School Board Meeting - 5/12/2022 - 5:00 PM

001that's great good evening everyone i'd like to call this regular meeting of the bedford county school board for may 12 2022 to order um before we get started i believe we can now eliminate item 1.02 to allow a member to participate remotely because dr mealy is here is everyone okay with that yeah and mr hill will not be here this evening because of family obligations um ms johnson would you please call the roll mrs kirby here mr hill mr daniels here mrs harrison here mr holbrook here dr meely here mr nelms here madam chair you have a quorum thank you ma'am do i have a motion to approve the agenda madam chairman um i would like to make a motion that we take a look at um [Music] informational item 3.07 and 3.08 and move

002those items also to an action item as well tonight okay i have a motion by ms harrison to amend the agenda do i have a second second second by dr miley all those in favor or i'm sorry any discussion all those in favor signify saying aye aye opposed no miss johnson will you please pull the board mr daniels no mrs harrison yes mr holbrook no mrs kirby no dr mealy yes mr nelms i'm sorry sir motion does not pass okay now do i have a motion well we amended the agenda anyway to remove 1.02 so do i have a motion to approve the amended agenda go moved have a motion by ms harrison do i have a second second by mr nelms any discussion all those in favor signify by saying i i opposed motion

003carries do i have a motion to go into closed session madam chairman i move that we go into closed session pursuant to the code of virginia 2.2-3711 parentheses a13 keep going that's all i have i'm so sorry let me see oh okay to discuss the assignment appointment performance disciplining and release of contract for specific school board employees including the superintendent as provided in his contract pursuant to the code of virginia code 2.2-3711 parentheses a3 for the discussion or consideration of the acquisition of real property for public purpose or for the disposition of publicly held real property where discussion in an open meeting would adversely affect the bargaining position or negotiations negotiating strategy of the public body okay i have a motion by dr mealy do i have a second second second by ms harrison any

004discussion all those in favor signify by saying i i posed we're now in closed session oh [Music] um so do i have a motion to come out of closed session here we come out of closed session i have a motion by dr mealy do i have a second second second by mr daniels any discussion all those in favor signify by saying aye aye opposed motion carries ms johnson will you please certify the meeting 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 of information act and where section 2.2-3712-d of the code of virginia requires a certification by this school board that such closed meeting was conducted in conformity with virginia law now therefore be

005it 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 thank you miss johnson okay moving on to item 3.01 code of student conduct dr doulas thank you the bedford county public schools code of student conduct clearly outlines expectations for student behavior and provides a framework for school staff to implement those expectations it's consistent with state law and federal law the full draft document is provided in board docs each year staff reviews the documents with school administrators to develop recommendations for

006future versions we want to see if they were there were any issues that arose during the year that may need addressing updating to summarize this year's recommendation the changes from last year to this year include updating the newly revised bcps strategic framework which is in the front of the book clarifying terms related to student searches and seizures of property just so we can be consistent with policy jfg which the board has already updated in the past several months similarly clarifying locations of misbehavior that schools can address to be consistent with those policies that with policy jfc again the board already approved that policy we just need to make sure the code of conduct matches the policy we've added no contact directives as a response option for misbehaviors and that's a common practice that schools use

007and just thought it should be reflected in the code of conduct we've updated the technology use guidelines to match district policy and regulation and also we kind of expanded k-12 one-to-one device program and we've added a section to include the stop it app as another option for reporting bullying and other concerns that students may have so certainly happy to answer any questions about this updated version that you may have tonight and we would ask that for approval of the code of student conduct at the next meeting june meeting so that it can be in place for the 22-23 school year any questions for dr dillis i just have one um would you remind me please um the stop it app who was the developer and and who's it endorsed by for us to choose that

008particular app um probably two years ago we convened a team to look at a number of applications that would allow students primarily but school communities to report threats or any red flags related to safety giving an anonymous option if they wanted it because we some of our climate data showed that there were a percentage of of kids who weren't comfortable always coming forward in person to report this company so we looked at several this is a private company stop it solutions that provides this app they had a number of other clients in virginia that we talked to when we were doing reference checks and um you know it's a very straightforward simple um product that has done what i intended to do and i'm not saying that we don't need it i'm just wondering why

009it's above everything else are any local divisions using it i'd have to go back and look at the other divisions there there were several in virginia who were several in the valley and i can look and find specifics and certainly share that with you i mean that that would just be nice yeah sure any more questions thank you dr dos title grants dr woodford dr calvert and mr hagler so for dr calvert and mr hagler i'm going to just go over all three title grants so the title one part a the title two part a and the title four part a applications for 2022 and 23 are presented for information this month and for board approval at the june 9th meeting the title one part a application provides resources for eight of our qualifying elementary

010schools these resources include funding for teachers instructional support staff professional development and materials and those schools are selected based on larger disadvantaged populations the title ii application provides funding for some division support salaries tuition assistance for employees and professional development in support of improving instructional quality and the title 4 part a grant provides funds for programs and activities to improve students academic achievement by increasing the capacity of local school divisions to provide all students with a well-rounded education improve school conditions for learning and improve the use of technology in order to improve academic achievement and digital literacy for students mr hagler dr calvert and myself and dr eisenhower dr trosper and mrs weiss are here and we can answer any questions you may have about the title grants these aren't entitlement grants which means we

011are entitled to the money we just have to write the grants they're not competitive grants so we just have to make sure the grants are submitted before july 1 and that money will be available to us i'm happy to answer any questions i can or yes yeah thank you so much first of all for all three of these um they were so well written and constructed so thank you all for your hard work on that i really appreciate it um the in the title one grant we talk about data there's a lot of talk about data analysis which i'm so glad to see um can you give us at but obviously not tonight but a report on what was analyzed and and what we did with that information i would just really like be interested

012in sure because i'm assuming that's like a 30 000 foot look at all eight schools that's right and dr eisenhower has actually um asked title one principals to submit a report on their data so that she can keep that information you know we're monitored in title one she can speak more to that but i know that she has asked them for information about their specific expenditures and how that supported the goals and the data so we're happy to provide that when we have it available as we close out this year okay thank you for that and i just want to make sure too we i know this grant spoke about reading specialists and these are in addition to the one that the county puts in is that correct and it's all supplemental so it's additional

013staff right is the needs when was the last needs assessment done or are you considering that as the first part of the title one improvement plan or their school improvement plan so yes the the needs assessments are done by the school every year as they create their school-wide taiwan plans and they do that in-house with their school and then get back to me with the things that they find that they need support with and staffing and other materials okay thank you yeah um well diane you or dr eisenhower you might um also be able to answer this there in here we talked about um increasing um family participation in events which i know is is required um what was done and if you don't know that's fine you can get it to us but how

014many events were done this year versus what we're looking at next year so our goal was to have two events um for each school but we did have some that weren't able to meet that because of in-person participation but i know bedford elementary school and several other schools did do in person around december or january kind of a walk through gallery walk of different activities that the kids had done they gave everyone a book things like that so we did have some but not full participation like we had hoped due to restrictions with kova yeah do you think that's going to improve next year so we can get more parents in and family members in that's the goal that's definitely the plan for next year okay um thank you um i'd also just like to

015make another a couple of i have a couple more questions but i just want to say to the um transitioning process that you mention um in part d there is i just think wonderful for the students so i'm so happy that that's continuing and that they get to visit with their counselors especially students with disabilities so thank you so much for making sure we we do that i also want to say that in section e the reduction of exclusionary discipline practices um i hear nothing but really wonderful things about the divine design intervention specialist so and i know ms robertson you are greatly get the head of that and i appreciate all of your efforts but i in fact spoke to his uh principal yesterday who just feels like they just could not um get

016they wouldn't know what they would do without those positions um so thank you so much for for continuing to have that mental health piece in place for our students um and probably dr eisenhower you might be able to answer this in your measurable goals like for one it says the most recent pals data from the fall of 2021 shows that 74 of k-5 students are meeting the benchmark what was that last year and are we are we upping the goal is what i'm interested in well they actually asked us to revamp the goals this year when working with our title one coordinate coordinator at doe um they wanted us to be a little bit more specific in saying that this is a data point that we're using and we're going to you know either increase

017what we need to do for our students that are disadvantaged last year's goal i would have to look and see but we did change it this year we didn't use the same for the sol failure rate and things like that and so we're reducing that failure rate as a part reduction of failure rate and then we also targeted just the economic popu economic disadvantage population for that this year and last year we did kind of an overall which they said was okay but you know since this grant is written specifically for that population so we pulled that economic disadvantaged population specifically from the d.o.v site okay um thank you and for measurable goal number two it's the same thing you know and so um we're going to use a reduction in failure rate moving forward

018as that yes um one thing i have there which has concerned me with especially our title one schools is the the mention of the use of paraprofessionals to supplement um classrooms and provide that extra you know time that they need uh with regard to mastering skills that we've identified as weak skills my problem is is that i've heard from you know principals who say you know they're always being pulled because of the sub situation which i know is a whole other problem but i guess my issue is how are we saying we're going to be in compliance with this if we're pulling those paras is there is there something can we figure out some sort of plan or something because when you look at a disadvantaged child you say okay they're going to get an

019hour and a half a week more of instruction but that paraprofessional isn't there to provide it kind of they just don't get what they're supposed to be getting right i think that um i don't know if you're following the board is following the literacy act that was just passed at the at the virginia state level that's going to require specific documentation per child for reading intervention and it's going to be a plan that's actually documented you know with a division level tool that all teachers will use and we'll have to sign off so i think the focus will definitely be on making sure that we're not pulling those chil those i'm sorry those paraprofessionals are teachers or resource teachers reading specialists away from kids to cover in classrooms again a lot of our sub issues

020really are brought on by things that have been going on the last couple of years which we really hope won't be an issue as we move forward so i think what we've seen as an issue in the last year or two years my hope is that we won't see that it may be that we're going to have to go in and supplement if if we continue to see that but there's very there's going to be strict documentation from the doe that we're required to do so we'll watch that carefully and you know you know how it is that some you know you get to school and you don't have people covering classes you're doing the best you can but we'll definitely keep watching that thank you thank you um let's see i had a couple

021of other questions here and this is a broad question i guess and maybe it's part of your data analysis when we spend this money and we hire people or we buy programs or supplemental materials whatever it is we're doing to to help support these children how are we determining that this you know what is it up to now 1.5 million almost 6 million is actually that what we're doing is actually in fact benefiting these children because i think as teachers if we're all honest we've we've purchased programs and we've said yeah that didn't work you know or something that we've done that didn't work out so well and that's part of the teaching process we we're not mind readers and and we don't have a magic crystal ball so what are we doing to to

022say yes we we put these extra leading specialists in there or we put an instructional coach in there and in fact it did show that our students performed better when they had this extra support well i think one thing that dr eisenhower has done that's fairly brilliant and is that she is asking principals like look at your budget and then talk to me about how that impacted students so that's part of the report and the information she's gathering because principals are really the ones that need to kind of monitor their expenses if they're using it in personnel i think it's easiest to see it maybe in personnel because you're reducing class sizes and so overall do you see improvements in reading scores or math scores but we are dr trosper and his team and again

023that's just a thank you to the board for giving us such a solid instruction team to focus on core instruction they have been closely monitoring usage reports for every program that we have purchased over the last four to five years and we are specifically looking at is it being used and what's the impact and if it's if it's not being used well and it's not a great impact we're trying to reduce the number of programs so that we can monitor it better so i don't think i was able to answer your question but what i what i would say is that we are monitoring it better because we don't want to have 50 programs that we don't know are working or not so we're going to reduce those down to a manageable program and also

024programs that are being used across the school division so that we can see what is the effect specifically by um so we are starting to really dig into that data and i hope that that kind of gives you kind of where we're headed so i think we can answer that question in a year from now much better than right now okay that that would be what i'm really interested in because it's 1.6 million absolutely you know if we're just throwing money at a wall you know we need to redo that and as a teacher i've done that yeah absolutely pick something that just wasn't effective so um thank you for that i have just a couple more um [Music] okay is um is the division now paying for any sfa materials that are needed by

025students in other words if i have a reading series i you will supply my workbooks or whatever it is i need in sfa we were doing a lot of that through title one our is the has the division pick that up or we are well our hope was that we would be adopting a k5 reading program and we still have not gotten that conditional list from the department of education so our advice to our principals was we're all going to the same reading curriculum if you choose to do supplemental materials in sfa that would be supplemental dollars with title 1 but our focus dollars for the division are going to be in that k-5 reading program that we adopt so we still list it in our grant because some of our principals want to use

