examples that you gave have you had the opportunity and I know I'm asking a lot but have you had the opportunity to work those up for all the schools yes ma'am is there any way that we could look at those um because my question it's because I know just recently we past where siblings can go together we're trying to keep everybody together but how what would be if we if this were to be a route that we were to explore what's going to be the best way to wean it off do we let families that have started with the Zone transfers finish up until they go to middle school or or how that would affect so if there's any way that you could possibly send that

131to us so we could look at it and have more information I can and I'll give a little bit of description when I send that we've we've done it uh two different ways in the same chart we have current number of students by grade level at every Elementary School then we right underneath that we have the numbers if we just removed all of the transfer requests just took them out of the school and sent them back to their base schools but then we also just did a reset so and the data was getting fairly complicated so when I say a reset so you'll understand when you see the data basically we put everybody back at their home schools to say if you if we required you to go to your home school what would the

132enrollment in that school look like and would that solve some of our issues that we've discussed with redistricting at let's say New London Academy if there weren't so many transfers would that make a difference so I can send you that and we'll be happy to send it to you later tonight or tomorrow so you can look at it thank you very much anyone else have anything further thank you yeah I do on this topic before we're leaving yeah so this is a complex web I mean we've looked at this data pretty hard as a team we've been pouring over this just for context you know I've lived in a number of places when I raise my two two boys where we were living at the time you went to school where you bought your house

133there was no Zone transfers I am not here advocating that we eliminate Zone transfers it's a it's it's worked for this community for for a long time but it it varies from one County to the next you know whether or not you're you can you know put your child somewhere just pick a school and our concerns are not at secondary our middle schools are sufficiently large enough and our high schools it's bouncing out we're not having this concern this is strictly an elementary school issue for us and it's really narrowly an issue for us in the smaller the smaller the school because when you only have one teacher at a grade level and you bring in zone Trent that's we gave a couple of examples where we would only have one first grade teacher or

134one you know pick a great teacher but because we have Zone transfers we end up just tipping over that point where we got to hire a second teacher and we end up with two classrooms of 12 and 13 or 14 and 15 which is great for the 12 and 13 and 14 kids but it's not sustainable from a budget point of view um that's our real problem today that I'd like to solve as we go into next school year so the policy allows for a judicious use of not approving and or revoking existing Zone transfers I've only been here 18 months but I don't think we've done much of that in Bedford County so if we were if we were to do it we would be very judicious we would do it not across the

135school but we'd do it at a targeted grade level where there was a concern about we just didn't have enough kids to make two this is really going to be in the smaller space not in the larger Elementary um that's one way to to solve but but let's start with I said what I'm looking for from the board is Direction on just how big is too big so we talked a lot last year my recollection was we sort of landed on 26 you know 27 is just one too many um Mr Daniels asked a question I want to go back to it you know the state of Virginia says you can have 35 kids in a fourth or fifth grade classroom I'm not advocating for that state of Virginia says you can have 30 kids

136in a first second or third grade classroom I'm not advocating for that either but we don't have a number defined in our standards we have a school-wide average how we determine you know how many staff we assign but then you know Miss Harrison you remember back in the day when you're principal you got to figure out how you're going to split those teachers up and sometimes you wish you could cut them in half but you can't right and so one grade level ends up being a little bigger than you want it to be because the another grade level you're able to reduce the class sizes so I'd like some direction from the board just how big is too big and I'd like to put it in our staffing standard because it's not it's not in

137there it's 26 the number we're not going to be bigger than 26 because then we've defined then we I know what I'm working with and then when we hit 27 we either have to hire another teacher and if we did that every time we hit that number we've shown you we're going to need to find a million dollars in operating budget every year four we're going to have to do this we're going to have to remove some kids who have been in a school which is a difficult thing and a very emotional thing and something I'm not really relishing or wanting to do but we have a problem to solve these are two options for the board's consideration and I'm looking for some discussion from the board about these and some Direction is there any

138way we can revisit the Staffing standards and revisit this situation based on uh we stated that we did not want um multi-age classrooms can we add that as an option I mean we're looking at a million dollars I don't I don't think we can we can afford a million dollars added to our budget at this time you can revisit anything that the majority wants to do um yes ma'am multi-classrooms um I hate to hear that that's being brought up again but of course uh each board member has the right to revisit um but I I can assure you that multi-grade classrooms are not in the best interest of our students and I I would think that as a board that should be our priority is to ensure that we're providing our students with the best

139possible education that we can give them and I know firsthand and believe me the staff worked extremely hard and we used every resource that we had available but at the end of the day it was not an ideal model for our students so I will not retract my stance on multi-grade classrooms they do not work well I was gonna say yeah I mean this is not a fix to the immediate problem but instead of having Zone transfers you know just kind of wide open but from here on out only you know based them on on these numbers you know say oh well we'll you know we'll allow three at this school this year six at this one Whatever you know instead of having kind of a free-for-all you know I I hear you Mr Holbrook

140um and we can you know moving forward say new requests you know we're gonna but we already have a problem where we have any number of classrooms and any number of schools that are over that Tipping Point now and we've given you just two examples but we've looked at every grade level at every school um and if we were to before we go any further in doing that I just wanted to check in with this board because that's not been our practice has not been our practice we've been very liberal with Zone transfers you want your kid to go to a different School the answer is yes except for what we name three schools Dr Whitford New London forest and Boonsboro are close to to transfers but that leaves all the other schools are open

141to transfers so what if if the board has the appetite for it the real problem we have going in is we plan for next school years we could look at specific schools specific grade levels count the hairs on the heads and just say you know we're going to have to who revoke some Zone transfers for some kids because it's just put us in a position where we're going to have to hire additional staff whereas we can accommodate the families who purchased a home in that zone we can accommodate them but the Zone transfers is what's is what's tipping us you know and tell those families we can consider his own transfer to a different school or of course you always have the right and your your first option for any citizen would be your kid

142goes to school where you watch home you know in your Zone so this information has I mean it's been brought to us tonight for the very first time so Dr Bergen are you asking for the board to give you Direction tonight and suggestions tonight no but we are going to Let's thank you for the clarification um next month I would like for the the board to to answer those two questions for us at the direction how many is too many let's put it in the Staffing standard and how do you want to address it do you want to address it with you know we brought two options here tonight do you wanna do you want to consider it that's why one has some discussion here first Mrs Harrison so that next month we can come

143back with you know how does the board want to address it I'd like to address Mr Holbrook you ask about you know kind of pulling back now Mr Hagler and I actually talked about the budget implication if we were to say okay let these students finish out through fifth grade then the the impact is we're starting at a million each year and kind of backing off but we'll have several years that we still would have to add teachers while we watch those numbers and I think that's kind of what we're trying to do we're trying to get enough information to bring you good numbers when we're finalizing the budget and I think you know Mr Nelms you brought up multi-age I think if there's a a great concern about multi-age classrooms is a better alternative

