School Board Meeting 12/9/2021 - 5:00 PM

001everybody schools is looking Marcus that's my Christmas present thank [Laughter] yeah let good evening I'd like to call order this December meeting of the B County School Board M Johnson would you please call the RO Mr Johnson here Mrs Kirby here here Mrs Harriston here Dr Hicks here Mr Hill here Mr Lei Dr mey here Mr chairman you have a quorum great thank you m Johnson do we have a motion to approve tonight's agenda Mr chairman I make a motion that we the agenda presented okay we have a motion by Dr mey to approve the agenda as presented do we have a second second by Dr chicks any discussion hearing none call for vote all those in favor please say I any opposed the agenda is approved as presented do we have a motion to

002go into close session Mr chairman I move we go into close session pursuant to the code of aginia section 2.2 3711 A1 to discuss the assignment appointment performance disciplining and release of contract for specific School Board pleas okay so we have a motion by Miss Kirby to go into close session we have a second second second by any discussion call for vote all those in favor please say I any opposed school board will now proceed into close session good singing loud and clear if you have a good voice scratchy thrat okay all right we are back with live now so do we have a motion to come out and close session Mr chairman I make motion close session makes a motion to come out CL session close session we have a second second by Curby

003all those in favor please say I John please certify CL meting whereas the B County school board has convened a closed meeting on this pursuant to an affirmative recorded vote and in accordance with the provisions of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act and R section 2.2 3712 d the code of Virginia requires a certification by this school board that such Clos meeting was conducted in Conformity with Virginia law now therefore be it resolved that the bford county Bo excuse me that the bford County School Board hereby certifies that to the best of each member's knowledge on the 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 St public business matters as were identified in the motion convening the closed

004meeting were heard discussed or considered yes yes yes yes yes yes thank you you moving into staff report must be record time um item 3.01 membership forecast Mr BL thank you want to give a a little brief history um on the last couple years because there was a press release that came out from the Board of Education about the State numbers and they had gone down 45,000 students uh between 2019 20 and 2021 um that number just looking at it I haven't seen a press release about what the state numbers look like this year but I did go in and look at it and it appears that they uh did not drop as much from 2021 to 20 well 20 20221 to 20222 so this past fall the State numbers were down about 1300 students

005so just a a small slight decrease now back when the pandemic happened there was some speculation that people held their kindergarteners back and we'd see a larger kindergarten class coming in this fall come up but not as much as was expected so in the state kindergarten went up um about 6400 students in the State uh in our division the membership fell or decreased 346 uh full-time students in grades K through 12 between 201920 and 20 2021 that was about a 3 7% decrease and then this from 2020 21 the fall of 2020 to the fall of 2021 we went down another 210 students um that was a 2.3% decrease so um on your report you can see in the table one kind of a historical look at uh the school years from 2017 uh through

0062021 that's the actual numbers that were reported to the state on September 30th each year and then table two shows the projections or the forecasted fall membership for the next five years and as you see there we're projected to go down slightly um not as much as in past years uh you can see the the number for for next fall looks like 8 87 8787 so 8,787 students and then over the course of the five years going down um 238 lower over the next five years and that's about a 2.7% decrease over five years uh the figure one kind of just shows it on the line graph how how our enrollment has gone down from over 9500 students going down each year um and continuing to go down at least have a slightly less steep

007curve there or decrease um I'm going to move over to page two on table three and just go over a couple things there this will show you the the numbers by grade and uh couple things next school year I'm projecting a higher uh a larger kindergarten class of 715 if you look there that's really the only 700 number for kindergarten that comes from our Virginia health statistics page and and what I found over the years of doing this is that those numbers for kindergarten for births in Virginia are pretty accurate in terms of how many we should expect so you can look it up and see how many kids were born to parents in Bedford County and then about five years later we're starting to see them in kindergarten so that number has been pretty

008steady I think this year we were think three or four kids off from from what we projected to what we actually had in kindergarten so um feel pretty good about that number uh that would help out some with some of the the losses having a nice robust kindergarten class coming in and then the other thing on this chart our table I wanted to show is if you look across you don't see many classes um grade levels that are over 700 anymore and I for curiosity looked back uh in 2010 and 11 at the numbers and all of our classes back then were over 700 students all of our grade levels and in grade 7 through 12 all at one were over 800 students so that just shows you how it's gone down over the years

009you can see in this chart now that we're this is probably something that's going to continue um hopefully not uh as much as it has been over the last 10 or 12 years so um the figure two shows our actual projected forecast along with a 1% um range of variance uh each year so you can see there that um if we do see some increase of 1% each year we may actually see a a slight increase um but if it's worse we could see a steeper decrease uh so I'll move into the zones and the first zone is the farest zone that zone actually uh over the last year we had a pretty significant I would say decrease I'm sorry of 127 students from 2 Follow of uh 2020 to follow of 2021 that's about

010a 3.2% decrease this Zone though is projected to stay about at that level and actually you see it's a littleit slight three student increase next year but over the next five years really not much of a a decrease there um some of that has to do with growth in in the area but that's going to be captured over time um you can see there we have the same things in Table Six as we had for the whole divisions terms of the numbers for each grade level and the total numbers along with a a range there on the line graph in figure three now Liberty Zone uh actually looks better in terms of loss over the course of the the time we did lose 49 students over that one year from 2020 to 2021 about a

0112% decrease but over the next years we're only looking at probably well projecting for 37 student decrease over the next five years so that one is probably going to stay pretty level I hope um St River Zone we had I think projected this one to over the years they've been losing a lot of kids in this Zone um over the onee period um they did lose four students which is not as many as maybe we thought but if you look at over the five years there's 157 lower from from current to 2026 27 and that's going to be if my Ma's right 5.8 I'm sorry yeah 5.8% decrease over the time so that that could be the zone that we lose more percentage of students in in that zone um I want to move on

012to the table 13 which is on page six and that table shows each school and their projected enrollment and the grade levels are included there uh as you can see some of these are um just about where they were last year and there's some that have gone over now one in particular um that I wanted to talk about and the capacity information is on the next page on page seven table 18 one in particular that I want to talk about that actually showed quite a bit of an increase as far as Elementary School um that school actually had um we projected them to have students and um I'm sorry we projected them to have 318 students and they actually had 351 students so that was 33 over projection for this year um which raised them

013to a 92% capacity um for for next school we're projecting 358 which would be that U 92% capacity and we feel like that's reason we need to close that school down to Zone transfers and non resident students and we've already had Boonsboro and New London uh closed to Zone transfers and of course the policy for Zone transfers was just in the last year so updated to uh include siblings in that um as an exception for siblings who are whose kids are already there so we would recommend that those three schools be the ones that are closed to Zone transfers and non resident students just because of capacity and if you look there you can see the percent capacity for those are all over 85% capacity um which would put them in a kind of a

014squeeze there the the development in Forest is right there next to the Forest Elementary School and uh we feel like over the next couple years that's going to really put some pressure on that school in terms of students I think in the next probably three to five years you're going to see them at 100% capacity and that is all I have on that but I will take any questions that you have at this time m kiry now when you're talking about Forest Elementary B Elementary New London Academy being so close to capacity am I correct in remembering that um these numbers don't include your prek and Your Head Start programs that's correct they do not this is all K through through five so some of these schools uh TJ would have a preschool uh New

015London would have some how many are you looking at in those programs that's going numbers way up I don't have those numbers but it would be um I think a couple classrooms probably for both of those two Forest Elementary really does not have anything in there does not either yes still have have a BP yeah the head start's not there anymore though so to answer your question yes that does put some more students in the school and how close D it and I can picture it in my mind um how close are TJ and Forest to each other mile and a half maybe and TJ's only 77% which still up but I think it was probably six years ago that we did some redistricting in that zone with Forest Elementary Thomas Jefferson and Boonsboro to

016kind of alleviate some of the the pressure there MH um which we did that was in the Lake Vista area and the gra Road area and back of cottown road area that we changed some lines around which U helped out some and and at that time actually Thomas Jefferson had more students but their numbers have have gone down some in terms of uh the overall at the school well I know several years ago we asked about um reding several things and you've run some numbers for us but those were just High School based at that time they are they they include elementary schools I I want think that was middle and high school middle and high school yeah and and I think that was probably around the time we were talking about re U renovating

017the the middle schools and what to do with those right we we did have an elementary study done by independent contractor and and that is still out there in terms of space and some suggestions on that but um that's the only thing that I know in the last few years I'm I'm still thinking so we can come back yeah I I'll I'll let you know sounds good Harris I think it's my turn yes ma'am Mr BR thank you for the data it was quite um an eye opener for me um as I looked at these schools for elementary school really stood out to me okay um at a 92% capacity I'm curious do we have combination classes at Forest Elementary we do not okay so can someone tell me what the class ratio is in

018terms of classroom numbers what's the I'd have to look it up I don't have it could someone maybe at some point let you know I'll take some notes here and make sure are you asking just for Force Elementary actually let's take those three schools it's okay um I think that would be good to kind of take a look at that class ratio and size there um this is all new to me you know so I'm just kind of looking at the data and when I look at the report couple of things stood out certainly the capacity and then of course it sparked a a thought in my mind that as a board we're certainly going to need to look at that um resolving this issue and it seems to me that one way in which

019to resolve it is to certainly look at how we can lower the capacity numbers particularly at forth elementary school and maybe um take a look at um rerouting making some changes there that probably is going to involve transportation and um getting some feedback from them so really in a nut shell what I'm asking for is some D I'd like to know um what that would look like in terms of moving some of these children to other schools and where would those schools be um I would think you would look at those schools with a a smaller capacity perhaps um I didn't want it to be um known and stated that I have always been an advocate for small schools um I certainly don't want to see us eliminate any of our schools um I think

020that's one of the the perks that we have one of the things that sets be tney apart from other schools and is very attractive um to Outsiders and to our parents and people who are looking moving into be they like the fact that we have smaller schools I think it certainly is one of our trademarks so I don't want to see that go but I do think that this is doable so I'm asking if the team could take a look at how we could potentially look at other schools and reroute that was a lot just I'll add I think that um in the past we've done what we've had to do is look at basically our current students that live in these zones and give you information of how many students live in this subdivision

021that maybe we could move somewhere else now that doesn't mean that they will move right but that just is the only way we don't have these I don't know how many younger siblings they might have at home that would be coming or going to another school but as these housing starts begin I think we can use we have a mult fire that we use to kind of project how many kids are coming in and that's what we did with this development Weston Villages the one we talking about right next to the the elementary school in Forest U and it it showed us that our multipliers if anything a little low so we are we're thinking that we are probably definitely going to get these kids in to that school um but in terms of uh

022getting you the correct data that you looking for I think all we can do is give you what we currently know in terms of where these kids are and then decisions have to be made when or not they would be moved or grandfather in or whatever so that's the kind of the thing that we've done in the past and I think that's what we have to give you thank you Mr other questions Mr B you mentioned that we uh lost 346 K through2 students yes tell us where they went um I have a little bit of that data um so we had looking at withdrawals and and of course some of that is offset about new students coming in so um the withdrawals uh kind of looked at it from a a period of from

023first day of school because a lot of these kids that this summer the date that goes in is the first day of school so we had quite a few um that were withdrawn from say June uh through to 1 of August we had 157 went to private schools um 101 of those were summertime withdrawals up to day one and then 56 withdrew after school started the the the big private schools that had received a lot of kids um were LCA L Online Academy and Smith L Christian in addition you know there were some other smaller schools New Covenant um there were some L but those were kind of smaller members I think you know like 52 students went to LCA in addition home school numbers increased I think it was 22 28 that I counted

024today that went to Home School uh 92 of those were over the summer up until that day one so they set our the paperwork in with dra uh and then from day one to the report that I did was ending on December 2nd there was 136 students that put home school from beginning of school to December 2nd um and that's that's extent of what I have right now I can look into it further if need more information but Mr BL to the the graduating another large number of D is that the graduating group of seniors uh was uh that was that our last group of around 800 it was a large senior class A large senior class and the incoming kindergarten class was much smaller so there was a probably 150 Plus student differential or

025so there just right off the top other questions left how far ISB from but just seriously uh I'm guessing from where the elementary is located in in on 122 it's probably a 10 or 12 miles and that's a guess I don't have precise but it's probably pretty close the last time we talk about us and kids that was fun was fun conversation so Mr blankinship how many students do we have that have gone out on uh religious exemptions in the last year we have religious exemptions is kind of cumulative so we have I think the report was 17 four when we target this fall so in addition to I think we had around 1300 home school and then the lest exemptions were 174 for that questions Mr thank you sir thank you wonderful Christmas all

026right item 3.02 a lot of us have been waiting in very long time for Auditorium study Dr DS thank you um I'll say very little about this other than um to introduce it by saying um that uh during our last review of the capital Improvement plan um board members asked for additional information uh Beyond just uh really high level uh speculation about what it would take um for feasibility and cost estimates to improve the auditoriums at TH River High School and Liberty High School and so the board agreed uh to allow us to uh study that in more depth so what we did is we called Dominion 7 Architects um who U worked with us closely to help answer those questions and so Jason berer is here today from Dominion 7 to uh present um

027their findings about the feasibility and cost estimates for improvements to both schools SP both Liberty and St M Auditorium so I'll turn it over to him thank you Dr good evening for CH thank you guys for having representative here AR as Dr said my name is j berer I am an architect Pro manager with the sou Architects if I could just take a moment for those who are not familiar with the Architects um pretty rich history here locally Roots back to 1945 and I I consider us a HomeTown firm a small small firm five people total but that brings a lot of advantages um some past work with County Public Schools goes back to mid90s is when we had our first um project with st River High School and St River Middle School doing the

028renovations there and Through the Years I'm out of various projects something more current this you know the past calendar year we've done four different projects from St River Middle School paint deam delamination and looked at the St high school and Liberty High School canopies the exterior walkway canopies feasibility study there and now as of today we're working um with Dr dewis and Charles santor at the um Schoolboard office administration building looking at doing renovations there and then a roofing project as well so we have um a rich history with Bedford County Public Schools and obviously here they have a professional interest in Bedford County but also a personal interest as well have two little girls my wife and I who attend fourth Elementary School third grader in Miss sh's class and then first and Miss

029har and wishing her the best in her recovery as going through what she's gone through recently so why am I here tonight back in March with Dr to you guys retained theion architect to do a feasibility study on Stan River High School and the Bri High School other buildings and uh specifically what that means is we first looked at the existing conditions um did an assessment there of what you guys have and some um positive points and then someware some shortcomings for this programming and spatial needs assessment basically catalog the different spaces that they that were there and the areas that they took up and and the uses of those areas from there that gave us a wish list and then developed some conceptual options and with those options SE several different varieties we were

030able to put a price tag some numbers probable cost opinions a probable cost as well as a schedule and so come August of of this year we delivered a report to Dr DS and between the two schools you know each report was close to 100 pages each so very detailed and uh thorough and so that's my job tonight is try to wh that down to a handful of slides so as we try to chch through the the data and if um I'll do my best to try to capture all the different pieces of the pars here so just to um give some orientation or perspective I'm sure most of you guys are familiar with the the campuses at each school this is Liberty High School here you can see the highlighted building in the campus

031that's the auditorium there in the surrounding building take a little closer look to the auditorium building itself you can see the different spaces and how they are laid out and you can see the stats up there at the top seats Auditorium has 800 827 the year that it was constructed both buildings were constructed essentially in the same same year period maybe a few months here or there then overall size of the school was you know pushing 18,000 sare ft and the big components obviously the largest one that you'll first note it's the auditorium on the associated stage and then the van in the in the course room Associated on on either side there this type of building is pretty efficient not a lot of culation just big building blocks and oriented such and then in