026it as a remediation tool but not the core reading curriculum so the answer to that would be we're not using textbook money or anything like that for sfa but we're also not using it for any other reading program it's just we've we've got it sitting there for the reading adoption for all k5 students across the school division okay when we adopt the new program are we going where sfa will become a secondary resource is that what i'm understanding yes if that's what principals and schools wish to do with them okay so their main would be the new readings here that's correct okay um on i don't know what pages is i'm sorry to say uh the eligible attendance areas bedford primary i just want to make sure this was correct they have um identified a

027hundred percent as low income so their um community oh yes so they received 100 funding because of that okay great okay um i think that was let me just check please yes those were all the questions thank you so much it was really so well done and just so easy to read and i really appreciate all the work and and to the other grants as well yes thank you dr woodford i just want some clarification on something you said earlier regarding instructional paraprofessionals or paraprofessionals working with those students in our title one schools did i understand you to say that those paras are not going to be allowed to be used in any other classroom help me explain that again to me i thought maybe i missed part no i don't think that i could

028ensure that a hundred percent because i don't know what will be going on or happening in schools in our substitute situation but in the past we've documented that additional two and a half hours required supplemental reading or remedial reading basically school it's been a school-based document it's been school-based and and we've just said to reading specialists make sure you keep up with that the doe is now saying it's going to be much more stringent than that so if i am a principal and i say that mr trosper knee or dr sorry needs two and a half hours of additional instruction i'll have to keep that in a form and i'll have to certify as the principle that i made sure that happened whether that if i had to pull a para then i make sure

029that i make up that instruction to ensure the students are getting that additional remedial instruction so at the division level we're going to create a form that we so we're monitoring that and helping principals monitor that to be sure that students are getting the required remediation that they're supposed to get you know in connection with that pals identification and screening and so so it could be that a para might be pulled we're hoping you know that we won't have those issues next year but i'm still going to ensure that those students get that remedial time whether it's with an additional time with their teacher or additional time with a reading specialist or a parent okay does that help it does okay um i don't know if i can ask this question it's not really related

030but it's sort of related it's the reading adoption may i ask the reading adoption question um so dr woodford we know we haven't gotten that information yet so i guess i'm thinking you know what what are you guys going to do what will the division do um will we will the schools just continue to use the reading programs that they currently have we have not gotten very specific as an instructional team i think our we were kind of assured that we would have that information by the 17th of april we keep just kind of pressing dr eisenhower keeps kind of pressing and asking we are going to get to a point dr trosper and i have talked about that to get the materials and to get the training done for the teachers and to be

031ready we're going to pass a point so if that happens then what we'll do is we'll just hold that money in that k-5 adoption and then we will make sure that our schools have the materials they've been using for one more year what they're comfortable with what they're used to we'll get those materials ordered and then we will do that adoption once that list comes out and we won't implement it until the following year so that's kind of the plan we we've not talked to dr bergen about it we've not talked to the executive team but just in our thinking that's probably what we would do yeah i think that's a good plan i really really do i think the training for the teachers yes is really crucial yes we've already been able to do

032training for the teachers for the textbooks we were able to adopt and so we're already a little bit behind the game okay thank you more questions okay thank you thank you okay item 3.03 workers compensation for board members mr hagler yes good evening um our insurance company approached me about whether we would like to go ahead and add board members and list them as an employee in our policy so you would be eligible for workers compensation unlike other things that we add to our policy this has to be specifically aboard action action that has to take place so i'm bringing you this resolution i'd recommend you go ahead and add this to our insurance policy and this would be brought back at our june meeting for you to take action on and then that would

033be incorporated into our insurance policy for next year be happy to answer any questions you might have but it's a specific board action that has to take place to to add that in any questions for michelle um has something happened that has brought this on i mean i asked the same question i think there was a conference and one or two board members might have gotten injured at a conference in um you know you know in richmond or somewhere and there was there was nothing in place for that so that's why they brought this to our attention so i think they've been doing this with every single school district and making sure that if you want to proceed this would minimal cost this if any but they just want to make sure that it's specifically

034in there so yes there was probably an incident or two with other board members from other districts where they did not have access to that okay any more questions all right thank you thank you mr 3.04 strategic plan strategies dr bergen yes ma'am so board members we've been bringing the development of strategic plan to you you know as as it has unfolded so we're nearing the finish line so tonight it's this is an informational item and then i will ask you to take action next month to adopt the strategic framework which will guide our work as a school division starting july 1st through the next five school years so to begin and just to remind the board and the community on the next slide the board has already taken action on updating the vision and

035mission statements and as i've been out visiting with the schools uh you know i've been talking to the staff that vision and mission statements should just roll off your tongue they shouldn't be hard things to remember they should be things that god are working that we live by and uh based on the reaction i'm getting when i'm speaking with people i think i think they make a lot of sense to folks you know so i'll teach it to you like i've been teaching it to the staff i say you know if you can remember the school division you work for bedford county public schools and you know that's bcps you can remember the vision statement so building citizens and promoting success is our work whether we work with preschoolers or kindergartners or 12th graders or

036adult students we are focused on good citizenship skills that we interact with one another in appropriate ways student to student student to staff parent to staff vice versa all combinations and that we promote success for all students no matter what their their starting line is and their finish line we have uh high academic expectations for their success and then for the mission statement um you know i'm old enough that i can remember back before the current century as we were entering the the uh 21st century we talked about 21st century learning skills and we talked about the five c's we're now 22 years in so i think i think we're good with the with the five c's and that's our mission statement so every day students should have opportunities to communicate collaborate think critically create

037and build their citizenship skills so that that i think people have been very appreciative of the simplified version of the vision and mission statements and that's at the core of our strategic planning you're also aware and the community is aware that the work that the previous administration did in developing core values they're still very good statements we just tweaked them a little bit as a board a couple of months ago but they'll remain almost wholly intact with a focus on students of course energizing the learning by creating safe and dynamic learning environments challenging students to reach personal goals every day always acting with integrity and collaborating with our staff families and the community to support our learning and as we as we look now at the the goals you've already taken action on what we're

038presenting for information tonight is the strategy level so you're going to see in the the strategies support those goals as the goals support those those core values and they all fit underneath the umbrella of that new vision mission statement so just to repeat there's four goals they're also fairly easy to remember goal one is high academic expectations for all our children two is maintaining safe and supportive learning environments goal three is is ensuring we have an exemplary workforce and go for is maintaining and further developing mutually supported partnerships with our parents families and community organizations so for tonight you're seeing for the first time the uh 12 strategies that map to the four goals and then once the board adopts these strategies this will lead our work each year in developing a detailed work plan

039even more meat on the bone if you will as to how will we what resources and actions will be required in order to further each of these strategies so just for the public's sake and because the print is a bit small there i'll just quickly read through the the 10 strategies for each of the goals remember that first goal is high academic expectations so part of that is to expand access to more preschool programs in bedford county so that students have an opportunity to participate in high quality early learning experiences to strengthen their social emotional and foundational literacy skills which are certainly essential for school readiness secondly under that same first goal we will continue to research design and implement an evidence-based pre-k 12 comprehensive literacy plan which we were just talking a bit about

040with the questions the board had about the title grant this will include strategies to address opportunity and achievement gaps among student subgroups so that all students attain foundational knowledge and transferable skills to cultivate confident proficient lifelong readers in a similar vein the third strategy under goal one is to research design and implement a division numeracy framework to focus on building conceptual understanding of number and number sense so that our students gain foundational knowledge that enables them to develop transferable skills to master critical learning phases and prepare them for future success in algebraic thinking and post-graduation plans and then the fourth strategy under that first goal is to increase our on-time graduation rate along with more opportunities for dual enrollment coursework and cte credentials industry credentials so that all of our students will acquire post-secondary readiness

041skills under goal two there are also four strategies the first is remember this is to ensure that we have a safe and supportive learning environment so as i talk about this goal uh safety in all ways physically safe mentally safe emotionally safe socially safe if we don't meet this goal we can't do anything else we just know the brain shuts down when you don't feel safe when you don't feel physically safe or socially emotionally mentally safe you're incapable of really uh higher level learning so the first strategy is to make sure that we're creating modern learning work and activity spaces so that our students and staff have comfortable safe and inviting learning environments secondly we want to make sure that we're promoting student ownership and responsibility for learning environments so that the facilities and the

042learning spaces are sustained and continually improved likewise equally important the third strategy is to establish procedures and practices that utilize student voice and problem solving so that schools will balance dignity with accountability and discipline and provide a tiered system of support for mental health and behavioral needs and lastly we always want to make sure we're ensuring that we're creating a school culture of acceptance so that schools promote a sense of belonging and foster student social and emotional development the third goal is uh really all about our our staff making sure that we have an exemplary workforce which means we need to with the first strategy recruit those qualified candidates prioritize compensation cultivate a positive climate and support and retain that current staff so that bedford county public schools transforms into an employer and community of

043choice for central virginia promoting positive outcomes for student achievement and the second strategy is to establish a culture of excellence by providing professional learning that facilitates the individual growth of all staff members to broaden their job skills and enhance their job performance so that students are supported by high quality employees and that leaves us the fourth goal which is the importance of building maintaining and developing mutually supportive partnerships with our families and our community organizations the first strategy being to encourage opportunities for family support and increase communication so that knowledge of student opportunities are enhanced and equally important we need to increase work based learning experiences facilitated through mutually supportive partnerships within the community so that students are provided opportunities for career exploration and workplace development there are potential indicators listed at the bottom for

044each goal these indicators are the same indicators that we've been using in education currently and we would continue to look forward there have been some good questions here tonight even within the title grants we have kindergarten readiness scores we have pals data we have pre and post division designed assessments we have sol scores we have ap and dual enrollment numbers as well as how well children are how well they're doing when they take those assessments we have graduation rates we have how many students are referred for a discipline referral how many are not referred for discipline referral um all of these measures are important and they all map back to each one of these four goals uh the last thing i'll say is i'm speaking in the community i have always believed that strategic planning

045has to be front and center of our work so when we get around to developing budgets in future years it's my intent to be able to share with the board anytime that we're looking to do something it needs to anchor back to our strategic plan i'll use the capital improvement program as an example since it's on our agenda for tonight that directly maps back to goal goal goal two making sure that we have a safe and supportive learning environment remember that first strategy is to create modern learning work and activity spaces that's our commitment and our strategic plan that we will maintain modern looking modern learning work and activity spaces and to do so requires a plan uh not not one year at a time but years at a time so the cip that we're

046presenting to you to tonight for your action is a ten year look forward and we will continue to bring you a ten year look forward so we're gonna spend most of our time talking about what do we want to accomplish and what can we fiscally accomplish in the next year but we need to be thinking about what will we accomplish two years out five years out ten years out and be planning for those enhancements that directly ties back to our strategic plan over the next five years as an example so we have plenty of staff in the room to answer any of your questions all of these strategies have been designed by teams of individuals who will continue to own this work those teams include central central staff as well as school-based staff reading specialists

047you know a myriad of individuals who will lead the work monitor the work and make adjustments as we move along to the next five years in implementing this plan so again this is an information item for tonight i will ask for the board to take action uh next month but at this time we would we would open the floor for any questions phantom chair i really liked your strategies here i just have one suggestion that you could consider on goal number three and that is um strategy number two at the very end where you say job skills and enhance job performance so that students are supported by high quality employees i think we have high quality employees so maybe continue to be supported by high quality employees because as a as a first read to

048me it it just read that maybe we don't have high quality employees okay so finding a way to acknowledge that we have high quality employees all right and we're going to continue sure yeah we we can certainly uh and that's just a suggestion you may talk about it and say no we like it the way it is i'm just saying that was my first read that's what it would be an easy fix document if we just say so that students continue to be supported by if the board has no objections to that we can we can certainly make that change here tonight when we bring it back for action and i i don't think it changes the essence of the work of the team that created this goal any more questions thank you for that

049one dr bergen so let's move on to policy updates with you again please yes ma'am so uh for the viewing public and for the board we have on the screen the seven policies and one regulation that the intergovernmental affairs committee which mr daniels and i have now agreed we're just going to call iga because it's a lot simpler the iga committee met on april 26th with myself an appropriate staff and we reviewed a pretty good sized packet and we were able to work through seven policies and one regulation so i'll just briefly for the public's sake all of the detail of course is in the red line version which is accessible through board links i'll just give you the high level overview policy bhe school board member insurance has been updated simply for cross references

