School Board Meeting - 8/11/2022 - 5:00 PM

001you know sometimes even we gotta start looking at i don't know when we start but at like the sixth grade they're interested in things too that's i think that's that's like that sounds like a great idea i'm sure we're doing something but uh if we have more people maybe we can expand it and they can come and talk to talk to the kids about the different opportunities career paths so it's been on my mind good evening i'd like to call this regular monthly business meeting of the bedford county school board to order ms johnson will you please call the roll mrs kirby here mr hill here mr daniels here mrs harrison here mr holbrook here dr mealy here mr nelms here madam chair you have a quorum ma'am do i have a motion to approve

002the agenda have a motion by mr hill do i have a second second second but mr holbrook any discussion all those in favor signify by saying aye aye opposed motion carries excuse me do i have a motion to go into closed session madam chair i make a motion that we go into closed session pursuant dakota virginia one 2.2-3711a one one nine dash one to discuss the assignment appointment performance disciplining and release of contract for specific school board employees for 19 for discussion of plans to protect school safety and consultation with law enforcement officials where a discussion in an open meeting would jeopardize the security of school facilities i have a motion by mr hill do i have a second second second by dr mealy any discussion all those in favor signify by saying aye aye

003opposed we're in closed session what does okay hmm [Music] do i have a motion to come out of closed session madam chairman i make a motion that we come out of closed session i have a motion by dr mealey do i have a second thank you second by mr nims any discussion all those in favor signify by saying aye aye opposed we're out of closed session there be no actions to take from the closed session we'll move straight on to item 3.01 chair oh i'm sorry i'm sorry i didn't have my glasses on that's okay if i closed will you certify the closed session please whereas the bedford county school board has convened a closed meeting on this state pursuant to an affirmative recorded vote and in accordance with the provisions of the virginia freedom

004of information act and where section 2.2-3712-d if the code of virginia requires a certification by the school board that such closed meeting was conducted in conformity with virginia law now therefore be it resolved that the bedford county school board hereby certifies that to the best of each member's knowledge only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements by virginia law were discussed in the closed meeting to which the certification applies and only such public business matters as were identified in the motion convening the closed meeting were heard discussed or considered yes yes yes yes yes [Music] now stating that there is no but no action to take from the closed session move on to item 3.01 school safety and security dr dewis thank you we are fortunate that the bedford county public school staff

005and the vast majority of bedford county public schools families and students do their best to create safe environments in our schools every day but despite that reassurance it only takes one serious incident to have a devastating impact on our community and for that reason we're committed to addressing school safety from many different angles school safety requires a multi-pronged approach in our schools our work in all these areas promotes safety and security in this presentation we'll focus on building security staff training and law enforcement relations as the most basic of these steps and we'll outline several steps we've taken in this area our partnerships with law enforcement are critical in safety planning and communicating and if necessary responding to dangerous incidents the heart of this partnership is our school resource officer program which we'll describe in

006more detail just as important and just as important as physical safety measures are the people aspects of safety and we won't focus on those so much tonight but research is really clear that effective threat identification and assessment reduces the likelihood of a dangerous incident occurring we will describe our training process in a little bit more detail we complete a safety audit process each year that challenges us to compile data from surveys school inspections review of safety plans principal feedback and other sources to give an overall picture of needs for continual improvement in the area of school safety and this is scott simmons our safety manager who will also join in our presentation good evening for building security you know over the past several years we've worked hard to advance the security of our buildings thanks

007in part to support from school board and all of our stakeholders utilizing local funds and grant funding each school has been outfitted with secure entry vestibules interior locks on all classroom doors visitor management system rapid response emergency alert system electronic controlled access for majority of our buildings upgrades to camera systems alarm systems and school communication capabilities additionally hardware software system upgrades and maintenance is a year-round focus we know that hardening strategies and technology are vital in supporting our safety efforts but we recognize that our stakeholders play the most important role knowing that safety is everyone's responsibility bcps has invested considerable time and resources to provide threat assessment training for all of our school teams this training ensures that all schools have the ability to recognize red flags and take specific steps to prevent school violence

008to support and encourage the timely sharing of information students have access to anonymous reporting through our stop it app following the school safety audit process we annually update and certify school emergency operation plans collect survey data on ways to improve campus safety improve protocols enhance our mental health supports and understand the perceptions of school climate each school faithfully executes over 20 safety drills and or inspections annually and in collaboration with our sro's additional safety assessments are being planned next up sheriff miller first off i would like to thank madam chair your board members dr bergen for inviting us here tonight uh to expand on what we have been doing but before i do that i want to give you a uh a quick overview of your sheriff's office and especially we're going to narrow this

009down to your to your school resource officers so we can assure you and every citizen in our county of what the expertise and what we have as school resource officers in your school so to break it down in your school as your school resource officers we have two of our members of our tax teams of our tax team we have two members that are on our hostage negotiation team that are school resource officers inside of your schools we have two that are are septed trained and for people that don't know what september means it's crime prevention through environmental design so they're able to go in and tell us and evaluate our schools evaluate our sheriff's office and any other building inside this county to be able to tell them how they can stop crime or

010at least slow it down uh try to prevent it from outside in inside out it's what you have we have one gentleman who is in the military right now he's in the national guard who's a deputy with us right now so we have military experience there and we also have two uh one experience from another agency that we have hired to come on with us so today all of your existing school resource officers positions are filled today so you need to know that and the citizens need to know that we also are very proud that this is the first year we were able to bring back the dare program and dares drug abuse resistance education and i had to uh the opportunity to be a dare instructor one time and know the commitment that goes

011into that but to also know the impact that's left with the children there just last year uh captain hayden he's retired now but we did something for one of his family members and one of his nephews came up to me who was 30 some years old he said you're not going to believe this sheriff and i said what's that he said i can still quote you my dare rap from body camp elementary school he's 32 years old he could still do that so that's the impact that we can put on our children if we take the time and the dedication which you do have from your sheriff's office and i want to assure you and all the citizens so the beverage county sheriff's office in the public school system over this summer has not taken

012it off what we've done is we've gone in and do and completed that september to all of your elementary schools and gone to figure out what's our vulnerable points what's our strengths and our school system is what we've done and i never will forget because i started i had the pleasure of being the first school resource officer in bedford county sheriff mike brown was the sheriff then but in 1998 it was dr kent i sat down in dr kent's office as the superintendent and he quoted me this in 1998. deputy miller you're about ready to protect the world's most precious commodity and that's your children in 1998 in 2022 i can still quote that without looking down to read it because it was an impact and that's the dedication that your sheriff's office has and

013your school resource officers have in 2022 and that's what we want each and every one of you all to know so we have not forgotten our mission but we've also teamed up with the school system even closer this year to be able to go in and to look at things and not to point fingers it's to come together as a team and as a family to say how do we protect our citizens and our approach most precious commodity our small children uh in this community too so we've done that we've been working hard to get all of our schools our we started with our elementary schools and we've worked in we started with the schools that's the furthest away for instance boonesboro goodview stewartsville monita huddleston and we worked our way in to be able

014to see all of our strengths and all of our weaknesses and we're coming together as a team to address that but before i say that i would like to stop and say i want to thank deputy danielle clark who is in our audience somewhere and she was and also sergeant hopkins and all the school resource officers because as the sheriff as the ceo i can give a vision they produce the product for me and you guys are being able to see that and so is the citizens and they will be able to see that here in the near future we have committed to routine quarterly reports to you guys and to our board of supervisors and we're going to do that we're going to tell you all what we've done in our accomplishments but we're

015also going to use our parents it's what we're going to end up doing the school system and the sheriff's office is the process of have or is in the process of forming two safety committees the first one is the one that looks at the whole county is what it is but then we need to go individually into every school it's what we need to end up doing there and we would love to have one of the school board members on that committee also but we would like to have school administration we would also like to have our cafeteria workers and our janitorial staff we'd also like to have our teachers but we'd also like to have a parent representative that can represent the whole school to be able to know that the funnel goes into

016and that person can say this is what we see because the more eyes that are out there the more safer our community becomes and we need to understand that is what we need to end up doing and lastly very proud to say as i've mentioned in the very beginning that we're bringing back our dare program uh and you know when we posted that on facebook we had so many comments and you can go back and look at the sheriff's office comments of people that remembered that and knew their dare officer knew who he was and all the great stuff about them so that's something we need to have a positive impact not only in our middle school and our high school but we need to bring it back to our elementary schools thank you all

017for the time and any questions you have at any time most of you guys have my cell phone and i'd be more than happy to entertain that thank you sheriff miller and so so in talking about uh the strategies we've done we'll this year we plan to really build on those steps with several new safety measures first we're nearing completion of digital mapping of each school these documents will be shared with first responders and integrated into county technology to speed up response time if they're called to assist students or staff in danger in our schools we'll complete additional hardening of selected locations in our schools that have vulnerabilities the sheriff's office has completed inspection as we've heard of each school this summer and shared feedback with us for future improvements and this is in addition

018to the team inspections that will lead in the first month of school using department of criminal justice services protocols for assessing school safety every school threat assessment team member is completing training in the comprehensive school threat assessment guidelines or c-stag this month in this way there's a consistent baseline of knowledge and skills in each school to identify and respond to any red flag behaviors that they encounter in schools and this training is based on extensive research led by professor dewey cornell at uva over the past 25 years so as you can see the bedford county public school staff the sheriff's department staff takes school safety very seriously and continually look for ways to improve our practices and so at this time we welcome any questions that you may have about our approaches to school safety

019pearson dr dewis on slide four um helped me in terms of understanding what the acronym means mou that is a memorandum of understanding and it's the basic uh legal agreement that we have between our two agencies and it's updated on a regular basis all right roles and responsibilities based you know outlining those so we clearly work well together okay thank you any other questions thank you all so very much as as we know unfortunately from historic tragedy tragedies and one is recent as uvalde we cannot take our children's safety too seriously and we really do appreciate all the time and effort gone into everything um given the hour um let's go ahead and break for dinner and then we'll reconvene at seven o'clock and pick up when appropriate with 3.02 okay good evening everyone i'd

020like to reconvene this regular meeting of before county school board for august the 11th 2022 please join me with the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the united states of america and to the republic for which is one nation under god under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you [Music] i've requested for a moment of silence for damon damien michael colette his obituary described him as a goofy class clown with a big heart and a great sense of humor he loved food and cooking some of his favorite hobbies were gaming playing soccer and hanging with his friends damien was enthusiastic and fearless in everything he did but most importantly he was a caring compassionate soul who loved his mama to me he sounds like a great young man and i wish

021i'd had the opportunity to meet him but unfortunately it was a young life gone way too soon on behalf of the board i would like to extend our sincerest condolences to the family if you would please join me in a moment of silence thank you next item on the agenda recognition of students and staff mr edwards madam chair before i call you forward i will ask that you bear with me tonight we have quite a few who weren't able to make it and i've just learned of that within the last three minutes so with that being said madam chair mr vice chair dr bergen will you please come forward what's on the floor or right here right here center stage if you would okay thank you and we ask all students and guests to please

022remain seated tonight until all students have been recognized and we thank you for your cooperation with that a liberty high school student is the latest bcps student to be appointed to the virginia ffa state officer team mckenna garrett a 2022 liberty high school graduate has been appointed as the statewide ffa secretary for this coming school year mckenna was selected from the field of approximately ten thousand students who are members of the hundreds of ffa chapters across the commonwealth for one of the nine statewide ffa positions garrett follows an impressive line of 12 other bcps students who have held various statewide positions since liberty high school student and state ffa secretary mckenna garrett [Applause] the liberty ffa veterinary science team recently competed at the 96th annual virginia ffa state convention in june against teams throughout the

023state on topics in veterinary science and they came away winners the contest includes a 50 question multiple choice test a veterinary math exam breeds tools equipment microscope identification as well as hands-on veterinary practicum the team will represent virginia at the national ffa convention in indianapolis indiana in october anna gross was the top placing individual in the state followed by megan cash who was third in the state 91 virginia ffa members competed in the contest the virginia ffa veterinary science team anna gross [Applause] and megan cash natalie corbin [Applause] not able to make it tonight kaylee lindsey and finally the ffa sponsor lindsay tomlinson [Applause] the national history day contest engages more than a half million students every year in conducting original research on historical topics of interest students present their research as a documentary exhibit

024paper performance or website liberty high school has participated in this contest for over 15 years regularly sending projects to the national competition several projects have broken into the top ten nationally but sarah johnson's third place finish this year was unprecedented the work to create the project began in the fall of 21 a group of students worked almost the entire school year after school and on their own to research and create their project the members of the group competed at district competition in march all of them advanced to state competition including sarah johnson whose project shenandoah national park debate and diplomacy lead to displacement placed first at the state level for individual performances that made sarah one of two virginia representatives for single individual performances her project focused on the displacement of the residents of what