032comparison we have here St rer high school and the campus and the associated surrounding building and the the floor plan as well smaller Auditorium you know close to 550 seats 10,000 ft building as a whole you can kind of see it's definely more comp more compressed not as not as many spaces there so that's what we have to deal with as far as the existing conditions our next step was to take those existing conditions and compare them to the Department of Education minimum requirements and then the far column on the right is just the wish list that was provided to us and not going into too much detail but just working our way down from band and Orchestra the target was 60 students and the V they kind of give you a program of 20

033foot per student and then you have storage and Associated circulation so if you do the math the numbers you aren't like a square foot per student you're not going to get exact numb you got to have the circulation engrossing Factor so that's where we are we ended up you know uh the request was a banro 2500 ft with some office space individual practice rooms obviously a maintenance space for the maintaining the instruments and the final square footage close to 5,000 ft for that component moving down to the chus room you can see the existing facility um on the left there and then the target here was 50 students and the video we giv you a Ru of Thum of 15 Square ft per student plus storage in circulation as well the wish list gave us

034a a Target to try to have a minimum of 1,00 s foot for the chus room this also includes practice rooms and storage and then into the drama and theater um one one item to note here for Liberty and the B they they don't actually have this space currently you'll see at the stand over there's a small square footage allocated basically an office that was that was there and you see the Department of Education minimum requirements and then with the wish list ended up being for drama a black Fox Theater stored in circulation and the dance program not that old schools have a current dance program but they could be that would share the space when the time is right theator the biggest piece of the pie here you can see that in the P

035chart um the Department of Education gives a guideline of you know between 3,000 and 5,000 foot we're Shing for 7 800 ft in the proposed Auditorium and a 4,000 foot stage ancillary functions including a Ab Booth the ticket office dressing room storage and toilets and then the last line item is the facility support that would be toilets that would be mechanical electrical Plumbing spaces fire protection spaces it Communications just the the parts that help the building run and so the number that we came up with at the bottom line is close to 28,000 squ ft we're proposing the same for both schools and just to give a rule th one last item to note on this slide would be in Stanton River they don't have a separate and or from their their Shar and whether

036that's a a good thing or a negative thing it's it's just the fact of the matter but for the new proposed the wish list we would propose to have a separate space for each so that's what we want let's talk about real quick what we have this is a a chart indicating life spans of typical buildings where you see at the top the stuff the f the stuff in the building that typically has a lifespan of um 2 and A2 years for some of the stuff gr it usually ends up being in service a lot longer than that the space plan what I mean by space plan it's just the organ organization within the building the way the building is used and partition and broken up typically has a programmatic lifespan of 10 years Services

037mechanical electrical Plumbing what I referenced before has a less of 30 years the structure itself 100 years the skin 50 years the site the longest of all the group 320 years but you can see that vertical red line that's where we are on the timeline currently with gold building pushing you know 60 60 years old almost so we definitely have fulfilled our lifespan in the design industry and the architectural industry if a building meets 50 years it's considered a success so we're beyond that for both structures the last major renovation for each School auditory Li had a pretty big renovation back in 2002 uh included a lot of heavy um mechanical electrical Plumbing work some partitioning some accessibility upgrades not as major of a renovation happened at St river that was in 2015 that concentrated

038mainly on accessibility upgrade in the toilet room and so on so what are some of the downfalls um and you could ask 10 different people I get 10 different answers but this is just a a quick summary per per school one top of the list here is not maybe not the most important but at the top of this list the AV Equipment and capabilities one thing that was requested specifically is how to equip the auditor per se with equipment and functionality to host a meeting such as this a public meeting that has the ability to have a sound system a video capture system and broadcast system which now from my understanding if this were to happen we would have to set it up prior to the meeting obviously get the equipment and then possibly interrupt

039the current functions of the school and the students so what we could do to implement a more permanent system scking with Liberty left um if anybody's walked into that Auditorium the slope of the floor if you're walking from the top down to the stage it's broken into third three sections that first section is very steep even in a dry condition I was gting my field workor measuring there and I almost you can almost slip and slide and tri specifically from what the code minimum requires it's it's over it exceeds the code minimum by 30% so even someone who doesn't have a disability it's it's a dangerous condition there the H has access you can see the picture on the far left in order to access any of the hbac equipment that's the the situation that

040need be negotiated wood ladder to get up to a platform to do any kind of Maintenance or access access the equipment up there the accessible route through the building there's no accessible route to get to the stage itself other than you can see a picture of the motorized lift at the bottom of that staircase it's a solution it's probably not the most ideal solution but it it works for now fixture count we are short a couple of um fixtures in each school for to meet the code minimum requirements that are current and let me just make a clarification there's many buildings out here that don't meet code minimum requirements now and they're grandfathered in would be required to change them but just getting a baseline compared to what code requires now if this were a

041new building and so at Liberty were short by two female toilets we need two more female toilets to meet the use of the building fire extinguishers where the travel distance was not properly met for where they were placed and then also movement of larage equipment that goes back to being rout through the building not great circulation and transitioning to the stand River some of the same a comments will be made there you'll see the picture of the brick and much as you can see it at the scale but the mortar joints between the bricks are failing they're popping out degrading delaminating and that's causing water getting into the building also some structural weakening as well water intrusion itself the way the grade slope of the bra Works around the building you can see that one

042door has the bottom right water just wants to come down there and there's not proper drainage in the grave or an inlet to catch the water so from what I'm told on heavy rain water comes into the building pretty heavily fix puming fixture count same thing um here at stand River we are short two female water clet toilets and one male water profet the fire extinguishers the distance that they currently were at the time of the field work just additional fixtures needed were are needed to meet the requirements here so theist and some of the deficiencies let's talk about how some of those could be rectified start with Liberty that this is if if there's a more simple um situation this would Liberty is it compared to S uh first option is looking at new

043construction probably the easiest I don't want to say easiest but the more straightforward solution is just to eliminate the existing building and build back in its in its place you'll notice the 27 770t figure there in the middle of the red shape that was pulled from the space needs assessment this is intended to be conceptual in nature all these concepts are meaning that from a very high level this is just the size of the building block that will be needed no design has been done um and still a lot of things that need to be worked out this this gives you a proof of concept so with new constructions you're not limited to some of the existing conditions some of the existing utility the existing structure um some of the disadvantages it could be more

044costly you need to find a swing space for when construction is going on but provide Clean Slate it does allow you to get all the wish liting in looking at a different option for liy high school is a renovation addition option so that's keeping the existing footprint within just adding on to it you can see the red areas are the areas that are the addition and how the different spaces relate to the existing spaces there's we're proposing a new Lobby on the front toilets that would serve the lobby on the bottom of the plan on the top of the plan North Side plan North that is expanding the existing band room to accommodate the band course room and then taking the existing cor room and turning it into a black box theer and then towards

045the rear of the building the back of the stage and the service area just expanding that for dressing rooms and additional storage the problem with doing an addition is obviously you have to interface with the old and trying to find a balance of the old and the new and how they mesh together and any of these options addition or renovation you see the new footprint of the red area but we are still assuming that all of the building would be refreshed repainted new fixtures new Furnishing so it would hopefully like a new building at the end new seating and Auditorium lighting the whole line and then so if we're working from the top down this would be the least intrusive option and that's working in the confines of what is currently there and it's just

046kind of shuffling the existing deck of cards it's moving spaces here and there trying to do the best that we can with the contact that we're working in and work adding some storage adding some dressing rooms um modifying the existing drama room or excuse me the existing course and make it a black box theater getting the tiered FL configuration and making it more of an even play field a flat flat floor a single level floor and we'll transition to B River as I mentioned earlier this is probably more difficult of the two sites the two schools kind of working from the top down again brand new construction demolishing the existing structure and going back brand new you can kind of see getting that 28,000 foot shape into this existing campus and this existing home it's

047it's not it's not ideal I don't know the graph that you guys can see there's a small little building at the top of the left of the plan that's the Boiler Room the boiler plant is basically the utility Hub of this of the campus and we're getting Mighty close to that and interfering or doing some relocations of that would would be very cost prohibitive I I would assume again with all things considered with you know un limited budget TR we negotiate those items but might not be the best solution an alternative rather than building exactly in the same spot is find a new home within the campus or on the campus again there's probably no super ideal place but here's one option is taking part of the parking lot between the Middle School and the

048high school there's advantages there the park L relative relatively good building Pad but then you have to find home for replacing the parking and then beges the question what do you do with the existing the vacancy that you took away from the existing Auditorium and you could possibly have an outdoor classroom some green space again probably the most well it is the most costly of the three options but maybe it's the better as we looked at in Liberty this is an option of just taking and growing it expanding it similar Concepts where we would add a Lobby and toilets to the front of the building then pushing out on the North plan North Side adding a new band course room again being shared just due to the confined constraints a shared space and then other

049similar spaces where take the existing band in course room and transform that into the blacktop theater and then have mechanical storage on the south side and last but not least here stand trying to work within the existing quotquot four levels and this this is a tough solution to try to C not com him but um pallet if you will it doesn't gain you a whole lot um it's just it's the existing kind finds it just doesn't work in the grand scheme of things you don't get the bank for your book as you would in the previous options so the bottom one this is where where we all five are the most Peri what are some of these ideos or options and proposed ideos cost and for each option I won't go through every single number

050but you'll see the construction cost at the top and then the other cost the next other cost that's up tot there and that's for anything that's not freaking order the construction costs cover the the actual tangible pieces of construction other costs would be what we call soft cost design feys it would be um if the furniture package is not included in the hard cost it could be technology piece as well anything that's not necessarily building related then you add those up and due to this the conceptual nature of of where we are in the in the stage of of the game we're recommending a 20% contingency just with the volatility of the construction market and the economy we're not we we would be we're hesitant to put anything less than that on on the for

051the contingency I you can see where're All Rolls down to option one being a little over 12 million option two seven and a half a little bit more of seven and a half and option three the less of the 30 being 4 and a half in comparison to St River similar numbers one note is option two you'll see the 11.9 Million number there but then you also have to add that lower box of parking lot look like and how much would that cost and then if the consensus was to pursue an outdoor classroom added a figure for that but those would need to be rolled into the number above thir option you see is 5.8 and then last but not least which we mentioned we probably would not recommend option for at 2.7 the last

052task of what we were tasked with is providing a a schedule and acknowledging the lead times and the way things are this is again kind of a dark throw but anywhere new construction 21 months a year and a half for the renovation Edition and then over a year for the this the renovation portion so with that I'll open up to questions I know that was a lot of information at once and again any more specific can be sh in the the PO report but I'll do my best to try to deal with any questions at this moment questions yes Mr I'm assuming this is preliminary so one of the things that stands out and I'm sure we didn't ask for it but if we're doing anything on those two campuses we need to be connecting

053buildings um so it's more of an indoor I I we've heard tremendous feedback from communities on that so I would want to see you know does that add to the cost and can it be designed with that property the way it I saw you you know with one of them you had to turn it sideways but does that help fit into that space better if we're connecting two buildings um so that would be part but again I realize this is preliminary uh the only thing the other thing I want to ask with that1 million total does that include I know you said it's not design or whatever but that would include all furniture every Everything where when it's finished we walk in it's ready that 12 a turn p number potentially with the exception and

054this is however the contract is negotiated sometimes for the technology piece we would provide the infrastructure we as a contractor would provide the infrastructure meaning the Raceway the conduit and the box and then it would be a separate contract for the technology um subcontractor to come and pull all the wire and do all the terminations but in other projects we've done at turn P for this project for those numbers I I that was not included in here I want to say I just going to say we were probably at St River about the same time in the 90s when you were over seeing the renovation there right and I remember how annoying that was sometimes having class and navigating around construction zones but you know when when that happen St River was just a little

055over 30 years old and today it's nearing 60 I know Li very close and so I wonder how wise is it to just add on to a 60-year-old building probably nearing the end of its functional life anyway as opposed to constructing a new auditory with both considering that these are also not just classroom facilities but these are also Community facilities places that Community groups School uh School groups churches you know others can can use and it it's not just in addition to the school but it's addition the community if budet was no issue which always is an issue or funding was not a problem we would always recommend doing new constructions just due to the fact that you're not trying to navigate the existing conditions and you truly get a better product because you can

056not try to fit that square peg in the round hoold and just the consistency too we do our best when we do additions to to blend them seamlessly from the outside you'll you'll be able to tell when you see a brick that's 6 years old versus a brick that's Oney old you can do your best but you're going to see interior lives too you're going to you're going to see that volume of delineation from new to old now beyond that with the mechanical systems and all the other pieces and parts those are all going to be new for for the most part it will function in fine there's some cosmetic and part of the high of thing is just the programmatic and the planning challenges and hurdles of putting new into and existing P those

057are the the compromises that would have to be made great just know we we spent a lot of money over the years renovating classrooms and not doing anything at all to our Auditorium so I think it's time for future boards to look very seriously at spending money to give fine art students and the community groups that use those facilities um world class facility to use and I hope this board will consider working with the Board of Supervisors on possibly a bond referendum to to pay for this because again this is something the entire Community can use not just their schools so thank you for providing these options it's been very helpful to visualize what an auditorium that doesn't flood when it rains or an auditorium that has sufficient space for band choir dance to all

058share space uh this is this was a wonderful to see thank you of course you know I'm looking at this and and I know both facilities really need need work um Dr D is there any way that we could come up with a number to because I know I know construction costs are inflated right now um to figure out what how high they are inflated by what percentage they were from last year to this year you all have metrics that you can consider on that we we we can do that and we can get that information and definitely get back to you but just as a source of perspective and and reference it was asked that we consider what's being done in Amar County high school right now and they currently have a AO frame

059almost 600 Fe and they're proposing a new Auditorium which also has a bit of common space but their new Auditorium is 1,250 seats anywhere between 11 and 1300 seats ear 2020 the budget and it was a lot it was actually in design so it was a lot fmer number it was 12 million1 million as of November last month that number is now $19 million however if you take a metric of cost per seat if you do the math it's about $155,000 per seat and you take that multiply by our s 800 seat Auditorium that gives you $10.7 million so that's without the contingency then if you add the contingency we back to 12.1 so the number that we saw this evening we feel pretty confident that they could still be in line even though with

060the inflated construction Market L if we were given the green light to go tonight it would be a year year and a half before it would be out forbid or you know so there's no telling could be worth but could in turn be better as well not sure if that helps answer your question at all and and yeah it does um and I agree with Mr Johnson would be nice to have new auditoriums at these schools and and those are a long overdue but I'm looking at the cost of a new gy and option two of adding to I'm sorry new Auditorium and option two of adding to the current Auditorium of a difference of approximately $5 million um in my opinion that $5 million could also put in a gym at be Primary School

061which is long overdue and I think we could get a happy medium with expansion and Renovations as opposed to something new and I'd like to seriously look at this when we look at our Capital Improvement plan again and and I will in school one's better or worse to addition first non addition I think Liberty lends a lot better to an addition versus St River it's going to be tough on that current site to do the addition and I I certainly think now that this has been presented to the board I think it it's certainly would feed um the next Capital Improvement plan conversations uh whether that starts with a committee as we you know the board has discussed in previous meetings or the Andor the board as a whole so um Jason thank you for