144maybe more students in a same grade classroom instead of limiting us there we're just throwing out things for you to think about things we're trying to think about as we are trying to bring you a budget with your priorities addressed and also trying to be very conscious of the money that we have available so we're really open to any idea I think our goal tonight was to make sure as we're putting all of this data together we give you good data and good numbers so a couple comments um I would hate to see that we take away a perk from our teachers to allow them to put their children in the schools that they want them in in our County that is a perk for our teachers so that is a concern that we would

145go take that away to from what I'm understanding this is a concern at small schools I don't understand and I hear the number I think 71 at TJ well TJ's not a capacity issue so why would we go move 71 students out of a larger School that there are no capacity issues so you know don't affect kids where we don't need to affect kids um question of the multi-grade classrooms or multi-age is that what you're calling them if we were to say okay not what we really want and and the majority of the board has said that but Mr Nelms brought it back up how does that help us at these smaller schools would it help us to not have to say sorry you can't come here I just want to understand do we see

146it where we would have to implement it in a majority of our smaller schools or is it just one school or two schools and that would be an option to say hey Mr or Mrs parent we're going to let you come here but I need you to understand your child is going to be part of this classroom and then it's up to the parent where the where they stay at the elementary school of their choice or they take them back to their home Elementary but I don't see where we would want to interrupt kids that we don't have a capacity issue if we want if there's a hundred kids that want to go to a larger school then we allow those kids to go to that school and we bring teachers with those based on

147head count but I need to understand how does that change if you were to get that change where could we implement it but for zone for that zone transfer discussion we would only suggest to the board in schools that it was causing an issue where we're either forcing ourselves into having to mix grade levels or having to put another teacher in when you look at the smaller schools there's a lot of advantages to being in a small school but when you look at a class of um let's say a Kindergarten class of that's not a good example hold on I'm trying to find a good one okay so a fourth grade class of 27. if the board is saying 27 is just not appealing and we split that in a small school then you're giving

148you know two fairly small classrooms there you're getting like a 13 and a 14. so in our smaller schools by adding that influx of Staff you are getting very small school small class sizes but then those schools that are are larger they're still at 19 20 21 per class and because they're larger they can handle a capacity of two or three additional students um since our last meeting I I kind of gone back to do a little research on multi-age and I was here as a supervisor when you know we were we were doing that and it was it was tough um but I do think one of the things we lacked at that time was providing some runway for us to be prepared and some training for our teachers um you know I think

149they're no matter it's difficult decisions when you put a lot of teachers in small schools you're having class sizes of 12 13. and then you've got your kids in your larger schools and classes of 23 24. so are you you know smaller schools cost more and that's where you're putting it is into your Staffing to Woodford if you could elaborate for me regarding multi-grading or statement in terms of there being a lack of preparation so what what do you can you elaborate on that what exactly preparation do you think would be needed to make it an effective model to use so I I just and again I have just been trying to do a little research just to be sure that you know as we're I think I was asked at the last meeting kind

150of what I thought and I wanted to kind of see recent research um I think we would maybe the way we're grouping students I know that the last time we moved to some multi-age it was kind of at the end of summer it was very quick for principals and you're trying to decide where your kids go I think we would really have to think and bring our teachers in about the formation of those classes you know if you're mixing a third and a fourth grade class your highest third graders you know maybe with your kids who are at core range there or some just interesting scheduling like maybe you have a teacher that's teaching second third and fourth grade math um where maybe the classes are a little larger but you're rotating so their core

151classes are smaller but maybe they go to Resource as a larger class so I think so maybe some creative scheduling is what I'm seeing in some research so that math and English Science History classes are smaller while some of the other classes like resource classes are larger and then there's a bit different than a a regular subject area classroom right you know right right because that's very common to to have multi-grades maybe in a resource classroom right and I think too that um I think elementary teachers do do a great job of leveling reading and leveling math groups so going in purposeful with that I don't think we should put kindergartners in a multi-age because we don't know them well enough so I think we really have to look at the data of where they're

152at where their strengths are where their weaknesses are um so I think if if we did end up going that way if that's what the board chose I mean that we're just discussing it that's the only reason I'm talking about it um I think the instruction team would do some very specific work in helping those teachers getting some training um there is some online training and some in-person training that we could look at um you know I would be very interested in looking at the data and the resources that you have spent the time looking at that supports multi-grade and and I'm saying it's it's it's data on how do we make it work yeah I'd be very interested be willing to come and sit down with you okay and can you also include me

153in that as well go ahead and tell all of us yeah okay just for clarity yeah would you like us to just create a staff report for the next board meeting on that or do you want us to schedule offline meetings with you and pairs or individually between now and the next board meeting Jeff Ford being bring it back again as a staff report because it's not we have too many questions Dr Whitford I would like to include too if we were to go that route how does the dollar amount change so right now you're telling me you need 1.06 million dollars added to the budget I'm telling you right now I'm not for that yeah well I can tell you what we would say is our if you were to remove the no multi-age

154classroom then we're going back to our staffing standards which is how we give ftes and I think the decision then has to go to the principal to say I have this many ftes how do I make it work how do I make it work so I would I could tell you right now making it work either by using those soq High limits for classroom um you know or somehow arranging the schedule to possibly mix some levels of reading math science and history would be what we've already presented in the budget so it wouldn't be more of a cost it's also not going to be a cost savings because we're going to follow the soq that we already the dollar amount would stay the same you wouldn't be coming to us asking for more or for

155us to cut from somewhere else to fund 1.06 okay thank you any more questions just wanted to respond to you know Mr Hill saying why would we remove kids from a score we had capacity we wouldn't we'd be I'd say very judicious whichever direction the board provides whether that's you know what we present here tonight was you know use the policy as written um Zone transfers if there's a concern in a particular grade level a particular School that's you know tipping us to having to create a another classroom section that would be the only grade level in that school that we'd be looking at Zone transfer requests we would be doing blanket we have a you know not quite 400 elementary school children we just look at them one at a time each child individually

156in the impact that transfers having and there was a comment or two here about staff and bringing their children you know we could tweak the policy to say that that's going to have priority over anything else in his own transfer request I want to avoid I mean the way it was presented to me it was all schools all policy so it sounds like we're changing a little bit and that's fine but there's no need to affect kids when you don't have to affect them so let's create a policy that you know here's where we need it this is where we what we could Implement and understand how it affects the schools that are taking it above that number and I'm sorry if if I misspoke during the presentation our suggestion would be for schools that

157the numbers are forcing us to either add add teachers so it would primarily be the smaller schools when I was saying that I had data on a reset where everybody goes back the reason we did that is because we wanted to also be aware that if we sent you know 39 students from Monita back to their base schools what was that effect on the Bay Schools and were we overcrowding those which caused another issue so just for clarity we would only ask the board to allow us to enforce that um policy jcd only if we came into a situation where the ftes allotted to them were causing an issue with an overcrowded class that would create a multi-age situation or where we would have to add staff so I apologize if I good clarification but