025would be shenandoah national park in the 1930s and the government's efforts to convince the public the loss of their poverty was in these people's best interests smearing the residents as ignorant and backwards over 2700 students from around the country advanced to the national level with sarah they presented documentaries exhibits papers websites and performances and about a hundred students placed in the top three in each category and that includes sarah liberty high school's sarah johnson [Applause] and coaches mickey vanderworker please come forward mrs van der werker we know you're here mrs vanderwicker is going to deny that request also coaches margie skalka liberty high school's sarah johnson once again thank you very much congratulations congratulations yovaso stands for youth of virginia speaks out and the liberty high school lifesavers were selected as the yovaso club of

026the year recently by setting the standard for best practices in peer-led youth traffic safety programs among the 54 other high school programs in the state the award recognizes excellence in student leadership and club development community outreach engagement of the student body effectiveness of programming and participation in yovaso campaigns and retreats the club worked diligently to spread the word about safe driving and safe riding on the roads of bedford county resulting in first place awards in both fall and spring statewide competitions the yovaso club of the year alexis conklin [Applause] jayden clark [Applause] [Music] brooklyn gunter emma kimberlin kiana meadows [Applause] and that right there is your yovaso club of the year for the state of virginia we will get a picture and he's not in need of a certificate but he is in need of

027recognition we are going to recognize a man who has also put a lot of effort into this club and that is deputy hall from the bedford county sheriff's office [Applause] [Music] thanks for your help thank you so much liberty high school's mr ben thurman was selected as yovaso sponsor of the year in recognition of his ongoing support and guidance of the liberty lifesavers traffic safety club and commitment to striving for excellence in club growth and development mr thurman gladly facilitates the growth of student leadership and helping to prevent traffic accidents by promoting safe behaviors when students are behind the wheel sponsor of the year yovaso mr ben thurman [Applause] and two more of our yovaso students both from jefferson forest high school received high accolades from the organization as well the rock star award is

028in recognition of a student who demonstrates enthusiasm and excitement in their school and community for promoting safe teen driving and passenger safety this student is a champion for the cause and a vocal role model within the school and community the yovaso rock star emma ogden [Applause] we also want to recognize the youth leadership award that goes to an individual who demonstrates exemplary leadership skills and commitment to working on safe teen driving that person liberty high schools uh jefferson forest high schools peyton poindexter not able to be with us tonight and we have a vita invited on multiple occasions the jf girls track team who were state runners-up this year so we congratulate that team who unfortunately could not be here with us tonight thank you [Applause] so much for hooking me up we're going to

029move on to the public comment portion of tonight's meeting 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 to speakers during this 40-minute period please remember that this is a public meeting and that we expect all speakers to refrain from any foul abusive or hateful language mr edwards will serve as timekeeper for individual speakers with a ringing bell indicating that a person has 30 seconds remaining and his second bell will ring indicating a person's four minutes have expired mr edwards will also serve as time keeper for our cumulative 40-minute period while mr edwards four-minute timer bell rings please discontinue speaking and allow the next person in

030line to come to the podium should you be unable to finish your comments please send or give them to mrs johnson and she will give them to board members please do not adjust the microphone at the podium as it has been positioned for optimum audio quality our first speaker for the evening don roberts good evening my name is dawn roberts i live in district 7. it's a good night to be a liberty mom i'm very proud of the kids that were honored here tonight and they did it with those books in the library i want to express a little concern over policy klbr that's going to be discussed tonight the portion that says a librarian can remove a book when a parent has a concern i think that's unconstitutional i also did a little research

031and it found on a website about band and challenge books yes i'm going to talk about the books again mr hill um that students actually have a first amendment right to have the um right to um let me find it sorry i've got a bunch of stuff i wanted to talk about students retain some first amendment rights public schools may not censor students speech either on or off campus unless unless it is causing a substantial disruption i know i have yet to see a substantial disruption from students about books it's mainly been from parents and look at what amazing things our kids are doing with those books in the library um and then i found this other neat little thing the ala's policy is that librarians and governing bodies should maintain that parents and only

032parents have the right and responsibility to restrict an access of their children and only their children to library resources so when you are talking about and deciding whether you're going to make changes to that policy that it is not a something that just one parent should make the decision for i also went to open house at liberty today loved seeing all the new teachers there were lots of new faces still lots of broken air conditioning i hear it's on the agenda dr dewis thank you um and i um also wanted to thank the teachers for staying at their open houses tonight instead of coming here and i also wanted to talk about the night with kendall which i think spoke for itself um i think a lot of the issues that we are having in

033the schools are simply as i said before parenting issues there are some parents that make decisions that i wouldn't make for my kids um and i'm sure i make decisions for my kids that others wouldn't make but that doesn't mean we may need to make decisions across the board for others kids i personally wouldn't let my 14 year old spend the night at a boy's house but some parents do um so that's just really all i had tonight thank you mr roberts dave dietrich i'm dave dietrich from the fourth ladies and gentlemen in past sessions i have discussed how education has evolved and what philosophies have influenced its evolution last month i addressed specifically the changing political climate which has also greatly influenced education overall educational thought has moved from discovery of truth and equality

034of opportunity to cultural critique group grievances and equality of outcome or equity commensurate with these changes we have heard at our meetings diverse voices and witness voting patterns that have tended to mirror these disparate educational views so where do we go from here the bedford county school system can either embrace traditional educational standards of discovery of truth and equality of opportunity or it can follow a more centralized post-modern trajectory based on public comments and school board voting patterns it appears as though the public prefers the former and at least some teachers and administrators appear to prefer the latter what is that or why is that the latter tendency one might suspect there are several possible explanations these might include misguided good intentions lack of adequate critical thinking professional peer pressure overexposure to new educational theories

035and even personal commitment to emerging ideologies that is why it is so important to consider carefully who we elect to the bedford county board in the future the risks are too high if we do not at the moment there appears to be a fairly consistent school board divide over which path to follow with parents and other concerned citizens having the advantage in most circumstances yet that can change overnight and change profoundly as horace mann once wrote education is the gateway to equality as mortimer adler once wrote the ultimate goal of the educational process is to help human beings become educated persons man and adler also believed education prepared people for lifelong learning the objectives of which were intellectual and moral growth productive citizenship and economic self-sustainment education also sustains liberty sadly education today seems focused

036more on professional self-satisfaction and financial security revolutionary transformation of students and overall rejection of the sage lessons learned from the past to all let us judge wisely going forward thank you and i would like to recommend a book that maybe every person here might be interested in reading and also each library ought to have at least one copy the pidea proposal by mortimer adler thank you mr dietrich aaron [Applause] farrell good evening school board members mr superintendent parents and community my name is aaron farrell i live in district three and um my husband and i moved here a few years ago several years ago he's a veteran last time i was here we had two children now we have four we're adopting two children um they gave me permission to tell just a little bit

037about them as it applies to this so we're licensed foster parents and they're just amazing they're here today actually so the reason i'm here is because we are adopting two more children and so although the superintendent had unenrolled my children from being in person last year because he rejected their masks exemptions from medical from doctors that we had filled out and so forced them into online but we couldn't do online so we had to homeschool so we did that it was a big adjustment it was challenging it was a really hard year in a lot of ways but also as a blessing in other ways um so well today we are at home um the open house for one of the elementary schools for our two daughters that were adopting and and had a great

038experience their school is wonderful the teachers are amazing the administration there is is excellent so i have a lot of confidence as they go there and thankfully some of the policies were over uh turned by the new school board majority so part of the reason i'm here is i want to talk with you oh i just want to mention i do think that um it would be great if school board meetings weren't scheduled or open house meetings weren't scheduled on days that their school board someone else mentioned um they're thanking teachers for not being able to come here and i wish they could be here or could watch and also all the other families or a lot of people who weren't able to receive awards because they're at schools just like we were hustling earlier

039today so anyway um i just want to talk with you guys about redistricting the schools i happen to live in the new london district and our two children will have to move next year they've moved a lot i don't think for any child it's helpful to make them artificially change all those relationships that they're developing with especially um with people who are being adopted or quite frankly anyone it's a big adjustment my two other children have tiles that are posted and like a lot of people do they have their artwork or they've purchased the stones and the walkway to donate money on behalf of grandparents and such so i know a change is needed so i want to ask you just want to mention a few things there's an emotional expense to the proposed changes

040um and i'm going to email you guys some more details because i have a little bit more than four minutes to say um but as a taxpayer i expect our education to be local and i think we know that the growth for example in the new london forest area is happening for a reason in uh excuse me liberty middle school one of the teachers that's been calling us and asking for help with the current administration and superintendent's policies um when i've been coming and reporting some stuff to you nine of them quit they left bedford county i've asked them to call you guys they've reached out to some weren't comfortable reaching out to the rest because they do hope some changes will be made and then they'll be able to come back when there's a

041new superintendent so anyway i know i'm touching on a bunch of different things so there's a financial cost you guys are going to have to pay or the us taxpayers will have to pay more for buses and lastly i just want to say um there are a lot of solutions i ask that you please delay the decision to lease thanksgiving please send detailed information to each household that will be affected not just with kids ask for volunteers to do it first grandfather people in like us who have lived in a certain area another solution one of my children came up with is have the people in the new constructions have them move for example i'm going to have to drive 15 miles someone else would have to drive 17. how how about keep us in

042there um but i have other things that i'll just send you and thank you for your time i know you have a lot going on thank you miss farrell amy snead good evening i brought a helper i am amy snead i'm the chapter chair of moms for liberty in bedford county i do live in district 7. first i want to thank you for the votes that you'll cast tonight on the policy regarding parental notification in our libraries and curriculum it serves all parents by allowing parents to make the decision as to what their child reads and engages within the library and i know that you all and you all have put a lot of work into that and i just want to say thank you for that i know it's a lot of time and

043effort and whether you know it or not the policies that bedford county is enacting are really being watched not just across the commonwealth but really across the nation as a model for what other schools will do to champion for parental rights and education so i just want to thank you for that i also think it's worthwhile mentioning that i've talked with several families including our own who had students withdraw from bedford county over the last few years that now have students returning to bedford county it's because of policies like this and the parental rights and teachers rights resolutions that have restored our trust and so we thank you for that speaking of policies at the last school board meeting mr daniels introduced a promotion of patriotism policy that the iga has been working on we're

044really excited about that being implemented in bedford county and over the summer i had the opportunity to see both dr benjamin carson and an up-and-coming author his name is adam coleman speak and they spoke about the importance of patriotism and american culture so as a show of our support members of moms for liberty have collected copies of dr carson's newest book for children why america matters we have a copy for each elementary school library in bedford county our hope is that teachers will be able to use this as a tool for our young patriots as they learn about the history of our country and dr carson also shared some information that was new to me and i wanted to share it i know our teachers are diligently finishing up open house but i know a

045lot of them will catch this online later about his little patriots program as part of the american cornerstone institute it's a free online curriculum for students in grades k through five so for teachers there's awesome lessons videos all kinds of free resources and worksheets to use during that promotional patriotism week that centers around constitution day so those are all available at littlepatriotslearning.com i also mentioned having the opportunity to meet and talk with adam coleman about his book black victim to black victor in this he shares his own story of struggles and challenges he's faced in life and how he's overcome them i've been reading it this summer and it's really incredible and inspiring and as dr as dr carson said that same day the person who has the most to do with hap with what

046happens to you in life is you so i asked mr coleman what he thought about his book being available to our high school students and he wholeheartedly agreed that it would be a great addition to our library so we're donating three copies of that tonight as well we hope his words inspire our students to think beyond their circumstances and achieve whatever they set their minds to our chapter was also contacted by an organization called constituting america they provided 13 copies of the book our constitution rocks for our elementary school libraries they also provide free resources and these really are geared at the high school and middle school age but they have webinars you can enroll in you can receive free copies of the constitution for your classes and even cash prizes for teachers and students

047who submit projects and lesson plans that surround constitution day so i encourage you to check out constitutingamerica.org to find out more both those websites provide a lot of information that would not add a whole lot to a teacher's to-do list because the resources are so well done and so well prepared and just as a final moment last august i stood in liberty high school's auditorium and met many of you for the first time and many people who were sitting behind me for the first time as speakers shared their experiences i was writing my name and phone number down on little slips of paper and contacting other parents as we were speaking out against masking mandates and threats of vaccine mandates and policies from the vdoe we didn't know how quickly this movement would grow i

048just knew i was answering a call in my heart to do something and i know this past year has been wild we don't always agree on everything but i think we can agree we're moving in a right direction and we're excited about the next school year ahead so i just want to say thank you thank you raymond smith good evening my name is raymond smith i live in district 7. always wonderful to be here and get to talk to you all i've got something to discuss in a moment but i had a uh occurrence earlier in the week that i want to share with you all uh two hours ago i got back from a week-long trip to north carolina for a baseball tournament that was week-long where 10 states from across the south came