062this information Dr DS or Dr Bergen either one of you what would be next steps for this well um I think what I would think is that if the board does um decide to establish a a facility related committee that the committee could take this information with these options put it right alongside the others that you know that the capital Improvement plan has identified in new New pieces we may recommend needs that are shown and and and look at that look at that over a period of time to determine you know known revenues and and try to make a plan to see what options can fit and where I look forward to following along and making sure that real issues are addressed with this all right considering that we have about 10 minutes before our

063break would everyone be okay with moving cross country and track update up and then catching social emotional update and challenge book updates after the break okay Dr corn I put you on the spot there I'll be right Sor Mr isting Right good evening members of the board the Middle School athletic directors surveyed all six through 8th grade students to gauge interest in expanding cross country and track programs to all three middle schools as requested tonight I will share the interest data from the surveys as well as the cost estimates adding both middle school programs at liy middle forest middle and Stant River Middle School all right the first slide here shows interest for country in all three of our middle schools um as far as total number of students who show interest from 6th through

0648th graders 33 at Liberty midle 77 at for midle and 30 at s River Middle School um which which are very solid numbers um interest wise I wanted to point out that if you look at the the breakdowns on this chart you can see that the majority of interest is from sixth and seventh grade students which is very good and and wanting to build a sustainable program um we also included the data from out of the students who said that they were interested in in Ross country there were some just like there were in the lacrosse survey that said that they they did currently play a false sport but a very small percentage of those indicated that they would would choose cross country and lure that fall sport which would be a minimal impact to

065to current programs there the next slide shows interest for Middle School track outdoor track um there actually a larger number of interest the greater number of interests there Liberty Middle School had 38 students Forest Middle School had 105 and s River Middle School had 37 once again very similar data to to that of um cross country and the fact that the majority of them are are the younger students in sixth through seventh grade um and and the same pattern here there are some students who said they they played spring sports but a very small percent to those students um so that they would select track and lure of their their current program so after reviewing the data of the entire BCPS Athletics team we believe that there's sufficient interest in both programs uh to add

066them without creating a negative impact on existing programs which is a requirement a policy DBA um so that's the interest side of things let's let's talk about the cost side this slide shows the cost um for cross country per school it would cost approximately and these are estimates $421 19 per school for cross country Middle School cross country the majority of this um in volunte here is coaching stiens which is approximately $3,000 as well as Transportation I do not include uniform cost in this SL because I I included that in the next slide uniforms would be shared between both both programs cross country and Tra so the next slide before I get too ahead of myself total cost division wide would be $2,657 approximately without the uniforms cross country the next slide um is the

067estimated cost for Middle School track the majority of this cost once again is coaching stiens um uniforms would cost approximately $1,800 and transportation approximately $1,300 for an estimated cost per School of $8,900 and a total for the division of $ 26,758 schools in the division would would um is estimated about $39,375 so during the discussion with all six athletic directors and Middle School and High School principles a significant concern voice was the current need for additional athletic trainer support at the middle school level currently the high school train are assisting and covering Middle School sports when possible um and it's mainly during emergencies and immediate need situations and they do an outstanding job we we are very blessed with their current athletic trainers um but many nights they just stretched very thin just to cover

068multiple events at the high schools um the transition to Middle School sports teams sixth through e8th grades has increased the need for additional trainer support we research that and the cost for adding three full-time 10mon trainers one at each Middle School would cost approximately $197,600 for each School approximately Dr Cal and I have been working with multiple organizations to see if there would be any interest or opportunities for Partnerships uh to contract three part-time Trainers for after school hours although there are some differences in the estimates as far as the number of months covered and the numbers of hours per per week provided the two organizations did submit estimates of approximately $100,000 for three part-time athletic trainers during after school hours working 20 to 24 hours per week now I do want to emphasize here

069that um during the conversations that we had um the organization strongly stated that there's a shortage of trainers and fing trainers even if funding is available may be a difficult task and challenge um there is also significant concern about the rising cost in running the overall athletic programs at the high schools and middle schools the increase cost to officiating contracts field maintenance and field supplies uniforms and basic athletic equipment coupled with a significant decrease in spectator gate funds that evance have made it evident that schools need additional funding to maintain their current School athletic programs staff are considering these increased cost and we'll be making a recommendation for the fiscal year 2022 2023 budget um in addition Dr do is working with schools to include major athletic facility and equipment needs into the capital Improvement

070plan in closing we are very supportive of add adding Middle School track Middle School cross country as we believe there's sufficient interest and both programs would be extremely beneficial to all three middle schools as well as all three high schools in the future we do believe that before additional programs are added concerned with overall Athletic program funding and athletic trainer needs should be addressed at this time I can take any questions that you might have questions from board members who would be the partners that you would have with your middle school trainers just organizations in the community so like it would be um like those type of organizations do they have a training program at l that they have a yes ma'am yes ma'am so do do they need to get and guess where I'm

071going this do they need to get hours active hours to become certified and we use them give provide them the hours kep this 33 or and not that we need to cut the money back I mean trainers are invaluable current athletic trainers do have um interns from from different organizations and colleges universities um in our area but typically the program requirements and require them to be actively supervised on site by a licensed athletic trainer um and a lot of our campuses or or at least the facilities there that would not happen if they're they're split so that may not be an option you in in your opinion do you think a parttime trainer would cut it or would we I think I think a part time trainer at 20 to 25 hours per week in

072the afternoons would would give substantial relief to our their current um High School athletic trainers and it would provide good solid support at the middle school level yes ma'am and again I I don't mean to be nitpick and just ideas pop into my head as I hear your numbers um back in your estimated cost for Middle School track where you included the uniforms yes ma'am and I know the kids absolutely hate this but it's the nature of the Beast are the high schools sled to get new new uniforms to where you can pass down the old uniforms and save that money typically the high schools do have a a rotation uh I have been working with Mr tagler and we met with all the athletic directors and part of that other number that that the

073increase number needed to run a um all to support our current programs would include giving money so they could get more uniforms a lot of our schools right now partner very heavily with the boosters programs to get get uniforms and and we're very blessed with very supportive with booster programs um but part of that increase um would be for uniforms and and supporting that cycle so yes if if the high schools um were to get new uniforms that could possibly you know go down to the Middle School level but you said that your gate money is down so I'm assuming that means your booster money and funding is down correct I don't have that the exact figures but looking at do do you have any idea I don't want to speculate but I'm assuming um

074it would be as supportive as I am of of Athletics um and I would love to see cross country in track also with the safety and the need for trainers I wouldn't want to put any additional strain on our high school trainers until I heard from them if they could handle it or not we can consider this with part of the budget next we need to have the trainer well we need to have the trainers there period um but if we put that consideration for the budget that's appreciate I just want to verify so they would utilize the high school tracks correct sir and then utilize where the high schools are currently running across country okay so no additional cost to go add tracks and all okay just want to make sure we're yes sir

075that that would be that would have to be a part requirement of this other questions we will break for dinner and we will resume at 7 o' spe right I'd like to reconvene this December meeting of the bord County School Board [Music] plge States of America and to the repu for which it stands one na [Applause] begin of tonight's meeting like to observe a moment of silence for James jimy triet our BCPS bus driver who recently passed away amen at this time Mr Ed board member of recognition Mr chairman members of the board tonight uh on behalf of the entire staff of the school division uh it's my honor uh to be the person who acts on behalf of the staff and Rec recognizes two of our members who have dedicated a decade of their

076lives uh towards making Bedford County Public Schools a great place for a child to learn and those two uh members are Dr John Hicks and Mr Jason Johnson uh we have a small token of appreciation for all the hard work that you have logged uh over the past decade and and again from the staff we just can't say thank you enough uh for your leadership [Applause] thank you Mr Edwards I will sit this right here so we stay on time tonight public comment so the public comment portion of tonight's agenda is limited to 25 minutes individual speakers are limited to 3 minutes while anyone representing an organized group will be allowed five minutes provided they are the sole speaker from that group or organization speakers may not uh give their time to another speaker speakers

077are asked to State their name address voting district and organization or group if applicable the scho board is here to listen to your comments but will not engage or respond to speakers during this 25 period please remember that this is a public meeting and that we expect all speakers to refra refrain from any foul abusive or hateful language Mr Edwards will serve as timekeeper for individual speakers with a ringing Bell indicating that a person has 30 seconds remaining a second bail will ring indicating a person's 3 minutes have expired Mr Edwards will also serve as timekeeper for our cumulative 25 minute period when Mr edwards's 3-minute timer Bell Rings please discontinue speaking and allow the next person in line to come to the podium should you be unable to finish your comments please send or

078give them to Mrs Johnson and she will give them to board members Mr Edwards we have speaking this evening Mr chairman [Music] our agenda of speakers this evening includes David Dietrich David Bard on behalf of the root of David Christina chis on behalf of the Bedford County Education Association Aon frell on behalf of Bedford County Patriots Trevor Cooper I believe this one is Latin Santi CLA Claus Santi claw uh s n TI c a z this a season yes and um Peggy Johnson thank you Mr dietr thank you Forest Virginia ladies and gentlemen CRT represents radical rejection of the former ways of learning that what were the old ways of learning to the founders Enlightenment was tied directly to happiness happiness was not self hedonistic pleasure it was intellectual and moral flourishing achieved by the

079following two paths One path was systematic pursuit of knowledge and reason this passionate scientific discovery and all matters of inquiry was at its heart the other path was moral growth knowledge reason and moral growth were based upon absolute truth this truth originated with nature and Nature's God the latter the source of all natural rights not government all human beings were also created with inherent equality such equality was an equality of opportunity not an equality of outcome nor even Equity Benjamin Franklin once wrote the Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness you much catch it yourself thus people are largely responsible for their moral and intellectual growth happiness today's view of learning is much different first it appears based on the highly centralized top down 19th century assembly line model second morality is taught

080but it is a new kind of morality the new morality rejects the past while embracing moral relativism deconstructionism and group grievances it also rejects a Creator it compels cultural marks to sty collectivism and social justice equality outcome and Equity are demanded yet as Alexander Hamilton wrote fre men are not equal and equal men are not free libertas Liberty in the early morning hours of June 6 1944 the 116th Infantry Regiment known historically as the Andrew Stonewall Jackson Brigade landed under heavy enemy fire on Omaha breach in Normandy France 23 young men from the unit were from Bedford Virginia they never returned home they died so others could enjoy the full blessings of liberty today we must carry their torch as we too defend Liberty thank [Applause] you thank you Mr Dietrich uh David Bard on

081behalf of the r David five minutes good evening school board members and my fellow citizens I've been absent for a couple months so if I'm redundant in a few of my words please bear with me so I am pleased uh that the board has honored the Citizens first of all and uh the request and change the Vue to accommodate the people and then first and foremost to give my congratulations and our congratulations to Matt Hook and Dwayne n the incoming School Board congratulations that being said and accomplished I'd like to say it's been a terrible shame that board members had to be replaced because of ladant obstinacy disrespect and insubordination to the people whom they are supposed to serve failure to acknowledge and abide by a sworn oath to the federal and Virginia constitution in

082clearly defined roles as Servants of and to the people left no choice for the people but dismissal by those people ambivalence and audacity to overturn decisions that people that the people deem necessary with regard to our children masks curriculum transgender Etc cannot and will not be tolerated in our County any longer it is our hope that any other liberal leaning servants in any position in the town or County take to heart what has transpired secondly uh the superintendent's position the brief past and current actions of this office need an adjustment as those actions are contrary to the parents and citizens desires with the children children and does not enhance overall community life and health but there's a bigger problem in and what's going on what is happening to our world it's affecting all of us

083there are several reasons the primary being sin and the battle between good and evil light and dark however I want to submit a scientific and documented symptom of the battle that is sweeping the world it's called the phenomenon quote phenomenon of mass formation formation penned and published by Dr Joseph Maka December 1st 2021 and explained by Dr Matias Desmond professor of Clinical Psychology at gent University in Belgium and his review of the societal conditions under which a population ends up willingly sacrificing their freedom around the end of February 2020 Desmond started looking at case fatality rates and other statistics quickly realizing that there was something seriously wrong with the models presented to the public and used as justification for shutting down non-essential businesses bestman also saw that um discover particular anomalies and statistical analysis done

084during the co pandemic which made him realize our Global Society is starting to enter a quote Mass formation State a type of collective hypnosis required for the rise of a totalitarian regime the models were greatly exaggerated during the threat of SAR Co 2 and by the end of May 2020 this was approved moving beyond doubt strangers of the law de says that everyone kept saying the Corona virus measures were based on mathematical models and science yet when it was proven Beyond doubt that the initial models were completely wrong the measures continued as if nothing was wrong and the models were right clearly then modeling and science were not foundational or even part of the equation at all this Desmond says was a strong sign that there was something going on at the psychological level that

085was really powerful another tip off that was something was really wrong was the fact that none of our political leaders were taking into account the collateral damage of their countermeasures there was no cost benefit risk word risk reward analysis for any of the countermeasures anytime you consider a public health measure a cost benefit analysis is essential there's four basic conditions for Mass formation number one the central condition is lack of societal bondage in other words social isolation on a mass scale which is precisely what the Downs were all about we were all told that any contact with others including members of our family could be a death sentence so even before the pandemic Western societies were suffering from a lack of community which is a key condition for Mass formation syndrome to emerge in the

086first place second condition is that a majority of people must experience life as meaningless and purposeless he sites research shown that half of all adults feel their jobs are completely meaningless providing no value to either themselves or others so condition two for Mass formation Mass formation hypnosis was also fulfilled before the pandemic hit third condition is widespread free floating anxiety and free floating discontent free floating anxiety refers to anxiety that has no apparent or distinct cause however when you are socially disconnected and feel your life has no meaning then a free floating anxiety can emerge that is not connected to a mental or physical representation of a specific threat judging by the popularity of anti-depressants and other psychiatric drugs condition number three was also fulfilled long before the pandemic the fourth condition is free floating

087frustration and aggression which tends to naturally follow the previous three here again the frustration and aggression have no discern for us okay thank you Christina [Applause] children all right hello um I'm Christina chis from the president of the Bedford County Education Association tonight I come bearing gifts which you can have later um the BCA would like to honor the hard work dedication and selfless service of two outgoing Bedford County school board members both Dr John Hicks and Mr Jason Johnson these two men have served the students and staff of BCPS tirelessly over the past eight years as board members but they have been around far longer than that in their involvement with Bedford County Schools Dr hicks's career in public education has spanned decades and anyone that's not to make you sound old and anyone

088who has worked in BCBS has known him as a leader who takes no in the spotlight he's been a consistent advocate for our Learners in the stem programs and Governor's School his experience as a public school educator and administrator has given him a unique perspective as he served on the board and those hard earned insights have made him a valuable asset to the school board on a personal note Dr Hicks was my own principal when I was a student at sville elementary school close to 35 years ago and that alone should warrant special praise his faithfulness professionalism and wisdom will be missed Mr Jason Johnson has done everything in his power to help bring Equity pride and positive recognition to B County not only during his tenure as a board member but also as a

089scholar and graduate of Stanton River however instead of only concerning himself with his personal District he has been a true advocate for all students in BCPS this man has never missed a production of a Visual and Performing Arts for any of the three school zones he Faithfully attends sporting events science fair competitions Awards assemblies and even special classroom projects He is a faithful presence in our building and in our community and I will never forget painting hallways right alongside him during a volunteer renovation weekend um Mr Hill was there too with at Stant River Middle School on a personal level I'm grateful both for Mr Johnson's Tander and his thoughtful silence his willingness to listen but also to speak up against Injustice even if unpopular these two men have been the driving force behind Auditorium