050cf school building administration language has been updated regarding principal leadership responsibilities as well as some legal uh updates and cross-references jc school attendance areas has been updated to insert the name of a companion policy as well as legal and cross-reference updates jhcd administering medicine to students there has been some some significant revisions to this policy to address the administration of cbd th c a products all in accordance with changes recent changes to the code of virginia as well as the relocation of some language from the policy to the supporting regulation and so that you could see how that language has been relocated we've also included in the packet the corresponding regulation jhcdr in addition to that language being moved over you'll also see in the regulation specific guidance for diabetic self-care and the use of

051stock albuterol jhcf student wellness garnered quite a bit of conversation with the with the committee the policy language has been changed under a section for nutrition promotion and education to specify that parents must communicate with teachers in advance when requesting to bring food for special events to allow time for the teacher to review the individual student allergies and health care plans for the other students in the room there's also been some other language in that policy relocated for clarity and to streamline topics policy lea student teaching and internships staff did quite a bit of work on on this particular policy we the changes will allow for added flexibility for the placement of student teachers and interns specifically to allow us to place interns with teachers with less than three years of experience only if necessary

052as well as to require criminal background check of student teachers and interns in addition the minimum number of hours for of teaching experience required for a teacher to serve as a supervising teacher we are suggesting we increase from two years to three years and then lastly li relations with educational accreditation agencies the policy language changes include simply grammatical corrections and the removal of an outdated state code reference so these seven policies and one regulation are for information at this time and we'll bring them back next month for action there's plenty of staff in the room if you have any questions about any of these particular policies any questions okay thank you very much item 3.06 superintendent designees for 2022-23 dr bergen uh yes ma'am this is an annual uh requirement of the board to take

053official action and design a point designees for the superintendent in the unlikely event that i am not available so again this is just for information tonight we'll ask you to take action next month i'm not recommending any changes to the current list of designees that have been in place this year that would mean that dr dewis our chief operations officer would be my designee on operational matters mr hagler our cfo would be my designee on financial matters and dr woodford our chief learning officer would be my designee on curriculum and instructional matters and then if there was anything that didn't fall under those three broad categories and someone needed to make a decision and i was unable to be in communication where there was some other you know imperative time sensitive matter dr mr hagler

054would be my designee in all other matters any any questions about this list so again i'll ask you to take action next month on on that uh it's really a formality questions yeah thank you dr bergen okay let's move on to 3.07 resolution for parental rights um i'm sorry mr hill excuse me can't be here this evening he and um dr bergen have worked on this together and of course it's just here as an informational item tonight i would like to read through the resolution and so that way we know what we're looking at and for the people who have not seen it at home the resolution to affirm the commitment of the bedford county school board to the fundamental rights of parents to direct the education of their children whereas parents are in the

055best position to know their own child's needs and circumstances and therefore should maintain authority over all decisions that could impact the health and well-being of their children and whereas the fundamental right of parents over the upbringing of their children has been unequivocally established in the united states and the natural fundamental right of parents to determine and direct the care teaching and education of their children has always been a cornerstone declaration in virginia law and whereas the bedford county school board recognizes section 1-240.1 of the code of virginia entitled rights of parents which emphatically states a parent has fundamental rights to make decisions concerning the upbringing education and care of the parent's child and whereas the before county school board believes that all academic success begins by embracing these fundamental parental rights and our educational institution

056institutions and whereas it is essential that parents voices are respected and incorporated into the development of the academic curricula to ensure that the children are receiving an appropriate education and whereas one of the bedford county school board bedford county public school division stated policies is to recognize that the education of each child is responsibility shared by the school and the student's family and whereas the bedford county school board believes that education must focus on academic subjects and without exception should not include personal bias and or personal political opinion grooming or indoctrination and whereas the bedford county school board believes that any parent has the right to see evaluate all see and evaluate all surveys data collection and psychological profiling before they are administered to bedford county students and that parents have the right to opt

057out of any or all such testing participation in and or data collection and whereas the before county school board believes that teaching social skills to help students make positive behavior choices and embrace a strong work ethic to develop into good citizens is desired it as is included as one of the bedford county public school division state admissions and whereas the bedford county school board cannot continue to receive taxpayers dollars for the before county public school division if it will not adhere to section 1-2-4 of the code of virginia and all of its practices now therefore be it resolved that the bedford county school board affirms our commitment to the fundamental rights of parents to direct the education of their children including a central role in what is what it is their children are learning and

058be it further resolved that the bedford county school board administration and employees will uphold the traditional partnerships between teachers students and parents by directly communicating with and involving parents in their children's education okay we'll present this for a reading tonight and then we'll vote on it next month any questions comments okay i think we got time to do 3.08 before dinner dr mealy hey um i had asked that we also look at a resolution in support of our teachers and staff in bedford county because i feel like the two things go together i also feel that if we have a parental supportive parental rights or resolution in that fashion we don't want to elevate one group above another so i thought it was important that we also resolve to support our teachers and staff so

059this is a resolution in support of the teachers and staff of bedford county public schools a resolution to affirm the commitment of the bedford county school board to the support of bedford county public school teachers and staff and to recognize the value they bring to our division so whereas the constitution of virginia virginia article 8 section 1 requires the general assembly to provide a system free public elementary and secondary schools for all children throughout the commonwealth and shall seek to ensure that an educational program of high quality is established and continually maintained and whereas the existence and continuation of a strong and effective system of free public education for all children is essential to our democratic system of government and whereas the bedford county school board understands that high performing schools are necessary to the

060continuing growth of our country and quality of life in bedford county both today and in the future and whereas the bedford county school board recognizes that high performing schools are contingent upon the quality of teachers and staff and whereas the teachers and staff should be accorded high public esteem reflecting the value that our community places on public education and whereas the teachers and staff of bedford county public schools have committed their knowledge skills and life's work to educating inspiring and supporting all students in bedford county and whereas the teachers and staff recognize that community involvement and building authentic relationships with parents and families is essential to the provision of a quality education and whereas teachers and staff recognize that it is imperative that a robust selection of classes and after-school programs are necessary to promote

061the holistic development of all students for employment and personal success in the 21st century and whereas teachers and staff support and recognize accessibility to the established curriculum as a right of all students and whereas teachers and staff emphasize the importance of high quality student-centered instruction not high-stakes testing is the key to a well-rounded education and whereas teachers and staff are committed to the development of professional learning communities to enhance individual growth and thereby improve the quality of instruction and student achievement for all students and whereas teachers and staff had demonstrated an unwavering commitment to the students and families of bedford county now therefore be it resolved that the bedford county school board affirms our fundamental commitment to the support of our teachers and staff and their invaluable contribution to the education of all students in

062bedford county public schools and be it further resolved that bedford county the bedford county public school board acknowledges that without the dedication of our teachers and staff and board support of their extraordinary efforts the high quality education currently afforded to our students would not be possible you dr mealy i i noticed that what you were reading from is a little bit different than what i have could we all get an updated yeah oh i'm sorry i thought i sent that update to done that only have the one document you see that's what i've put on board yes absolutely thank you very much sure any questions for dr meely the first document with the parental rights that's that's gone through you know marcus and and dr bergen i this is you know i know we just

063got this but does this need to go through the iga committee as well through dr miley's defense the other one didn't go through the iga committee either i just went through mr hill and dr burgin myself said that one didn't go through so if we didn't have to go through that so if we don't if we don't do it for one we can't do it for the other okay i think they should both go through so we'll put bring them back next month we'll consider it for a boat and have time to go through we're going through we'll have a meeting before the end of may and then well then we would have to bring back whatever they change before we would vote on it so it would be another informational item okay no we'll

064bring okay you're right okay so both of them need to go through the committee we all agree with that i do i think so okay then we'll see it again next month is an informational item okay well we actually got all that done so we will now take a break for dinner and reconvene at seven o'clock good evening everybody i'd like to reconvene this regular meeting for may 12 2022 of the bedford county school board if you would please rise for the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you you may be seated okay we're going to pick up with item 5.02 on the agenda recognition of

065students and staff mr edwards madam chair dr bergen will you please come want forward i would like right here tonight once again we recognize students and staff that have recently heard feedback [Laughter] forensics is a competitive public speaking competition students select material for individual performances and prepare for competition categories include areas such as dramatic performance formal speeches impromptu speaking poetry and storytelling forensics is also a vhsl sport and we're proud to have not one but two state champions stanton river high school's jahim leftwich couldn't be here with us tonight but our other one could forensic state champion from liberty high school marissa perry [Applause] and we're also proud to have a state runner-up in forensics as well jefferson forest high school's paul reed who also could not be with us tonight this year's odyssey of

066the mind virginia tournament was affected by the pandemic instead of it being in person the contest was virtual and there was only one very large state tournament instead of preliminary regional tournaments a group from jf shook off all those challenges and put on one outstanding performance the team performed their solution to the problem life is a circus and submitted it virtually in march they found out last month that they had qualified for world finals with a score of 339.25 out of 350 which was good enough to be state runners-up the team has met twice a week since november to come up with their solution to the problem and now two team members are not able to attend world finals so the team is having to modify the performance to fix the issue of two missing

067members a whole lot of fixing this team has done it's the school's first ever qualification for world finals so there's plenty to be proud about team members include ella wyckel [Applause] jack coleman [Applause] olivia mcavoy [Applause] emily jacobo sanchez [Applause] riley ferris and finally rounding out the team present with us tonight molly ellis [Applause] not able to be here tonight katie rodriguez ramirez [Applause] okay at bedford county public schools we make it extremely difficult to become the county teacher of the year and for good reason we want the best every single year our individual schools first hold their own contests teachers are nominated by their peers and a committee at each school is then formed to determine the overall winner that winner then must spend many hours putting together an extensive portfolio together on themselves

068their teaching philosophy career participation in the community among other areas and those 20 portfolios are then taken and rated by a distinguished panel of judges that include ruth stutzman retired teacher from jf former bedford county high school teacher of the year jamie key retired teacher from liberty high school former bedford county teacher of the year region five teacher of the year and one of eight finalists for virginia teacher of the year and huddleston elementary's amy mallow former bedford county teacher of the year virginia region 5 teacher of the year and also one of eight finalists for virginia teacher of the year we thank these judges for their hard work and dedication there are approximately ninety thousand public school teachers in virginia to become one of the final eight for virginia teacher of the year it

069is an amazing feat and something our teachers our teachers have done a remarkable six times in the past 13 years which leads us to this year and who we hope will become our seventh and fourteen years new london academy teacher and bedford county teacher of the year katrina grooms [Applause] [Music] thank you madam chair dr bergen you can please have your seat thank you sir thank you because of the generosity of area businesses mrs grooms will be receiving nearly four thousand dollars in cash and gifts [Applause] as you can see on the screen our generous sponsors include sam moore furniture in bedford fostec corporation j.m freebird simply vanilla gourmet virginia furniture market bedford area educational foundation new london salt spa emerson creek pottery monita farm and home center and finally bedford county public schools to

070be honest it's not easy to get a business to donate when we can't promise them much of anything in return and that's why we highlight our sponsors this year for being so generous toward our educators we encourage our teachers and we also encourage the public to frequent these businesses because they truly care about our educators thank you thank you mr edwards congratulations to everybody what a talented talented group okay now we're going to open up to item 5.03 public comment the public comment portion of tonight's agenda is limited to 40 minutes speakers are asked to state their name address 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 it is a public meeting and that we

071expect all speakers to refrain from any foul abusive or hateful language mr edwards will serve as a time keeper for individual speakers with a ringing bell indicating that a person has 30 seconds remaining and a 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 will mr edwards four-minute timer bell rings please discontinue speaking and allow the next person aligned to come to the podium should you be unable to finish your comments please give them to ms johnson and she will give them to the board members please do not touch or adjust the microphone at the podium as it has been positioned for optimum audio quality mr edwards madam chairman we are ready to roll our first speaker dr sheree whitehurst

072madam chair members of the board my name is sheree whitehurst and i live at 1310 vista rama lane bedford virginia and i live in district 7. public education was established in our country to ensure our young people would have the knowledge and the ability to become productive citizens and to be able to participate in our treasured democratic process by knowing their rights and by knowing how to protect their freedoms the education of our country's young people begins with the parent as the child's first educator a parent however must never stop serving in this role in fact for a young person to be successful and to reach his or her full educational goals the parent must continue to fulfill the role as first teacher when citizens sign up to be teachers or employees in public school