049together to play the game of baseball and in between innings and after games i'm sitting talking with officials with parents coaches and players and education came into the conversation every single time and it really just opened my eyes to how good we have it here in virginia and in bedford county after listening to some of the worries that they have stretching all the way from north carolina down to texas to florida louisiana they have horrendous issues that really make some of ours pale in comparison they've said we would gladly move to virginia because our situations down here are so much worse so we always have things that we wish to change in critiques as any uh system should but i would always ask that we be thankful for what we have here because there are

050always possibilities for it to be much worse as was told to me down there as i just had that and i wanted to share with you all how highly respected virginia is in terms of education across the southeast but the purpose of why i wanted to come forward today was i wanted to talk about substitute teachers for the last three years substitute teachers have been important more so than ever before with teacher absences at record rates and as we are waning off of covid i wanted to stress that we should still have an invested interest in substitute teachers we shouldn't go backwards and not look at them so much as important because oh now we have staffing more regularly so now we need to hold up they're still very important i'm one right now and

051my time is waning off for it but they're just so important and every day that they walk in there it's just a battlefield for them at every level they're marching in there ready to serve and ready to do what they can to help the educational process continue on and it's one of those situations where you do the work and you do it well but then sometimes it just feels like what am i appreciated am i am i valued and so one thing i just wanted to suggest to you all is there is a substitute teacher appreciation day that's celebrated nationally it's not as prevalent here and i think that it would just be an excellent idea to recognize all substitute teachers it typically falls sometime in november i think and i think that would just

052be an amazing way to show appreciation for substitute teachers in this coming school year in all future school years and then to go even further to recognize those who go above and beyond in substitute teaching you have some who they come in and they watch the class and they make sure that nobody gets hurt and that the day goes on but then you have some who take the extra mile and they get there 30 45 minutes before they're supposed to read the lesson plans thoroughly make sure that everything is there and then whatever holes are in the lesson plans they fill them in and they make sure that every single second of that time is used you have some that go home and continue on with their lives but then you have others who go

053home and educate themselves on how can i be a better substitute teacher and so i would suggest that just like we have teacher of the year at a school substitute teacher of the year at a school even two or three of them it doesn't have to be a county final or anything but just to show that you recognize those who excel beyond what the standard is who go above and beyond for students to ensure that they get an education that is worthy of virginia thank you mr smith stephen hill [Applause] hey good evening uh my name is stephen hill i'm a resident of uh district three living right off of good road i want to talk tonight about the rezoning effort of the potential rezoning kind of talk a little bit about that from my

054perspective not only as a parent of a rising first grader i have students coming in after that also as a residential land developer myself talking about the time frames um that we've kind of laid out here um i have a first grader at new london academy i have a four-year-old and a one-year-old so we're coming up right behind with two others also myself i'm an alumni of new london academy um me and my wife we built our house in 2018 after searching for several years for the right spot in the right location one of the reasons that we picked where we picked was because of new online academy that was one of our top criteria that it had to have was hey i wanted my kids to go to the same school that i went

055to same process i'm comfortable with it my mom taught there for years it's just a comfortable situation for us and i believe the board should really consider all the potential implications of rezoning children from a school that they've already grown accustomed to they have connections with the teachers the principals the staff families chose the school zones have moved the area just to be here i have several friends that moved to this area just to go to that school there's also will not only negatively affect children when they are in the schools but also will affect the resale value of our homes why we picked there is is part of the reason was the good school system there um there's a concern of transportation as well we rely on the bus on the afternoon to get

056our son home and many others rely on transportation the proposal that has been laid out would eliminate that transportation element that would make it unrealistic for a lot of students to be even grandfathered in if we move to auto river it's an additional bus ride it's much longer it would be one of those things where it would be almost unfeasible for our children as a member of the board of directors for the home builders association and a residential land developer i believe that the time frame that is laid out for the completion of this project the towns at new london is extremely aggressive to have that to where we're all set up in a year they haven't even broken ground yet to my knowledge that chris hasn't even pulled permits on this yet so it's

057going to be a while before anyone's able to move into these towns i would say at least two years before you're having a significant population in there i would also consider not just focusing on high density developments but also focusing on the single-family developments as a as someone who is a member of the the homeowner association but also in the construction community good area specifically where otter river is is growing faster than a lot of the other areas as far as single-family developments and according to mr blankenship's own numbers those three and four bedrooms homes produce more children than a townhome or an apartment complex you have lockwood estates which is 32 lots bells mill good road uh the bellevue terrace blue ridge farm screech em hollow all these add up to i think i

058counted about 72 additional lots which is according to the the numbers provided about 32 to 34 students which is more than they have uh adjusted for with the towns at new london and so seeing that natural growth in the lottery school zone has me concerned that if this is proposed and we have to move schools that what to say in a few years we won't be having the same conversation moving to another school so before i got up to speak this evening i forward you a petition from bedford county residents that are impacted by this potential rezoning effort i challenge you not only to read the petition but also to read the comments a lot of people put comments in there about how it'll affect their family i believe a real plan for the future

059of this area new london is going to continue to grow i know there are several proposed developments i've been involved in several myself that we are looking into that area um i think the the big value in this would be adding additional classroom space to new london academy it's a cornerstone of our community and i think it deserves a chance to service the families who choose to build or buy a home in the new london district thank you thank you mr hill cindy younghouse good evening madam chair i'm bored i'm cindy younghouse district 4 and thank you again for this opportunity to address you first of all a big thank you to mrs kirby and dr bergen for supporting a night with kendall at the academy theater it was a spectacular success in spite of

060some hateful fearful discrimination from a noisy and grossly misguided few mr hill as representative of jf you certainly missed a fun opportunity to support inclusivity the arts and safe spaces for all humans now that cavalier theater has 11 000 additional dollars for its wonderful program please procure funds for much needed improvements to liberty and staten river high school's auditoriums and arts programs supporting the arts enhances communities secondly thank you for including the 25 consideration proposal and the presentations or the agenda today advancement of this proposal will go a long way in upholding your commitment to real support of our teachers also thank you to dr dewis and all involved in continued improvements to the hvac systems i know it's a long road but it's getting there but it is important to note draft policy iea

061violates the first amendment rights of students students cannot be compelled to stand for the pledge of allegiance or forced to opt out in writing court cases setting this legal standard for choice in the matter of the pledge are gertz veonzel in 1973 libv morris 1978 and fraser v win 2008 as well as several suits against school boards iea currently violates virginia code 22.1-202 patriotism is not a coerced value patriotism is learned through proper teaching of truthful history civics and respectful respectful excuse me acceptance of diverse nationalities please revise policy iea prior to tonight's scheduled vote furthermore the proposed changes to code klbr ignore the new and much lauded parental rights policy a brilliant friend has pointed out parental rights are violated as soon as step one of a materials challenge without public public notification of

062the complaint and which materials are in question no other parents have the opportunity to express their own choices before material may be removed for all students for unresolved challenges it's not until step two that materials in question are specifically stated to remain in circulation during the review process so a loophole exists which may very well be exploited by some oppressive types with enough pressure on our valuable librarians not until step four is any mention of public notification regarding a materials challenge so if a step one challenge is initiated one which may result in access disruption from my students it is my parental right and choice to be informed from step one and not waiting until a potential step four please discuss this materials removal loophole this evening prior to a vote and please at least

063add public notification and a clause in step one for the location and materials involved kobr as drafted seems to violate parent choice free speech and virginia code finally kobr step 5 when the challenge remains unresolved will return the ultimate decision to the purview of the school board and their decision is final considering the men of the school board vote in lockstep with mr hill and mr hill's history of supporting immediate book removal it is doubtful many challenge materials will have a reasonable chance of remaining accessible in conclusion i don't want my student's education limited by white christian nationalist or homophobic agendas acknowledging and respecting diverse people and ideas even controversial ideas in age-appropriate context is essential for safe high-quality public education with bright futures and on that note i wish everyone a bright safe diverse

064and exciting 22-23 school year and i thank you for your time thank you miss young hills heather f-e-r-r-a here how would you pronounce it i don't want to butcher it okay cindy gillespie good evening and thank you for giving me up the opportunity to speak tonight my name is cindy gillespie and i live in franklin county but i am the parent of two children one that graduated from and one that is currently enrolled in state river high school i'm also getting ready to start my 24th year of teaching math here at state river high school thank you for reinstating the steps for teachers and paraprofessionals i also want to thank you for continuing to pay teachers for giving up their planning period to cover classes when that we are unable to find substitutes and also

065i wanted to thank you for approving the three days of bereavement after the july board meeting i went home and skimmed through most of the policies in the board doc website i could not find a single one that stated that staff of bedford county public schools are valued held in highest esteem or supported by the school board i proceeded to email mr hill mr holbrook and mr daniels and ask them to point me to the policies that claimed they claimed existed and i have yet to hear back from them i was reminded yesterday at a faculty meeting that our division-wide faculty handbook states that i have 24 hours to respond to a parent email and i've been waiting for almost a month for a response from our school board representatives as a bcea member we

066have concerned we have been concerned about the amount of time teachers have spent outside of contract hours one of the policies that stuck out to me and for the first time this year we actually had to sign off stating that we have read the policy gaa work schedule it states that the workday for full-time licensed and professional staff will be a minimum of seven hours and 30 minutes and continues until professional responsibilities to the students and the school division are complete administrative meetings curriculum development public supervision assigned duties parent conferences group or individual planning and extracurricular activities may require hours beyond the stated minimum i am aware that i'm a 200-day employee and only account for 193 of them during the school year that means i owe bedford county public schools seven additional days which

067is 52.5 hours per year or about 5.25 hours per month anything beyond that is uncompensated policy gaa makes it sound like i can be required to spend an unlimited amount of time working for bedford county public schools this policy is one that needs immediate revision as proposed in the 25 consideration i'm here to ask you to approve the 25 consideration it has no added cost to our current school budget but could go a long way in showing the support that you all claim to have for us as professionals for bedford county public schools it can only affect the teachers and staff duties that are not directly involved during school student supervision thank you thank you mr lesbian nicole shepard evening i'm nicole shepherd i reside district one first off thank you for serving as members

068of the school board and advocating for the students and school staff of bedford county it's a challenging position and i appreciate you secondly thank you to all bedford county school staff for the amazing job you do each day in transporting feeding educating and supporting our students i'd like to comment on statements made at the last school board meeting as reported by the roanoke times on sunday july 24th and again on wednesday july 27th in reference to review committees for books in public school libraries i quote a review committee would form to include parents from all three high school zones and at least one library media specialist from a different library teachers from all three school zones students from all three zones a community member unconnected to schools and a con the concerned parent and one

069school board member again as reported by the article written by shannon kelly georgia harrison suggested that a pta executive member serve on this committee and dr reely thought that would be a good idea for parent representation in my opinion the suggestion by georgia harrison and dr mealy makes perfect sense and is an excellent recommendation individuals serving on pta boards either as an elected member of the executive committee or of a committee chair have made the commitment beyond their own child to the students in their local school and to the children of bedford county the national congress of parents and teachers more commonly known as pta has been about parental involvement since its founding 125 years ago in february of 1897. virginia pta was chartered in april of 1921. prior to that community leagues were established

070throughout virginia with parents and families advocating for education and community needs pta leaders are elected by parents in their school and they hear complaints and concerns from parents across the school community this places elected pta leaders in a unique position of being able to consider and represent the concerns of their community and not their family's singular experience pta's mission is to make every child's potential a reality by engaging and empowering families and communities to advocate for all children pta's values are collaboration commitment diversity respect and accountability pta leaders all volunteers across the 54 congresses serving serve 22 000 pta units 53 percent of which are title one schools in the united states washington dc puerto rico the virgin islands and department of defense schools in europe four million members serve 13.8 million students and support

071760 000 teachers pta is parental involvement and parents who serve on local school board committees are on committees with the department of education have made the commitment to education be on their own children and speak for every child with one voice as always thank you for advocating for children and your commitment to the school board thank you miss shepherd miss shepard was the last speaker signed up for tonight so i'll close the public comment portion of tonight's meeting do i have a motion to approve the consent agenda i have a motion from mr hill second from dr mealy any discussion all those in favor signify by saying aye aye opposed motion carries we're going to pick up with item 3.02 update on student enrollment staffing and facilities thank you in this presentation we'll review where

072we stand tonight in bedford county public schools with regard to student enrollment staffing transportation and facilities as we start school next week we'll have an opportunity at the end for specific questions as of the publication of this uh slide um we were showing an enrollment of 8952 students coming in for next year and that was nearly 200 ahead of our projection that had come last winter this afternoon when i checked that number again as we're getting closer to school starting that number was 9024. so we do expect that there will be a decline in that number when school starts as families and other schools let us know about students who may have moved away who haven't done that yet but we are beginning to see a return of several families from homeschooling post pandemic and