158in the same it's good to communicate with the community because they hear 71 kids are at TJ that should not be there well we have capacity right right right you know and and then you're going to have a smaller School say well my my school's closed but 71 people can go it's just important for folks to understand the reason why good view and TJ have additional kids is because we have capacity okay but thank you Dr wolfer for that presentation questions okay moving on to item 4.01 Carl Perkins Grant Dr Bergen uh yes Madam chair tonight Dr Tross was going to be sharing with you our plan for using our Perkins funding for next school year that's funding for students in grades 5 through 12 who are enrolled in CTE courses as we've shared with

159the board through some email Communications it's unfortunate we didn't receive the information needed from vdoe until after our last board meeting and we have a deadline to meet before our next board meeting so normally what we would do is we'd present our plan for information and ask you the following month to take action but tonight because of constraints that are out of our control we want to both present our plan for using the Perkins Grant and then make a request that the board considers setting aside the two meeting cycle and take action tonight so that we can meet the deadline that is required of us from the bdoe so we've sent you the plan so you could review it in advance but we're going to go ahead and have Dr troughs is going to review

160our plan at this time and then address any questions thank you Dr Bergen so the 2020 324 Perkins Grant application is being presented as Dr Bergen said for information and action tonight and so as we've outlined in the attached application these funds will be used to support students in grades 5-12 enrolled in Career and Technical education courses the funds will go towards purchasing equipment and other supplies needed to sustain our CTE programs and the grant was developed and thanks to Mr haas's efforts he's worked very hard on this and I appreciate that but as he and I have worked together on this it was developed using a comprehensive local needs assessment with input from schools and by analyzing performance reports from previous years also Mr Haas collaborated with other CT supervisors and directors from surrounding

161divisions and so just a few highlights the performance assessments which are on page seven these numbers reflect performance in Bedford County students towards State targets we have sustained and we're proud of the fact that we've sustained success over multiple years in Bedford County as you can see we've met all Targets except for the non-traditionals but we have shown growth from last year and just want to note that the data you are seeing is for Medford county seniors for the 21-22 school year there was a quick reference guide there is a lot of abbreviations and that's due to spacing issues and limitations with the application itself so we did create that quick reference guide so you understood what that meant and then finally there's a budget summary and that's on page 44. as you can see

162we've moved most of our funding to Capital outlay and Equipment purchases purchase Services internal expenses and other travel funds we've moved those to local funds and that allows us to put more money into equipment and other costs that are investments really for long-term success in our CTE programs so upon approval of the plan Mr Haas we'll meet with CT Department chairs administrators and bookkeepers and we'll make determinations about how to allot specifically to different schools and programs and then again once it's approved by the Department of Education it will be available after July 1st one more comment before we have questions I want to mention that April's Workforce Readiness month and so this was established to promote the need to identify Workforce Development opportunities that enable students to be prepared to succeed in this new

163economy our Workforce Readiness programs that offer training on skill sets that will allow students to be globally competitive it is also critical that we collaborate with our businesses and our Industries in the community and our community college system to ensure that students have Early Access and opportunity to participate in the workforce Readiness program so again we already be proud of the work that has been done we look forward to Future growth of CTE in Bedford County so again we're going to be also going to be asking you to take action on this as well and at this time I'll be happy to answer any questions we'll defer to Mr Hill I'm sure he's going to ask the question that I was going to ask when it comes to the equipment that we're purchasing with this

164we we want to make sure that our staff is trained on the equipment so that we can ensure that we are using it is that included somewhere in that as well not just the purchase but the the teaching of how we should be using it well I can answer them as far as the students go there are OSHA standards that students must show competencies in before they can move forward with with the courses so they would certainly be trained in that and of course that requires staff so now as far as the specific staff training I may have to follow up with you on that but but I can assure you students are expected to show competencies in those standards before using it um one thing that I would ask if we're not doing it

165is an audit and what I mean by that is any equipment that we have ordered as they come in I don't know what the timeline is I'll let you guys figure that out but I I'd like an audited to make sure we're utilizing that equipment I'll use an example and I've shared this with Randy so I'm not throwing Randy under the bus he's probably like oh Lord here we go um you know we spent a lot of money on 3D printers um and you know I love to see them in use and there are schools that have them in use but there are also schools that have them sitting in a corner collecting dust with paper stacked on top of them that's not good spending money um we need to train it um you know

166Randy and I have talked about this when we're purchasing from somewhere we need to ask that vendor to provide training you know I use the boards that are in our teachers classrooms some teachers absolutely love them they use them every day they save it download it share it on Chromebooks I mean it's the real deal other teachers won't even turn it on they have no clue they they just don't use it and so I want to make sure because I love technology I think you guys know that but I want to make sure when we're spending dollars we're following up to make sure we're using it um so I just I'd like some type of audit and that's Randy and I talked about it it's not just for CTE it's for anything that we're ordering

167any equipment any new technology who's training that require it you know even require them to come back six months later just to do a follow-up to make sure we're getting what we're paying for and that we're using it to the fullest you know ability so thank you but this is good stuff so Madam chair due to time urgency and the request of staff I do ask that we suspend our rules to waiting a month you know as far as information and then taking action I would like to waive those rules and make a motion that we uh well first of all you're making a motion get waive the rule yep okay I have a motion by Mr Hill second a second five Mr Nelms any discussion we're just for clarification um for what purpose oh

168yeah for the purpose of because he said because of time urgency with with signing the grant so we're just waving the rule for the one month notification because of the deadline for the grant okay okay just wanted to be clear okay any further discussion okay call for a vote all those in favor signify by saying aye all right proposed the motion to waive the rule is great as past okay now do I have another motion regarding the grant yes ma'am Madam chair I make a motion that we approve the Carl Perkins Grant I have a motion by Mr Hill for the approval of the Carl Perkins Grant do I have a second okay second by Miss Harriston any discussion all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed that motion carries as well moving

169on to item 4.02 2022 23 calendar adjustment Dr Bergen uh yeah so board member says you're aware due to a relatively mild winter uh Mr Edwards did not get the opportunity to say it's a snow day baby so um you all may have been contacted by teachers individually or collectively I know I am when I'm in schools teachers have asked can we modify our calendar as adopted since we have so many built-in days and didn't need them or use them as we have had to in previous years can we reduce the number of instructional days at the end of the year this is uh this is totally for the board it is your adopted calendar if you would like to modify the calendar it'd be your prerogative to do so not knowing if you do

170or do not want to modify the calendar we are bringing you a suggestion um about how we could eliminate two instructional days I think we do we have that uh you're ready to talk through that aren't you Karen yeah so I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna ask Dr Woodford to talk through this option and then we well I'm certain we're gonna have some questions about that so go ahead Dr Whitford good evening again members of the board as Dr Bergen just said um the administration at the school board office administrators at the school level parents have been asking and I know that you also have been getting questions regarding a modification to this year's school calendar since we have not used any of our banked snow time again I wanted to say this is uh not