073they are answering the call to give of themselves and to take our country's young people on a journey of learning that will equip them and our country for a successful future public education cannot be successful without the parents the teachers the school employees and community members all working together to educate our children a resolution is a formal document that makes a statement about an issue that is so important that the governing body wants to have a record of it a resolution also provides documentation that a particular law policy or regulation will be followed on your agenda this evening you have two resolutions as informational items one to honor the rights of parents and one in support of the teachers and staff of bedford county public schools what is happening here this evening is the fortification

074of a bridge between the home and the school i commend you for drafting these important statements or resolutions regarding parental rights and for how you support and you appreciate the work of teachers and staff of bedford county public schools in the future you'll be voting to adopt these resolutions i'm looking forward to these resolutions passing therefore therefore fortifying the bridge between the home and the school this fortification will help ensure that the young people of our community will become productive citizens who will be able to successfully participate in our democratic process thank you dr whitehorse dave dietrich thank you i'm dave dietrich from district 4 in 1064 amanda court in forest virginia ladies and gentlemen what is western civilization generations of thinkers have addressed that question most have concluded it is defined by unique culture

075ethical values philosophy and religious beliefs western civilization's three major historical pillars are said to be classical greco-roman judeo-christian and gothic influences there are also shared historical experiences that include the renaissance reformation and enlightenment certain unique ideas have influenced the western tradition these include the concepts of universal truth the individual matters natural rights rule by law systematic quest for knowledge moral growth liberty and self-governance western civilization also has not been limited to white males only it has been a grand universal idea shared by both men and women of all races and various ethnicities many of whom have enriched broadly a broader enlightenment profoundly this is because western civilization has valued the natural rights in the of in the individual and not the tribal collective thus creating equality under the law and equality of opportunity until recently

076education tended to follow these major precepts of western thought education was focused most foremost on sublime ideas education was once grounded in question through truth with wherever truth may lead education advanced both individual and societal discovery while promoting critical thinking the virtue of thinking education shaped character through moral growth it taught prudence temperance fortitude industry perseverance and many other moral values today education seems mainly focused on the students career educators bureaucratic interests and progressive ideology not enlightenment overall discovery intellectual and moral flourishment seem to have yielded to self-serving satisfaction although clearly many educators today are sincere and committed individuals yet institutionally education now seems not so much illuminating as it is indoctrinating this trend also seems to be escalating there is a current or cogent reason for concluding that since the days of john dewey

077education has existed to achieve political and social change that explains much why today the focus appears to be on social justice and group grievances among other post-modern themes the new thinking also insists there are no absolutes but there is much subtlety and irony in that position note how it is declared as an unquestionable imperative dr larry arn classical educator and president of hillsdale college wrote the founders thought that liberal education should cultivate the practice of moral alongside the intellectual virtues this is most certainly true for as john adams wrote liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people the stakes are high and the choices we make concerning how we educate our progeny will be decisive for generations to come thank you thank you mr dietrich jason johnson jason madam chair members of

078the board thank you for this opportunity to be back tonight my name is jason johnson i live at 6735 white house road in benita in district 2. earlier this year one of your now former colleagues said flatly i don't like equity i like equality and evidently you agreed with him because shortly thereafter you replaced all uses of the term equity with equality in the strategic plan i'm not here tonight to talk about equity versus equality but to challenge you as you're thinking about the cip tonight let equality be more than just an empty word and a government planning document make it your guiding principle as you think about the modern educational working facilities that our students and our teachers need i want to talk to you about one in particular the need for a new

079auditorium at stanton river high school and at liberty high school in 2007 not long after mold was discovered at jefferson forest high school our previous school board decided to renovate jf and build a new wing that included a brand new 900-seat state-of-the-art auditorium for the students now this is not another one of those jf gets everything speeches this is just a reminder if you believe in equality let's give the performing arts students in the stanton river zone and the liberty zone the same state-of-the-art quality facilities that their peers in the forest zone have in 2016 when a previous board that i served on with ms kirby was discussing a new competition gym at liberty high school mrs kirby i remember was very adamant we need to make sure that liberty high school has the same

080exact competition gem square footage facilities everything that the competition gyms at stanton river and at jf had all we're asking is that you give the same respect for equality to the performing arts students at stanton river and liberty in september 2023 stent river will commemorate its 60th anniversary of operation and since that time two new buildings were constructed and all of the original buildings were renovated thoroughly except for one the auditorium so when you sit in that auditorium in the hard seats and you smell that unmistakable aroma you are sitting in the same seat and smelling the same thing and seeing the same walls that many of our students grandparents and possibly even now great-grandparents experienced when stanton river first opened during the kennedy administration very similar situation at liberty high school if you haven't

081had an opportunity to catch the wizard of oz last week you got to experience another almost 60 year old auditorium that's not a quality when you have when the theater department has to have storage sheds like many of us would have in our backyards for a lawn lawnmowers and gardening tools to store costumes and scenes props that's not a quality when they have to move things off of the floor when it rains to avoid them being washed away in a flood that's not a quality when the marching band has to worry will their brand new uniforms get mold in an unventilated closet that's not a quality when the choir has to move the risers before and after class in the band room so the band can then take over that's not a quality we heard

082at the last meeting some solutions for potentially abating the water problem they said that was just a band-aid putting a band-aid on a 60-year-old building is not creating equality if we want to create equality of our learning environments we need a new auditorium at stanton river high school and at liberty high school it will benefit our students it will let our performing arts students know that in bedford county we value their work and their passions just as much as we do uh the work and passions of our student athletes further it's not just for our students and our teachers like ms gibbon who definitely deserves it and ms cruz for all that they do but it's also for our community pre-coveted many churches community organizations and others rented these spaces for worship services for large

083community meetings and other performances for many people that don't have children in our school system football fields the auditorium and the basketball court might be the only three places they know about our schools let's show their community that we value the performing arts in bedford county by providing equality of learning opportunities and spaces for performing arts students thank you very much very much timothy griffin hello my name is tim griffin i live at uh 109 elkridge drive uh in four thank you for having me here tonight i i'm an attorney i get to practice election law and i get to serve bedford county as the gop unit chair for the republican party here and i am so proud of the school board that we have elected and i thank you all for the service that

084you do um these guys are great we we brag about you all over the congressional districts and what a great job you guys are doing um i want to talk tonight about uh this resolution that's coming before you that i think you have the opportunity to vote on at the next meeting last year i think you all know because you all were a part of it was a revolution in our commonwealth on behalf of parents where we said parents are going to be prioritized rather than bureaucrats we're going to listen to parents first and i think that this resolution is really a natural uh progression of what happened last year and it's really this affirmation to parents in bedford county that we support you first and everybody gets a seat at the table but parents

085come first because it's parents who have children in our schools and so i was looking over this resolution and all the great things in there a lot of it really has to do with making sure that our parents have noticed when things are happening in the school now it's my belief that all over the country and all throughout the commonwealth and less so in bedford county but occasionally in bedford county things happen in schools that parents may not be aware of and we want to make sure that parents feel that they're being notified when things happen that they may not be in agreement with there's radical ideology coming out from teachers all over this nation there are teachers trying to groom children uh in in radical sexual ideology in school all throughout the nation and

086we want to make sure that it's not happening in bedford county now if you believe that parents have a right to make sure that's not happening and make sure they're notified before it does happen then i would ask you to vote for this resolution next week if you believe that it doesn't happen in bedford county and it's not really a concern in bedford county i want to ask you to still vote for it because people like me are worried that it is and i think that it would put a lot of our minds at rest to make this public statement put it in writing that we stand by our parents that we make sure parents are notified that we make sure that the parents values are the ones that children are getting at schools and

087not some rogue ideology i want to close by again thanking you i i think when we're concerned about law enforcement issues in the county we go to west nance or mike miller when we're concerned about our taxpayer issues we have you know seven board of supervisors that are all members of our republican committee which we're very proud of but more important than any of those two things are our children and you all are the officers that have stepped up to serve them and to serve us and i'm so thankful so many people want to go out and they want to vote for president or senate or congress and yet your service here and the decisions that you make will be more important than what they do in washington d.c for families locally and so i'm

088so thankful to have a school board that reflects the values of bedford county after all of these years i came to the school board meetings last year and the majority of school board was not listening to parents we no longer feel that way thank you and please vote for the resolution next week thank you mr griffin christian sneed that's gonna be tough to follow good evening christian snead district seven bedford county i titled the speech factual our friends part three i'm just kidding uh today i want to show my appreciation for all the teachers the nurses the students and the staff i want to let the teachers know that as a parent to four boys in this pandemic and post-pandemic world i see the good that you're doing and everyone else has noticed more importantly

089i want to acknowledge the hardships and the challenges the teachers have faced and survived this year you have survived 100 of the difficult days that you have faced your ability to handle the stressors of the classroom the curriculum regulations and changing policy is something to be admired and is nothing short of a miracle i speak for so many of the community community members that see the difference that you're making after months of hearing uh i'm sorry cutting here i speak for many of the community members that see the differences you are making and after last month's meeting hearing several teachers speak i thought it was appropriate and necessary to reiterate the community's thoughts in public format you rightfully deserve a large round of applause as playing the most vital role outside of the home and

090in some cases both i wish that everyone take a moment right now to check in on a teacher this week maybe it's just to listen maybe to see if there's a need either in the classroom or at their home and as many of you know it's also national police week so i'd like to take a moment to thank our school resource officers including adam outside [Applause] for the vital work that they and our bedford county law enforcement personnel perform this includes dispatchers officers office personnel and even the canine dogs police positions are much like teachers they face many different scenarios they're often scrutinized by others and they're rarely validated so thank you for keeping our children and our community safe you're the community firewall we do appreciate you school board i'd like to congratulate you

091on all the things that you've accomplished so far this year uh and all the work that you're putting in for ten dollars a day i think we're getting pretty good ready to return our investment specifically i want to thank you for the subtle victories that we've had whether it's town hall meetings where you come to listen in an open format and engage laundry longer public comment speaking teacher pay increases or push back on budgetary spending items and most importantly your willingness to listen and interact i've contacted each of you in different ways whether it's video or chat or it's email or calls or even in person which is my favorite which is face to face so your ability to be approachable amicable and available to the public has not gone unnoticed and while you cannot

092make everybody happy you've done a very good job at making many people feel appreciated lastly students congratulations to our seniors to our fifth graders our kindergartners and our preschools on celebrating your monumental milestone in your educational journey graduations you deserve to celebrate these achievements you've persevered through some really tough uh really i'm sorry really tough couple years and you will be stronger because of it hard times create strong men and strong women regardless of your next step i'm excited about the next steps that you get to take because i remember having to make that decision was i going and entering into the workforce was it going to be for military service continued education to learn a trait or start my own business each of you have my utmost respect keep moving forward in whatever path

093you choose and give it your all i'd like to give a special shout out to kennedy ferris who's graduating this year and while i'm doing that i also like to give a shout out to a couple more people that are here with us tonight one of those is delegate wendell walker [Applause] sheriff mike miller congressman bob good's wife tracy good [Music] tim griffin who is just here the gop unit chair as well as the other community members of the past year and also join us tonight with parents to show our support for the parental rights resolution and teachers you are next we've had many conversations and we've heard board members and teachers talking about it so just hold tight helps on the way thank you thank you mr snead cole price good evening my name

094is cole price i live at 1153 cranberry court i live in district 2. i'm here to talk to you today about the book banning attempts that have occurred in bedford county i did not plan to speak on this issue at all assuming adult reasoning would prevail but i have stood in silence long enough and i must talk about why we should not be banning books and in particular why we should not be banning beloved by tony morrison i would first like to acknowledge the fact that people who are opposed this book have not actually read it and they admit they have not read this book which is according to them sinful garbage why because of the sexual content in this book now i have actually read this book and i will say there is some

095sexual content in this book however is being taken out of its necessary context so let's talk about its context the primary reason this book is being banned from schools is because people say there are scenes in which characters fornicate with cows first i would like to define what a scene is a scene in a book is something that happened it actually occurred in the plot an exam would be tom robinson's trial and to kill a mockingbird they're painted to go into detail about this event to help the reader experience it firsthand if that is a scene there are no scenes in beloved about fornicating with cows it's merely mentioned in a few sentences and these sentences are there to convey how slaves are treated like livestock and dehumanized second i'd like to talk about the