073we'll update the board on this trend with more specifics after the start of school we'll also be tracking membership during the first 10 days of school and just as a reference point we ended last school year with 8 841 students projected a slight decrease but may see an increase actually if these numbers hold good evening we have hired 90 new teachers and 52 of those hired are zero year teachers for the 22 23 school year 12 percent of our teachers will be new to before county we are currently 99 filled in our teachers vacant positions have long term subs in place for the first day of school so we have all but eight out of 729 teachers we also need to be fully staffed one nurse and now that number of paraprofessionals it changes on

074an hourly basis is down to 12 paraprofessionals needed 10 nutrition workers and six custodians all new staff attended orientation at liberty middle school on august 4th new staff rotated to sessions on benefits wellness payroll retirement unified talent and professional learning new teacher orientation was held on august 5th all day at liberty middle school ms kirby welcomed new teachers to their lunch thank you for that and their sessions included unpacking the standards objective writing overview of special education beverly county vision mission and culture and getting started 101 how to start your school year with positive climate and culture i would like to now turn it over to pat smith to talk about transportation good evening i'll start with the good news thank you for allowing us to purchase another 14 buses we won't see the delivery

075of these buses until october november but i have to tell you the drivers are always excited when they get here and we have one of the newest fleets in the area and it's a point of pride for them that's their office and they appreciate everything you all do to provide them with a nice office two of our drivers have received their electric school buses they've been testing them out and learning how to plug them in if you ask one driver she'll tell you she's not real fond of this new bus but she didn't like her last new bus so and now she was taking selfies with her old bus before she switched her stuff around so i'm sure it's just something new um and the other driver i think is reserving judgment until she runs

076her route a few times and becomes accustomed to it we have fully implemented our travel tracker program emails were sent to families this morning with their students bus information times we did have a few glitches when we moved through that many students we are going to make mistakes we're getting more familiar with the program and we have encouraged schools and parents to email or call us and we will make the correction as soon as possible we will also unfortunately be using the program to text families if or when we do not have coverage for buses we have hired five new drivers we still have 11 current vacancies as of today we have wrangled single route drivers into filling in we've moved some people around we're down to two last year huddleston was our area where

077we needed help and support this year it's montvale but most concerning to me is it takes one phone call at five o'clock in the morning from a driver that they're sick and we are we we are tapped out but we continue to move forward we have three people in training that should be testing mid-september first of september mid-september and should be able to finish up their hours behind the wheel and begin driving for us we are also talking with the trainers about setting up a cdl prep class for a couple of saturdays saturdays in october and december we had great turnout last time was the first time we ever did it we learned from it and we gleaned about five drivers from it um and that's was well worth it um the next two weeks

078are going to be interesting and busy and we appreciate parents support and understanding as we creep around and make sure we don't miss anybody the first few days we're going to be late getting to school in the morning and we're going to be late getting them home in the afternoon just so we make sure everybody gets on the bus they're supposed to be on and gets to where they need to be i always say we never lose one we just misplace them they get on the wrong buses and that is all i have for you right now thank you pat and we'll also use this as an opportunity for um free publicity to recruit uh folks who are interested in being school bus drivers it's a it's a great part-time job for the right person

079and might fit very well with a person interested and we we walk folks right through the process as pat says with with training and support and and and compensate them in the end when they come to work for us so we're we always are on the lookout for good folks to do that um one also to talk a little bit about where our facility projects over the summer stand so that you know where we are as we start the school year the biggest effort in this area has been on replacing heating and cooling systems in four schools bedford elementary boonesboro forest middle and montvale and at each of those schools there are most units have been put into place there were there are some units on back order in each of those areas and some

080of those the worst the farthest out of those will go on into november supply chain delays we will be using existing systems as they if they're still functioning to compensate until the new parts get in and or we'll be putting and have been putting temporary units in place in several areas when the existing systems couldn't do the job and so we are all in all these buildings with the with the new um hvac systems and in a couple cases bedford elementary and forest middle new roost systems um we think will be in pretty good shape as we heard earlier in public comment there are still areas where our systems fail from time to time and it's very hot it was hot in the stand river gym tonight it was it's been hot it you know

081we heard it from a parent from liberty today thomas jefferson elementary's had a number of issues with their system and as you remember with thomas jefferson and goodview they were they were on our hopeful list of using our coveted relief funds to replace those systems and the um bids we just couldn't afford to do those systems when the bids came in with the amount of money that we had they still remain priority areas and i'm hoping that we can put some quick attention on being able to move forward with those because if it takes as long to order those systems and get the equipment in as it has these if we don't start soon you know we may be in trouble the next time around if we're planning on doing that next summer so we'll

082talk more about that of course with our facilities committee and the board but i wanted to had to use this opportunity to plant that seed we also have repaired sewage lines at forest middle and liberty high school we've installed 30 water dispensers our own folks have done that and there are five schools remaining still we'll fit those in as we can the bedford primary parking lot and drive paving project is done two classrooms there have also been retiled the kitchen air conditioning has been installed at bedford primary in stewartsville first time that's been in place in those schools we have a new water heater at jefferson forest and in addition to those kind of large things another nearly 700 697 other work tickets our maintenance staff addressed over the summer as well so um mr

083you know with regard to those hvac systems i think mr hagler is going to update the board about in the relevant committees soon regarding available funds and coveted relief funds that may be available and we'll we'll just keep working on a plan to try to address the other areas that we need that we need to address so at this time any of us are able to field your questions and we'll certainly answer them if we can or follow up if we can't drama yes i have a question for mrs smith um the many times during the year but especially the first day and that parents are anxious and you know you're late you're late get picking them up you're late getting them home for a hundred different reasons all of which are good um can

084are we able to use our travel tracker to remind parents that we may be late picking your child up and we may be late delivering them back to you because it's the first few days of school i was going to send an email out to families sunday and i've also spoken with the principals of our elementary schools because that's really where we get bottled up because you know how hard it is to make sure that first day little people get where they need to go so we're hoping we can start loading a bit earlier so we can pull out at the normal time and kind of catch up and make sure we get close to the time that's been published and so many of our buses need to get to the middle high for a

085second run and if they're late it just is a snowball effect so i was going to send that out just a gentle reminder that you know we'll be there feel free to call and and we'll let you know fortunately with so many over buses with the gps we can tell them exactly where their child is you know the bus is right here it'll be there in five minutes harrison the eight teacher vacancies can you tell us which subject areas and grade levels those eight teachers or where you need them um yes and i will say that i certainly think both you and your team have really done a tremendous job in filling all the vacancies that our division had so i applaud all of the work and time that you all put in thank you

086thank you we have liberty high school ag welding there will be a long-term sub in place in that position and we even have a prospective candidate that will be graduating in december liberty middle school library media specialist montbell elementary vpi all of these have long term subs stant river high school earth science stant river middle school exploratory um stant river middle school adaptive okay and those have been absorbed but we still need to hire the position okay stewartsville elementary sped general and susie gibson electricity and the electricity um students have been moved as well okay all right thank you and just to comment to dr dewis i am so happy for the work that the team has done you guys are to be commended also and i am thrilled that boonesboro elementary school has an

087hvac system along with the other schools too but everybody knows i have really been working hard and cheering on for that school so thank you dr dewis and your hard work that's all i have madam chairman yeah um pat i was wondering um have we figured out the range on those electric buses yet no we have not um we did take one for a test drive up to the peak spotter um and that's how we found out there was an issue with one that we needed to send it back to sonny's to get some work done to it do you know what that was um it overheated the battery overheated um so but uh the second bus um we did take it out on the driver's route which encompasses dickerson mill to rocky ford um

088up to phoenix mill and across um sharps mountain and both our shop foreman and the lead mechanic were very impressed you know the battery life that was left after that um it was down to three quarters of a charge questions okay so dr dawes all the buildings are cool i just want to confirm that because i've been getting tons of messages i want to confirm all the buildings so in the sys in these new with the schools with these new systems either new units are in place old units are buying time until the equipment comes in or we've got temporary units in place are all the buildings cooling in every room know we're addressing tickets um every day when we get reports of of a hot hot gym or a hot classroom and so our

089our hvac mechanics and our partners with honeywell that we contract with you know continue to address that so you know we're in much better shape than we were over the last few years we've you know taken care of over a third of our schools with new systems so um we're in much better shape than we were but no i i can't promise today that every classroom will be cool we certainly will do our best and are working hard to make sure we address it when they're not and did we ever get the um pe office in the gym cold at liberty middle school i know we have an issue with that i can follow up with you on that okay if you would please i would appreciate it and miss smith how are you on

090substitute bus drivers i mean i i understand that you have the shortage of the full you have like three yeah the only you only have like three mm-hmm and then so we need every one note we need full-time bus drivers and we need some substitutes yes so that wouldn't take a huge time commitment just a couple of days whenever needed and you can say no if you want to be a substitute say hey i can't do it this day but i'm available these days and we will give you call um we've had a lot of people that are interested in driving field trips athletic events so we're happy to train you to do whatever you want to do it'll help us in in every way thank you very much and thank everybody for you for

091your time and effort into that okay dr calvert the 25 consideration if i don't click please someone say click on may 12 2022 during the public comments section of the bedford county school board meeting the president of bcea presented a proposal for 25 percent consideration for employees the 25 percent consideration requested have five parts per board request i met with the instructional team to provide pros and cons to this recommendation for board review the first two requests are combined because they both address time spent before and after school request number one is that teachers spend no more than 25 percent of the professional work week in before after school meetings the example that was given is a five day work week 1.25 days per week could be spent item number two requests that teachers spend

092no more than 25 percent of the work day in before after school meetings the example that was given for a 7.5 hour work day that would equal no more than 1.8 hours total per week of required time the time expectations vary weekly depending on for teachers depending on meeting requirements this expectation would limit and standardize time expectations for all teachers which would assist teachers with family responsibilities and child care and many other things i'm sure the concerns that we had there are a variety of meetings that are based on student need and parent concerns happen including 504 ips scts parent-teacher conferences some of these meetings are scheduled far in advance and some are within a few days because of parent concern or student need meeting participants are specified by position and expertise by federal and

093state regulations in addition participants are expected to have knowledge of the student in question so you cannot have random coverages for meetings to restrict staff availability would place the division out of compliance with regulations governing programs for students with disabilities sct iep 504 there are men also many meetings frequently directed by administration for school improvement faculty meetings leadership meetings committee meetings department grade level meetings if a teacher had a faculty meeting during the week then following this consideration they would not be available for an iep 504 or a ct meeting some weeks there are needs for multiple meetings and some weeks there are none there's not regular schedule they are staggered based on need so it would be very difficult to serve our student population with these restrictions the next item virtual option teachers and

094professional staff should be allowed to attend at least 25 of required meetings virtually the example that was given was that if a teacher is slated to attend four iep meetings at least one of them could be virtual this again would give teachers consistency consistent time they would leave school to address child care family responsibilities are concerns for ip504 and sct meetings we are currently requiring that if you are on site you must attend in person to these meetings we did have concerns from parents over lack of engagement and staff participating virtually meetings normally happen immediately before after school so staff attending virtually would either require the teacher to leave early to arrive home for a meeting or the teacher would have to then attend virtually on a cell phone while traveling staff attending meeting in

095cars or while driving home with children would cause confidentiality concerns the 25 consideration would also cause inconsistently with some students having teachers attend in person and some virtually we would want to ensure the same level of participation for all of our students for other meetings such as faculty committee grade level department if teachers were able to choose what 25 percent of required meetings they can attend then administrators cannot effectively plan for a faculty meeting some activities will only work if participants are meeting in person the principal would not be able to anticipate who would participate remotely and who would attend in person many meetings are to collaborate with peers to analyze data this in-person discussion is essential for student success as teachers asserted during the pandemic virtual teaching does not promote the same level of

096teacher interaction and student engagement the same would be argued of virtual meeting participation in which it will not promote interaction and member engagement face-to-face interactions are important to provide the full scope of professional knowledge understanding of instructional practices and the opportunity for member engagement i'm very pleased on the next item to say that the item number four first of all was at least 25 percent of teacher work days after the start of the school year should be including a remote work option the current resolution in support of teachers and staff of bedford county schools approved on july 14th allows for two non-instructional work days to be given as a remote option those days will be october 17th and march 13th teachers will be able to use those as a remote work option so this item

097number four has been completed so that's excellent item number five has also been completed and actually exceeded a little bit this was the consideration for bereavement leave they requested that all staff should have 2.5 days per year that can be taken for bereavement before it dips into employee sick leave regulation gcbdr was revised on april 6 staff may request up to three days per year following the death of an immediate family member this category has been added to smartwa find and does not use the employee's accrued sickly so that has been established i also think it's important which was mentioned earlier to recognize that we are very gracious in bedford county by giving teachers seven unassigned work days during the school year teachers are on a 200-day contract but only report to work 193 days