171a recommendation from the administration regarding a change to the calendar we are just providing some guidance and some options if the board is interested in changing the calendar um currently our seniors last day of school is Friday May the 26th and their graduation is on Saturday May the 27th however all other students are currently supposed to finish their last two days of school on Tuesday and Wednesday May 30th and 31st with teachers working on Thursday and Friday June 1st and 2nd to complete their teacher work days however with the fact that we did not have any snow days this school year and because we have sufficient Bank time and at this point in that or in this point in the school year at the end of May all of our end of the year testing

172will be completed we could suggest the following modification the board could vote to have all students finish along with seniors on Friday May the 26th and then the teacher's final two work days would be on May the 30th and 31st if the board would like to discuss this I'm happy to answer any questions I would ask that if a change to the calendar is desired by the majority of the board if that decision could be made quickly it would be really important for us to get that notification out to family so they can plan for a change in the end of the school year schedule um and I'm happy to take any questions for Dr Woodford I've been to say that you know I certainly think that this is something that our teachers and would

173certainly appreciate and um I would certainly be completely supportive of it and I wanted to ask Madam chairman um can we move this forward you know and let's just give the staff an answer and let our teachers and and let's address any other questions first any other questions so what happened to June 1st and 2nd um well what we would be doing is just moving it back so if students go to less days then we would just we're backing up the two teacher work days I guess is is that what you're asking me they would have gone the teachers would have their work days they would have worked with the kids through May 31st and then they would have had their two work days to finish out the school year on June 1st and 2nd

174um if we back up and students leave earlier then their two work days would also back up is just the way I looked at it I mean we could do something different if that's what the board wishes are you asking for four work days in that last week I'm just because we were scheduled through the second so in reality we're giving teachers two additional work days or not just teachers but how many employees are we given two additional days and I'm not saying I'm not for it I'm just trying to understand what's the impact so we're taking two days paid days and giving them to employees is that correct for the employees who would finish out their work days so instructional Personnel so anybody on a 10-month contract but if they were work days first

175and second they could still take those days off correct teachers anybody if they used personal days or right they don't they don't have vacation like 12-month employees but um so maybe to address your question Mr Hill we can this is a fluid conversation maybe we can make a decision or the war can have some discussion a decision on whether we want to shorten the number of days that students attend and then separate from that if you want to then decide what happens with all the staff who support students whether or not you want to shorten their their their contract year by by two days or not that's what I'm hearing in the question that's I'm just just trying to figure out I mean what's the impact of two days I mean for how many employees

176that's my question I mean I understand the schedule change and I support it students getting out before graduation and not coming back but I thought the intention was that it would be work days for teachers without students and so now I'm hearing that it's not only work days that the kids won't be here but we're also giving two additional days off or it could not be that I think that's we're we're just presenting an option for how it could be modified so I think our main I think the main question we've been getting from parents is students have all this extra instructional time can they get out the same time as seniors so we could say yes and then they not return to school on Tuesday and Wednesday and I think as Dr Bergen said

177then we can address does the staff who who work two days after kids leave do they work those two days and go or do they work all of the days they were scheduled to work that week they just have two extra days without students to possibly do some more work prep for next year do professional development I think we we would figure that out with ever whatever the board would wish us to do staff that would want to be included whether it's 10 month 11 months 12 months like your custodians or nutrition there's a lot of um it wouldn't be a what we're talking about is not a change for all staff we're just talking about the the people who serve the students directly so teachers paraprofessionals they're would be some effect to bus drivers

178and um would not have to report nutrition would clean up the kitchen and they would be done right so they're professionals the other comment that I think is very important to make because you know I agree that the last two days you know half of our students aren't there they're not going to come back but I want to be very clear that we're not talking out of both sides of our mouth because just a couple meetings ago we were talking about learning loss and the concern of more classroom time and really what are we doing to bring our students further ahead so you know I want to make it clear the concern is still there that we have learning loss and we've got major makeup to do but in knowing and having kids and and

179the experience you guys know well half the kids are not going to be here on those last two days so I want to make sure people understand the only reason I would support it and I'm not speaking for anybody else is that the fact of we're not going to get a lot done those last two days anyway when it comes to learning loss but I do want to make sure we keep that at a Forefront that that learning loss is still a major concern so um I don't know where the rest of the board stands on the two days I mean it we didn't have snow days I mean we we've had a really good year we've worked hard I I'm fine with that but I just wanted to make sure that it was noted

180not only are we giving kids two days off but we're also giving our teachers instruction anybody dealing with instruction two days off I'm fine with that I just wanted to make sure we acknowledge that of emotion about suspending the rule again Madam chair um again due to time urgency and making sure our community parents teachers are able to make plans and know about a calendar change I do move that we suspend the rules in reviewing information a month and then waiting a month to approve I would like to move forward and approve the calendar change the motion by Mr Hill do I have a second second by Mr Holbrook any discussion all those in favor signify by saying I opposed and motion to suspend the rule passes now do I have a motion regarding the

181calendar adjustment Madam chair I will make the motion that we accept the calendar adjustment as presented with students last day of school being on May 26th and May 30th through 31st being considered work days have a motion by Mr Hill do I have a second second by Mr Daniels any discussion all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed motion carries a calendar is adjusted item 4.03 policy updates Dr Bergen [Music] yes uh Madam chair your intergovernmental Affairs committee met on the 21st of March to review proposed revisions to eight policies those eight policies include ecab vandalism the suggested changes are removal of outdated cross references policy EI Insurance management updates to consider are strictly to Legal references policy gab and iibea both of which are acceptable computer system use the suggested edits reflect

182changes in classroom technology and access to remote networks or cloud-based services there's a statement regarding compensation for loss of or damage to technology equipment that has been added to the policy as a potential revision policy GC beb military leave-in benefits the policy update recommendations reflect an amendment to state code increasing the maximum number of paid leave days for military leave from 15 days as it's currently written to 21 days IAA notification of learning objectives proposed changes include renaming the policy quote transparency in education end quote and adding the requirement for the school division to post on the division website a list of approved textbooks by grade level as well as giving parents the opportunity to inspect on request any instructional material used as part of the student's curriculum policy INB teaching about controversial issues extensive

183proposed policy revisions would expand on the importance of the impartial study and discussion of political and controversial issues and elaboration of the non-discrimination statement that no race ethnicity religion disability status or sex is inherently Superior or inferior and prohibiting discussions with students about sexual orientation or gender identity and policy JM restraint and seclusion of students this policy requires annual review by the school board it is being presented with no changes to the policy it's only being presented because it's required to be reviewed annually the members of the intergovernmental Affairs committee Administration are ready to answer any questions that you may have about these proposed changes um Dr Bergen and members of the committee as well policy INB um I just have just a couple of questions first let me just say that I certainly know