096importance of this book this book talks about the uncomfortable topic of slavery in our history classes we do talk about slavery and racism but is often very brief however students can read this book in their english classes and have a better understanding of the harshness and cruelty that african-americans went through the reverberations of which are still felt to this very day for example this book talks about lynchings and slave catchers which are often briefly mentioned in ninja classes if not at all and as well as the harsh world that slave lived in these are tough to discuss i will admit they're not fun but we need to talk about them we need to have open and honest conversations about these topics as it is vital to creating a better tomorrow for all americans lastly i

097would like to talk about the value of a book i want you to pass past schoolboard meeting and one speaker said that quote experiencing a good book leaves its readers with a lot of emotions you can feel inspired motivated educated entertained this book does those for me as i want to be writer this well-developed plot and storytelling of this book helps me reach that story um telling in my own writing tony morrison's book also motivates me to physically write in fact i wrote this speech that i'm telling you right now not long after finishing beloved because the book had such a profound impact on me now as i've said as well in the past um this book educates me on the harsh world that slaves lives their lives and finally this book did entertain me

098as i could not wait to go home after a hard day of school to read this incredible book by tony morrison with its intriguing storyline in my remaining moments of time i would like to provide you with an anecdote for about a week my bus driver was ill and i did not have a bus to return home i had to inconvenience my family members in order to return home which i didn't like doing we should be spending our time solving this bus shortage issue which many other students face instead of trying to ban books that a vocal yet small portion of people are opposed to thank you thank you very much mary catherine bennett hello board thank you for having me tonight let me speak my name is mary katherine bennett and i live in

099forest virginia which is district 5. i'm here today to talk about a little things that i've experienced throughout the since our last school board meeting one of the first things i'd like to say is i went to the siac committee and i want to thank the members of the seat committee that reached out to me and gave me a lot of really good guidance on how to advocate for my special needs son i actually went to his iep meeting this last week and left feeling incredibly encouraged and felt like i had done the best job of communicating his needs and really believed that his team understood and heard my concerns and i am again excited about next year that he will be having i mean he's currently in la and they have done an amazing

100job so i just wanted to think that i think that's very important i also want to say it's really neat i am relatively new i've been here about two years and it's really neat for me just to see the school board members go into the community i have seen so many of them at different events or different schools meeting the teachers going to plays and i've gotten to go to a few of them as well i just think that's really neat that the school board members that our community has elected are out in the community i think that really showcases what our community is for uh another thing i want to talk about um is and it wasn't part of my speech but i want to mention it because i'm a mom and so it

101comes out the gentleman before talked about how the content of the book beloved how it was only a few sentences but as a mom i can tell you that a contaminated water source has only a little bit all you need is a little bit to make it contaminated and to kill you so i would encourage people not to think of it as banning but curating books in order that they're appropriate for young minds so again i wasn't going to speak about that but as a mom that's what i thought just a little bit can spoil the whole thing right so anyways that's on that the other part that i um wanted to talk about and i'm going to raise a respectful ruckus i think it's time that parents are able to come back to the

102classrooms i have felt like for so long understandably we have been cautious when it comes to large gatherings or inside with our schools however my personal experience as well as many many many other people that have reached out to me and asking my experiences parents aren't allowed back into the classroom it's on volunteer level only and it's small groups and um i want my children to see that their mom comes to the classroom and help for instance and this field day that's coming up i cannot come and volunteer because i'd like to bring maybe one of my other children to um cheer on his special needs brother and i can't volunteer and watch you know a little boy at the same time so i am asking the board to i don't know the process that's

103why i'm coming to you but to start letting parents back in the classroom uh so that's really why i'm here and i'm asking again i appreciate everything that you all do i think it's really important that we don't lose sight teachers students parents all want the same thing and that's the best for our kids so i do see still a lot of discord but we're all trying to do the best for our community so again thank you for letting me come and i hope y'all everyone has a great evening thank you stella osborne hi my name is stella osborne and i'm the librarian at forest middle school and the bedford county council pta reflections chair i have 34 years of teaching experience and i've been a librarian in bedford county for 32 of those years

104i have worked in all three school zones and all three levels tonight i would like to talk about the importance of a fully staffed library and thank the board for supporting that effort i also ask that you revisit giving paraprofessionals including library assistants a much deserved raise beyond four percent the past few years were not kind to some of us in my profession in this county not all libraries were staffed by licensed librarians if they were staffed at all many times i felt that our jobs were not really valued and wondered if i would even keep my job when coveted happened all things went askew many library media specialists took on roles we'd never done before to help pull our schools through this year when i thought things would be semi-normal my library assistant's job

105was eliminated there was no way i could effectively teach classes get students added into the accelerated reader program and destiny order process and shelve books and take care of all the other duties my job entailed without an assistant the library could not run at full speed although my administration tried to find other ways to relieve the added stress it wasn't enough to help in my busy library and in the end the numbers spoke for themselves checkage dropped by three thousand books going from eleven thousand and sixteen to eight thousand and thirty nine a heartbreaking statistic to anyone who values reading so i thank you from the bottom of my heart that you're bringing our libraries back to full staff we all know that reading is important libraries are important librarians are important and library assistants

106are really important i hope that you'll look once more at giving these assistants and other parents a raise beyond four percent our paraprofessionals are the unsung heroes of our schools and they're going to leave in droves because they can't afford to stay with bedford county so please don't let that happen and thank you very much cindy gillespie christina childers hello i'm christina childress tonight i speak as the president of the bedford county education association which represents both professional and classified staff at every work location and bcps all of the comments i'm going to share i just emailed to all of you with some mathematical data first of all we just want to thank you for the salary scale that you have had adopted for next year if it's actually funded this scale will help rectify

107the discrepancy between staff and bcps and other staff pay this can go a long way toward retention and we are cautiously optimistic one other major area of retention though involves workplace protocols there are ways to improve current protocols that would honor the autonomy professionalism and integrity of each employee some of which frankly could be implemented without adding one cent to the budget in direct conflict with the idea of valuing our employees is our current board policy gaa staff time schedules which states the following the workday for full-time licensed and professional staff will be a minimum of 7 hours and 30 minutes and continues quote until professional responsibilities to the student and the school division are completed obviously that wording is from the state code of virginia but essentially it reads very much like professional employees

108can be required to spend an unlimited amount of time uncompensated working for bcps what i'm here to tell you tonight is that this requirement needs revision if you wish to retain employees who are burning out the board itself recently adopted revised polity beat policy bdd which essentially states that you as board members now have the option of remote meeting attendance for personal reasons for up to 25 percent of your own meetings in education we never ask our students do anything we're not willing to do ourselves so tonight we are asking for similar consideration for employees with regard to establishing what i am calling the 25 consideration we are asking that 25 consideration be put in place with regard to our required work that does not directly involve student supervision number one no more than 25

109percent of the professional work week should include before or after hours meetings that would average five days a month number two no more than 25 percent of the work day should be required before or after hours during no more than 25 percent of the week number three teachers and professional staff should be allowed to attend at least 25 percent of required meetings virtually number four at least 25 percent of teacher work days after the start of the school year should include a remote work option none of those above four policies would add any explicit cost to our current budget but they would increase the quality of life for a professional staff one further consideration that does involve student supervision would be revising policy gcbd revising this policy to include bereavement leave with a 25 consideration

110would show you honor your employees humanity so number five all staff should have 2.5 days per year that can be taken for bereavement before it dips into an employee's sick leave surrounding school divisions have similar policies that allow for three bereavement days per year if we ignore the reality that life and death happens we we ignore the reality of our staff grief overall we ask that our professional staff work policies reflect the autonomy integrity and professionalism for which we were hired our staff policy should also reflect our humanity following this 25 consideration would go a long way toward actually showing you valued value and wish to retain your employees thank you miss childress since we had one no show i'll go to the first person on the wait list karina higgins karina higgins carly maulpin

111lily van bergen okay then at this time i'll ask does anyone wish to speak yes sir this will be our last speaker for the evening my name is wendell johnson i live at 115 connor lane i'm in matthews district whatever that is i want to talk about masks because i noticed some of you are still wearing the face diapers the face diapers should have never been forced upon our children that is child abuse in my opinion if a parent wants to have a child wear a master's school they certainly have that right if you're 18 years old or older and you want to wear a mask you certainly have that right but our children should not be forced to wear masks that's wrong it's child abuse thank you thank you very much mr johnson [Applause]

112at this time i will close the public comment period of tonight's meeting moving on to item 5.04 we welcome delegate wendell walker thank you for coming this evening good evening ladies and gentlemen delegate winter walker representing one of the best localities in the commonwealth of virginia along with two other great legislators thank you for the opportunity to be here this evening and before i address some of these other comments the resolutions i heard earlier in this evening we're hearing a lot from the school systems across the commonwealth and resolutions are being passed that's putting parents back in charge of school systems and i'm glad to see the changes that bedford county is making here these are great positive changes and i saw a reflection of these young people that came across this evening the achievements

113that they've done in the teacher and teachers that you have out here [Music] i think that says a lot about the involvement which is very important because when parents involved working with the leadership of the school board school superintendent great things happen out here so earlier this evening before break dr bergen was walking up the aisle and he is smiling from ear to ear i said oh my here it comes i'll take any questions and i talk to bergen but the budget everybody wants to know where's the budget that's a great question well i can tell you what the budget is is in richmond and there are still a lot of discussions going on about that part of it has to do with the fact we have a new governor new secretaries are doing a

114great job they're listening to the parents out here we are going to get a budget and i hope within the next couple of weeks but sometimes it takes more than hope it takes prayers and it takes phone calls so please contact the legislators in the general assembly especially the ones on these conference committees because not only are the school budgets sitting here being tied up there's also localities budgets as well so your input is very important to us as legislators we're here as your voices to serve you and that's what we want to do to make sure you get the best you can another comment if i could address the seating here in this historic school it reminds me when i was much younger and said in auditoriums like this so when miss hairston was

115coming up the aisle and we were chatting a little about this auditorium i realized now that after almost 70 years i cannot handle these seats like i used to as a teenager so dr bergen next year in your budget you and ms harrison if you'll just work up what an appropriation bill would be proceeding here so when we come back to these facilities we can at least sit in comfort for a while we want to help you in every way we can we know that school construction is a big part of this and uh we did support the budget with school uh construction uh teacher pay and i can't leave out our wonderful sheriff here mike miller we certainly have money for school hopefully school resource officers as well as law enforcement here so changes

116are coming policies changing and we just hope that you will kind of work with us in richmond but the most important thing we need to do is hear from you and let me just say a thank you to dr bergen he was the only school superintendent out of the three localities that i represent that took time to come to richmond with the concern and we were able to address that concern and that dealt with the osha the health issues we're dealing with mandates so through the secretary of labor uh mr slater myself and other legislators that was able to be addressed the governor since then the board has made decisions to remove that so hopefully you won't have to worry about that losing more sleep there but that input is very important to us knowing

117and understand what your specific needs are out here um you know communication what can i say you know the resolutions say that parents are in charge they're the ones who pay the bill they're the kids and i think the more open you can be in responsive to parents that's what we want we enjoy the freedoms and the liberties we have you have great schools here in bedford county we want to make them even greater a greater wouldn't it be i mean wouldn't it be great to have bedford as a role model throughout the commonwealth of virginia and how well we do here that would be great that would be outstanding regarding the covent we went through that the last couple years the mass mandates that's passed us crt hopefully has passed us in moving forward

118so i think there's some positive things moving forward and i'm just thankful i can be part of a three of the representatives who represent a great county out here and so anytime we can be of any help please feel free to contact us or either come visit us our door is always open to you thank you very much for your time this evening thank you delegate walker moving on to item 6.0 or 6. do i have a motion to approve the consent agenda and i make motion that we approve the consent agent i have a motion for ms harrison do i have a second second from mr daniels any discussion i just want to say one thing and and publicly thank um miss johnson your minutes are always so well done and record everything that

119we've talked about and just wanted to publicly thank you for such a job well done every month thank you dr mealy any further discussion all those in favor signify by saying aye aye opposed consent agenda is approved um we actually covered all the informational items earlier so we can go on to item 8.01 capital improvement plan dr doulas thank you at the april school board meeting an updated capital improvement plan was introduced and discussed at some length following the input provided during that meeting by board members the board facilities committee met again to discuss any needed adjustments to the initial plan the committee requested that we develop a specific school painting schedule to prioritize needs which we're in the process of doing and this has resulted for the purposes of the capital improvement plan in