098seven days are given to teachers to account for the hours that they work many hours before and after school this does not include of course additional days be maybe caused by inclement weather we do not require them to document activities or account for time on these unassigned days we know that they are professionals and will work until the job is complete thank you thank you very much end of year financial report mr hagler good evening here to kind of give give an update on how we ended the year last year on the financials these are unaudited financial statements so as we go to the audit these may change but this is a snapshot and usually doesn't change too greatly and so kind of give you a briefing on that um i've got to remember to

099do that on the revenue side um after we made our supplemental adjustments supplemental appropriations we were we received about 262 000 more than we had budgeted the uh the revised budget so that worked out pretty well kind of uh came in very close i would say right the biggest variance right there at the end of the year was medicaid money that came in on june like 28th which i was not expecting until the following year and that was like 250 000 so that's the biggest thing so called it pretty close um looking at it even from the third quarter and second quarter so pretty happy with how the revenue came in uh one of the biggest uh changes also that really strengthened uh our revenues sales tax was just phenomenal this year there's been years

100that it's been negative and it kind of puts a very it puts a strain on our budget this year it was into the positive so a lot of sales tax was flown in both into the county and to the school system uh from the state they do deduct that from your basic aid there's a formula that you don't get 100 of that but it still helps you out and you get it works out well for us when it's very strong so very pleased to report the revenue side came in very strong any questions on the revenue how we ended the year okay on the expenditure side kind of came in about where i expected we had been projected to come in under budget throughout the year you can see the results there about 1.8 million

101under projection um so when you combine both the revenue coming in over and the under on the expenditure side about 2.1 million ending balance is what i'm projecting that um too far there there's the expenditure side um once the audit's complete or fairly complete then i will bring to this board recommendations to reappropriate that money towards one-time expenditures which it can which could include cip uh maintenance fund items might have some go into the health fund because a lot of the coveted expenditures that we experience i'll talk about that when you get to the last page on the balance sheet and we may and we may need to put some over into actually our operating fund for technology expenditures we went after a grant um dr hoisenton and the technology so we postponed buying our

102teacher computers until this year that were budgeted last year because the grant was only available if we actually made that purchase this year so we may have to reclass some of that money to recognize the to offset that purchase but we'll see how much we get on the grant to offset that total amount so there may be a little bit that we have to put into the technology fund for that one-time expenditure i already discussed that with the my counterpart at the county and that's a routine practice that they do also because of because of delayed shipments and things like that so we'll be bringing that back after i talk to the finance committee once we know this uh we have final numbers and then we'll bring that to you and then we'll take it

103to the board of supervisors for reappropriation any questions on endinger phenomenal year ended real strong um typically uh years we usually end up with about three four or five hundred thousand dollars at a 110 million budget that's pretty close this is a little bit stronger ending um at the end of the year biggest concerns mid-year were fuel prices tech transportation came in on budget so very pleased with that and as you look at it the maintenance department was the one that was really you know very close uh to maxing out their budget so we'll have to continue to keep our eye on that as far as rep repair and replace electrical costs and also fuel um there's more detail on each one of those departments over the next two pages but um we'll go down

104to the the back page where i'll brief on the other funds that we have first of all the nutrition department phenomenal year um it was a year where the federal government was allowing each kid to eat for you know to have their lunch for free so in all of our schools so the participation was greatly increased and the federal reimbursement rate provided more than covered the expenditure side for that so you can see the net profit or loss for the year was almost 1.6 million to the good which really boosted up our nutrition balance sheet with that with the finance committee we had briefed and talked about that nutrition department's looking at that some of that money can be used for you know some capital uh upgrades uh for equipment that that might need to

105be done and they're diligently looking through that and seeing what they can spend some of that money on to to upgrade some of the the equipment in our cafeterias the textbook fund um you can see there that we have an ending balance of about 1.1 that's reserving for um the the entire adoption was not complete we're still waiting for our estate guidance on some of that so we did not procure all the adoption uh textbooks and so once we get final word on that and the instructional department moves forward on that then we'll kind of we'll expend the rest of that money um but we were waiting for guidance from the state they had still as far as i know they have still not given that dr whitford they have not given that yet so

106once they give that guidance we'll move forward and brief the board on that and move forward but i've got that money reserved because that was committed and we're moving forward with that as soon as we get to go ahead for that maintenance reserve fund if you look at that bounce you're going boy it's calling it pretty close that's on a cash basis um we spend the money before we get it back so there's quite a bit of the cares act money that is really accounts receivable we've already claimed it it's coming in in july and i made a footnote to the side there's 2.1 million dollars in accounts receivable out there that money's actually flowing in in july and august we've already put the claims in there we're just waiting to receive that that will

107boost that fund back up quite a bit um managing that fund is really for the facilities committee and looking at how much money do we have locally how much money is free for from the cares act for hvac issues and dr dust leads that committee and i i assist with looking at the numbers on that once we get into the year this year we had budgeted some money of karezak money for the operating fund uh for learning loss once we get a good gauge of how much money we're spending there any unspent money there may be an opportunity to reclass and move over to the cip fund or the maintenance reserve fund to do other projects so i should have be able to update dr dewis and the executive team on that probably early september

108um once we know how we're staffing the schools and where we've put that money to use uh self last fund is self insured health fund um kind of a rough year you can see we began the year with 6.2 million dollars in reserve ended with about 5.3 almost a million dollars you know reduction there that's why i might make the recommendation board that we might want to use some of that carryover money to kind of boost that fund back up a lot of those expenditures were related to covid and i think there was over a million dollars kind of tagged million point two that were directly related to covet expenditures that our consultants had guided us so still in very good shape um no no need for concern we did go up on our rate

109stitch this year which will probably put about another five hundred thousand dollars in there just on our increased rates for the 23 year but just to give you an idea our run out claims if if we were to stop being self-funded and when fully funded good estimate is about two 2.1 two million dollars that we would need to do that you've got the reserve so you can deal with any any year that you have a bad year like this year this year was uh the worst one that we had probably in five years so that's why we had to go up on the rates to accommodate for some of that and we'll see we'll have to watch that and hopefully we have a better year next year so we look in very good shape across

110the board and as we we just started the year but november and december will come around quick we'll get into budget season all these funds have to be considered along with our operating fund for the long-term sustaining of our kids and giving them what they need facility wise textbook wise and our employees on their health insurance be happy to answer any questions you might have paglier miss child mr heckler so you said the rates went up yes sir can you give me rates for who what the health insurance rates it was part of the budget process um they went up uh we went about five percent up on our health insurance rates uh so the school board is paying more and also employees are paying more for their health insurance for an employee only i

111believe the employee employee only fully 100 employee i think it went up like five bucks like five dollars a month um the school board what we put in place is that i think the employees are bearing about 20 25 percent of the increase and then the school board's covering about the other 75-80 percent of that um yeah and i just want to add correct me if i'm wrong mr hagler that uh actually our provider wanted us to go up 15 or more mr hagler was able to work it so that he had much lower since we are self-funded uh we rely on our consultants to guide us um they come in and brief a committee and uh kind of brief us on how the year is going uh when we're setting our budgets and our

112rates we're doing that in march which you have three you know you have three more months of claims that you don't know what they're going to be so they're very conservative on that so sometimes they'll come in and say well we're recommending 12 or 13 increase we can cut that down because if the year's looking pretty good so it's kind of like looking at what our reserves are what do we think is happening high dollar claims that are happening at the moment that we think are we have exposure on and so you have to do that so we went out with a five percent even though they recommend higher and we're going to see how this year goes so if this year goes well hopefully we don't have to go up on our rates next

113year if we have another bad year that's this is ongoing that it's going to be this high we'll have to go up some more my concern there is inflation's hitting all sectors so i would imagine this sector is being hit also and there may be more pressure on our health insurance next year but we'll have to wait and see a lot of when you look at insurance of your this is not a bad thing this is what insurance is for the ones that are healthy help pay for the ones that are sick and i'm glad to do that if i'm healthy i want to make sure and we kind of pour resources together so please no one take this as a hit but high dollar claims account for 70 percent of your cost so there

114might be 10 to 20 claims you know four to five percent of your population is accounting for 50 or 60 percent of the claims that's why we have a wellness policy and that's why we try to encourage our employees do everything you can to prevent a catastrophic injury we want them healthy and well but also the claims can get real high when there's a catastrophic event some cannot be avoided some hopefully through healthy lifestyles can be avoided and that's where we all want to work together to maintain this so we don't have to go up on our rates and more money can go into salaries in other areas so one more question hold up on the textbooks do we know what that is why we're i will defer to dr woodford on that we don't

115know they are just i think they're going back through their process and re-looking at books but we've not heard anything really they started giving us dates early in the spring that they might be ready and then when they weren't they just said we'll let you know so okay so we're truly waiting on the state we truly are yes you mentioned that last year all the schools had free lunches that was the program that yes the federal government federal providers so this year all of them but for us to have it correct uh yeah i'll let dr dewis yeah um yes so with the end of pandemic relief funds for meals we're reverting back to the way the system worked prior to covid so folks will fill out a meal application it will be reviewed for

116their income and household size and the formula will be followed to see if they qualify for free meals in addition to other criteria that can be considered what's changed a little bit or expanded i guess during the pandemic is that we went from two schools just going into that time now to um who qualify under what's for free meals for the whole school under a program called community eligibility provision it's a different program from the coveted relief funds but for families it's you know it's all the same effect the meals will be free for all families in that school and it's based on a federal formula that just shows that those schools qualify our district as a whole doesn't qualify as some school districts do and that's another way of looking at it but some

117of our schools do and so we certainly wanted to extend that benefit to you know and that federal benefit to all who could qualify for it it helps i think you've seen more kids eat under when those meals are provided and certainly the revenue to the program is is healthy and in the schools that did not qualify under that community eligibility the families are invited and encouraged to fill out applications for meal assistance and we'll process those as soon as we can and get back to them quickly on you know on whether they qualify yep mike oh dr dewis on the whole forest communication is that being shared at a open house is it the principal sharing because there's some i guess miscommunication that we before county public schools chose which schools were going to

118provide lunch to versus those that we were not and so i heard you loudly say clearly say just then that parents can still apply for reduced or free lunch i just i wonder how that's been communicated within the forest area because we want to make sure parents who qualify for that understand that they can still get the free or reduced lunch they sure can and yes they sure can and um you know we've put it out on our web page and through social media as a district we've also gotten that information out to schools and and if the feedback is that more people need that information we can certainly get it out other ways we don't want to deny benefits to anyone who qualifies no matter where they live and these aren't decisions that we

119made we certainly applied for those community eligibility programs because they benefit whole you know lots of folks and and then are encouraged to do that by the state department of education so there's doctor dew is just one sort of a question maybe not a question like fellow fellow board members i also have received emails and phone calls regarding what seems to be a bit of confusion regarding parents in the forest area not being able to apply for free and reduced lunches i would say that the information that you all put out there on your website it stated it was very clearly stated that um parents certainly could apply so i would just really encourage our parents uh certainly to take a few minutes and really go back and re-read that post from the bedford county

120school system it very clearly states that schools can steal parents can still apply i think it's great that we have programs that's meeting the needs of schools that have high percentages of free and reduced students and families there that those schools are able to receive school-wide their free lunches and all and breakfast and everything but again the website it uh it says it it's it's there so i hope that this clears up everything for those parents who have been a bit concerned about the force zone being excluded right and and just to say the meal application can be in paper schools have copies the online application is very quick to use and feedback can be very quick as well um and it may be just more helpful to think about this i mean we design

121we divide our schools in zones for feeder patterns and lots of other you know educational reasons these decisions are not based on that at all they're based school by school so it's really a collection of individual schools and that in this case happen to you know also to kind of match our high school feeder patterns but that's not how those decisions are made questions okay thank you thank you mr shaggle and dr dewis okay item 4.01 policy updates dr bergen oh yes madam chair the intergovernmental affairs committee recently met on august 1st to review some proposed revisions to 10 policies as we do for every board meeting the there's a link within the agenda for the board members and anyone from the public if you want to read all of the changes in the red

122line version they're readily available to you through the publish agenda i'll just highlight just a couple of the policies because of the significance of their changes policy cla reporting acts of violence and substance abuse is being updated to conform with revisions in the state code about which incidents we as a school division must report to law enforcement and vice versa what law enforcement must report to the school division and this is just in the overall effort of making sure that schools are safe and that we have good communication between law enforcement and school divisions policy eb school crisis emergency management and medical emergency response plan is also being updated to conform with changes in state code this is really a very good thing the the state has funded all the schools in the commonwealth to

123have digital mapping done so that when first responders are coming into a school for any reason that they can pull up on a smart device or whatever technology available to them a digital map of the school that they're entering and we are well on our way to meeting that requirement with uh the change in state code and availing ourselves to the reimbursement for the cost of that from the from the funding policy jce non-residents the administration brought to the committee and we're recommending to the board that we uh broadened the the ability for tuition waivers for children of all full-time employees currently the policy is for teachers that they can bring their children we just think that this should be something that anyone who works for bedford county public schools if they don't happen to