184and appreciate and I know that the community does and our instructional staff regarding the non-discrimination um piece to the policy it's very very important and and to have that embedded in our policy is uh very valuable I know that this policy and you correct me if I'm wrong is probably a response to the Senate Bill 656 that was enacted in 2022 by the Virginia General Assembly the department of Ed developed a model policies concerning instructional materials with sexually explicit content and while we're certainly addressing some aspects of it I I wonder and would like to know were there discussions a little bit more in depth um as it involved the section that talks about instructional materials with sexually explicit content and I know in the past pornography has been something certainly that was prohibited for

185students and to certainly access or be involved in but I don't see that anywhere in the policy so my question um is or their discussion regarding elaborating more on that aspect of it helping to the to make it very clear to our staff and also um I was also just kind of wondering that this bill after reading um the origination of the bill that um under the Senate Bill 656 required that the local school boards should certainly enact this and adopt policies but it states that it was due by January the 1st of 2023 so with that in mind I'm I'm just wondering why the delay and are we in compliance here hmm I can address the sexually explicit materials that is covered in policy IIA under instructional program and we actually have created a

186rule that gives very specific information about how to identify and how sexually explicit material is defined and how that's to be submitted so that's IIA it's IIA is the policy and then iiar is the regulation that gives the very specific details and I shared that in a Wednesday memo that we added it after IIA had been updated but it does contain all of the information about this actually explicit materials and that we we got that out before that January 1st deadline so we're okay there and I guess the committee decided not to include it in with the the eye INB is that our yeah IMB was that the governmental's decision to do that it was already included in another policy yeah okay then IIA so in terms of the deadline is there any or were

187you guys aware that there was a a deadline yeah we presented it during a meeting and we said we needed to put it in the the policy you were just talking about that covered the requirement for the January first deadline correct correct yeah we talked about that so that followed this particular mandate correct okay and I I a dash r um I know that we've heard from a number of individuals in the community more importantly from a teacher tonight that certainly shared their concerns and I I can't help but to put my head my former principal had on and knowing that the number of times that um students even at the elementary level will engage in conversations with staff members regarding your family they just if they see a picture of your family on your

188desk then that Sparks a conversation and an interest in and knowing who are these individuals and things like that and it's just a natural thing that students do and I'm wondering with this policy if we've really given a clear pathway for our teachers in terms of handling that are we asking them not to engage in in any any conversation even the simplest from a little kindergartner kid who may see the picture of their family on their desk and just is asking questions about them I think the policy is clear it says does not prohibit teachers from including in their instruction as part of a course of study utilizing the textbooks and other instructional materials adopted in accordance with approved curriculum that includes and it goes on so if it's part of the approved curriculum they

189can talk about it and just a simple question from a student is to just be ignored I think teachers are trained to know what to answer and how to answer and if it's something they're not comfortable with they should certainly reach out to their supervisor or to a guidance counselor or someone within their building to to help them determine how to answer a question thank you any more questions and we will move on down the item 9.0 to additional action items 9.01 special educational plan do I have a motion regarding the special educational plan chair make a motion that we approve the special education plan as president of Ms Jennings I have a mission by Mr Hill Drive a second second second by who to hear down here Mr Nelms okay have first and the

190second any discussion he called for a vote all those in favor signify by saying aye aye aye opposed motion carries do I have a motion regarding the K-5 reading textbook approval Madam chairman I make a motion that we approve the K-5 reading textbook have a motion by Miss Harrison do I have a second second second by Mr Daniels any discussion all those in favor signify by saying aye aye opposed motion carries do I have a motion regarding the supplemental Appropriations in category transfers chair make a motion that we approve the supplemental Appropriations and category transfers as presented by Mr Hagler I have a motion about Mr Hill Drive a second there second by who was this one Mr Daniels okay any discussion all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed motion carries do

191I have a motion regarding the approval of nutrition bids I'm chairman I make a motion that we approve the nutrition bids I have a motion by Miss Harrison to have a second second by Mr Hill any discussion all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed motion carries do I have a motion regarding the approval of policy updates presented at the March 9 2023 board meeting Madam chair uh after I want to make sure I call this out I do make a motion that we approve the policy updates presented at the March 9th 2023 with the notation that we had conversation of our last IGA meeting regarding jjag we did have um um a reference has been added to the regulation which defines all heat related illnesses including heat stroke and so I am

192comfortable in bringing that forward and presenting um the policy didn't change so the policy is the same however we have added uh reference in the regulation I have a motion by Mr Hill do I have a second second by Mr Holbrook any discussion call for vote all those in favor signify by saying aye aye opposed motion carries Dr Bergen superintendent's report yes ma'am so direct you to our screens or those who are watching at home our first celebration are these eight individuals here on the screen these are eight seniors that Susie G Gibson Science and Technology Center who are part of the automotive technology class and they all of them pass the Virginia state inspection exam which makes them highly employable upon graduation special thanks to their instructors at Susie G and to the Virginia

193State Police for their continued support of this program next up students from across the School Division recently participated in the Virginia band and Orchestra Directors Association District concert band assessment an event that was held in Danville each Ensemble was graded by a panel of experienced band directors and given a rating receiving a superior rating were Forest Middle School's 8th grade band Jefferson Forest symphonic band and Jefferson force wind Symphony and Liberty High School's combined band in addition Liberty Middle School 8th grade Advanced band received an excellent rating congratulations to all of our student musicians and their musical directors for their hard work and dedication [Music] congratulations to Liberty High School's student council for being awarded a 2023 Achievement Award given by the Virginia Student council's Association vsca in recognition of their exceptional record for leadership

194service and Civic activities towards improving their school and community Liberty High School is one of only 15 schools across the entire Commonwealth to receive this award in addition the young lady pictured on the screen Marissa Parikh was elected as the Region 5 representative for next school year we're very proud of all of our students who recently participated in the Central Virginia High School Regional science fair our students really showed off all of their research knowledge dedication and skills at this Regional Fair with many students earning awards for their amazing work students earning a first place for their categories and moving forward to state competition include Payton heimbach Claire Whaley Hannah key and Erica milhorn earlier tonight we were set to recognize Jason Chen who was unable to attend in person but Jason was the Grand

195Award winner and will be moving on to the Intel international science and engineering Fair um tonight we have more accolades for our state champion Stanton River wrestlers score Book Live evaluated the top high school wrestlers across the entire nation in each weight class and we're proud to share that Noah nininger was named to the All-American team as the 132 pound weight class mock national champion his teammates Colin Martin and Macon Ayers both achieved All-American status at the National High School coaches association competition where Colin finished second in the country in the sophomore 113 pound Division and Macon finished seventh in the 160 pound sophomore division and finally grade and Martin went 5-0 to win the 85 pound division making him the nhsca Middle School Division champion go golden eagles students from both Liberty and Jefferson