120limiting the painting list for next year to recommend only exterior painting at five schools bedford primary goodview otter river thomas jefferson and stewartsville that's at a much lower cost than the painting needs that were in the previous version so that's one change that has been made since the last meeting in addition costs for asphalt paving were reduced to not just have a total number there to be reached but rather the reduced very close to a quote given by a local company for bedford primary school which is in the worst shape of any asphalt we we maintain so that that has been reduced and adjusted since the last meeting the committee also requested the inclusion of sound and video upgrades at our three comprehensive high school auditoriums so these new systems would be installed in a

121manner that would allow us to reuse as much equipment as possible if full auditorium renovations were to occur so we would we would need to work with any if those projects were to move forward we would work with the vendor to ensure that the adjustments and reductions in the areas i mentioned before are similar to the amount of the cost that would be used for those auditorium technology upgrades and so there's really no overall cost difference in the in the plan from the last version to this one so with a contingency included as is wise to do in case of emergency needs and assuming that we would the school board would appropriate reappropriate a million dollars in end-of-year funds as mr hagler has been estimating would be available we would project a positive balance of

122a little over two million dollars after these projects are completed and then that money would carry over into the following year that could be used then for future projects which we as we discussed last time we have a 10-year plan of projects but not a 10-year supply of funds and so carrying over what we can seems appropriate so really tonight we ask for approval for the fiscal year 23 projects which are on the chart shared in board docs of course those out year projects we want to be building support for as well however those will need those will have much more consideration going forward in future versions of the plan the facilities committee will have continual look at the plan over the next year and of course the full board would have the cip presented

123at least annually for updates so the action i think that we'd ask for tonight would be approval of these projects and then general consensus that the other items in the plan would be items that we would be working to of course with continual input and update as as we get closer to that time dr dewis okay do i have a motion regarding the capital improvement plan chairman i make a motion regarding the capital improvement plan that we move forward on it okay i have a motion by ms harrison do i have a second second by dr miley any discussion yes madam chairman yesterday um i don't know how the rest of the board feels but i have been very concerned over the last at least year regarding the numbers that we get as a proposal

124and then the numbers that come back as a bid and what i'm understanding and this isn't you really in my wheelhouse so i depend on you all of where it is is that um we are not either always getting or or never getting um bids from people who have actually visited the site and my understanding from those of you who know way more than i do is that this can significantly impact a bid so i'm just wondering how you feel about us possibly adding that bids have to be done in person they have to step on the site to provide us with a bid i don't know whether that's unreasonable i don't do what you all do but i am concerned that the difference between what's first presented and then what's actually proposed can be

125hundreds of thousands of dollars difference you guys have been addressing that in your right i was going to say that in our facility committee meetings that we have certainly discussed that at our most recent one and uh matt you certainly can chime yeah well a lot of the numbers that that are on this plan originally are or this team's best guess you know as to what it's going to cost from past the numbers that that are presented to us aren't always bids that's the team's best guess on what it is so where it's you know it may say the budget was short originally it said we were short a million one point some odd million well that was just a guess you know a best guess at that point so once we got the bids

126in and started critiquing them you know as you see now we're in a plus 2 million versus needing to find you know a million so i think we've pretty much already addressed what you're talking about you know through the facilities committee uh you know that as board members we need to be more involved in the bidding process and of course they need to you know not bid on these things sight unseen because obviously they're going to be padded up just to cover themselves so and we also we discussed certainly what mr holbrook said and you know and i i believe that the committee understands that going forward we are going to need to have solid numbers here if you're going to present something to us we want something solid we want to spend our money

127wisely okay now we have the motion on the floor though to accept this improvement plan have first and a second any further discussion about the plan okay i'll call for a vote all those in favor signify by saying i i opposed motion carries moving on to 8.02 approval policy updates presented at the april 7 2022 board meeting yes madam chair there's just two policies and two regulations that are up for approval tonight the two policies and the regulations were presented last month at the april 7 board meeting after having first been reviewed by the intergovernmental affairs committee and staff are present to answer any questions before you call for a vote do i have a motion regarding the approval of the updates presented at the april 7th or meeting okay motion by mr holbrook second

128by ms harrison any discussion all those in favor signify by saying i i opposed motion carries 8.03 i would like to handle this in two separate parts if we may first i like to call for a motion of the approval of the school board by laws that we have been working on bylaws and procedures you'll have a motion and when i make a motion that we approve the school board bylaws i have a motion by ms harrison the second by mr nelms any discussion i think i would just ask one thing because it will be an easier document to use and that is that we hot link the major sections of it to that section so it would be easy to go to would that be possible miss johnson all right would you mind repeating

129that dr mealy i heard you wanted to highlight just take the major uh categories like um argument one in the template in the table of contents or in the document itself in the table of contents absolutely yeah yes yes that's an easy fix yes ma'am just be easier to to negotiate the document is that okay with everybody well with the exception of the change um is all everyone in favor of approving emotions we call for vote all those in favor signify by saying aye aye opposed motion carries okay now the second part of this do i have a motion to retire the former bylaws norms and protocols chairman i move that we retire the former governance norms and protocols document i have a motion by dr mealy do i have a second second by mr

130daniels any discussion call for a vote all those in favor signify by saying aye aye opposed motion carries let's move on to item point nine superintendents report dr bergen yes uh madam chair as is our tradition we have much to celebrate since we were last together and it just seems perfectly appropriate since we're sitting here in susie g gibson that we start off by recognizing the suzy g science and technology center students seven of whom competed in the skills usa virginia state skills and leadership conference i was able to join those students and their teachers for both the regional event that was held in franklin county and at the state competition in virginia beach at which the school division had five students qualify by placing in the top two of their respective fields in the

131regional competition second place finishers included william wood for automotive maintenance and light repair timothy nichols for building maintenance and taylor weska for carpentry and we had two second place finishers for we had two first place finishers for building maintenance that included anthony utley in the post-secondary competition and aidan wortman in the high school competition since they both finished first in the state competition both anthony and aiden will now be attending the national competition which will be held the week of june 20-25 in atlanta georgia so congratulations to all of our suzy g gibson students and their staff members on these accomplishments ffa members from both liberty and stanton river high schools attended the south ridge area rally consisting of 25 schools where they participated in contests and workshops finishing in second or first place for

132lip from liberty high school were adam witt first place junior tractor operator adam and wyatt jenkins together first tractor troubleshooting team the team of wyatt jenkins andrew heiner caleb williamson zane key and landon asob first place in senior agriculture mechanics team olivia esposito second place in extemporaneous public speaking natalie corbin second place in the creed public speaking and allison long second place in floriculture and from stant river high school finishing in first or second place we had cody burnett first for senior tractor driving christian tuck second in junior tractor driving the team of kelsey weston beth coleps gillespie emily creasy and adriana jernigan second place overall in veterinary sciences and alex adkins second in agricultural mechanics congratulations to both of these ffa squads who are now gearing up to compete at the state competition which

133will be held at virginia tech during the week of june 27 to 30. uh sticking in the lane of ffa we had a handful of virginia ffa competitions held prior to the state convention recently the ffa tractor driving area winners convened at the rockingham county fairgrounds to see who would be the top ffa tractor operator in all of virginia smith mountain stanton river high school's ffa's cody burnett placed first in the four-wheel wagon event and first on the exam portion with a total score 562 cody was the overall state tractor driving winner congratulations cody he will now compete in the national tractor driving contest this coming fall in massachusetts board members i know you join me in in sharing our appreciation for the strong partnerships we have throughout the community including our ptas who give

134our give back to our students and our schools annually each high school is awarded a bedford county council pta scholarship for a thousand dollars to be eligible the students and the parents have to be pta members by december of that year in which they're applying and a rubric scoring system is used that takes into consideration such things as volunteer volunteer community service time academic grades and classes employment status and extracurricular activities in addition a short essay by the student and provided recommendation letters from teachers and employers are also reviewed i very much enjoyed attending this year's annual dinner where the pta county council awarded not three but four scholarships because they found an extra thousand dollars and they just couldn't decide on the top three so they went with the top four olivia owen from

135jefferson forest high school mckenna lee garrett from liberty high school and two students from stanton river high school elizabeth elizabeth gillespie and sydney thomas congratulations to these four students and to a thanks again to our pta county council for all of their financial support the university of lynchburg recently held a high school art show a reception with 30 students each from eight area high schools participating each participating school could submit five pieces of artwork for a total of 40 pieces of artwork at the reception six awards were given four for student merit awards one people's choice award and one top high school art award three of those four merit awards all went to jefferson forest high school students congratulations to elise brady hannah wright and alyssa nazigan for helping jf win the top high school

136art award for best overall representation this is the second time that jf has won this award in the four years of the show's existence congratulations to our bedford fiber festival t-shirt design winners from liberty high school while the festival will only be using the first place design on their shirts they were so impressed they felt that more students should be awarded for their beautiful work so they decided to give a second and a third place and all of those students received monetary prizes congratulations to abriella blair for her first place finish isabel wildberger for second and riley heiner for third uh next several board members uh had the pleasure of joining me and many from our community and many of our staff members for the big feet meet this big feet meet is an event

137that is sponsored through special olympics in partnership with the schools and the community it's at this event students with disabilities and their peers from all three middle and high schools compete in a variety of track events we also want to thank very much the support of the bedford county sheriff's office the bedford county fire department the virginia state police and the town of bedford police departments they were all in attendance to support this event many thanks to all of the students staff and parents the spectators the community volunteers everyone for their participation in this amazing event to highlight the importance and the significance of the beauty of our students with disabilities liberty high school students sarah johnson noah lear michaela branham and mason moneyham recently participated in the history day state competition sarah took first

138place in her performance and will now represent virginia in the senior individual performance at the national history day competition noah and mason took third place in senior group website and are now alternates at the national competition if you don't subscribe to people magazine you might not know that two of our amazing students were recently recognized and featured in people magazine congratulations to jefferson forest high school's anna anderson and zane wales who were chosen as prom queen and king uh much of this information that i've shared is primarily featured appropriately so on our school division facebook page but we wanted to take some time tonight during superintendent recognition to once again congratulate the support staff of the year their work is greatly appreciated as they're so dedicated to serving our students our schools and our community

139so i just would like to read through the names of the support staff of the year from each of our elementary schools they include judith marlow from bedford donna saunders from bedford primary melissa overstreet at big island troy ot from boonesboro era barbala at forest lisa morris from goodview carol timke huddleston mary bonds from anita kelly balderstein from montvale emily horgan at new london kathy overstreet representing otter river joyce brown from stewartsville and deanna worth from tj thank you so much to these individuals for all of their support for our students our parents and our staff middle school support staff of the year include laurie brunette from forest barbara owsley from liberty and rhonda crouch from stanton river and our high school support staff of the year are deborah brew from jf susan tomlin from

140liberty high jennifer buzzo from stanton river high school and carolyn carson for susie g gibson science and technology center and our central support team staff members of the year include sherry ratliff from the maintenance department cindy gardner and nutrition jeff karns and transportation and becky robertson in the school board office thank you to all of these adults in our middle schools high schools and in our central support team for their support of our school division it was my pleasure to recently join members of the suzy g gibson legacy alumni group as we gathered right here outside on the sidewalk on april 29 to unveil a plaque that recognizes the historic designation of the former susie g gibson high school in 2021 the school in which we are all sitting now was placed on both the

141virginia and the national historic registries if you didn't have a chance to take in those plaques i suggest you do so on your way out the door you find them by the main entrance our administrative professionals not only keep us all organized they also assist plan solve simplify coordinate and do a billion other amazing things to keep the workplace running smoothly as we did so on april 27th which is designated nationally as administrative professionals days we just want to take just a moment here tonight to again give thanks to all of our administrative professionals for all they do may 6 was school lunch hero day dedicated to our school nutrition staff who make the cafeterias and the schools a better place to be you don't have to wear a cape to be a superhero as

142you can see from these photos and you never know what our heroes may be wearing to engage our students we're filled with gratitude and can't thank enough our nutrition workers for all the love and care they provide for our students staff and visitors somehow my last page got separated from my packet so i'm i'm going to to read with you from the screen it's a school nurse well i think we had someone mention here earlier school nurse appreciation uh occurred uh recently and so we wanted to make sure that we took some time out here tonight at our school board meeting to recognize and thank all of our school nurses particularly for the these last two years of the pandemic for all they've done to keep us safe and healthy and in school teacher appreciation