090inovation proposals at Liberty and Stant River safety and accreditation improvements and they have been Fearless advocates for the best interests and safety of all BCPS students and staff the BCA offers its gratitude and well wishes to them both thank you I don't want to give this to you but um sorry if you're a hokei but it's a Jefferson cup somebody thank you thank you Miss chus Ain Ferell speaking on behalf of bord County Patriots 5 minutes good even school board members Dr B andun my name is Aaron phell I live in District 3 and I a member of the BC Patriots for our newsletter please go to BC patriots. net Mr Hicks and Mr Johnson I know there were many years where you've served the voice of the people and um though we've disagreed lately

091we just wanted to wish you all the best and your future thank you I wanted to sorry excuse me I wanted to discuss three topics today that hope our schools follow the golden rule of Education that schools should be a reflection of the community firstly again Mr Johnson thank you for meeting to this location we ask that you permanently provide sufficiently work space even when crowds are alone so there is never another citizen locked outside the school board meeting again we ask that you increase the public speaking time to minum 1 hour we have contacted 20 school districts all over Virginia our County allows the public to speak the lease of any of the districts that we've contacted Campell County for example doesn't even limit the number of people who can speak the school board

092used to meet two times a month so the community spoke two times 25 minutes so in addition to requesting one hour we also like to ask that the schedule be considered to make it easier for the staff and the community to publicly participate um we'd like to ask that you have your dinner at 5:00 P PM first then we like to ask that you have your open item SL Clos meeting next and then the public will be able to join you guys whenever that timing is whether it's 6: or 6:30 I'm not sure exactly how that all works and then we request public comments or early during that time maybe not first but whatever you guys think is best this schedule demonstrates more respect for the community and will encourage the participation when more people

093participate than our community and schools will further reflect our community my second main solution has to do with our gr teachers and staff as we as we all know they've been has to do impossible things never in our history not even last year when there were many more unknowns regarding Co um hasn't been as bad the buck stops with the superintendent we've seen extreme unnecessary methods is forced on our community teachers daily whom I don't even know reach out to me and our organization they ask us for help because they're afraid to speak out they've been mistreated they've been spied on in their classrooms their students test SCS are no diving they just want to teach and they actually have the solutions one teacher two days ago who I had never met before contacted me

094and said please ask the board because they're afraid to speak up please ask the board to stop forcing healthy children to quarantine School boards around Virginia are starting to end this obscene practice I spoke to a nurse today in King Williams County some children there where where they've uh stopped this practice children there who were healthy in quarantine two three four times and from my understanding that's already happened here in Bedford County Virginia Beach as you probably know just made this change for the high school students another solution some teachers um have told us that they've been ordered to wear a masks outside there are a lot of practices that are happening here that aren't even recommended by the CDC and the methods very extreme teachers want support can't well teachers want support with growing

095discipline problems the superintendent's methods of implementing the policies are have been insufficient to support the teachers they're not um they're being told not to report behavioral issues because it would make their school look bad and make our County look bad please let parents into the school to relief to relieve some of the pressure that these teachers are feeling teachers I just want you know we are here and we are still listening okay thirdly most importantly Dr ban I appreciate the hours that you spent meeting meeting with me and some other people I know you're passionate about your job personally I've enjoyed our conversation and like you as a person with all due respect we request that you resign or that your contract is terminated under your leadership morale is at its worst a mass Exodus

096of students have left the school district people with disabilities are being segregated grades are plummeting your values and your methods do not reflect your community and to finish up I saw the contract I just need 15 more seconds on page eight of the contract which would end June 30th 24 section 10 part C says that you can terminate the contract with no cause I've contacted three attorneys if you do this within the first year we request that you do because then you'd only have to pay the nine months thank you for your service if you have any questions I have a long list of complaints from teachers and parents thank you sir re good evening everybody my name is Trevor Cooper and I would like to state that honor courage and commitment was the first

097thing I learned while I was in the United States Navy there is no honor no courage no commitment in bever County Schoolboard I'm tired of it there is a recommendation it is not a law to wear m masks my son has a medical document and also a religious every day he is forced to wear a mask you guys going to learn when you get a lawsuit on your hands the next time he has to wear forcefully wear a mask two the the money that you guys bring in y'all's paychecks if you even cut it by a quarter you would fix half the freaking cost up there I am done and listening to everything y'all say and do because you don't even look after anybody else but yourselves these children out here at the school having

098to wear mask all the time I went to go pay my taxes not the single one was wearing a mask what makes these children wear a mask every single day but no one else you can walk in Walmart barely anybody's wearing a mask what are y'all so afraid of if you guys are that afraid do you have to wear a mask every single day resign go home that's what y'all need to do if you are that scared go home turn in your stuff go home because you're doing nothing but Hur Society each and every day that you do this y'all should be ashamed of yourselves all yall are cowards hiding behind Schoolboard that's all y'all are and I'm tired of it my son one more time has to wear a mask or gets in trouble

099for not wearing his mask y'all definitely know about it y'all have a good evening I ain't going to this crap no more all right thank you Mr Santa [Music] Claus a little bit of a lighter note uh my street name is Santa Claus because of my structure my Gray beard big Jolly cheeks and uh and quite frankly my body so I'm Christian sne I'm out of district 7 um I appreciate you guys uh I just want to point out Mr Hicks uh and Jason Johnson thank you for your 10 years here we have a lot of different views I think the one thing that we do have in common is we also want what's best for our community and that that can have different Optics and Vantage points on it um obviously there have been

100a lot of fiscally conservative movement with you all through the years and we appreciate that a sound budget is what keeps us here um and and you've been an excellent moderator uh I just the way you conduct business is really well you and I don't always see on every view but it doesn't mean we can't point out the things that we do get along with um so I have an olive branch here um and I got to work on the campaigns of the other the other half the other side we have to be gracious winners and gracious losers to move forward and so I have something in this box it generally don't go together and right to pass thank there you go you sir open it yeah you can open it yeah it's it's more

101it's not PG-13 or anything but what you'll find in there is it's a camouflage bow tie and generally you never think that those thing those two things can go together and work together in style so what we're asking for is that as you all do step down and step away and the next one step up that you would help support the movement of Bedford County and you'd be participating in that uh we just want to thank you for your service so Merry Christmas thank you thought Santa Claus was not real all right piggy Johnson [Music] I'm Peggy Johnson 6735 White House Road Manita District 2 I've been torn as to what to say tonight the devil on my left shoulder says spill it all out let all may but the angel on my right shoulder

102says be careful what you say and how you say it revenge is mine I will repay sayith the Lord amen so here it goes I've been very disappointed with the way some of this board had treated Mr Johnson be careful who you try to recruit to run against him I have heard so much bullying from a member on this board so Mr Johnson is stronger and he doesn't give it in bullying worst chairman ever think about what he said he answers most of the calls he gets they're reasonable and tries to get answers before he can it's hard to convince kids not to bully when the adults around them are bullying all the time yes and one person on this board seems to have all the anwers knows even more about health care than the

103professionals who study and work with this day in and day out these last two years have been hard for everybody and a lot of tough decisions have been made covid-19 is real people have suffered With It While others have died this Mass requirement regardless is Law and I've always been taught to obey the laws regardless of which party is sitting in Richmond in addition to obeying the law Mr Johnson was trying to protect all the kids and as well as the parents and grandparents the group of parents grandparents and citizens that showed up at the meeting shouting down anyone that didn't agree with what they wanted was not a good representation of the citizens of bed County some on the board actually encouraged this Behavior you have taught kids it's okay to scream and shout

104at people who don't agree with you also one of the ladies from District Two and a graduate of George Mason was punched with the black stick and told she wasn't want it Jason let her know that as long as he was here she was wanted and needed the night the room was cleared was not what Mr Johnson wanted but the speakers kept shouting down speakers that didn't agree with him Mr Johnson was told after one meeting several times that he was going to hell said what's the place what he was doing to the kids I'm so glad that God is the judge and he knows Mr Johnson's heart and intentions God created us all in a special way not the way we think Mr Johnson believes in treating everyone with respect this comes from his

105Christian faith and belief that we should love and respect our neighbors since we all created in God's image and enjoy God's Amazing Love thanks thank you to all the people from bar who put in so much time on a cold day to get in District Two and District 3 to get the candidates of their choice elected thank you and in Clos and I like to say Mr Johnson isn't a parent but you don't have to be a parent to care about kids in your neighborhood that's why he ran in the first place and that shows a real servant's heart in closing I forgive you all for what you did to Mr Johnson this was a message that God sent me uh from a message at church a few Sundays back for Matthew 5 1-5 and

106I will be praying for the for the board in the future that God will lead you thank you thank you never want to have to be in a position to GLE down your mom all right um approval of the consent agenda do we have a motion to approve consent agenda tonight approve agenda as proposed okay we have a motion by Dr mey to approve consent agenda as proposed we have a second second the second by Miss hurry any discussion on that no all those in favor please say I I any opposed the consent agenda is approved unanimously St reports not addressed in 5m section we have two that we skipped over so item 3.03 social emotional Mrs Robertson good evening Mr chairman ladies and gentlemen of the board I thank you for the opportunity to

107talk about um this very important topic I'm here tonight because I want to celebrate several important accomplishments in this realm of the work that we're doing in Bedford County and I also want to celebrate the exceptional work of our teachers and staff who are working through very challenging times because they daily try to meet the needs of their students the me the needs of the whole child as I highlight some accomplishments of our programs I don't want to minimize um the realities of the Mental Health crisis for children and Adolescence currently and I want to specifically speak to data of 2018 um because I certainly know and recognize that the strains of the pandemic have added additional stressors to our younger population but prior to that the call to action was already present mental illness

108is rising fastest among the group of 18 to 25 year olds nearly one in three teens 13 to 18 is identified with an anxiety disorder less than 50% of young people receive treatment for a mental disorder compared to 70% of those overage 26 suicide is the second leading cause of death among 10 to 24 year olds with a 67% rise for students ages 10 to 14 and a 48 r% rise for students 15 to 19 so as we know that Trend was moving in the direction of additional strains on our student population um the impact of the pandemic has been even greater with the stressors that families schools and communities have experienced so with that framework I'll speak to the social emotional supports that are provided for students in Bedford County public schools first and

109foremost I want to speak to what we've worked very diligently to do which is integrate programs that previously were isolated our school counseling program has moved towards comprehensive counseling models we've introduced and expanded intervention design specialist services in the schools each school has a school mental health support te team with a team leader to provide site-based case coordination and staff development and we have embedded social emotional learning opportunities for classroom integration across grade levels and I want to speak to all of those things um with a bit more detail in terms of our school counseling program overview first and foremost I am pleased to say that in Bedford County our school counseling uh staff exceeds S soqs I will say that our potential for the 2021 revisions that were submitted by the Board of Education

110would even add additional staff with those recommendations being one counselor for every 250 students regardless of grade level our team recently met and uh are in the process of completing a self assessment to move us towards a comprehensive uh counseling model as modeled by the American school counselor Association and that self assessment has been good work for our teams but is in the early stages we've made specific efforts to ensure alignment with that 8020 model of direct versus program support or program planning Services as of this year we have renewed monthly team meetings for elementary and secondary counselors so that we can share information resources and develop uh uh specific protocols for our work most recently we reviewed the updated Suicide Prevention guidelines that aligned with our policy updates and have had a total um

111uh renewal of the programs uh a Consolidated assessment and a uniform assessment tool followup and monitoring that's now better documented so we're moving in the right direction with those meetings I will also say our school counselors are generally the leader of the school's mental health support team at uh Jefferson Forest that is our school social worker as one exception I'll speak more about the midal health support teams in a later slide um curriculum alignment I am very pleased to say that our school counseling standards have been integrated with the American school counselor Association mindsets and behaviors curriculum framework we've also worked as a counseling department to uniformly divide that content over quarters so that our hopes and goals would be that whether at the elementary middle or high developmental presentation of the same content is

112occurring through our counseling programs I'll take this opportunity because I do think it's important to note Bedford County Public Schools does not utilize the Virginia Department of Education social emotional learning standards um that has been uh particularly uh publicized recently with areas of concern and that was a very intentional decision and communication uh my department has not um disseminated that information and indicated to school counselors we do not work from that curriculum framework in terms of our Elementary programs uh the primary mode of instructional delivery is through in-class presentations meaning our school counselors go into classrooms and work with classes but I am very pleased to say all but one of our elementary schools has um that in-class presentation as part of a rotation wheel meaning a part of the related arts rotation instead our

113counselors are providing direct scheduling and by moving away from that rotation model our counselors are more free with their time to provide uh Direct Services through individual small group counseling for students with greater need a recent survey of our counselors indicated that self-regulation skills were the primary target for most of their specific and targeted intervention with students all of our schools with the exception of OT River have a campus at a school counselor on campus every day of the week and that will be adjusted for next school year I will also say that our counselors um organized their lesson content around National themes Suicide Prevention month month or bullying prevention month or kindness week within the state in terms of our secondary programs just a quick snapshot of the data and that I believe my

114date for this was November 29th so I want I want to be clear there um our secondary counselors had logged over 2,695 entries for student contacts those are fairly evenly distributed among grade levels although grade 6 8 and 12 had higher representation there's a higher representation of female to male 59% uh 59.7 to 40.3 but the highest referral source in our schools is self-referred and that may be of a concern but as a mental health provider I celebrate because that means our students feel comfortable seeking out their counselor um and that is a primary goal we've expanded the roles for our counselors with the alternative to suspension and academic support programs as well as with with embedded social emotional learning lessons and lastly our major Clarity platform uh the major Clarity platform is a global

115academic and career planning platform but it goes much further than simply Exploring Careers through videos and activities um individuals are able to conduct career resource excuse me career research explore and compare College Pathways explore scholarships write resumés complete their academic and career plan and make long range course planning projection the value of this is that when we are able to have a tool at the fingertip of our students for academic and career planning our teachers can become involved um Dr Cher and I have been working very closely on how important it is for that pathway selection for students to have an active discussion with their teachers about their career interest and how their skills and abilities relate to that the other advantage of major Clarity is we are able to predict uh pathway interest and

116career interests for students much further out so that we can begin to plan for the CTE programs that students want rather than simply offering CTE programs based on what we have next I want to talk about the um career embedded social emot excuse me classroom embedded social emotional learning every year we conduct the Virginia school survey of climate and working conditions again I want to make a distinction for things that sometimes um have attention this is not the youth risk behavior survey it is a separate survey that is used routinely the Virginia school survey of climate and working conditions is administered to both students and staff and they alternate each year between middle and high school I was very pleased in looking at the data last year that we had shown some improvements in important

117areas when we're looking at this data I do acknowledge that we were working with a very different school year last year we had students in much smaller groups we had students who were showing less School transitions we had students that were in a cohort and a created Community but this data was telling us that the students were responding positively to that information from that uh I would also like to share what we've learned from the learning coach model that was utilized last year and is now utilized on many of our campuses learning coaches uh as you know served as the base meeting place during our pandemic management with our our adjusted grade 7 through 12 last year but when we surveyed the students um over 1,400 students and over 200 teachers 87% of the students

118agreed or strongly agreed that learning coaches help navigate their learning activities 89% of students agreed or strongly agreed that learning coaches facilitated a positive classroom community and 84% wanted to see that model continue 78% of the learning coaches surveyed felt they experienced a more personal relationship with students 67 felt that they were able to provide specific personal support and connection to additional resources and 62% felt that they were able to help students stay on top of performance concerns and track progress from that survey three of our high school um have continued the learning coach model with a formalized structure in their day and some of our uh middle school campuses State Riv middle specifically has formulated the same model when we think about social emotional learning content in the classroom that's not a New Concept