124live within our county and they want to but they work for us that they can bring their children to school without paying a tuition and there are some a small number but there are some employees who they don't work for for us they work for an agency with which we have a working relationship and their primary work assignment is in one of our buildings so for those select few individuals we want to extend the same courtesy that they can bring their children since their primary work location is within one of our billings and then lastly uh knag relations with law enforcement authorities is really the same language as cla but it appears in two different sections of the of the policy manual so we're making the same changes to both policies the other six policies

125are largely changes in uh structure of the policy or grammar to make some consistency with changes we've made in other policies again all of the the changes are available to you and the public and i would encourage everyone to review them before we ask you to take action month from now any any questions uh i'd be happy to answer any questions or members of the committee about any of these 10 that were reviewed on august 1st dr maylie um yes the um fees one uh the schedule that the for the fees and charges and that um that you need you've given us a list of the fees yes um the high school dues that say seven to twenty seven dollars and funds will be used for student events those are non-mandatory charges correct um so

126a couple things be happy to answer that question now it's also the next item on the agenda for the board to approve the fees for this school year um so i can take the question i can have dr wolf woodford answer that question now or on the next agenda item whatever you're not going to do it i'll do it when we go to take the vote please uh just in response to the question the current policy requires that we change the policy every year because the actual dollar figures are embedded in the policy and just for ease of communication with the board we're suggesting that we move the actual references into regulation you still are going to need to approve it so a year from now it will ask you to approve it within regulation

127this year we're asking you to prove it within policy any other questions regarding the policy updates thank you 4.02 um i was thinking after last meeting a couple of meetings we've had this year and we've talked about it and it was i haven't been able to find it in writing i know we all understand that we're going to try to do informational one month and then voting the next um one to allow us time to think about it and two and allow time to hear back from everyone that is concerned with proposals and i would like to add this to our bylaws policies and procedures that we have been working on that we said that we were going to go by i like to add it to um the end of article seven section two

128is the third item under there and the this is the wording that i had proposed um and i would like to bring it up for a vote next month but if anyone has any changes or things that needs to be changed let's work on it between now and then too okay now let's see let's go ahead and move down to 9.01 is that correct the approval policy updates presented at the july 14 meeting dr bergen yes ma'am at the last board meeting the administration shared recommendations from the intergovernmental affairs committee meeting of june for revisions to eight policies and one regulation since we last presented those these items for information there's been further review by legal counsel and i want to bring to the board's attention as we signaled when we posted the agenda that

129we are recommending and policy iea pledge of allegiance there was a section within the policy that's in current policy that should not be struck and that is specifically a reference to students being permitted to stand or sit at their desks during the recitation of the pledge that is within virginia code students through their own volition or through the wishes of their parents have a constitutional right to sit or stand during the pledge we certainly encourage children to stand during the pledge but they have a they have a right to to not stand so when the board takes action tonight we have restored those words to the to the proposed policy as it's posted on board docs so when you're voting tonight on that policy you would be voting to keep the word sit and or

130stand at their desk within that section of the pledge of allegiance otherwise all of the other revisions to that policy are moving forward as presented by the administration on behalf of the intergovernmental affairs committee and again i'm happy to answer any questions that defer to the two members of the of the iga if there are any questions about any of the eight policies and one regulation that are up for action tonight and i asked for the board's indulgence because the july 14th meeting many of you know i had very significant family health issues so i did not get a chance to really review these so i just have a few questions and i want to say up front that for policy iea i do not disagree with the flag the pledge of allegiance the contents

131of this policy but i do have a concern about how we've written it so if somebody could help me understand um we have a policy in our manual that says we have we need to have an intent statement in each um policy that we write so what is the we call it the purpose you know what's your goal what's your what do you intend to do with this and and that seems to be missing here um we have a belief statement here but we don't have an intense statement so i i was just trying to understand why the committee decided to go with a belief statement rather than a an intent um statement how we came to that does anybody know that i would say the purpose is to promote patriotism and i think that

132with renaming it that is what were is the purpose yeah but it but our policy states that we have to make an intense statement and and that's a title it's clearly labeled as a title and um vote patriotism promote patriotism is your title okay yeah so we can also make that the statement as well but that's what we're trying to state well the what we need to to have there is something that's going to state our intention uh what why are we writing this um if you're going to entitle it promotion of patriotism then what's the purpose behind this and it might be something just as simple as to provide direction i mean i'm i'm writing this in my head right now but provide direction about recitation of the pledge display of the bill of

133rights and uh right it says the school board believes the appreciation of our country is promoted by the ceremonies and observances held in the schools it is the belief of the school board that students must be taught good citizenship skills that include respect for our country our flag and the sacrifices of our service members and their family right that's a belief statement that's not a purpose that's that that's what i'm concerned about that's that's the purpose well a purpose tells you what you're going to do but that's the way it's written i'm sorry to say that again we can argue definition well what i'm saying is if we look at all of our over 240 other policies there is only one that has a belief statement and that's a very unique policy i can tell

134you what that is if you need to but all the others we work on something within them in terms of the board that says the board recognizes the board supports the board maintains the board encourages um it we i think we really need something what's the difference in the board supports and the board believes well because believes is that what what we have here i think is is more subjective um you know it's not i i i'm not talking about what i believe in with a purpose statement i'm telling you how we're going to do it that you know so like when you when after you leave off the believe statements everything you said you know we're going to fly the flag and the grounds of every school everything you've done there explains how we're

135going to do this but we need a statement that explains what we're going to do like other other policies will say the purpose is to provide the guidelines for administering sick days the purpose might be bedford county schools guidelines with regard to a direction with regard to safety procedures followed by bus drivers it's it's a short sweep this is why we're writing this it's in here it is the belief of the school board that students must be taught good citizens citizenship skills that include respect of our country our flag and the sacrifices of our service members and their families right but it doesn't tell you how you intend to do it okay can i just say something here and and just wondering if this this would satisfy it underneath where ia where it says purpose

136the school board believes the appreciation of our country is promoted okay could we do something um like it did at the top the two instead of saying the school board believes thee who would just put in to provide an appreciation of our country that was satisfied um that's very subjective because how are you going to the the purpose should be you're either you're you're telling us how you're going to do that i mean i i that's what the whole policy is for too to back it up that is what i'm sorry say that again this this is what the body of the policy is is to back up your purpose so to purpose if you just want to make it a purpose statement then you could it's simply replace the first two three four five

137words and replace it with to provide an appreciation for our country that would that would automatically provide a purpose and then the body of the policy provides the support for the purpose i i disagree with that but that we'll we'll we'll leave that there the other thing i would like to say is uh number eight um where it says flags of countries representing the many nations of the world provided they are shown in the common areas of the school building i won't read the whole thing does that also apply to foreign language classrooms where teachers may be displaying the flag of the country of the language they're studying often they do that that would fall under number three such flags as are used as a part of a temporary unit of study within the approved

138curriculum it wouldn't be temporary that would be all years is that understood can we can we strike out temporary by the principle but temporary slash um or can we just eliminate used as part of a unit of study yeah that would work i'm not interested um trying to compromise okay so uh so the way i read it now is that our t foreign language teachers would would not be able to have those flags anymore um because you know when you say flags or banners approved by the principal and author athletic director that sentence continues that represent a community business or group you know and and then goes on um i mean i don't think we want to take have teachers take that out of their classrooms why is that so objectionable well number eight also

139goes on to say in a manner and for purposes approved by the superintendent provided that no such flag may be as large or as prominent as the american flag yeah but the first part says provided they are shown in the common areas of the school building and that wouldn't be a common area it would be a you know french classroom or a spanish classroom we could go in i i would be okay to add such flags as are used as a part of a temporary unit and or approved within the study by the principal within the approved curriculum okay go ahead no go ahead i was just going to say um certainly i i think that is certainly an option mr hill i'm thinking of some classes particularly in the high school in middle school

140that often teach units regarding other countries that can certainly extend into a semester or maybe even a year so using the word temporary to me hinders them puts the brakes on them from displaying the flag for for that particular country or that unit for the entire year because you know as you're teaching various units teachers are going to help students make connections so oftentimes they may be teaching a subject or teaching an sol and then they have to go and refer back to a previous sol to make that connection or to help the students make the connection and often using visuals can help them i would be willing to take out the temporary okay um such flags as are used as a part of a unit of study within the approved curriculum must stay absolutely

141that's fine um that's just i'm one of seven so well well we appreciate you mr hill agreeing with us um i would also say that um one of my other uh questions about it was that when we put these items in our index which is on the left hand side um in order to make it easy for people who access don't access the manual a lot i think that when you have promotion of patriotism we should underneath it if we can do this miss johnson put pledge of allegiance motto because people are not going to know where to find that i mean if we know because we're all here but if somebody's saying well i wonder what they say about the pledge it's not going to be an easy find for them and i think

142we should list those things that are within that policy of promoting patriotism hopefully when people think of pledge of allegiance they think of patriotism so right but if they're looking if they're looking specifically they they may not you know they it would just help our i think our readers to say here's where these things are housed into a search and pledge of allegiance then he comes up so i understand what you're trying to do but i'm not interested in that i think what am i trying to do you're trying to tie the other two policies that are retired back into this title no and that's not what we're wanting to do no i'm not i'm just trying to say make it easier for so word it however you want idea promotion of patriotism okay well

143that's not going to make it easy i also have a another question has our attorney reviewed this the way it's been written and what did he say about that specifically come back with the change that we made of what was needed to be changed which was the sit and he added some i'll have to let dr bergen as far as the different changes but they were word changes or different remember what those were what his concerns were um i can give you a couple specific examples um one was uh in number five flags are banners approved by the principal athletic director that represent a community or business or group that monetarily support um he thought there are other ways that organizations support us other than monetarily you know in kind services and i shared that

144feedback with the members of the committee but his specific to your question the the one area where he had concern legally was that we had struck from the original policy um as it as it exists in policy today on pledge of allegiance about sitting or standing at their desk so we've rectified that under advice of legal counsel the rest of the legal counsel suggestions were wording he might have you know suggested we word in a different way i provided that feedback to the committee for their consideration but there wasn't anything illegal or out of compliance with code with anything else within the policy in his interpretation what wording did he find that was objectionable i wouldn't say he used the word objectionable um he just he gave he gave caution that uh if we were

145to ask him to write a policy he might choose to ward it differently but he deferred to the board to choose whatever words the the board wanted to use to communicate their desire to promote patriotism um like i said i i totally agree with what we're trying to say here about the flags the pledge the civics education i have one other question too did our with regard to our civics education did we at all uh speak to um miss d long morefield did we include her in this discussion about civics education at all and i'm sorry i'm having trouble did we include miss d long morefield in a discussion of civics education part of this since she's our supervisor over that i didn't have a conversation with her no and we don't think that's important

146to do i would say she was in the d-day or part of the d-day memorial this week taking a tour so uh but no i didn't go over it um that's not something that's an option these are the things that we're saying we want to be taught and so as a supervisor my expectation is she's going to work with the executive team to go implement the policy that we are implementing i just think quite a bit of that's already in our curriculum that's why i wondered if she had any input again i will tell you i do not disagree with the the flags or the pledge or the civics education patriotic qualities i do not disagree with the content but the way it's written i i just i just don't feel it's written the way

147our other policies are written and i think it should be can i ask ms johnson can i ask you one question and this it's something dr maylie just mentioned that if we do do a search engine within board docs for the codes and we were to punch in pledge of allegiance since it is a sub-section of this policy would it come up would you be able to find it if you did a search a general search engine for pledge of allegiance or flags or civics education would that come up you're asking if you do a search in board docs yes yes so any word will come up burdock is it's good but it can be a little clunky what it will come up as you can select whether you want to search policies only whether

148you want to search agendas whether you want to search minutes if you don't specify where in board docs you want to search it will show you everything but you can select to search within policies you can say pledge you could say freedom you know whatever word you choose to search select policies and it will show you it will bring up every instance every document where that word is listed thank you very much welcome madam chair just i just wanted to reflect a little more on that question about the section on civics education the first several sentences repeat state code that the bill of rights national motto will be posted in every school it then goes on to say that the 17th day of september shall be recognized as constitution and citizenship day that happens everywhere

149it always has so that's just repeating what we would do but we're letting the public know that we participate in citizenship and constitution day and then the end of that paragraph says to that end students should learn about these documents and its importance with in the that's embedded within the division curriculum so that would be her responsibility to find where it is in our curriculum that children would learn about the bill of rights the national motto the constitution our nation's history and it ends with and this was my direct input and i i think we're all thrilled with this part of the of the policy and i did discuss this with dr woodford and i know she discussed it with with crystal and i know they discussed it with the d-day memorial that we ensure