143week was last week i i know that several board members were able to join me as i was out and about in schools i'm at this point about halfway through visiting each of our 21 school sites just to visit with our staff and thank them for the amazing work that they've done this school year and to get their feedback and and do a pulse check with them about see how they're feeling about this point in the school year as we prepare for next year we just wanted to again thank all of our teachers as well as our support staff our nurses our administrative professionals everyone who supports the work of our students and as i told the children and i'd like to say to our parents and the community members who are watching the gift

144that teachers most appreciate are your words so if you've not yet had the opportunity just to simply write a a a note or a just a just a paragraph to your teacher boys and girls and parents to thank them for the wonderful work that they do for your and have done for your child for this year that will be the most treasured gift that they will receive and we got to meet this young lady we're so we're so proud of of her for her accomplishment this year as a teacher of the year for bedford county and we certainly are going to be wishing for another regional teacher of the year we'll bring her back when when she does so in the in the coming months uh so in closing i uh i know that our

145students are excited about the end of the school year and our teachers are i'm going to have the chance in the next week to two to visit with our seniors as they're practicing for their graduations and address them and i'm looking forward to joining many of our board members and all of our students and our parents and our staff at liberty high school for our graduations that are coming up and with that madam chair that concludes my remarks okay dr bergen okay we'll move on to committed reports ms harrison thank you madam chairman um as dr dewis mentioned earlier the facility committee um met on april the 29th and of course it was an opportunity for us to um actually participate in the unveiling of the plaque that dr bergen mentioned regarding the historical site

146of susie g gibson and i it was an honor for me to participate in that presentation as well but the committee met and we discussed a number of things many of those things dr dewis has shared with us tonight and we have approved regarding the capital improvement we also spent time the committee talking about a number of other areas as well certainly one particular area dealt with the pa system that we all have talked about the need for upgrading our pa system in our high schools and so that was part of our discussion uh when we met and i am certainly hopeful that when we bring this back to the board that you all will strongly consider us actually upgrading the pa system at all of our high schools we are certainly it has been

147the board's intent to have our meetings at our various schools high schools to give our public more opportunity to see the schools and to have a larger space and so in order to do that we certainly need better pa systems and also it's been quite a a hardship and a burden on our tech team they spent a great deal of time trying to set up things and that takes away from them being in the schools or having to address needs in our schools and so that's something that we'll be talking further with you about as well i have spoken to a number of board members i i think to each and every one of you regarding um a topic of concern for us and that is the capacity of some of our schools and so

148at some time in the near future we certainly will be bringing back to the board further discussion on our capacity in ways in which we can help resolve some of these serious issues with crowdness of our schools so that took care pretty much of our sufficient facility committee meeting and i also serve on the laurel school board meeting i serve as chair there and we met on may the 4th and of course dr donna lewis is the director of the school and she presented to the board the 2022 budget she put together beautiful presentation for us and outlining the budget and with much discussion and lots of good questions from fellow board members we did approve the 2022-23 budget and of course we all know where that's all contingent upon state funding and local funding

149but it was a good meeting and we are scheduled to have our next meeting in august so that concludes laurel school and facility committee meeting thank you mr dr emily yes the only thing i have is um really from the roanoke governor's school it's not a committee i don't know if this is the right time to mention that um they had their senior dinner um last week it was absolutely wonderful it was wonderful to be there and i do want to give a special shout out to abby wyatt from stanton river she attends the uh renault valley governor's school and she placed third place in the virginia state uh science and engineering fair um with her work for plant sciences so i was very proud to to see that presented to her thank you dr

150mealey mr holbert did you have anything to add for miss hairston no not far as the committee reports no superman mr daniels so we have the intergovernmental affairs committee and we have just been kind of going through a lot of the policies that haven't been updated or need to be reviewed the one that we brought up that we're working on will probably work through at our next meeting is on items that come before the board as far as uh being money being spent how it needs to go go through the facilities and and other committees um as well as the the limit of what that is currently it's two hundred thousand dollars we're looking at lowering that so that we have more say to kind of speak to what you guys were talking about so

151that's that we have a meeting probably coming up at the end of the month and um we'll update you after that um also i was in attendance for the ciac committee meeting that's this special education committee and it was great to see so many passionate people there um everyone that's that serves on that committee as well as the parents that were in attendance and you know it's it's definitely tough as a parent of a child with special needs and everyone's needs are individual and um it's it's great to see that there are people that are caring there that are trying to help these parents navigate their way through iep meetings and just to be able to advocate for their child so it was it was really nice to see and we have another one again

152coming up at the end of this month so thank you mr daniels anything that i have committed okay so we started down here we'll start with mr daniels for your comments concerns there's a lot of them as far as closing remarks um thank you to all the people that came out tonight to speak in favor of the parents bill of rights your passion is contagious and it's extremely important that parents play a vital role in their children's education it's the job of a parent to protect their child and to bring them up right and the way to do that is by being involved dr burgin has said this several times now i've heard him say that a child's first and best teacher is their parents special thanks go back to tracy good wendell walker and

153sheriff miller for being here as well i've attended a lot of different events over the last um couple months got to be part of teacher appreciation week at ottawa river for all-american day we had the hot dog truck and we got to got to hang out with the teachers and just thank them for all their hard work and that that was really nice it was at the big feet meet as well and dwayne was there we had we had a really nice time uh the administration was uh a lot of people were there and i had to walk away from them several times because i was crying tears of joy and they said that it was contagious so i had to move away um also the sea ac also put on something this past monday

154called the fun fill day it was at falling falling creek park kelly was there and it was great it was a beautiful day it was great for the kids the sheriff's department was there they were cooking hot dogs and had the canines out there sheriff miller was pitching kickball so that was great and the cia did a great job of of getting a lot of companies together to help parents and children with special needs share resources and knowledge it was great for the parents to get together too you know and just be to be able to share some victories uh it's also important important for parents to know that while their needs are individual and things can certainly be tough that they're not alone i want to send the congratulations out to shaina cruz and

155the entire cast and crew at liberty high school for the wizard of oz i had the privilege of being able to go to their dress rehearsal and see that it was it was great to see we have so many talented kids there it really was a blast and i know the rest of the shows that they put on that weekend were amazing so a big shout out goes to them also mr mrs white and the cast and crew jf of their production of greece got to attend in a full house which was great to see in the auditorium and it was it was definitely fantastic and dr bergen touched on this but congratulations to zane wales and anna anderson with the prom king and queen and jf we have celebrities in our county so it's

156good to see that this month also worked with coach sink in the baseball team and concessions to raise money for the liberty high school boosters we raised 950 for liberty high school athletics we've also raised 300 for the liberty high school performing arts as well it's important that as a community we just get involved we can start gofundmes and other events to raise money for the kids in our schools and enhance their school experience every dollar matters every volunteer matters every dollar that we raise means another dollar that we can use in our budget for some of the other items that we need to take care of if you have any other ideas i'm always available so you guys can email me with any suggestions and then i guess finally big congratulations to all the

157seniors that are graduating as well as all the fifth graders preschoolers and kindergartners i can tell you that in addition to your parents and families we are proud of you and we wish you tons of success in the future and congratulations to all the teachers and staff for their hard work this year and thank you for everything and we hope you have a great summer daniel mr nelms um i don't have that much to say but i want to uh just say that uh attended the uh big feet meet with uh mr daniels and the rest of the crew and everything it was a great day um i want to thank my wife and my daughter for helping me go to that and volunteering for that event then i want to send a shout out

158to mr doss for giving me a tour a couple weeks ago with this facility brought back a lot of memories we discussed some things that we'd like to see improved here and we want to bring some more recognition to our cte programs and then a special shout out to our special guest tonight especially to mrs good because she sent out a prayer request from my dad so i just want to say thank you for that and that's all i have thank you mr nels mr holberg yes uh at the last meeting believe it was during public comment it was brought up that in god we trust is not in our schools or or in the code of conduct and it had been removed or in the policy and had been removed several years ago and

159i thought it was supposed to be on the agenda this time it may have just gotten missed i mean believe dr milly had brought it up but it most certainly should be in our school it's on our money it's on the police cars it's in the courthouses it's on multiple you know federal buildings and you know whether you agree or disagree with this you know this is a christian nation and it was founded on christian principles so you know i would like to to see that on the agenda next time if that's possible and and if we're going to go you know if we're going to say in god we trust then then the bible should be our standard for books for whatever it comes to i mean it's you know maybe that's why it

160got removed to begin with because they didn't want the bible to be the standard but but it most certainly should be and uh and i think it should be on the agenda next time that's all i got to say about did that for that um and it was just i i don't think it's not in the schools am i correct dr bergen it's in the schools correct it's not in our policy manual oh i got you but if you have you know like the pledge of allegiance in your policy manual you know some moment of silence then then i think the ieb and iec should be there and i had asked for that to come back um so can can we make sure that that's on the agenda next month ms johnson so i can

161make sure it's on the agenda does it need to go through the committee first before coming to the whole world just to be clear those policies were retired in march of 2021 by the previous board 7-0 unanimous it would they were retired because it is state law for the bill of rights and then god retrust to be displayed prominently at the schools at all times so that is why because it was duplicated that's what was discussed at the meeting and that's why it wasn't there so the previous board removed that that year for that and was unanimous well i would ask that the current board revisit that i would agree with mr holbrook wholeheartedly it needs to be revisited and brought back people may ask a question though as far as procedure um we have

162you can browse courtney i was thinking of robert's rules of order well you are since it was 7-0 all of us were on the board then but we were on the prevailing side so we can't bring it back up i'm just making sure i have robert's rules correct okay and i would say that um for them to say it was in the code so is the pledge of allegiance so i wasn't on the board that approved that i know i'm just saying as a board if we're going to say it shouldn't be in there then anything in code shouldn't be in there as well moment of silence for example is in the code that's also i don't know why it was brought up in the first place so um from for from the game can

163we put it on the committee meeting to bring forth to the board thank you very much and i have one i'm sorry my turn are you done i have one other point of order that i think we need to look at i think earlier tonight we said we would send the resolutions to the intergovernmental committee but that's not their purpose their purpose is is responsible for serving the school boards as their school on liaison to other publicly elected bodies at the local state and national levels and to advocate for the needs of our school division so i don't think that's the place that they should go as a matter of fact if that's what we want to do then i think that's an entire board thing just like our protocols i think we all maybe

164need to have a work session or whatever but it's not a committee that is not the stated purpose of this committee that we formed at all it's right here drafting school board approval for an annual legislative agenda monitoring the activities of the board of supervisors in the general assembly keeping the board informed of pending actions and actively communicating our concerns about the to our elected bodies is the purpose that we set so that is not the place that it should go so i think we need to probably do a work session or put it i think it's going to take some time but we can't i don't think it goes to the committee it's not a policy that has nothing to do with elected bodies let's get a consensus of the board to see how

165they want to move forward so we know how to have it on the agenda for next month ms harrison what do you think should be on the agenda on the agenda as an action item yes absolutely yeah it is not i think dr mainly has very eloquently spoken and explained to us the role and the description of the intergovernmental uh duties and roles and like with any committee we need to follow that description we don't need to over extend ourselves and step out of our bounds in our duties so these decisions have to be made as a whole among all board members so now yeah i would like to see it as a an action item straight to an action item same same straight to an action item yeah i just thought it was a

166question there so yes okay and me also so we will put that on as an action item for next month please okay dr maylie did you have anything further um i i too just want to say thank you to again to our teachers and staff this has been a very challenging year um i just want you to know that you're deeply appreciated the dedication you show to our students is nothing short of extraordinary i know thank you is so easy to say and the words can roll out of someone's mouth really easily but please know that my thank you is very heartfelt i know what you've been through i understand what your job is every day and i know that it's been very hard please remember that what you do every day matters and that

167you matter and that you have just done an extraordinary job and on the same token i would like to thank dr bergen for his first year um i think you've done a lot of extraordinary things for us as well i i think you've put in place things that were needed to be in place for a long time so i hope you found peace in in bedford county and are happy here and thank you for all that you've done so far um i also want to say um i would like to um again with the the consensus of the board unless i'm mistaken and i and i could be uh so please correct me if i am um we have not been getting regular reports on student grades and grade distribution and how grades have fallen