119a national survey of teachers indicated that teachers spend on average 4.3 hours in a week on seal topics the distinction is that's not formal instructional time the teachers felt that 68% of that time was engaging in informal conversations about relationships Behavior attitudes and skills and their response to teachable Moment by creating an embedded social emotional learning curriculum we do provide some structure and consistency to those conversations while also giving a universal and unifying message across the campus that same survey nationally for teachers indicated that 82% felt such content helped with classroom behavior management 80% agree that it improves School climate and culture 75% agree that it improves academic performance and 81% of Administrators felt that it provided a well-rounded education for students prevented bullying and other adverse behaviors and prepare students for their careers and

120citizenship I highlight just this one excuse me two examples Liberty High School has created a canvas class and this is not interactive this is a screenshot so I if you're trying to navigate it won't work I apologize um but the compass um indication there is actual curriculum content that has been developed by our school counselors at Liberty High School that is pushed out to learning coaches for their use here's another snapshot of a Stant River Middle canvas page um information that is shared through the month of October with uh classroom teachers again uh created or curated by the counselors to share out during that learning coach time one of the next aspects of that integrated program that I mentioned was intervention design Specialists there's some key components to the work of the intervention design specialist

121one is its direct behavioral instruction to students and that has tremendous value today but second it's that teacher consultation and refinement of response skills we never look at a child who has challenging behaviors as a child- centered problem but a dynamic one it's a problem with the child's integration to their classroom environment academic match peer interaction and teacher interaction so we work with the adult staff as well we provide individualized academic pacing and academic support at the secondary level coaching and supported instructions for on-site supervision those three and four items are unique to the secondary program so I'll speak to those Elementary and secondary programs separately our elementary IDs program has six providers we have received 24 referrals to date and 23 of those have been addressed through intake and observation and I just want

122to clarify that that's a very intense process um Miss Jennifer F who's one of our school psychologists will receive that referral from an administrator and make arrangements for intensive observation sometimes two three or even longer days um following that student through their daily routine collecting data and getting a clear picture of what that problem may be from that point uh Mrs F will staff with the administrator what we feel like would be an appropriate plan that may not be the assignment of an intervention design specialist but perhaps additional resource or um allocation of intervention planning at the school however we have directly staffed 10 different students so far today some of those with shorter terms of services some of those with longer and we have transitioned five students out of that service if we assign

123an IDs to a case generally that individual is working with that classroom all day every day so they're there to coach responses from the student to support and model with the teacher and debrief at the end of the day with the volume of referrals that we have we have moved to a triage assessment that if we have two cases that may not have as uh significant intensity an IDs may share two cases and work alternating days on that case with the student and with the classroom I will also add that our IDs uh Elementary team has monthly meetings and they share resources and ideas and participate in a book study the exit survey of the cases that we have worked with intervention Design Services at the elementary level um we ask important questions was administrator

124input considered was teach your input considered and how would you rate the progress and most importantly 100% of the Sur exit surveys rated good to excellent progress for students after the IDS services and I would like to highlight a few principal comments I've worked with three different staff members and they've all been wonderful and professional and intentional about their work they listen to teachers while tactfully asking questions that require teachers to reflect on their own routines responses body languages and messages it's not only the child the IDS is working with but all students the teacher works with and will work with in the future there are multiple school-based interventions that must be exhausted before an IDs request is made that means their time and effort is focused on the students who need it most it

125also helps us as administrators reflect on what we can do before requesting assistance as a principal I've rarely seen some students exit day treatment but with this model everyone's aware that the goal is to transition the IDS became an integral part of our team and the plan that we put in place made the student meet success they spent more time coaching adults than working directly with the student making us confident the program would continue it's a teach a man to fish approach the secondary IDs program looks a little bit different instead of of Staff being mobilized to specific cases we have two IDs staff members serving at every campus middle and high in two different ways one being an alternative to suspension second being an academic support model it's very difficult to give you overarching

126data so I worked with the intervention design teams at the schools just to kind of give you a day in the life of what their work might look like we currently as I said have 18 staff serving in these programs and they are generally considered separate programs but the staff work together very closely and work with the counseling and mental health support staff on the campus by an average across the six programs they serve about 15 students daily in the academic support model academic support is where students may work with their content through a digital format with teachers checking in but they are not necessarily moving through the normal rotation of scheduled classes and transitions so it serves as a secure base for the student to work on their core content and they may um

127take certain classes out but have that secure base to return to for students average daily serving on-site alternative to suspension that's distinct from in school suspension this would be a student who might have earned a two-day suspension and instead is serving that on campus with instructional support and with therapeutic support about 10 students with daily check-ins are informal supports meaning they are specific case load cases that they check in with and the average across the six campuses was was that there would be 27 unique student contacts daily through teacher provided option or student request meaning students would come to the space to work with an IDs um principal comments have been very positive uh but uh you know serving as a bridge for students transitioning from in-person learning excuse me from remote learning to in-person

128learning we've had students who have had attendance problems in school avoidance in the past who are now in school and attending regularly there's no question that we would have lost some of these students if we had not had this model the students social and emotional needs are being impacted by the staff members and we are striving to improve how we meet their needs every day um one administrator said they appreciated the board's support for those programs so I'll toss that in um I think it's important to hear from the students and a couple of students uh ask to email um their thoughts I like to know now that if I need help someone is there for me I can move at my own pace I don't have to rush it's quiet I can have direct

129I'm Excuse me those were my words I can have onetoone support and the IDS staff member is really nice I can focus better I don't have to be around a bunch of people IDs staff is nice she's a really great person when you get to know her um so our mental health support teams our mental health support teams um I'll first speak to the who um that would involve an administrator your school counselor school psychologist family and Social Work service representative nurse uh family support workers from Department of Social Services sometimes classroom teacher community service rep or other Representatives the who is important but the why is even more important and the what is even more critical why we needed these people all working together we need them all talking about the same cases at

130the same time in a way that consolidates and coordinates resources so what do they do they coordinate individual case planning for specific students for instance a student may have completed a suicide risk assessment the mental health support team may meet and follow up to that to coordinate individual case planning for that child's needs if there was a post hospitalization transition they are the inter agenty liaison for our students who have other services outpatient Court social or psychiatric care services they provide a coordinated response to homebound requests and I am very pleased to say that we have significantly reduced the number of students who are being served through homebound Services who are now accessing alternative programs successfully on campus and utilizing the resources and supports and therapeutic treatments that are available to them they serve as

131a spring board for students who are transitioning out of intensive psychiatric care and lastly and I think even most importantly to their work they are the team that addresses climate and culture working with the administrator just last year our mental health support teams led the initiative to present the diffusing disruptive behavior modules to their staff that work continues with every new employee that comes in as a as an instructional support member they provide ongoing staff development for mental health awareness some of the topics are have included um addressing mental health needs in students excuse me understanding mental health needs and students emotional resilience practices for educators mindfulness practices building classroom communities our work would not uh be as effective without our partners Horizon Behavioral Health has been a tremendous partner for us we have outpatient

132counseling and Case Management Services in our secondary programs and expanding to our elemente programs and I'm very excited Dr dewis and I are meeting with them next week to even talk about a grant EXP expansion opportunity for mental health treatment in Schools Kids Haven is our grief counseling partner um I think that is particularly important um we have had um many students uh who have experienced the death of a direct caregiver in the last few years and kids ha has not only been responsive to provide resources directly to our counselors but to those families as well as I mentioned we partner with the Bedford County Department of Social Services for our family support workers with a primary emphasis on truancy and I'm very pleased to announce um that as of this past week we've submitted

133an application for the Virginia Career advising cor for Liberty High School um and hopes to have an embedded uh member of the Virginia Career advising Corps dedicated specifically to increasing College uh application and enrollment for underserved and um economically disadvantaged students so last I'd like to conclude with just a discipline snapshot shop um again through November uh I pulled referrals by um uh or refer it's now referred to as incidents um in our new uh system and the number of suspensions and so I I share this simply to say uh I I would love to see those numbers much lower than they are obviously but I do feel that the work of our administrators in thinking about alternatives for students positive and responsive practices the work of our teachers to build stronger and more meaningful

134relationships and provide opportunities for social and emotional learning um have resulted in improvements for our discipline responses overall so that being said questions question Dr I don't have a question M Robertson but I I do want to say I have been speaking to students as well and I I do know they feel so much more supported than they did a year ago especially 18 months ago with regard to the Social and emotional support that they get I really like the fact that um while we're supporting them and we're supporting staff everyone's being held accountable for their piece of the pie in terms of how we all move forward to a better place so I think that's a really important part of this program um and keeping our kids in school even if it's an alternative

135to suspension where they need to be where it's better for them to be I think is is just um wonderful I'm really excited about the um I'm sorry I didn't catch the name of the college um person you would get to support students in college applications I think that can be very daunting for um disadvantaged children especially and they don't necessarily have someone who can help them they might want to help them but that can be very intimidating to a person um who hasn't had a lot of education so that that it was drill to see that and thank you I hope we'll get that I hope so to that would be just wonderful ma'am we're really excited about that stewville I I could tell you so many families who that was just intimidating for

136them so I think it would just be such a huge help but um I I would like you pass along from me to your to your staff the incredible thank you for the incredible work that they're doing um said I hear from students and I hear some of the same things I feel supported it's nice to know I can go talk to somebody it's a very different atmosphere um that was just even a couple years ago so thank you for your hard work on that thank you I appreciate that we've got room to grow but we're moving in the right direction questions Rob um first of all I have to Echo a lot of the same sentiments that Dr has shared you know how passionate I've been about behavior intervention program and providing that support

137for our schools I think we've 've just that and so I applaud you and your team for all your hard work efforts and the vision that you you know have moving forward as well I wanted to just ask for clarification wanted to make sure that I understood that OT River I'm very passionate about of course will have a counselor full time you're considering that yes ma'am that is as part of my budget request I've asked for some increase to Elementary counselors thank you so much yes ma'am um so going back to slide 12 I may have missed it but if you'll help me understand here the exit survey information yes talks about the administrator input the teacher input is it a parent input no our services focused on the performance in the school day um

138so we're we're we're not serving the child in the home in the way that might address behaviors in the home so the intervention design specialist is addressing performance within the school day is the parent aware that you're pulling the child to work with them we don't pull the child we're we're working in the child's classroom alongside the teacher and yes the parent is aware when we are engaging in idea services so we're not connecting with them to see if they're seeing the same difference that admin and teacher I guess I'm trying to figure out well I I I don't presume that those same behaviors may be present at home so when when we are what we are addressing are the behaviors that might be interfering with the child's learning or the learning of others so

139when we are collecting the data on the Improvement we are collecting data based on the service that we provided now the the parent would be hearing the data reports of how the child is doing in school so so they would understand that Improvement but we're not directly intervening with the parent in that same coaching model because we haven't made the presumption that those behaviors are there if the parent is seeking services for Parental coaching or services to address behaviors in the home that would be connecting them with one of our Community Partners thank you m Robertson yes sir of all great work thank you remembering where we were just a year two years ago this is amazing the support that's provided I was at Stan high school earlier today and ran into one of our

140team members who was going to be working oneon-one with the student with just a basic life skill that I think everyone in this room I think most of us at least um would take for granted every day and so um fantastic work just to amplify couple points that I heard you make yes sir so this controversial survey that I keep heing we're administering we're not administering no sir and the the standards from Richmond that I've heard the social emotional learning standards are also not being implemented absolutely not the counseling standards that we use to guide our work were developed in 2004 so they have been in place for a long time the second framework that we marry with that which is the American School counselor Association mindsets and behaviors um really only has a few

141areas of expansion from those 2004 Virginia counseling standards um but we've got a crosswalk between those two um the few areas that are expanded upon are things like demonstrate the ability to dist to delay gratification for long-term rewards um demonstrate the ability to overcome barriers to learning create relationships with adults that support success demonstrate great empathy so um just five or six skills that were expanded with the mindsets and behaviors framework but no we have not um included the social emotional learning standards from the Virginia Department of Education in our framework okay so you are and your team are implementing Bedford County values in our schools I think we are I I'm going to say we we Implement a curriculum that is rooted in basic human responsibility good citizenship and appropriate social interaction skills I

142won't presume what individual values may be held but these are fairly Universal practices when we're talking about successful citizenship and um socialization with others that's here thank you for clearing up that [Music] misinformation thank you sir other questions thank you so much all right item 3.05 update on challenged books Dr Woodford and Dr TR good evening members of the board um we had several school board members reach out and request an update to the request at the last board meeting to consider the removal of 12 books from our school libraries Dr trer and I will be sharing the work we've done since that November request and possible next steps um first uh during the November 11th public comment a Community member gave out packets that contained a list of 12 books that she felt should

143be removed from all of our high schools part of the information shared was that she had confirmed these books to be located um in Stant River High School Liberty High School and Jefferson Forest High School's libraries the information on this slide was copied from that hand out that was given to the board with her concerns for each of those books uh the first step um was to confirm that information and Dr Hoisington um looked through our library catalog called Destiny for all of our schools and determined that the first book on the list was not in any of our schools um as you can see 11 of the 12 books are in the Jefferson Forest High School library five of the 12 are in the Liberty High School library and only four of the 12

144are in the Stanton River High School library w at the November board meeting the school board indicated that they wanted Dr trer and me to follow the policy we had for complaints about learning resources which is policy klb which is linked here on this slide if you would like to refer to it uh to summarize that um basically the policy indicates a multi-step process um and the first step is that a written or a verbal complaint um is filed with the library media Specialist or if it's a classroom resource the teacher so again that depends on where the item is located if the teacher's using it in the classroom the verbal or written complaint is given to them um if it's in the library it's given to the library media specialist um when a complaint

145is filed with a teacher the teacher will work with families that have concerns about that classroom required reading and look at options and Dr Trosper is going to um explain that a little bit more um and if the library media specialist um receives the complaint then they consult with the building principal um and Dr Trosper to decide if the book should be removed from use um if in that um Step the person who thought the complaint is not happy with the result or the decision of the library media specialist and the principal um and their issues are not resolved um a complaint should be made in writing using the request for Recon consideration of learning resources which is a form that's attached to the policy um while that complaint is being looked into materials will

146remain in use during the challenge but can be restricted for the student of the person who's made the complaint um the policy also indicates that only one book can be challenged at a time um if we get to step two a committee is formed with teachers students parents the complaintant the principal the library media specialist and Schoolboard office staff um and they will meet to discuss um the concerns um with having the book in the library or classroom or concerns about removing the book uh from either of those places and then a decision is made um if the person who's made that complaint does not like the decision of the committee then they can appeal that decision to the superintendent or his design and then in turn appeal to the school board uh so that's

147the basic policy um as we looked at it and defined it and how we were going to move forward and looking at these concerns presented at the last board meeting good evening I'm going to start out by talking about challenges over the last few years and so I've spoken with current and former secondary principles to discuss how book curriculum challenges have typically been handled and how information about learning materials is Shar with our families so some of our current and former High School principles have experience addressing these concerns over curriculum resources each year typically one to two families will Express concerns over content found in these learning resources this has been in a variety of subject areas not limited to novels each Shar the schools are almost always able to resolve these issues at the