196Forest high schools recently competed in a regional History Day competition we had four students from Liberty Abigail and Kaylee Tabor Sarah Johnson and Michaela Branham the four each took first place in their respective categories and Noah layer had a second place finish Jefferson Force had seven students finish in first place in their respective categories Taylor tuning Ava Schaefer Abigail stronza Stoll Shane bright and Andrew camarda Lorelei moss and yes send you Barajas Rodriguez second place finishers from JF included Audrey Johnson Aaron Tinsley Rowan Harrington Charles Spence Jesse Taylor Sally uran Nora Clark Asia elk cat alakad Naomi finta Hoon Swan Lowe Noah Fink and Jonas Tyree all of these students will now move on to the state competition in Richmond on April 30. congratulations to our key clubs at both Liberty High and Jefferson Forest

197on their recent accomplishments Liberty's Key Club had a first place finish at the Capitol District leadership conference so they will now go on to compete at the International Convention this summer all three of their officers president Miranda Harvey vice president Cameron Stone and webmaster Anna Carter were recognized for their distinguished leadership Jefferson four seniors Brooke Lee and Justin Kim were recognized for their past leadership positions as Key Club Lieutenant Governors and Junior Hannah Chi was installed as a division lieutenant governor Junior kaii coffee was also recognized for going above and beyond as an outstanding Key Club member in partnership with the Bedford area Education Foundation we're very pleased to continue to lift up two staff members each month through the bedford's best program which is designed to recognize unsung heroes who go above and beyond

198in making a difference in people's lives every day congratulations to our recipients for the month of March they were Montvale elementary schools Jan rakes and Stanton River Middle School's principal Jessica Guyer I had the pleasure of visiting their schools and presenting them with a gift of appreciation for all that they do by way of reminder this is my monthly plug if you would like to nominate a staff member please visit our website and click on the bedford's best link under District news and speaking of the Bedford area Education Foundation we would like to again express our appreciation for all of their support for our teacher of the year program along with other local businesses including the fostech corporation JM Freebird and Sam Moore Furniture their generous contributions allowed us to recognize all of our teachers

199of the Year finalists for their dedication and exceptional work in the classroom you might have seen in recent news coverage a story about staff members at Jefferson Forest High School for their life-saving efforts towards one of their colleagues who had gone into cardiac arrest at the school those staff members Steve Everett Brian Miller Jenny Davis and Kelly Thomas were each recognized by the Bedford County Fire and Rescue for their life-saving efforts and members of the forest volunteer fire department were also recognized for their support that day this event was a sober reminder of the importance for all of us and and in celebration that our all of our staff are trained in basic first aid administering CPR and how to use an AED and it made a difference in Saving a life that day last

200month Liberty High School hosted their second annual hooping with Heroes this is a fun and entertaining evening of basketball featuring The Liberty High School unified students and staff playing against local law enforcement the stands were filled with friends family and Community supporters with all the money raised going to support the school's unified program and Bedford County's Special Olympics thank you to everyone who helped make this event a success as mentioned earlier in several of our staff reports the month of April is Workforce Readiness month as included in our strategic plan the school division is committed to expanding our Workforce Readiness and Career and Technical education programs to better enable our students to be successful and competitive in the job market After High School we had 21 students from Gibson who placed at the skills USA

201Regional competition and will now be participating in the state competitions on April 22nd in Virginia Beach we'd also like to give special recognition to the teachers for tomorrow and early childhood education students who recently attended the Educators Rising competition where three of our students Lauren wise and Haley Smith from Jefferson forest and Olivia Rousey from Liberty High School the three of them finished in the top three and will now be headed to a national competition in June if you've been over to Forest Middle School recently you may have noticed that the islands in the parking lot have a new look when the HVAC was being replaced over this past year several tons of river rock was removed from Atop The Original building or what is known as the flat top building that opened in 1994.

202using PTA funds The Mulch that was in the parking lot Islands was removed barrier paper was laid down and this reclaimed 30 year old River Rock was used to help protect and beautify the campus we're using this as an example tonight to thank all of our ptas for your support and efforts at keeping our school campuses looking so good each year since 1987 the month of March has been recognized as women's History Month in order to celebrate the contributions women have made to the United States and recognize the specific achievements women have made over the course of American history this year's theme was celebrating women who tell our stories as pictured on this slide students across the School Division celebrated through a range of learning activities throughout the month that included school-wide announcements bulletin boards

203research presentations and class discussions thank you to all of the women who've helped shape our world and make it a better place the month of April is traditionally designated month of the military child in order to pay tribute to military children and their parents Virginia is home to several of the nation's largest military installations and has more children whose parents are on active duty or serve in the reserves or National Guard than any other state in fact there are more than 79 000 military-connected children enrolled in Virginia's public schools 200 of those students right here in Bedford County to honor these parents and children for their service and their sacrifices we'd like to encourage everyone to purple up and wear purple on Wednesday April 19th this week is National assistant principles week our assistant principals

204are dedicated professionals who work tirelessly to bolster teachers motivate students and collaborate with parents in order to maintain a positive learning environment for everyone please join us in celebrating these School leaders for their hard work and commitment and finally here are the three things you need to know for this month spring break is next week Monday April 10 through Friday April 14. school is closed for students and our offices will be closed Wednesday Thursday and Friday second we're preparing to Showcase some of our best middle school and high school artwork at the Bauer Center for the Arts and we want to make sure that you know you're invited to see it the middle school art exhibition will be held the week of April 10-15 followed by the high school art Expedition the week of April

20518 to 29. please check our website for specific viewing hours including special receptions and awards presentations and lastly interim progress reports will go home the week following spring break on Thursday April 20 so parents please be on the lookout and check on your students progress as we head into the final weeks of this school year Madam chair that concludes my superintendent comments very much Dr Bergen move on to item 11.01 committee reports we'll start with you Mr Daniels all right um the seaac met on March 30th um and we had a training done it was a closed session but we had a training done from the Department of Education in Richmond it was um it was really good they did a great job presenting we asked a lot of questions and and I thought it

206was very informative the next day on the 31st we also had a training this was for the public um Ms Jennings we had like 20 people or something there from the public asking questions about about the seaac about special needs um and it was uh there was food and I I there was a great turnout and it was something that we've been trying to pull off for a while and it was it was a success and hopefully we get to do more of them the end of that report thank you Mr Daniels Mr nolens um let's see the CTE committee we met on March 23rd um let's see I think he hit on a lot of my points earlier about the Virginia Beach uh Schools USA competition we got 21 students going um I do

207know the Virginia Career Works they met with and visited all the schools as of March 23rd um another highlighted note is our JROTC program they are still undefeated in their Marksmanship Program so that was a good takeaway from there and then our HVAC program in our first year they took second place in the school's USA program as well so right yeah yeah IGA we met on March 21st next meeting will be April 25th I had a STEM Academy board meeting on March 21st as well uh next meeting is Tuesday May 23rd during the March meeting we did approve the calendar for the STEM Academy for 23 24 year and we approved a preliminary budget for 23.24 and then gov school I did not attend due to a scheduling conflict now yep that's it I've worked