168out in each quarter have we gotten that i don't remember that i remember asking for it but i don't think we've gotten it i would just like to see that um i'd like to see that for this year but i think it's something that we need to that should be at the end of every quarter to me do you do you all agree that we need to get a report on that i agree um so like if it's if the quarter ends in march then we should get that at the april meeting or if it ends in december we should get it at the january meeting because i think we need to be kept surprised of how our students are doing with whatever assessments you all are using to to do that do you have

169a question no no this uh our intent will be as we've adopted a new strategic plan we will provide regular updates on our success in meeting the strategies within the strategic plan and that'll certainly include referencing back to data as it becomes available to us well i think too what what the board should be looking at is is you know grade level subject area that sort of thing so you know i want to know how everybody's doing in algebra or you know third grade math has been a very weak area so how are our elementary schools doing not just an overall reference but actually like how are we doing here i'd also like to think we need to see that in terms of sol data before it's certified in september or august we should have

170that data i think no later than june the june meeting because the testing is is pretty much finished now i do know you're going to have people who retest and you're going to have people who need to be remediated but just a general overall idea of how we have done with our sol testing is available almost in instantaneously i'm sure mark blankenship has that at his fingertips i know as a principal i did i could tell you by the end of the day how my kids had done so i'd like to see something like that as well if you all agree with that is that okay i think it's very important information as board members for us to have the information on and that doesn't mean it can't be updated again for people who who

171haven't been in this it will change it's not usually going to change by 10 or 15 points it's going to be a couple of points um but i i hate to wait until it's certified or you know every single last child has been tested because sometimes that's long into the summer for various reasons so i'd like to to see us have that as well um [Music] i i was wondering too um madam chairman and i don't know how the board feels about this um mr edwards noted that it's difficult to get money or or a donation it may be not difficult but it's um it's hard i think he said for businesses to contribute something when they're not going to get anything in return you know we're not going to put up a sign we're

172not going to do any of that and i just wondered if it would be appropriate for us to write a note of thanks to each of those businesses who donated something to the teacher of the year because that's the least we could do how do you all was or was that already done is that something we don't know that is something that we do we ask of our reigning teacher of the year to do as a thank you to those businesses but we could do something else if directed do we list them on our facebook page or we are going to yes okay so that is something we normally do absolutely okay thank you i just want to make sure we were thanking them oh do not worry about that um the other thing is

173i did ask too at one time in going back to what mr johnson had said um you know uh looking at equity especially in the performing arts and i i think i asked at one time for us to be looking what would it take to like a bond issue or something uh regarding our auditory auditoriums does anybody do you remember that at all miss dr dewis or well well i remember you okay can we i think we need least need to look into that because the facilities are hugely different and and um if we're going to have a quality of learning and opportunities as it's in our strategic plan and what we speak to i think we need to start looking into that so how do we go about that we need to present to

174the board of supervisors and ask for the money so is that does that go to dr dewis to get that together how does that go i don't know how that process works we would just have to set up a meeting with them oh really okay dr dillas you you remember from what we've done before well i i think there may be a couple options um affairs committee uh could have a role in that there could be a joint meeting schedule or joining work session at some point in schedule the school board i don't think is the entity to establish a bond referendum i think you know certainly for supervisors would have to have to authorize and support that so some mechanisms whether that's at the committee level you all in favor of please looking into

175it yes i think we should okay okay you're okay so we have a consensus that's okay to look at that [Music] um [Music] now for i have one other thing too i would really like the inter-governmental committee to look into the policies that miss children spoke about bdd and gcbd and that 25 plan if she would forward that to us i really i would be interested in what the intergovernmental committee thought about revising those to some of the suggestions she presented tonight if you all are okay with that too and just let me check i wrote a lot of notes um also too thank you to the nurses just you know fyi here i would have been a nurse but i can't stand blood vomit or sputum so that you know left me out really

176so thank you for all you do and any of the nurses who work with me know that it's just like okay where is it here okay there i don't even look um so thank you for doing everything you've done because this has been a a tough couple of years and i think that's all miss thank you dr miley miss harrison thank you madam chairman um let me first start out by saying that i was so pleased that we had added two items to our agenda involving parent involvement as well as our staff and teacher recognition as well and many of you may perhaps want to hear when i made a motion at the very start of the meeting that we moved those items tonight to action items as well i felt that it was important

177that we take action tonight because i have always been supportive of our parents as a parent myself i always valued my role in my children's lives and everything that they were taught that they were exposed to that they engaged in you can be assured that mama hairston was certainly very much aware of what was going on and then further as a educator as a principal i sought so many times the involvement of our parents getting them involved in our schools encouraging them to let their voices be heard because there's value in that it's important we have to work together as a team and not to mention the staff and our teachers their voices we all make up a make up a team we are a team and so i value these resolutions i think they

178have great worth and i felt that and would have liked for them to have moved on to an action item i couldn't help but to reflect on um when i first came on board i was at the time we were the board had the opportunity to restore the name of this historical school susie g gibson back to its original name and i remember that very well the audience was i mean the room was filled with individuals the alumni people in the community it was a beautiful beautiful moment in which we recognized our community and we heard our community just as our parents are saying they want to be involved they want their voices heard we took action that night it was an informational item and we moved to make it an action item and i

179would say to the fellow board members here that if we could do it one time why could we not do it again it's very important that we take value in being consistent with our procedures and practices and to deviate from them for whatever reason to me is concerning so i look forward i do i look forward in the future as we move forward perhaps next month that we'll take this vote but i would say to each board member that we really need to be consistent with our practices i also would like to take a moment to just say thank you to our school nurses my goodness wow they are our heroes they are and i appreciate each and every one of you now i'm gonna be a little long-winded but you guys just bear with

180me because i need to call out an individual's name jessica williams she's no longer working as a staff member here but she was a school nurse at otter river and i'm going to try not to tear up and jessica if you're listening i want her to know that i valued everything that she did as a school nurse we faced some really difficult challenges but jessica always always rose to the occasion and there's many many other jessica's out there in our school division as our school nurses and i know that each of you have risen to some high standards these past two years and so i honor you and i thank you for your service i also want to take a moment to to thank mr sheldon our in our maintenance department um i i want

181to acknowledge the fact that he took the time and the effort to address a need at boonesboro elementary school that school was without we all know that they are in need of an hvac system they have been in need for some time now and um they were without ac during um this testing period and those of us know um you know it's difficult to be in a warm classroom and having to to endure testing so i want to just give a shout out to him thank you so very much for your efforts all of your hard work your time that you put in to get those portable units placed there at boonesboro elementary school i know the staff there that they are just so so pleased and so thankful for it as well and i

182want to say to our students who are facing their sol testing i believe in you i know this is hard i'm so proud of you and all of your efforts and to the teachers and the staff you're just the best to me there's no one that compares to bedford county public school staff your dedication is just wonderful i i just thank you i thank you from the very bottom of my heart and you only have 11 more days of school remaining so not much longer and to my big allen and boomsborough staff i so enjoyed visiting with you all when i went along with dr bergen to his end of the year visits i enjoyed it tremendously i had a chance to listen to the teachers share with us their concerns their thoughts and so

183i just want to say to those two schools thank you so very much for the wonderful conversations that i had with you and also liberty middle school i enjoyed participating in uh and visiting with them as well and i had a wonderful wonderful time seeing and watching the production of wizard of oz mrs cruz oh wow she's awesome and toto was just my favorite they all of the actors were wonderful but just a wonderful wonderful production let's see what else what else i told you i was going to be long-winded um yes let's see and also i would like um to piggyback off of what dr mealy said mrs childress shared with us a number of policies that and that she would like for us to look at and i would also encourage the intergovernmental

184committee to certainly take a look at those um suggested policies and and ideals that she has so i'd like to hear more about that from the intergovernmental committee as well um i believe that's it thank you i remember when mr lima was up here he'd say by the time you got around him it was like a broken record so i'm going to try not to sound like the broken record um first of all i want to thank mr doss for hosting us here tonight um thank chef shoop and his team for the dinner provided tonight thank you delegate walker for being here visiting with us tonight um it was interesting this morning i take my children to school every day and as i was dropping my daughter off mr graham came up to me and

185he actually came across both lanes and came over to my car and he said miss kirby i have something that i want you to see and so i uh he gave me this letter and i was so impressed with it that i asked for permission to read it to everyone tonight so if you'll indulge me for just a moment please i know at this time of the year schools look at budgets and where money is spent part of that is also deter determining what positions should be kept and what needs to be trimmed i'm writing to strongly encourage you and anyone that would need to share this letter with to continue with the two solution studios positions i cannot imagine how we would have gotten through this year with all the behavioral needs of our

186students without this valuable resource not only did students need the structured and nature nurturing environment of the smaller setting as they worked through how to be back in a school setting but i needed it too as a teacher i needed that safe place that happens between the classroom and real consequences like iss to send them what i could tell things were going to get tough for them and for me the staff there worked tirelessly to help students find better ways of dealing with issues that were causing them not to perform successfully in class it allowed me to continue with students that were prepared and able to face the challenges of learning without interruption not only that i was able to benefit from the extra pair of eyes mr kennedy gave me to see the roots

187of the issues possible solutions to help me in my class and finally to have real decision discussions about behaviors of individual students rather than just handing out consequences we also had a discussion that helped empower me to know the better time to deal with that deal out the consequences for me this has been one of the strongest learning times of my year even after 31 years of experience so if i need if you need any kind of backing in order to justify or even help fight for these positions i want to throw in my two cents worth it is a powerful and worthwhile program our students and staff benefit from it it came along it came along at just the time we needed it patricia mcdougall seventh grade c teacher at liberty middle school thank

188you miss duel ms mcdougall for taking the time to write that um and it's also when we were looking at the um superintendent slides it was wonderful seeing us developing the cta approach cte programs i know we've heard a lot of community input wanting us to to expand these programs we need the funding to keep it going let's hope that we can get the budget going and getting to where we need to be so we won't have to cut these programs that we're finally starting to expand something i want you guys to possibly think about that we'll again discuss next month that is on the agenda our locations for our next meetings as ms harrison stated it is difficult to set up in these larger auditoriums it would be even more difficult to set up

189in an elementary school i know we had some desire to go to the elementary schools but i think it's much easier on everybody else if we keep it at our high schools and start that rotation over again but again we'll talk about that next month i just wanted it to be food for thought this month and i want to say congratulations to peyton poindexter she was the winner of the alice mahomes scholarship presented by the bethel professional women's organization i am a member i've been a member for several years now we do give out two scholarships a year one is the alice mahone scholarship to a senior getting ready to go to school and then we do a virginia rough scholarship for an adult that's getting ready to go back to school so feel free

190to apply for those if you fit in either one of those categories um if you are looking for something to do this weekend tomorrow at 10 o'clock right here um there's gonna be a car show to raise money for god's pit crew saturday saturday well it's okay you're looking for something due saturday most people got to go to work tomorrow go about what i mean you know what to say saturday here car show rain or shine somebody don't make sure i had that in there is that correct mr doss rain or shine silent auction food trucks music and cars is that correct okay see be here be be there be square also too if you can't make it saturday morning you can make it saturday evening to the jazz cafe and silent auction at liberty

191middle school cafeteria begins at 6 30 admission includes performance dessert and entry into a basket raffle then bring some extra money with you for the items for the silent auction i've seen the pictures and it looks like some pretty good items there to bid on and finally this is our last meeting of the school year i want to thank everyone for the hard work and dedication for making the 21 2021-2022 school year a successful one despite of the challenges i also want to wish everyone a safe happy and healthy summer and we'll see you at graduation with that do i have a motion to adjourn miss kirby before you take that much i'm sorry can i just make one more announcement yes sir because you sparked my brain when you said we're sitting here and

192we're working on wanting to expand cte and workforce development and i don't know why my brain forgot to mention this earlier i know dr woodford's like yes he remembered because i was i was prepped to say this but we are adding an hvac program next year and that's because of the good work of our instructional team led by dr woodford and dr trosper and trevor and troy or the whole team with southern air and honeywell donating equipment and helping us locate a teacher we've identified the space we have looked within our budget so it doesn't add to our budget we're just very excited that we are going to be able to expand them that way just wanted to get there [Applause] okay with that being said now do i have a motion to adjourn i'm

193so moved i have a motion by ms harrison do i have a second second second by mr nelms any discussion all those in favor signify by saying aye aye anyone opposed meeting adorn you