148school level typically the parent will speak to the teacher and or the principal the staff member would explain the reason behind the selection of the text and the literary value and parents are given the opportunity to choose whether they would like their child to be offered an alternative assignment or continue using the current material now for advanced placement dual rollment courses procedures are slightly different mainly because the requirements come from outside organizations not affiliated with Bedford County Schools novels for AP for example are chosen based on an approved list recommended by college board or because they've appeared on previous AP tests or because they could not or they could be taught in a freshman or sophomore College classroom similarly dual enrollment books are chosen with some guidance from cbcc however dual enrollment teachers have a

149fair amount of freedom to choose or create their own curriculum resources in AP and dual enrollment courses teachers still will attempt to work with families to provide alternative assignments while considering guidance from college board and from cbcc schools reported that curriculum challenges for AP and dual rment are rare and they also reported that syllabi for AP and dual War courses typically contain statements that novels May the mature and or adult sub subject matter now for English courses at all levels so this is all levels not just AP enrollment most teachers will list novels that may be covered and a request that families contact them with concerns some teachers even provide this information in a back to school handout so after speaking to school staff and principles and situations where parents still are not satisfied with

150the school response after the initial contact they are encouraged to follow division policy by completing the request for reconsideration of learning resources form no challenges are on record at any of our schools and none can recall any formal challenges that's to say typically they're handled at the school level and resolved to the satisfaction of both parties now I want to talk about the recent challenge that came from the November board meeting so I did reach out to this Community member who requested the books to be removed from our libraries at the board's direction we have addressed concerns using policy KB as our guide I contacted the Community member I explained the policy and since only one book can be challenged at a time this individual requested that the first book to challenge his beloved by

151Tony Morrison so this situation is a bit unique as the first step usually is addressed at the school level since the request was for books to be removed at the division level I met with all three High School principles and library media specialists in addition I invited English teachers that use this book in their classes and we discussed the policy and we discovered processes and how we would proceed during this time another parent reached out to me and challenged the removal of the book from the libraries and this indiv ual requested also to meet with principles and library media Specialists so this group met with both complainants this past Tuesday we met at separate times and we listen to concerns about keeping and about removing the book collectively the group is going to be making

152a decision over the next few days whether to keep or remove it in the library I will follow up with both complainants in the next few days uh after the decision is reached if either complainant disagrees as Dr Woodford shared they can appeal and at any time uh or at that time excuse me a committee will be formed in clud Dr Woodford uh Librarians principes parents and students and the concerns will be discussed and then a final decision will be made as Dr trer and I have worked through this concern we've noted some things that we believe should be considered by the instructional team and some things we think should be considered by the school board for the instruction team we're looking to update our list of approved novels and learning materials with the inputs

153I'm Excuse me the input of our teachers during the summer we'll also ensure that there is consistency in the communication through the syllabi of novels that will be used in each classroom and that parents understand that they can request an alternate assignment for their child if they wish finally we are going to look at creating a process for adding new novels to this approved list moving forward to ensure that we have consistency in our three high schools um for the school board we would like to ask um to consider a policy revision to Pro to provide some clearer directions for challenges of reading materials at the school but also at the division level um who can make that challenge and what the process is to notify all parents in the school if a book is

154challenged or removed from um the library or the classroom um I think it's important to note um that Dr and I done a lot of reading and studying um and anytime we decide to remove materials uh based on one person's disagreement we're then essentially violating all the other parents who may wish for their children to read that material so it's a lot for us to think about um in addition um one of the things that we think may be helpful is if we can work with Dr Hoisington and our Librarians to determine a way in our library system Destiny for parents to register to receive notification regarding all books that their child May check out so that parents who wish to monitor that closely could get those notifications um and parents who are fine with

155whatever's in the library and their child reading it don't have to receive those notifications so we ourselves are looking at how to streamline some of our processes um but I would ask that um the board work with us to possibly work with Wade Anderson for a policy revision just to clean our policy up a little bit to make it clearer for all who read it because I even Dr trer and I had to kind of weed through some things um so we're happy to answer any questions you may have at this time this is where we're at in the process um and we can continue to keep you updated num questions actually I think Miss Cur um Dr when you were speaking earlier you mentioned something um back with the dual enrollment um of a

156disclosure of content sure could you explain that a little bit so as I talked to the principles and they reached out to the department chairs and just kind of asked what is the process for notifying parents about texts that are being read in their class and so um particularly for AP and dual enrollment those are pretty Advanced and those are more where you're going to see um some of the novels of concern because of the mature content matter and so typically um there's a statement and I and I want to make sure I'm not saying every single class has this but a lot of them have cited this um that there's a statement that says these novels may contain or may deal with mature and or adult subject matter so it's kind of a disclosure

157statement in advance just notifying families that that if they want to look into that they want to let them know up front so and that's one of the things Dr Woodford and I have talked about that seems seems like a a practice we we want to make sure it's happening division wide consistently um and I'm sure it is but we want to make sure that every single classroom is doing that and as far as the adult or the the questionable content sure that way um who is what standard are you using for measurement to determine what is questionable with ap and dual the the College Board actually has a list of novels that that are approved that have been reviewed by those that work with colleges um and so that essentially says this is college

158level uh reading and and this would be acceptable as part of a college course so um that is where college or AP courses traditionally come from during moment there's there's quite a bit of freedom for the um for the teachers to choose that cbcc gives some guidelines but not many um in in asking that question about other English classes a few years ago I guess there was an approved list for Bedford County that's been a while um there is a need to get to update that so we know what's going on so that when teachers do select novels they can they can choose from that list and and so um it's some schools were very aware and have used it some schools not as much and that's part of the the process that we realize

159we need to improve as we move forward and and I would just like to say Mrs Kirby I think you asked a good question and when we spoke to our Librarians one thing that's very clear is there is no basic level of standards that everyone can agree on because what I believe may be inappropriate may be different than what you as a parent believe is inappropriate um so that what that's why we feel um that based on some of our research we believe that parents should have that right to monitor their child's what they're reading um but we're trying to figure out how to do that without also limiting U what another parent may feel is okay for their child so we feel like being very transparent about what books are going to be used

160in the classroom um notifying parents um you know about what what kinds of books their child is checking out if the parent wishes that or if the parent wants a flag on their child's account um and we don't really have all the answers right now that we're we're really trying to do as much research as we can so that we make the right decision but there really isn't a standard that is easy to check off which books would fall into what category Mr chairman Dr if if uh if the um if there an approved list for AP English courses and uh um and students are expected to read those BS if they don't are they put at a disadvantage on on the at test I I certainly think there's an argument for that and so

161the first step would be to try to find another book on that list um and and if that can't be agreed upon that I I think it's important that the parents understand there's a chance that they're um using books that are not recommended by college board and potentially they may not be is prepared for college so that is a very legitimate concern yes sir Mr chairman yeah I just want to jump off on that because um uh Sandra contacted me and and I know you know her and that is exactly what she said she said if our students in AP go into the AP exam without having read the love they will not get ex and as you know colleges tend not to accept anything sure but they like those vibes um I would just

162encourage the board members um this is a very difficult subject and people have very strong feelings about it but um I would encourage you to read the book I mean I read the book has anybody else read the book can I now yeah I would encourage you to read the book um but I would also encourage you to visit there's only one classroom in County right now and that's uh Christina ch's class and I went there um to talk to the students to see what they did with the book to see how they felt and I have to say I was [Music] so amazed at their thought processes because there was one young man in the class who was a little quiet the rest of the students were extremely verbal and they made comments like

163this I think it's importantly read this book Dr meing it's a very difficult book to read Because what happened this was based of course on a on a true story about Margaret Gardner so what happened is difficult to process knowing our history because most of us didn't learn that kind of History and they said but it's important to know that it it's it we have to have those open ideas we have to be able to read things like this kids said my parents are thrilled that I'm reading this book they like this book they think it's important that we read this book another person said to me that she said and this really hit home with me she said I am 18 years old there are other people in this room that are 18 years

164old I can vote I can join the military I can fight and die for my country but you're going to tell me what book I can or cannot read and I thought that was pretty powerful um a lot of the kids said look you're so worried about what's in this book do you understand how much worse what we see on the internet is you think we haven't been there another person said that just held up the book a young man fact he was president of the senior class this a he said it's causing me to think differently about how slaves were treated but he said it's not he said I'm not thinking about doing anything in that book it's a book I'm learning some things from it why do people reject this book especially people

165they said have people read this book and I said well my guess would be a lot of them probably have not and then one young lady said you know the problem is is happened to see that list I don't know how she got it and she said that's all L of context and she said if you understand the character and that's the heavy thing about this book you know uh I'm going to call her C that's how I pronounced the name of the the main character she was a she was a slave who was bought and sold bought and sold she was a very proud independent woman but slavery really reduced her Just DE humanized her to the point where socially emotionally and spiritually she was broken when she was able to gain her freedom

166and go to Ohio she could not let go and that's what this is all about because you free me doesn't free me from what happened to me it doesn't free me from from The Haunting of what people did to me and it really it it made her almost a prisoner of slavery forever because she couldn't separate what had happened to her from where she was at that point in time um I mean to the point where she killed her daughter because she said I I would do anything because the the master was come she was prayed the master was going to come back and bring them back to a sweet home and she said i' rather my daughter be dead then go back to slavery and the kids in in the class understood all that

167and they they thought it was a very powerful reading that it was something that we needed to read um they also said things like my parents want you to read this book my parents think it's late I'm reading this book why does another parent object to me reading this book my parents know it they know the kind of language it's in there they know what's being said why do they object and they just had a lot of really really good questions and I and I just think that you know I said this is what I said to them one person said um Dr M we're reading this book now in first semester we we're supposed to actually read it in second semester because we're afraid the board's going to ban it and I said I

168remember I went this said all right stop second hold on let's listen to those words Dr neing I'm afraid we're this book now in first semester we're supposed to read it in second semester but we're afraid the board is going to ban it and I added in the United States of America and they said yes and so the the people I told them this and this is what I believe whether you agree with me or not doesn't matter um it doesn't matter if you if you don't agree with me sir it's okay to disagree um I believe in my heart that our preschools our elementary schools our middle schools our high schools our colleges any institution of learning in this country is a nursery of democracy and in a nursery of democracy you have to

169allow you have to allow a free Marketplace of ideas if you don't what you're doing is exactly what a dictator does what's the first Bastion of dictator control what I see control What I Hear control what I think and we can't do that to our children and parents you have you know parents would have a choice I don't have my child to read that book that's okay your child doesn't have to read the book then oh excuse me good that would be great go so if if the parent doesn't want their child to read the book I don't have a problem that you that that's your child I have a significant problem with you telling another parent who says I want my kid to read this book now you can't read it to the public

170at large so I I would just really ask those of us who have not read the book to read the book it is a very difficult read it if there's flashbacks it's hard to follow but if you can get into it it just says a lot and then I would encourage you to go talk to to the students these are kids in an AP class and I'm I I was just overwhelmed by their maturity about this and the thoughts they were taking away there was one African-American child in the class who said to me it is important that everybody read this because people don't really understand what happened during the time of slavery and it's important that they do and and you know I don't look at it as that the white people were bad

171and the black people are victims I don't look at it that way at all what I look at it is the United States of America that is that is probably that was not our finest moment at all but we need to understand that our kids need to understand that because that's the only way it's never going to happen again but it's nobody's fault it's not my fault I wasn't there it's not the kids well they weren't there but it is part of our history and this book really brings to life what it actually did again the social emotional and spiritual um uh identity of of a slave it it was such a powerful book so I just encourage you all to read it and to speak to the students who are reading it because I

172think we need to get them in here so you understand that they think it's worthwhile and so do their parents thank you Mr so Dr Charles for you talk about the list for AP classes who sets that list the the College Board is where they get their list and as bford County have we ever challenged that list to give us Alternatives I'm not aware of any challenge like that no so we just take the list from college board well yeah and that's yeah sure that's what they're tested on the books that are on that list are will show up on the AP test for the children so I guess my question is is like maybe you can educate me off off line of how does that board get elected who sets that board and then

173how do they come up with these recommendations um I would think there's a choice either you read this book or this book but you're saying they have to read beloved is what you're saying I no I think what we're saying is there a list of books that are recommended by the AP board and um or the College Board I'm sorry um and I can get you more information I don't want to missp but I'm happy to do a research into that and get that information to the entire board and on those books around the authors of those books is there any criteria for that I'm not sure I understand is there any criteria for selecting the authors yes I'd have to get back to I we I've started to explore some of that there's certainly

174some criteria that they encourage the teachers to select but I don't really feel comfortable sharing that because I don't I don't think I understand that process well enough certainly we'll get back to you on that though and this is more of a statement Dr M I hear you when you say those students are so enthusiastic about this book did they happen to mention that they were excited about or or just is concern when this board voted to change the dress policy last year when we told them what they could or could not wear to school that some were offended by and others were not we can have that discussion right so I wonder I'm Sor ask questions but you just said you didn't review that so I wonder if we would go to the next

175classroom that they would provide feedback that would give us you know you guys make this change without asking us or worrying about our concerns and we certainly have parents comeing here and tell us that the board chose to vote otherwise so I think we need to keep an open mind as we continue to look at this list of books um I went back to the last meeting and I I know there were some uh parent groups that said that I had requested books to be removed or banned um my request was for them to be reviewed and for the staff to come back with the recommendation so I want to make that clear um not sure how that got turned into ban uh but I do think that we do need to protect our children

176and for those that are 18 or older you're an adult absolutely you should choose but if you are under guidance of a parent or Guardian that parent or Guardian should be aware of what you're reading period and you should be able to it if it's in the library so be it but it needs to be a process of being checked out by the student and the parent and it's not just the teacher's decision of we're studying that um and as far as the classroom saying we're doing it now because I'm afraid the students didn't come up with that and if you have any questions check out social media um so that's all I'll say on that Mr Mr chairman um I would say to you to talk to Christina and I think she can verify

177that I would say again go talk to the students in the class because that is what they say you know you can't unless the students are talking to you on social media or the teacher who is there you really need to talk to them and that is what they said but I'm not B my decision off of the classroom of 20 students when there's over 8,000 students in this system well I would agree with you but I think what the whole point of this is that the parents in that class according to what their students who said are thrilled that they're reading the book my parents are glad I'm reading the book so I just don't think it's coming upon us to say no Mr Hill your daughter can't be that that's what and that's

178what these kids saying my parents think this book is important for me and I should read it and then you know one other comment that came to online was what better place to read this Dr then this classroom where a teacher can guide us through this book and and we can talk to our our PE back it's a very Petty book it's very it's a difficult reading M Harris thank you Mr chairman um Dr wford I have a question for you just clarification in terms what you're asking us as a board okay to do so can we revisit that with us again basically I'm just asking that you allow the staff to examine the policy and clean it up a little bit um to make the process clearer for those of us who are trying

179to implement the policy and for anyone that has concerns um and we have seen some really good models it's not really changing what the policy does it's just making it a whole lot clearer and defines exactly what the committee will do um what questions we would ask what we would be looking into um and basically just to allow us to bring that back as a policy to look at for Action as we're going through this whole process and and looking at these books okay I I do have a couple of other statements and questions um first I want to say to Dr me thank you for taking the opportunity to go and listen to the students in the AP class um I think that's very valuable while I didn't have that opportunity I did have

180opportunities in which I um received numerous of phone calls um from various parents and also former students and current students at various high schools that know me that wanted to express their concerns now I will say say to you um that beloved is a book that I read many many years ago I had the opportunity to sit in the lecture of Tony morson and she is a very distinguished author and writer and she does depict uh the life of a slave in a very horrific way but whether you want to believe it or not slavery was a horrific and awful life for anyone to endure now that may be hard for some individuals but it is the truth and I can speak to that from my own ancestors stories that I have heard passed down