150that all of our students do visit the bedford boys tribute center and the national d-day memorial at least once in their 13 years in bedford county public schools because we embed it into the curriculum and we asked i asked through dr woodford that crystal meet with those organizations and figure out the best place to do that so in a long about way no i didn't personally speak with our supervisor for social studies about the wording but i am empowering her or him or whoever is in that position to implement constitution day and visits to the d-day memorial i mean that's in our curriculum and we approve that so it's not a question of not um doing that like i said i totally agree with it it's just i think that it's not written the policy

151isn't written the way our other over 240 policies are written and it's it's not the precedence we've always used madam chairman just to kind of follow up with dr bergen's statement um as long as i can remember as long as the d-day memorial has been where it is dr bergen teachers from kindergarten to seniors they have always always took field trips there they've always been involved so really this is nothing new this is not a new practice these are things that we've always done well that's great yes it is because i'd like to make sure it's that there's a clear expectation because when i visited the bedford boys tribute center i was told that wasn't the case that's a that's a fairly new facility sure i also asked at the memorial if they've seen every

152school and the answer was no so i i just want to make sure it's such a prominent part of our community it shouldn't be by happenstance i those kids can and should visit it six eight ten twelve times but at least once embedded in the curriculum and so this is gonna ensure that that occurs i would have to beg your differ on that because i believe our schools have have gone frequently to the d-day memorial i i i'm sure i was misinformed then by the person i spoke to at the moment perhaps do you have anything else dr maryland yeah that's fine okay that we approve the policy updates presented at the july 14 2022 board meeting uh with the exception of under iea number three under flags we're going to remove the word temporary

153and then also i want to make sure that we understand or with this motion ieb and iec will remain retired by mr hill do i have a second second second by mr daniels any further discussion i'm sorry again i had a question about um klb that's part of this correct i think this was from last month when i was not able to do everything i needed to do this is about the request for reconsideration of learning resources um and again i i don't disagree with what's in here but i i would like the board to consider whether or not we can put a a um a sentence in there that says that any decisions or whatever would apply to only to the student whose parent or guardian brought the complaint so that it's very clear

154that you're not removing uh access to educational materials from all children just your child that's why i think what we all kind of came to consensus with um but that it does not say that in here and i think it would help if it's very clear that we this process is great but we we need to make sure that the people bringing the complaints understand that it only applies to your child as a parent or guardian well i have a motion i have a first and a second on the floor to accept them as is unless either one of you want to withdraw the motion so we can discuss it further i don't okay i have motion i have first and a second any further discussion okay we'll call for vote all those in favor

155signify by saying i i opposed no johnson will you pull the ball please daniel yes mrs harrison mr hill yes mr holbrook yes mrs kirby yes dr miley no mr nouns yes motion passes five to two thank you okay moving on to item 9.02 do i have a motion to approve the annual fee schedule she needs to present it oh yeah well it's here for an action i agree right i just knew that dr maylie was going to ask the question and um well you asked it earlier and we said we were going to talk about it so those fees for high school students they are not required if a student can't pay them there are suggested windows of dues that we have and i also want to let you know none of these fees

156have changed this year we've kept them the same as they were last year even the fees that are listed if we had a student or family who had difficulty paying we would work with that family or exempt them from those fees it wouldn't keep them for participating okay so that they're not mandatory that's correct no okay also um the don't we have to be more specific with regard to how we're using those funds i thought the code had said that we needed to specify you know what kind of events and programs they're being used for we so this is the this was taken directly out of the current policy and so uh we didn't change any of this and since we weren't changing the fees we just picked it up from the current policy this

157policy is up for revision with a revision to the regulations and i think we probably will get a little bit more specific about what options for reduction in fees and so i can definitely look back at that code and see if we need to give more direction i think that really comes through the high schools when they're telling you know their class sponsors what they can and cannot be used for but i'll double check that okay thank you and i have one other question okay about this um transcripts the first five copies are free each additional copy is five dollars is there any um would the board consider i i just think we should give our graduating seniors as many copies as they need as long as they can prove that they are going to

158use these in other words i want 20 copies well no show me how you know bring me your application each time and we'll give you uh some i know five dollars isn't a lot i just think it would be nice to do for our seniors some some seniors do apply to more than five schools and then they have to to pay for the transcript i guess what i would be asking is can we for our seniors just your graduating seniors um that you you receive as many copies as as you have to bring your um application to your guidance counselor that you that you apply for how does the board feel about that um i think we can do that right now there is something in virginia called the common app so most of them

159are only requesting one transcript that'll upload to the common app and then it goes to all the universities in virginia they want but that's an easy i don't know that our schools really charge i think this is probably more for if we're going back in records and looking for multiple transcripts years and years later but we act we can take it out if the board wishes to and then it won't be a question i have a concern removed i mean i know it's five dollars but we charge our community who calls us and request information and we charge them more than five dollars for one copy and so i can't we're providing five free copies like you said the app where you present one i mean i i can't see a reason why we would

160even need to go over that but i mean if you have 9 000 students call and ask for a more than 5 copies or 10 that is a large request and i know 9 000 students aren't going to do that but i hate not to have a fee for it after a certain point based on the fact that we're charging our community when they call and request information so you don't want to you know do that as a going away gift to our seniors then that's up to you it's fun for the questions nope you don't have a motion to approve the annual fee schedule is presented so i have a motion by mr holbrook do i have a second second but mr actually saw mr nelms any further discussion call for a vote all

161those in favor signify saying aye aye opposed motion carries do i have a motion regarding the gift regarding the gifted plan have a motion by mr hill do i have a second second by ms hairston any discussion all those in favor signify saying i i opposed motion carries do i have a motion regarding the title three grant i have a motion by mr hill do i have a second second second by dr miley yes ma'am okay any discussion all those in favor signify by saying i i opposed motion carries do i have a motion regarding the solar project approval i have a motion by miss harrison do i have a second second second by dr mealy any discussion all those in favor signify by saying aye aye opposed motion carries item 10 superintendent's report that's

162a program thank you madam chair earlier uh this evening we had an opportunity to recognize some of our students so i just want to briefly touch on a couple of them for those members uh here and with us at the meeting who weren't able to be here for that first part of the meeting or those watching online we brought a number of individuals forward from yovaso yovaso is the youth of virginia speak out and it is a program with a very worthy cause which is peer-to-peer education on teen driver safety while transporting others or driving themselves so congratulations again to liberty high school for being recognized as the yobaso club of the year for virginia and for ben thurman the sponsor at liberty high school for his leadership there of that club and to two

163jf students emma ogden for being awarded the rockstar award and peyton poindexter for the youth leadership award congratulations to to those students and to the liberty high school program also earlier this evening we had a chance to recognize sarah johnson she's a rising senior at liberty high school she finished as we shared during recognition first place at the state level in the state history day competition then went on to represent virginia and finished third nationally for her presentation shenandoah national park debate and diplomacy lead to displacement congratulations sarah in case you weren't aware we are really excited about the first day of school coming up next monday august 15th and i'd like to offer my sincere thanks to our incredible administrators teachers and support staff who have worked so hard all summer long and especially

164over these past several days to ensure that we're ready to open up school i think one of the if i just have a moment of personal privilege one of you called out dr calvert and her team for their exceptional work and it really is exceptional i have been meeting with area superintendents here several times over this last week and the number of vacancies well there are vacancies everywhere there's just a national teacher shortage and the fact that we're just down to nine and still working to fill those nine is just incredible work from our our hr and uh talent development team thank you dr calvert and all those who work with you with you dr connor and others uh for your incredible work um i'm also really excited that our enrollment is up we have

165we're projecting we are at this point more students enrolled than projected more students than we ended last school year a number of those families who left during the pandemic for a number of reasons are elected to come back to our schools we're so glad to have them back and that includes 900 new bcps learners at least 900 650 coming into kindergarten and 240 are going to be attending preschool next week i'm going to be visiting all 21 of our school sites and board members if you've not already had a chance to see my email i certainly would love to take all of you on as many school tours as your time will allow next week i'll work hard to accommodate your schedules if it's morning or afternoon monday tuesday wednesday thursday friday but i'm going

166to get to all 21 schools on one one day next week looking forward to meeting all of our our new teachers liam what's that number again uh 50 some in year zero 52 i'm going to try to meet all 52 of them next week and welcome them personally to before county thank you to everybody in the community who helped us last friday in packing the bus we were able to pack the bus which was parked out in front of the walmart in bedford and thanks to the local media outlets for helping us to spread the word through that partnership with the department of social services through the generosity of our community we were able to raise over ten thousand dollars in school supplies that included everything from pencils to backpacks all of those new supplies

167through our partnership with department of social services are now going to be in the hands of those children whose families are most in need so every child can show up for school next week with the materials they need to learn okay so lastly starting tonight with tonight's presentation i want to add something new to the superintendent's update and that is three things you need to know for the next month so each month i'm going to highlight at least three things that i think are important for the board and our parents and our staff and our community to know about the upcoming month so here are the three things you need to know for the next month first of all this is a reminder for all of our middle and high school students and families that

168there is an adjustment to the schedule for middle school and high school all six secondary schools are now going to be moving to the same schedule so that our shared resources such as susie gibson will will have equal number of minutes and consistent travel time for all of our students from no matter which school zone they attend so the instructional day at secondary schools are going to adjust slightly with a start time at 8 45 and a dismissal at 3 45 no changes to the elementary school instructional schedule they'll continue to begin at 7 45 and end at 2 15. second reminder we highlighted this several meetings now but i just want to make sure that all of those individuals who have any questions or concerns about the potential changes to school zone boundaries we

169are having two information sessions next week if you have not already read and have an understanding of the plan it is online encourage you to find it it's prominently displayed on our website from there you can read about the entire proposal there's also thanks to our friends in bedford county county government through gis you can type in your address and you can see if this affects you in any way and if so how it affects you those uh those two information sessions which are members of our facilities committee will be leading with the administration are next week on wednesday the 17th at 6 30 at jf in the auditorium and next thursday also at 6 30 at ottawa river elementary school in the cafeteria so if you have questions and and would like some further

170clarification about the potential rezoning we look forward to meeting you next wednesday or thursday at jf or otta river also as a reminder also on our website any citizen that has a comment or concern about the proposal there is an email link that's been established for that very purpose all of those comments will come directly to the facilities committee for their consideration and then the facilities committee at some point in this school year will make a recommendation to the full board about this proposal for the board to take action but prior to the board taking action there will also be a public hearing so we did hear from several people tonight but everyone will have a chance to speak again at a public hearing or to submit your comments to that special email link that

171has been set up and lastly new this year we'd like to remind our parents that we are implementing a new process in regards to the operation of our school libraries each time a student checks out a book from the school library their parent or guardian will automatically receive an email that will come from the destiny followed software which is the circulation program that we use in our libraries the email is going to be directed to whatever the email address is that you've given us so if it's changed not only for that reason but for any other reason please make sure that your contact information parents is up to date with the school office because whatever you've told us is what we're going to send that email to out of the destiny software program for those

172parents who do not wish to receive these emails simply contact your library media specialist and and communicate you don't wish to receive emails and the media specialists will remove your email address from the destiny software and you will no longer receive those emails i would like to personally encourage parents whether or not you're receiving the emails or not as as i always did and i'm sure our board members do and i'm sure you all do too talk to your kids about what books they're choosing and why they're choosing them and read them together and have time as a family learning together madam sure that concludes my remarks for the evening move on to item 11.01 committee reports mr daniels we'll start with you uh we did not have a ceac meeting but our first one

173will be next will be august 18th at 5 45 so i'm looking forward to that and then i'll let mr hill talk about the iga mr rounds i think really attended the last finance committee meeting um yeah so central virginia gov school board met last wednesday we actually had students in bedford county who began this week at the gulf school so they've been in school now four days so things are going well there we have our next stem academy board meeting next week on the 16th so i'll report on that the following month and then as far as the iga we have set meetings to meet monthly and to bring uh i think we agreed last month correct me if i'm wrong dr bergen eight to ten policies per month just to make sure it's

174not you know overwhelming for the board you know as you're going through and reading those different policies so okay um as far as the facilities committee i just received information today that the auditorium here will begin they'll begin work tomorrow and this weekend to fix the water issue at the door and then the rest of it i believe ms harrison has the rest of the update a lot a few things um oh i'm sorry we'll keep going up time i think mr hagler covered most of what we said in the finance meeting i i don't think he really left anything out i'm just very grateful we're able to also compensate our paraprofessionals when they're taking over a class so that was something we we talked about in depth and i'm glad we're able to do

175that but i think he covered everything else okay now it's my turn so the next laurel school board meeting will be held in a couple weeks i think it's the last monday in this month and at that time there will be a new board chair that will be appointed i'll get to sit on the other side of that seat on that particular day the facility committee we're going to be meeting again in august on august the 26th i believe it is again just to reiterate what dr dewis has has shared already regarding the public information sessions it's going to be [Music] for the proposed school attendant zone boundary changes it's going to be conducted on wednesday august the 17th 6 30 at jefferson forest auditorium and on august the 18th at 6 30 at otter