208in committee reports uh the facility committee didn't hasn't had a meeting since before the last uh scheduled school board meeting what's up is there any reports yeah absolutely the Laurel School Board we met yesterday um and our primary focus was really just discussing the draft budget for 23.24 and it does include between five and seven percent pay increase for Staffing at the Laurel School with a lot of emphasis was placed on the support staff our repair professionals ensuring that those individuals received a good raise there and our next meeting will be May the 3rd and we'll at that time hopefully we'll be able to finalize the budget but like all other school divisions we're just still on hold when it comes to our budget right now and as Mr Holbrook said our last facility meeting

209was back in March your reports nope okay so now do you want to lead off with your comments Absolutely I'll be happy to okay well I just want to um wish everyone everyone teachers students staff all of you just a relaxing and fun-filled spring break enjoy yourself you deserve it that's for sure and I'm so glad that we were able to vote on the calendar change there for you and that's kind of going to make that spring break maybe even a little bit more sweeter for you just knowing that that adjustment you've got those extra days there to begin your summer vacation um next thing I I would like to take the time um doing my board comments is to recognize uh Ryan Edwards um Ryan on behalf of Dr melee and I and unfortunately

210Dr mealy was unable to be here tonight with us due to a family medical matter but I know that she shares my same sentiments when I say to you that we so appreciate you we thank you for your dedication for your commitment to our school division and your position as the core coordinator of public relations Ryan because of your work our division has by far the greatest social media page around we have the greatest teacher of the year program the greatest sports student recognition announcer by far and we can't forget we cannot forget those anticipated snow day announcements that you created we all waited for those moments we waited to hear that voice and it meant so much to us and boy they were awesome too your work and your commitment to ensuring that our

211retirees you never forgot anyone even the retirees were recognized and not to mention support staff the the support staff employee of the year program you know I could go on and on and on and on the list is just endless and I would be remiss not to recognize the fact that you received in your career time a national recognition for your work in public relations I don't know if anyone knows that but I remember when you were honored on that National stage so by far Ryan you're a Class Act you're a jewel and I will be forever forever grateful for how you helped me fellow principles for over 18 years you helped us without a doubt to navigate some of those really really rough public relations Waters you were there for us and that gave

212us all such peace and you did it with professionalism and with such ease like it was nothing Ryan Dr melee and I we wish you the very very best and we want you to enjoy all of your Happy Mondays so you're going to have lots and lots of Happy Mondays and thank you Ryan thank you thank you so very much for your service that's all that I have thank you Miss Harrison Mr Holbrook well I'd just like to say we had a couple people from the community come up and speak about school safety and you know just won't just want to be known that that it is a it is a priority and we are we had had some meetings in the past with the sheriff's department and the safety team here um you know

213on implementing some of the some things or things we could do some of them have been implemented um I don't know when the next meeting is going to be about that but there but there is a plan of action you know in in the works and uh and as far as you know something was said about money has been spent on the schools you know unnecessarily unnecessary money you know and I would agree in the past that maybe Aesthetics have taken priority over safety uh but you know there's nothing we can do about that at this point other than implement some of the things that were mentioned tonight and and others but uh for moving forward I definitely think that uh we need to be more critical on how the money is spent um you

214know I think safety should take priority over Aesthetics especially you know considering the the times we're in so that's it thank you Mr nums um just kind of want to Echo uh Mr Holbrook that you know school safety should be our number one priority um another thing I want to mention I just kind of want to make a statement that um we need to stop putting labels on our children labels go on clothing labels go on food products but they do not belong in our children so I just want to make that clear my name's Mr Daniels looks like most of the crowd left they must know that I'm pretty long-winded when it comes to closing comments um Mr Hagler um we heard tonight about some options with playground equipment I think I saw you

215taking some notes I know we have our grant writer I'm sure that's something that we definitely can look into all right today was the big feet meet for all our special needs kids here in Bedford County it was held at Liberty High School big congratulations to all our student athletes that participated today including my son I heard he got a speeding ticket after I left it was a great time thank you to everyone of the the people that came from Special Olympics the teachers the staff and all the students that helped make it a success it's not the student athletes are there and they're competing but they have a lot of volunteers that are students that are there also helping and just the smiles on everybody's face they had a beautiful day to do it

216so I couldn't been happier this is the second year that I've been to it and it turns out amazing uh it's a lot of time of attention I'm sure that it takes to pull it off and again they made a success um we talked a lot tonight about the schedule and on my Facebook page we did a Facebook quiz uh right around January right when the uh or this when the Super Bowl was taking place and we asked a question it was it was a survey and it said would parents and teachers and students prefer a teacher work day that would be moved to the Monday after the Super Bowl that allows for the kids to have sleepovers and and late nights for the parents or move it to how we had it this year

217which it is what it is it just happened but it was the the next Monday after that so it was 93 said they would like to have it after the day after the Super Bowl so just some food for thought um I want to talk a little bit about what's going on in the community with um our Board of Supervisors um and some of the decisions that they have to make you know our school board works really closely with them on the needs of community especially of course here with the schools I want to thank all the members of this board and of the Board of Supervisors for looking at the issues and trying to address them head on I again don't envy the decisions that they have to make uh I'm a small businessman

218and I have to deal with cost increases all the time you know part of our job here up on this stage is to inform and educate the public I think more information is always better so that we can make informed decisions instead of rash decisions everyone needs to understand that the problems that we're facing were not created over the last 12 months and the problem will not be resolved in the next 12 months it's a process the CIP has our full attention and we are making a concerted effort to address the issues that are here due to lack of funding and and some in some respects planning while these issues started well before the the term of this existing board we plan on on addressing it the best that we can I was elected to

219improve the quality of education and facilities in Bedford County Public Schools and sometimes when you make those decisions you're not always the most popular one in the room hard choices are never easy and our students teachers parents and community members have come out in great force and spoke on the improvements they desire and their reasoning I agree with them and I feel everyone on this board has listened and acted accordingly I want to preference what I'm saying by saying I don't believe in raising taxes and any justification of services should not be a reason to increase taxes but we live in a very inflationary time and Rising costs must be considered if these projects were completed in 2010 or 2015 in 2015 dollars our money would have gone a lot further and we would not

220have had many of these repairs staring Us in the eyes however those projects were not completed and we cannot expect the cost of everything to rise and to continue to operate at the same level the same Dollar in 2015 is worth about 27 percent less today so thank you to the federal government again they have tough decisions to make overall the tax assessments have gone up on the houses so the choices that they have to make again it's all about education is they can do nothing with the current tax rate and then everyone would have a much higher tax bill in the county they can reduce the rate which is being advertised as an 18 reduction which would be the the new current rate which is not a full reduction to the equalization of the

221rate this would maintain the level of services and the CIP that's needed on average on the lower end they're talking about it's 12 to 14 a month for the average homeowner if we do none of that then the level of service would either have to be reduced and the infrastructure projects such as our auditoriums and other things would have to be put off for several years I'm not sure that anything gets cheaper over time but history tells us that it does not again these are tough decisions and I do not envy them the county does a great job overall of keeping taxes low and keeps Bedford County as the best and most affordable place to live in the region thankfully this board and members of the of our central office were able to accomplish providing