181to me from my [Music] grandparents that their great grandparents told them and believe me there are lots of gaps in it because I am 64 years old and there are still many things that I'm still learning so to deprive our children of the opportunity to learn our history like it or not good and bad and ugly it is American history and our children need to be taught and you as a parent you have a right it is your right to make the decision as to whether you want your child to read any of these books that's your right you can be given that right and you should you should utilize it if you don't want them to read it then they don't have to read it but what a shame it is because we are

182not preparing our children to compete in a global Society it's a global society in which our children are going to be working in and living in and in order to be successful in that Society it's important that you understand the culture the history of others no one's pointing the finger I don't blame anyone I've heard some horrific stories growing up but I don't blame anyone how can I how fair would that even be to blame any of you but what an injustice it is for you not to want to learn and to understand I look forward to further discussion I look forward to helping our executive team and I hope the other fellow board members will do the same as we M out a pathway that's going to help our students and our children to

183be the best that they can be to be good citizens thank you are there any other books recommended uh regarding the subject of slaver for this list me there's an alternative an alternative list was provided and that's part of our discussions we want to look at that so there was an alternative that may not have as much graphic detail in uh the one of the complaintants did provide a list that they believe was was less graphic yes sir okay uh and then my uh last question there were 12 books asked to be reviewed the first one and it's a month out yes so I'm a little concerned that it's going to be a year before we complete all of this was there another plan for reviewing these books um well we've talked about it and

184um you know we're follow we're trying to follow the policy but we're also trying to make sure that we read and research each book so that we understand um and um it's hard evening reading for Dr TR so we will if the board would like for us to try to step it up we definitely can do that if we could try to do more than you know one book at a time um if that is the will of the board we'll do their very best we can in uh I'd like to say that I this process must be a thorough process it must be effective and efficient and so I would incline to say no we don't need to speed it up we need to be effective and thorough in your study and your research

185and I will say it did take Dr Trosper and I some time to make sure we were understanding the policy clearly so now that we kind of have that in our mind we can definitely step step up the timeline and and go a little bit faster and still kind of look at one book at a time are you going to be able to do that look at more than one book um I just mean we'll try to do more than one book a month we'll we'll we will do the best I promise you we'll do a thorough job and we will try to um move our timeline along it did take us a little bit longer just to get everybody organized and to talk through things with the Librarians now that we have a process

186I think we'll be able to go much quicker and you do have other things to do besides read well you know you kind have another job are any of the complaintants do they have a child in the only class that's reading this book um the the complaint that we received the complaint from um doesn't have a child in the high school um and I think they're just a Community member okay um because I I I you know I am concerned too we have a lot of things on our plate I'm not saying this isn't important it is but it's also important for you all to to be able to do what it is you need to do this is part of it I get it but a parent class is not complaining it's somebody else

187who's complaining so I hope that you're able to balance what you need to do which is one of these things versus all the other things that you have as well as have time for yourself and your family I don't think the complaint was just about that one class I think it was about that the book was available uh and how we allow students to check those books out and make them available so it's more than just that class um if I could if we have the the capability of of tagging a book and and parents saying I don't want my child to take this book out then that's a new point the fact that they're in the library uh it doesn't mean that that every child going to have access to it I didn't understand

188that all three LI or all the libraries have that policy in place well um none of them do that's one of the things that I was saying that we we are looking into the possibility of doing that capability um we're looking to see if Destiny has the capability to flag those and it would have to be a parent flagging and not us making that choice my concern would be for me to make a decision about what's mature content or not because that then that's using you know my standards um I I will say um I think if we just look at books that are in start with what ones that are in all three libraries because as you know in that list we don't have all of these books in our library so I think

189we could get through the ones we have in all three and then uh then we work with the ones that have them two the two that have them and then the one that has the majority I think that would also help speed up the process we we don't have to get so many people schedules working if the board is acceptable for us to Mo move through the list like that rather than Mr chairman we get consens on that there is parent that does not want their child to read a particular book just send a note the principal and the librarian so that that child does not have access to that book you all are you all okay with that absolutely parent way to I think this may be something that needs to be brought up

190again for the new board in January to to review I don't I think we can make a decision that the parent can send a note to say I want my child to read that book that's not the final we have consensus we do a lot of other things on consensus right now whatever they want January yeah we're not going to you know parent has an objection just send in a note we'll take care of it for you I'd like know we have consensus for that so parents will know they they that option okay yes yes yes I'm found with that as long as we know that it's just on a temporary basis until it can be readdressed in more detail parents can do that today so yeah yes absolutely so I don't understand what we

191need consensus on the parent can already do that today we're confirming what parents can't do we're confirming parents can send a letter into the school since some people don't think they can we're just reaffirming that they canless there other questions Dr Woodford I I'm just very surprised to find out that after being told these all of these books were all of our libraries to find out that really they're not so from from my account there are four of the titles in the Liberty library in the Liberty High School and there are five in the Liberty Hospital five at St four yes okay so the initial complaint is kind of based on some faly information to be okay um Mr chairman I just one more thing could we also get some input I'd just be interested

192in input from our attorney I mean and I have no idea I'm not an attorney are there any uh you know first amendment issues going on here or anything like that I just like to know if you know if we decide something what what the law says about all if anything I don't know anything i' just like to know so apparently the Love It Was Written when I was four years old and I'm one of those people that never thought to read it until it showed up on a challenged book list um which apparently is very common when books are challenged so many people go out to to read them and I'm about halfway through thanks to miss CH and her class for hosting me and letting me uh sit in on a very mature

193adult conversation on on this spok and like Dr M and I I think we went on different days but I think we had very similar Impressions from the students very mature they handled this content very difficult content very well um I will say it is a challenging read um kind of stream of conscious almost those flashbacks things like that very hard to follow I I keep hearing about this graphic content I'm about Midway through and I haven't found anything very graphic or at least maybe my idea of what graphic is and what other people's idea of graphit could be very different but what I have discovered through this is very much to Miss Harrison's point a very Vivid depiction of what slavery was like and the psychological effects that slavery had on the uh individuals

194who live through it and even to some degree descendants today that hear the stories um we talk about the impact that it had on setha when she murdered her own child and you think oh my goodness this is terrible children shouldn't be reading this if you go like two doors down to the courthouse and you look in the um the clerk's office and you look in the bford county death records in that period before the Civil War 1853 when Virginia started keeping bio statistics there are a number of African-American babies born into slavery who were listed as smothered and if you look and do some research on that smothered was something that many slave mothers did like setha to save their children from slavery so this isn't just some fictional account by some author you

195know out there doing whatever this is based on stuff that happened right here our County in some cases maybe very close proximity to where we're sitting tonight so if we want students to understand our history and accurate history not you know some sanitized version of history but what really happened then they need to read challenging books like beloved and they need to read other challenging books um it will push you outside of your comfort zone I admit I don't particularly enjoy reading this book but I reading it because I need to and because I want to and when you hear the AP students talking about it they want to as well um and so I absolutely love the idea let's just remind families if you don't want your child being exposed to other ideas write

196a note send it in uh ask your AP teacher to give them an alternative assignment that may or may not be on the AP test uh in my day job I work with students getting AP credit and I can can tell you college board can be a little dictatorial sometimes you can tell them we're not reading this but they don't care they're going to still take that money for your test and your child's going to get what they get and they may or may not get any credit for it when they get to college so there's that and I guess my other question is how far are we willing to push this because once we start going down that rabbit hole there's a whole lot in the western [Music] Canon know when you cut through

197the Elizabethan English Shakespeare's got some pretty racy stuff in there um odys took 10 years to get back home from the Trojan War and I don't believe his wife knew everything that was going on um Mrs Butler had us translate portions of the an anas and Dio so I'm just curious absolum absolum my son my son where do we draw this how are we going to determine what as a society we're going to let children be exposed to and what we're not how much are we going to challenge them and are we just going to stick with safe book I mean if we're stick with safe books I think we basically have the Little House on the Prairie series and that's and even that I mean and and it's not just from that side I

198had a group of students reach out um a couple years ago wanted to ban Of Mice and Men and I'm I'm not a fan of book Banning of of any sort um um it's about context and that's why I'm glad we have teachers like Miss childrenis and uh Stan high school today some of the classes are reading fair fight Fahrenheit 451 I guess we're trying to get on the controversy both saying we can while we still can um but but yes we we have to be very careful where we go with this and so I applaud the work that you and your committee are doing to um make sure that children are still exposed to the classics they're well prepared for the AP exam they're well prepared to live in a globalized world um and

199if there's anything that I can continue to do I'm happy to to make sure that children still have access to to literature any other questions comments for all right thank you both get back to reading all right so concluded all of the reports before the dinner break we will move on to additional action items 2223 calendar approval Dr Woodford um so at the November 11th school board meeting four options for the 2223 school calendar were shared um and I also shared the feedback on the calendar options that was solicited through a survey during the month of October from all staff and I reported that calendar c um was the one that received um the highest choices um and Mr will rais some concern that in that um calendar there were no teacher work days and

200so um very wisely he asked that I resurvey just the teachers and ask for input and uh based on the feedback from teachers I'm now recommending um calendar D um it does include a waiter start day which is what I believe that teachers liked about calendar c um they're also professional development days and teacher work days um are in that calendar as a recommendation um one of the things that in the comments from the teachers um in in what they were sharing is that they want work days that are protected work days and um we have found that that's been very helpful for them this year we've protected those work dayss and so I would also add the caveat if we were to go with calendar D to protect those work days um for teachers

201from any types of professional develop vment or being pulled out of um their classroom for an entire day to do professional development um so a little bit of a change from last month but I feel like um in this particular survey um teachers really do want to want to have those work days and as long as they're protected so that would be my recommendation to uh go with calendar D was um everyone surveyed this time or did we have a no everyone was surveyed the first time um and that get percent was no it was a pretty high we had a pretty good response we just had most of them uh wanted calendar C and it was more about the late start date and all of that but um not teacher work days um it

202didn't have any teacher work days in it um and so when just asking the teachers because in that first survey I didn't ask anyone to identify you know if they were teachers PA bus driver um I asked principes just to share the exact same survey with just their teachers um and I had a fairly good response um 320 teachers responded um and overwhelmingly the choices were calendar c and d and a lot of the comments were you know i' choose i' choose calendar D if the work days were protected but they you know so I I think the reason people pick C is because they don't feel like work days are protected so why put them in um and so that's why our recommendation would be we know how valuable those days are and we

203also know how valuable professional development is and so um it was a good point that we relooked at that survey and so this would give us both things professional development and work days questions comments yes me too thank you well do we have a motion on a calendar for the 2223 school year chairman I move that we approve our calendar okay Mr Hill was first out of the gate but we can would you be willing to Second sure okay so we have a motion by Mr Hill to approve calendar D and we have that seconded by Dr Hicks any further discussion hearing none call for vote all those in favor please say hi any opposed calendar D is approved unanimously for the 2223 school year make your vacation plans now okay program of studies update

204uh Dr trer last month a proposed draft for the program of study for the following school year was posted for your consideration so this evening I'm bringing it back to the board as an action item so I'm seeking approval so that course registration can begin starting in January 2022 uh before asking for approval I do have three fairly Minor Adjustments that I'd like to bring uh since the last board meeting the first is we proposed starting a new CTE course called business management and using that as a replacement for principles of business and marketing uh with with the thought that it it essentially cover of the same competency so it wasn't necessary we've had further discussions um and what I would like to do is continue the recommendation of business management but instead of removing

205principles of business and marketing keeping that as part of the program of studies and allowing schools that opportunity so it doesn't change anything we just would ask that we do not remove that as I proposed in November so that's the first the second one is all references to the word learner or change a student with some exceptions that was brought to my attention uh I would ask that I change the word learner to student I think there's five exceptions to that so I would just change that so it would be consistently students throughout the document um and then finally there's a few places where it says U students references to personalized learning and I've received a request to change that to individualized or customized um I can do that but I would there's one exception

206that I just want to bring to your attention at the beginning of the program of studies there's four goals of Bedford County and that was voted on by previous boards I would hesitate to change that use of it um but what I will say is we are going through the process of of revising that through our strategic framework um and that will be addressed very soon um which I believe January Dr Bergen's going to talk about so so again just very quickly usage of the word learner change that to student if there's uses of the word personalized we would change that to individualized uh and then we would keep principles of business and marketing instead of removing it as I suggested in November other than that uh would like to bring that for approval any

207questions or [Music] discussion do we have a motion Mr chairman I make a motion that we approve the program and studies as amended per Dr trer explanation okay so this to approve the amended program of studies okay second any final discussion right hearing Now call for vote all those in favor I all those opposed study has amended is approved thank you Dr crer for your team and all your hard work on H Project B approval Dr D thank you the County Public Schools Capital Improvement plan includes upgrades to the heating and cooling systems at six schools uh in the near future Elementary Elementary far middle elementary elementary and Thomason Elementary School roof membran place was also specified at four of those schools elementary midle Thomas Jefferson Wy Wilson a local engineering firm did a great

208job completing the design specifications for all these projects and bid documents were advertised back uh on November 9th so we received bids this week on December 7th um so that we could um consider this uh these the ability to move forward quickly many firms could um have time to procure the labor and parts they needed to do this work uh next summer and so um attached in the four ducks section is uh sheet that lines all the bids we received we had bids from from four companies one of them withdrew their bids after some confusion about um the specification so the three bids going forward are all the three companies bidding on any of the jobs are listed one firm bid on all six and two firm bid on only a portion of the of

209the jobs um this industry like so many um is facing some real challenges for U supply chain issues labor Supply um the firms are busy um the economy is is moving quickly and rapidly they're you know they're in high demand we open bids and the total amount of the low bids um is approximately $4 million over the budgeted Target cost that we had in mind based on very recent um cost estimates um we talked to the engineers and said $4 million that's a lot of money total about $4 million instead of 10 that we were anticipating why why is this happening and um there are some just reasons most of them much bigger than what's in our control that that that are are that cause we think um including supply chain pressure for Parts and

210Equipment federal wage requirements which were part of these projects because they're paid for largely with the Esser funds um demand forac Services which is high right now and the fact that we are asking this work to be done in a fairly cond schedule um when kids are not in school so uh what what we're asking for t is for you to authorize us to move forward with the low bids um authorize us to enter in contracts with these companies pending available funding which would mostly be Federal and local funding we need to analyze that funding level to determine whether there's enough to do all six of them um I'm worried that they're not um at this point but we only open bids on Tuesday really haven't had a full full chance to analyze that but

211if the board approves approves this pending funding availability we will be able to move forward on absolutely as many as we can and so um we have prioritized these projects based on need and uh they're listed on the attachment in that order um and so if funding is not available for all projects it's recommended that we begin at the to list and go as far down as we can maybe that we can complete five of them maybe that we can complete four of them maybe Poss complete all six but we're going to have to do some work to figure that one out but in order and buy the company is a little bit I'll just read the list and then um be happy to answer any questions that you might have um top of the

212list would be to award be able to enter a contract with Waco for Forest Middle School three about $3.5 million um to contract with Moors for boom Elementary at almost $1.5 million uh and then enter into contracts with wo again for the remaining projects in the order listed monil about 1.8 million Petro Elementary at 2.4 Thomas Jefferson at 2.6 roughly good view about 2.5 roughly um and there may be some slight increase in those total costs du the commissioning which is the testing of the system when you know it's operational by third party uh and any contingency costs there might be but we we don't anticipate those to be extremely large um so be happy to answer any questions you have about these projects we were toly disappointed these numers were higher than but um