176river elementary school and so i certainly would encourage the community to come on out and and come and have your questions answered get more information regarding this proposal that's all that i have very much well let's start off with the comments and concerns from board members let's start at your end ms harrison okay i'm ready i'll just keep it rolling so i just want to say to all of the teachers and staff members and also our students that i wish each and every one of you just a great start to the school year i am very hopeful and very optimistic and also prayerful that this will be the best year ever ever and um i just want you all to know that certainly if you ever have any questions and concerns don't ever hesitate to

177reach out to me i certainly wish each and every one of you just a great school year you've gotten off to a great start i mean i've been seeing various posts regarding open house and lots of wonderful fun things have taken place and i had the pleasure of attending for just a brief while goodview elementary school their open house earlier today before coming to the meeting and they had a huge turnout so it's just really awesome just thank you to all the speakers tonight all of the community members who came out to share your thoughts your concerns your suggestions thank you i hope you continue to come and and make your voices heard thank you there's that's melee yes i i have to uh also echo um miss harrison's uh praise and thanks for everything

178that our staff is doing and that's everyone from our bus drivers and custodians and bookkeepers and secretaries to teachers and administrators and central off staff central office staff it takes all of you to successfully educate our students and be ready for that first day i want you to know that each one of you matter to me and that each one of you are appreciated and that i know our students are going to come to school the first day excited to learn and i hope that it is the best year they've had especially after the the previous couple where it's just not been very normal so just thank you so much to all you all of you who who are making this happen um i also um would like to uh just again once again say

179how glad i am that we're able to pay our pairs when they take over the classes for us i think that's only fair um mr hagler did we get any more information about that thousand dollar bonus being given um say the 1st of december or 2nd of december as requested by one of our speakers last month yes and i had a big note for the beginning of my presentation to mention that and i didn't so i didn't want to interrupt the board as they were finishing up um we are going to be paying that out on the november check so employees will be getting that november um you actually have to pay it out by december 1st so i went and read the language on that so um employees out there if you are a

180contracted employee and received a contract from us and not on just an hourly agreement you will be receiving a thousand dollar bonus on your november check so please let everybody know that we've told the nutrition workers today bus drivers didn't have it in service right before school started i've spoken to a couple of them so please spread the word so um that's much appreciated by the employees and so hopefully some are listening tonight and they can look forward to that so yes thank you so much and thank you to the one of our employees and i'm sorry her name escapes me just uh right now for for asking for that so i would encourage you if you have things like that to ask you never know the worst that we can say is no so

181i'm so glad that they will get that in their november check and thank you again mr hagler dr dewis i want to thank you for the renovation update i'm glad to hear about the town applying for the grant to help us out and that our in the wednesday member memo you sent where are you oh there you're sorry um and that the project's you know likely to come in under budget so thank you for all your hard work on that i too want to congratulate the cavalier theater you know almost eleven thousand dollars is just amazing um from a night with kendall uh this was a huge community effort and the response was overwhelming so thank you so much to all those people who came out to support cavalier theater i also want to give

182a special shout out to the bedford county sheriff's department and their deputy deputies um for not only for their work and their dedication to our county but also to the work that do that they are doing with us to help improve our overall safety and security for our students and staff you're very very much appreciated and it does take a village to do all this so thank you for that i also want to go back to mr simmons just for a minute again for all you've done working on our safety and security um improving it for our students and schools and staff there is nothing that trumps our safety and security and i appreciate the the new work and and building upon what you've already have in place so thank you for that um i

183would like the board to to consider madam chairman maybe um put this on the agenda for next month uh mr smith's idea of recognizing um our you know sub of the year in schools i know um you know stewardsville has a lady that is there you know probably more than she's home so if we could talk about that i think that would be a really um wonderful thing to do we can't always uh give money and and do things we'd like to do but that that would be a simple one to do and i think you know i'd like to see that on the agenda for for next month um and i too want to thank dr calvert and her department i just have to be really honest when we met i think it was

184it might have even been last month and you said you had 27 openings i mean i i've thought about you a lot thinking there is no way you are going to feel 27 openings in this time and and you all did that so um thank you for the hiring of the teachers and staff i think it's uh you just did a great job so thank you so much for that thank you mr madam chairman thank you gilbert mr nelms um just want to reinvent everything they've said for us thank you to all the teachers and staff um i think this is going to be a great comeback year pre-code i think we're going back to some normalcy again on august 3rd i was able to visit new london academy and also huddleston both schools look

185excellent uh huge thanks to the custodial staff for i mean those floors you can eat off of me were so clean i mean they were ready for the school year um mac uh i talked to you about a tree issue there do you have any updates for me new london academy if we're thinking of the same tree there's a there is a large tree with a lot of dead spots limbs and if i'm not mistaken that's in the vdot right away okay and so we'll we'll need to follow up with them to make sure we have talked with them they'd be sure to still take care of it i don't know their timeline but we'll we can follow up okay thank you um and if you haven't had a chance to see it yet the

186stanton river middle school got their floor refinished and it looks amazing so whoever done that great job um that's all i have thank you mr nelson mr daniels a question and then i'll be a little long-winded probably um dr burgin what are we are we doing anything extra to recruit more substitute teachers we sure are um i'm glad you thought to ask me the you mentioned raymond making comments dr mealy so how about this for appreciation we're going to give our substitute teachers the same thousand dollars that we're giving all the other employees if they will make a commitment to working for us 45 days before think it's before november 30th yeah about the time we're ready to pay that out so so all of our substitutes who who are just so faithful for us

187uh we want to recognize you with a thousand dollars like all the other employees at the end of november we also we've increased our rates for substitutes um it would go up like do you recall sorry put you on the spot sorry everyone received at least a four percent raise we have increased the rate for retirees retirees will receive 20 dollars an hour for just normal sub rate pay and if they do a long-term sub and that's virginia retirees um then if they're doing a long-term sub which means you're planning and you're doing all the work of a teacher that would be a rate of 25 an hour so we have increased those rates and then if they if a sub whether long term or daily works 45 days they would be eligible for the

188thousand dollar bonus or they would receive a thousand dollar bonus so we thanks for the question we put those measures in place because we just want to make sure that our teachers don't have to cover each other we don't have to pull instructional assistants to cover teachers this is our last resort and so we're we're very hopeful that this additional financial incentive is going to help boost our substitute numbers thank you all right this is this is really for the students so as we get ready to start this new school year i just wanted to talk to the students that are starting on monday about three things choices sacrifices and hope today we're open houses for all the schools in bedford county a lot of families and professionals around the county made different choices and

189sacrifices i have four kids that are in bedford county schools and i'm happy to serve here in bedford county as we try to make this county better and stronger bedford didn't become this great town without the efforts of those that helped get us to this point like the generation before us nothing good comes without sacrifice choices we all have choices that we have to make some are easy and some are tough for students your decisions while they may not seem significant are very important perhaps you're struggling with balancing choices between socializing studying for an exam playing sports or even gaming for the night these are all choices but these types of decisions between pleasure and work will always be there remember your decisions determine your direction in life both your good choices and your bed

190sacrifices as a parent a sign of maturity is is that you not only do you don't understand their choices but you understand that there needs to be balance many times balance and progress comes with sacrifice maybe it's a sacrifice of social media time to work on your academics or sacrifice hanging on the weekends play sports or sacrifice your time after school to work and save for trade school regardless of your sacrifice you make in everything you do give it your all we all fall and we all struggle but that's not but the thing about the history of america is our freedoms or that they were not given they were earned in every era of history you are too resilient and too tough get back up and don't forget that it's okay to ask others for

191help regardless of your circumstance there are many people that care about you and want you to succeed hope our hope lies in working together both at school and at home there is sacrifice that teachers make and staff that brings us all hope let's unpack that for the last week or two teachers have been back in school spending extra time reviewing their lesson plans making sure that everything is in place to provide the best launching pad for our children you are the heroes that hold our front line i want to thank you in advance for everything that you've done for this county and directly for my family there's coaches that stay after school and on weekends to help kids get in those extra reps in hope of making better athletes as well as balance children with

192a healthy expression through physical fitness there's the countless hours that and time that the staff and bus drivers account for each week waking up and pre-tipping their equipment to ensure that it's in safe condition for our children to ride in we hope you understand how much we rely on you and that is a testament to your value and the whole system starts with you there's hope in the parents and guardians they wake up very early and have their k and have to go into their kids room to wake up a very sleepy child or children to try to get them up and get them motivated to come to school i'm sure there's a lot of parents out there that have heard the bus coming down the street and so man we got to get we

193got to get you to school maybe a little more difficult with those electric buses i'm sure they don't make as much noise sometimes hope is the hope that as a parent you can remember math or english assignment your child has after not having that lesson for 20 or 30 years there's hope that while the dynamic between parents and children can be dif can be challenging that they still show up and provide to the best of their ability dropping off or picking up our kids after band practice or theater the members of this board sacrifice time with their families as well take phone calls answer meetings sit on committees and debate issues long and hard not because it's work but because it's what we all want to do to make our community stronger and then there's

194the brave men and women who sacrifice to keep us safe from the sros and the sheriff's department to our friends and family serving our great country but the students should know that all the sacrifice comes with the optimism of hope the hope for the parents teachers staff and the rest of the community is that through all this sacrifice will come success the hope is that you will have success to better your lives the lives of your families and the lives of your people in your community we know that you will make us proud it's up to you to take that step though as morpheus said to neo in the movie the matrix i can only show you the door you're the one that has to walk through it we aren't asking you to be the

195best just give it your best and be the best that you can be go get them bedford county students thank you mr daniels mr hill all right um substitute teachers agree with all the information that was shared here tonight and i agree we should definitely recognize them the good thing dr calvert correct me if i'm wrong i saw 25 substitute teachers on the personnel report tonight that we approved so that's a huge number it's a great start for fulfilling what we promised as far as substitute teachers i also saw that there was actually a substitute custodian up there so again nice nice work on fulfilling that um enrollment 9024 i know that would be a plus or minus it's no surprise to me policies matter teacher positions feel dr calvert not surprising to me policies

196matter uh staff and teachers teachers and staff thank you for all you do and what you've done to get us ready for a successful year and as always it's so good to hear from so many of you with your positive comments on our teacher and staff resolution so i appreciate that and then finally to our students we're back to normal you enjoy every minute of every day this entire year it will go in a flash but do not take one minute for granted so enjoy welcome back to school on monday i know some of you started at the gov school on monday congratulations but to our students enjoy every single minute of being back to normal thank you thank you always i'll bring up the tail end here um i think i've heard it somewhere

197along the lines tonight that monday is a pretty special day around here i just wanted to tell all the kids and the students i know the kids are anxious for the new things that lie ahead teachers and administrators are looking forward to seeing the students parents looking forward to receiving schedules i would like to extend my best wishes for a successful school year for students families teachers administrators paraprofessionals school bus drivers cafeteria workers and anyone else that i may have missed i look forward to the great things that will happen i'd like to take a minute to say welcome to minuteman country to mr aaron hagler our new athletic director and to mr darrell robertson our new head football coach looking forward to great things coming out of there um a couple weeks ago i

198went to the liberty high school athletic boosters meeting it was amazing to see so many parents out there and their enthusiasm to help and to get this up and running again we're getting ready to put the pride back into minutemen pride um and dr dewis i know that i had spoken with you about some much-needed work on the visitor side of the athletic field and i trust that that is being handled okay thank you very much um but as far as i've spent a lot of time talking with mr tucker um with parents with coaches out there and there are a lot of positive changes happening out at liberty and i'm looking forward to seeing what we can do um as ms calvert mentioned last week i spoke at the new teachers luncheon the room

199was full of energetic and enthusiastic educators it'll be fun to see the students in their classrooms this year because i know they're going to bring that enthusiasm forward and on behalf of this board and bedford county public schools i want to say welcome to them again for coming to bedford county schools i'm going to go ahead and put in another shameless plug that we need school bus drivers we need full-time drivers we need activity drivers we need substitute drivers if you have your cdl passenger bus endorsement is that correct with what we need please please help us out um i'm going to ask one huge favor of everyone when we come up with the calendars for next year that we do not schedule big events such as back to school night on the same night

200as a school board meeting um everyone here well i know the majority of us have small children i did not get to go meet my children's teachers this year because of having to go to work i'm sure a lot of us had to bypass that um so if there's any possible way that we can avoid it next year it would be most appreciative um and finally but to me this is the most important thing i want to say tonight i want to say a thank you to all of our students so much has been said argued to over and done about the parent resolutions and the teacher resolutions no one has said thank you to our students we recognize student achievement every month but there are many many more students in bedford county that deserve

201a mention of gratitude they are the reason all of us are here i know they were the driving force for me running for the office to all of before county students i would like to say thank you and please know that every one of you is greatly appreciated with that being said do i have a motion to adjourn fourth madam chairman dr mealy mr hill with the second any discussion all those in favor signify by saying i i opposed meeting adjourned you