222teacher and staff raises handle fuel increases and other Financial hurdles without increasing our operating budget and putting money towards the CIT River and reversion that's a big win we will play the hand that we're dealt and we will continue to work hard to make the best decisions for the children of the county for everyone who spoke tonight uh well we may not be on the same side of certain issues I have great respect and appreciate you for coming forward and speaking that is what makes this process great we have a ton of global challenges happening in relation to the value of the dollar and covid learning loss in education while we cannot control many of the global issues and the I told you so's can't change the past we continue to make strides and improve

223our backyard in particular these Public Schools we will continue to support both the efforts of our teachers and sound policy that redirect our Focus back on education sadly our children are getting distracted from things that infiltrate our education system instead of Education we continue to focus on social issues versus education and the results are are failing benchmarks the blame does not belong to the teachers much of the burden and the content is placed at the doorstep and into their environment even our Administration has great Regulatory Compliance and administrative hurdles every day taking them away from the main thing making exceptional learners while test scores do not directly equate to success it does lend itself to comprehension of material and progression we need to put away the shiny objects that we compete for that compete for

224our attention and remove as many hurdles for our professionals so they can focus on producing the most well-rounded and well-educated students in the Commonwealth this is the biggest opportunity that we have to create a to create a successful and great future for our kids and their families focusing on anything else is not our job and indicates a lack of focus on our mission we have the ability we have the talent we have the desire from our from our students Bedford County is capable willing and able but we need to get out of our own way when it comes to social agendas and the distractions of the classroom there are thousands of reasons to live in Bedford and only a few reasons not to we need to work on retaining the best talent and attracting similar

225talent to our school district I've spoken and been in communication with teachers that feel the elimination of social pressures and distractions will lead to a better teacher work environment and Better Learning environment like it was when most of us were in school lastly seniors remember to finish strong and make as many memories as you can you don't know it now but you will look back on these days as the good old days so enjoy them I'm a big Lynyrd Skynyrd fan and the lyrics a simple man can remind us take your time don't live too fast troubles will come and they will pass your future has a way of working itself out believe in yourself and surround yourself with people who see the best in you enjoy your spring break and happy Easter Mr Daniels

226Mr Hill first of all I wanted to again tell the staff nice work on the presentations it's really nice to get back to things that are important for instruction in our students so really appreciate that and it's always good to hear about grant money and how we're going to be using those um I want to give a congratulations and shout out to Forest Elementary PTA they raised 22 444 dollars in the Boosterthon over the last week uh and for those that are in the forest area tomorrow if you want to see Miss Manley she will be camping out in the Showcase that was part of the deal so I encourage anyone to stop by and get a peek at Miss Manley also congratulations and some of these things are repeats but I still have to

227call them out congratulations uh to Jefferson Forest High School and our heroes they saved an employee's life a couple weeks back and I wanted to share a story because I think it's important to know the community that we live in but during this emergency one of our teachers got a phone call and said hey just want you to know there is an emergency taking place in your facility I don't know where or what's going on but I just wanted you aware that teacher went and gathered other teachers in that hallway and they prayed for that man they didn't know what was going on they didn't know who it was but we had teachers who were willing to go and pray for our employee who they didn't know who it was they didn't know what the

228situation was but they were upstairs in a hall praying and not knowing what was going on downstairs but he survived he's here to tell about it and we've got several heroes in this building and I just wanted to recognize them they are heroes you'll see one of them he walks around with a mohawk he's a really cool guy but I did I want to call call him out even though it was part of the presentation tonight so um uh thank you to uh teacher Heather hebner and the Jefferson Forest High School staff on a successful prom this past weekend at The Virginian and Then followed by that I want to thank the Jefferson Forest PTA and parents Who provided an after prom here at JF I know I've said this in the past but it's

229really neat to see a high school transformed from a high school into an event center for these kids to come into after prom and it's uh it's really a special time and I thought the kids really had a good time thankfully it was changed from 4 a.m to 2 30 a.m this year so that was nice as a parent to be able to check out a little early um I also wanted to mention this summer for those who love Robotics and drones one of our awesome teachers Cindy Watson at Forest Middle School is going to have a first annual FMS Robotics and drone Academy the theme is Mission to Mars let's navigate the topography it's for Rising 4th through seventh graders for 2023-24 it's going to be held Monday through Thursday June 5th through the

2308th there's two sessions either 9 A.M to noon or one to four you choose one time slot there is a tuition cost of 135 dollars But it includes stem experience FMS robotics drone Academy shirt a wristband team picks take home drone and more and really some cool stuff if you get to stop by FMS and go in that classroom it's really awesome experience um staff request I'll mention a couple of these I I said it earlier purchases and vendor training I just want to make sure we've got a plan on that um you know any kind of I mentioned the 3D printers earlier touch boards any kind of training that we can offer to our teachers to make sure we're using the technology that we've paid for and then I mentioned the audit signing off

231if it's being used Etc another that I would like to look at another staff report is um we've been talking about providing options opportunities for our students and uh I mentioned it to Trevor earlier but I really want to take an opportunity to see what we can do around an aviation program for our Bedford County students there's definitely interest in our area there's opportunity I've been polling students what are other things that if we could provide it what what would you like to see Aviation is one of those topics and so I want to see if there's other universities that we can partner with to provide that but definitely want to look at opportunities on that um one other thing I want to mention we talk about state standards and where how we're performing when

232it comes to soqs um I I don't want a state standard I want a Bedford County standard and Karen Dr Wilford you and I have talked about this I want to know what it would take for us to be above the state standard what would it take what are the things that we need to provide as a board to you as a staff to get us there and I would encourage all of you think outside of the box sometimes it's going to take us doing things that are not the normal protocol what is it that gets us there but unfortunately and this is just my personal opinion our standards have lowered and lowered and lowered and they're they just continue and so I want to reverse that and instead of saying we're going to meet

233State Standards I want there to be a Bedford County standard so I would like staff to work on that and bring it and present it I'm not giving you a timeline but I do want to see it and then bring it to the board for us to agree and approve that we're going after a Bedford standard and what does it look like uh and then to this board I want to say congratulations we heard a former board say tonight that uh the auditoriums they've been talking about it since 2017 and this board's taking action and getting something done so I want to say congratulations to all of you guys so so that's all for me thank you Mr field I'm going to keep mine short sweet and simple um first thing most Shameless monthly plug

234for bus drivers um if during the years draw into an end but now will be the time to sign up and get ready to go at the start of next year we sure could appreciate your help and I just want to say to everyone happy Resurrection Day Sunday and I hope everyone has a safe Happy Spring Break told you I was gonna keep it short and sweet so with that being said do I have a motion to adjourn so I moved I have a motion by Mr hence Mr Hill second by Mr Nelms any discussion all those in favor signify by saying aye aye opposed we are adjourned