213we have a we have we have it here in front of us and now we can move as much as we right Miss Harriston then miss Kirby Dr can you just riew for me once again the order of um in terms of priority you said Forest new school for middle school and bbor Elementary you're at the top of the list with mon those three have experienced failure this year in one fashion or another bford Elementary would be next it also has had some failure over the past couple of years we've been able to repair it um Thomas Jefferson in good you are slightly younger systems than those other four um by four or five years or so and can be carried along a little bit longer in the current state um if we so um

214and I'm sure you've already shared this with us before so excuse my name um what money I mean what are the monies that we have what's the funding that we can't have what's that complex um we're looking at um for the four unit for the four schools that were done over the summer there was a um ARP HV grant that came out late late last year late this year8 million but requires a local match so the county will be picking that up as appropriating that money actually Monday night they agreed to it they never formally did it so they'll be they'll be there I'll at that meeting so the 1.6 and 1.8 went together to really do to do all the projects is pass and then there's a little bit of that money left over

215to apply to so that's a little bit the other funding um would be the SR funds Sr 2 and sr3 and looking at what we're spending in Sr money in our operating right now leaving some s money or cares act money available for the 23 and the 24 year for learning loss I don't think we want to use all that and move it all over here so we'll have to work through our budget on that I do believe between S2 and S3 I looked at it real quickly you know you got the bids in I think we can do four pretty we get four of them done the other two I I just don't know at this point so it is carac money if you want to refer to that is sr2 sr3 and some

216leftover money from the ha projects that we did not use over this past so uh we'll have to use some additional local money to match that 1.8 um and I will be going to the board of cisors and bringing to our board in U January uh reappropriation of our leftover money from last year a little bit over 3 million 2 million would go to texbook one 1.1 million going to um our maintenance Reserve so over the next few years will be local money but we were hoping to do some other projects so we're going to have to rebalance that going forward if these can be done and some other things might have to be pushed off I hope that answered you your question but we want to make sure when we go through our operating

217budget we leave enough money in 23 and 24 to accomplish some learning loss and not put it all makesense thank you Miss Harrison asked one of my questions and um so thank you but when you're talking about holding car's money back for the learning loss how much are you talking about holding back we I've calculated that what we're spending in personnel and other things that we're doing for our current year we're spending about $2 million year of funds and so do we want to hold back 2 million for the next two years each that would be 4 million hold back a million I think we have to wait to see how our whole budget looks in our operating and how much we may need of that money and what we want to accomplish next year

218so instead of a contract to go forward and committing that money seeing what our local and state monies look like on our operating and then moving forward maybe on those other two real quick cut if we spend the $2 million this year um as I'm projecting and I'll give the board an update on second quarter forecast in January if we spend that we do these four projects perhaps we have 4 million left of usive money for the next two years to spend on operations um and another question Dr D it it looks like wo really wants the business um have you gone back to them to see if they could give us a better price on vbo than what Morris offered well they give them we give them all that that's a good question and

219W you may remember is the firm is giving for start with a couple units um they won that b as well um I think in in a closed bid process we really have to honor the number they give us so um you know Mor gave the lower number in that process and so need to that that Dr is there any way for us to do similar to what we do with Forest Middle School as far as ordering our own supplies and then letting them install it to save those tax dollars is that an option direct I couldn't remember the exact terminology that was a model that was very successful with fars Middle School we had never used before uh we have not approach quo yet because um you know we need approval in order to

220do that so um we certainly can discuss that with them as a model um but that have to had to be part of the cont or the process us notifying them that that's what we were planning to do I don't know that it had to be um I I think it uh it could have been but I don't know that it had to be we'll discuss it tonight with both firms I'll double check with on that I don't believe so you're just saving on sales tax there it's still the same bid for ordering rather than them a lot of them like to order their own parts so that's in construction um EXC sales tax on 14 million could pay for one of these right a lot of that's labor too so um so it's not

221all materials the when we did it for Forest Middle we also had a a management company helping us balance that out but watching what we did there I think it makes sense to really do it on the big equipment um a lot of little invoices coming in is kind of a lot going through our system in pain so I I think on some of the bigger equipment stuff we'll try to negotiate that into there and I'll make sure legal that I'm fine with doing that without violating the bid process I want to make sure I don't violate that okay that's good point just frame of reference on Far midle those savings were between 250 and $300,000 on 20 some million so it's know a percent or more um in that case agressive with it People

222Help USR um cly [Music] our all right well do we have a motion to approve the have a motion by Mr H to approve the little BS to I think they're presented very clearly in the attachment so I think one motion so the Lo B is presented okay do we have a second on that first all right final discussion your approval of the low bids would would allow us to enter contracts with these companies as as listed um pending available funding and that that really is kind of a matter of course it's written into all the materials anyway but we I just want to make sure you were clearly aware by approving the little bit on all six we may not get to enter in all six we may only enter my question is do

223we need to say pending money I think I think we certainly can that to so Hill is amending his motion to include a word pending that's correct okay all right still second all right so uh any final discussion not all those in favor of the amended motion use the word pending say I can opposed amended motion is approved unanimously look forward to hearing about more comfortable schools in the future and I hope Miss Harrison and I are going to go walk Boonsboro Halls once it's done you'll be able to run and not even break a sweat I about that that's great and I hope the schools will also be given some control on temperature and their schools and the ability to adjust temperatures if things get too hot or too cold or the fan comes

224on it in opportune times I it feels good after freezing and together for years all right Miss Jennings cak nominations please join us in good evening board members as it Le on between the special education advisory committee and the school board part of your information tonight is to consider the candidates for seak membership as presented by the cak these candidates were reviewed and recommended by cak members as an advisor to the cak I am not involved in selection and vetting of any candidates for membership and only serve to present them for your consideration tonight any questions for discussion we do have the names and brief bios of all of the nominees this time so it's great to get to know some of these individuals thank you for the see for doing that for us I

225have a question um how many members are on the comme oh you would ask me that we can have up to I think it's 19 members right now I think we're sitting at about 10 okay we're always looking for parents um as well as students and community service providers and I know m brown that is fantastic choice great choice absolutely there's no further discussion we have a motion I make a motion that nominations presented Dr we adopt the C nominations as presented do we have a second second second by miss hariston any final discussion not all those in favor please say I I any opposed and your Committee just got bger all right thank you policy update presented at the November 11th board meeting Dr cor the last board presented 18 policies for information are

226there any questions or concerns from the board before you yes I have okay so policy GCL that's the professional development um according to um article A8 section two the Constitution um we are supposed to we are this is required as per the uh General Assembly but I only see the word provided except in the very last part where it says mental health awareness training is required so and and I've had brought this up before brought it up last year as well um you know if we look at even the first two parts bed County Board provides a program of high quality professional development provide teachers and principles with high quality professional development programs each year in these areas which are pulled right out of code um but that doesn't mean usually provided doesn't mean that

227it's required so are we not requiring our staff to be to be participating in professional development mean like it's required for the school board members and and the superintendent principles and teachers um it is they are provided do I know that every single staff member does every single one of these every single year that is not the case this is the vsba recommendation um that it does say provided and that it does um require the addition was the Yellow Part required to complete mental health training awareness um um so I guess you're asking that it say required not provide right because I'm I'm just wondering if you tell me it's provided that does not necessarily mean that I have to do it but I think this division but I think if you say required wouldn't

228it mean that every single teacher would have to do every single one of these every single you could always amend that to say in some of the following areas I'm just here's my question okay the ultimate goal is to have qual high quality professional development under the code under the Virginia Constitution so what what do we do to ensure that our teachers that all of our teachers at some time or another have had quality professional development like how do we be sure like even the board members how are we sure that each person is actually get getting professional development how do we make sure that our teachers are getting it how do we make sure our principles are getting it I I don't want to be mistaken and and have people think I need to

229tell you what you need profession right we try to provide need it we try to provide in these areas every single year and we document how that's provided um some of those things when teachers come into the system things that are required and things that are documented um it is not however documented for every single teacher in every single category so we really don't know if teachers on a professional development day you know suppos you have an independent professional day that they are in fact acquiring some professional development all we know is we provid well we know we know what they have signed up for um we know what we've offered um do we know that they have completed all of the ones on this list that's what we don't know yeah and I'm not

230saying they should it's in the following area so I would be happy to revise it if that's what you're asking I I'm just I guess my my what I want to know is how how do we follow that our teachers have all at one time or another received professional development within the calendar year how do I how if I asked you did Susan Johnson have professional development would you know whether she did or not well through the through UniFi Talent we do track in UniFi talent and everything gets rolled to their transcript for Renewal because every 10 years they have to have their points for Renewal and it is all tracked in that system and the courses that they take within that system even on professional development days are registered in there and their attendance

231is registered Okay so does someone then check that does a principal at some time check that to make sure everyone in his or her building has in fact received professional development has received professional development at all at all yeah because if every 10 years I can take all the points I need in the last year well from the days we provide every single year in those professional development days teachers are participating in those days that are dedicated to professional development all of our teachers are doing that unless they would be abs on all of the days yeah I'm assuming if someone that's different story yes they're participating they are participating it is and administrators are monitoring that and they're making sure that they attend the sessions that are provided yes okay yes I feel good

232about all that okay I guess what I would add Dr mil it does say in the policy that all instructional Personnel are required it does have to the word requirement there to this SP year in professional development program so there is a those are a statement of requirement there and as U Dr gal was stating through our um uh unified Town particularly the professional development module um we have various individuals through departments that actually send out to our employees those trainings that are required whether it be TI online or Corona virus or instructional kinds of things and they are they are actually represented with any individual's personal required training uh site that they go to okay and as Dr C was saying the transcripts that they've completed those trainings go into their own record and

233we can actually run reports regarding those that were assigned them and whether those required training for about completed and the principes Do Run those reports on things like on things like bloodborne pathogen Title 9 those trainings they run those reports and check or we send the report to them and we check to make sure those things are completed but just on some of these things that are more you choose this or you choose this that's that's where they you know they might not be provided every single one every single year right yeah I'm just I just want to make sure that they are getting some so that's fine they are getting it thank you um policy JFC and that the drugs in school um I wanted to know after the uh first the first section

234generally it has four bullets down there and it says that no person manufactured sell distributor possess would intend to sell give or distribute any control substance or imitation control substance while and the third bullet says on any school bus so my question is um just because you you know this who should I be talking to I'm so sorry Dr D sorry um because um it's I'm on any school bus I could I I just wonder do we need to say or any other type of school transportation because I don't know anymore are students transported via a van at any time or a car because I could see a child getting trouble saying well it wasn't on the school bus so I just wanted to know whether we actually trans we have a few students to

235um ride in cars to and from school each day um in special circumstances and we also use sometimes other vehicles for extracurricular on smaller Vehicles so there are instances do you all have an objection to adding or just saying any school transportation or let them figure out a word for that so that cover with all that I think we can I just would want us to be situation we're not um and I have one more jfca and I'm sure some people say oh my gosh but I am bringing this up because quite a few of the other policies if you read them had edits in them um to correct uh punctuation things um so on J F CF um CA excuse me it is the teacher removal of students from class and it has criteria

236for removal it had four bullets we are now down to one bullet so it should be criteria Criterion singular criteria is plural and so it would need to be fixed there and then in that sentence in that the final sentence in that area when the above criteria has been satisfied oh and I just have one question JF who is the compliance officer retali it depends on whether it is if it is the student um it is Scott Simmons if it is a personnel it is Fred Conor and those are listed on the website um all the compliance officers are listed on the website thank you and then the record keeping who maintains those records for the seven years that we required to do that and JF are you still in the JF I am in

237the uh J GBA JF ha um that would be Dr Conor okay all right thank you so much questions did just have one I'm trying to find the right right one now yes post policy gbg I am so excited this one is coming up for approval and I hope never hear about other staff members that are denied First Amendment rights or that are bullied harassed punished for the personal political abs ever ever again so um looking forward to voting on that especially all right work all right so do we have a motion to approve the policy move have motion by Dr HS do we have a second second second by Dr any final discussion or questions all those in favor please say I I oppos no Miss Johnson would you please P Miss Harriston yes

238Dr Hicks yes Mr Hill no Mr Johnson yes Mrs Kirby yes Dr mey yes the eyes have it John all the action items for tonight so superintendent report Dr Bergen thank you Mr chairman board members the month since we were last together our students and our staff have continued to do amazing things tonight I'd like to recognize some of those accomplishments beginning with our fpans at Stan River High School the uh Stan River High School theaters one act cast and crew took second place at the region 3D theater Festival l Crutchfield was also honored with outstanding after award congratulations to Lea and to Stan thank you st fpan at Jefferson Forest High School the Cavalry theater program was named vhsl region 4D champions for their production of the comedy of ER Sky Evans received outstanding

239actor recognition and Sarah ly LS and Paul Reed were H mentions and they will now be competing at the state championship at monachella high school on the 11th of December congratulations to our JF ESP Liberty high schools Gan Willis was just named one of the regional outstanding economic Educators by the Virginia Council of economic education this award honors Innovative and engaging approaches to teaching entrepreneurship economics or personal finance at the K12 level and it was earlier just this evening that she was recognized virtually during the 2021 economic educator Awards so congratulations to Miss Willis you don't recognize this Jo man up on the screen that is coach Sean W from Stant River High School head football coach he has been named coach of the year for the Blue Ridge District for this season coach leard

240has led his staff and his student athletes through challenging times finishing this season with a four and six record making the playoffs for the first time in Four Seasons when he was asked about his honor coach Leonard was quick to deflect and acknowledge his assistant coaches and his student athletes who have worked hard over these last three years to get to this point the team had five all District award recipients as well as two All Region 3view selections so congratulations coach lard we continue to be so very thankful for our partnership with the Bedford area Education Foundation board members is I think your well aware the foundation Awards thousands of dollars each year in Grants for our teachers classroom needs recently and congratulations to Julie Arthur for applying for and receiving for monv elementary school

241and and Linda Sylvia at forse elementary school Grant Awards Miss Arthur is building up her classroom library with more books for her students with her award and this Sy is creating calming corners for children across the school recently it was my privilege to attend the Bedford American region Post 54 regular meeting held on November 23rd uh I was there to meet the Legion and ask them in our strategic planning conversation the same two questions that I've been asking anytime on engaging with the community what is it to you love about our school division are strengths we can build upon and what are some of the challeng what are some of the questions or concerns you have which are challenges we can address together that was the purpose of my attending but when I arrived I

242was just so pleased to see that the room was full of some of our students because it just so happened at that meeting the region was recognizing our students who have participated in the boy State program where the auxiliary girl State program they were there to share their experiences so all four of the boys who have attended boy State and one of the three girls were appion meeting and spoke about their experiences so uh the pictures are a little small up there but if you know them you would recognize McKenna Garrett from Liberty High School Lon erson and theore L from JF John Payne from Liberty and Daniel Terry from Stanton River and as I listen to the students talk about that voice I shared with them it was a dà for me because it

243was just about 40 years ago to the date that I was standing that meeting that I stood in front of an American Legion meeting as a 17-year-old American leg sending me to voice State and listening to the students hard about their experiences it was very same experience I had had when I as a high school student also at the meeting for sergeant retired one Hutton H be Legion here gave a report on bford County's Junior RC program which of course he with Lieutenant Colonel retired mat pay and they have ay program has a very close relationship with Post 54 that supports them financially as part of the presentation that evening RC Cadet John Payne was recognized as the recipient of the 2021 gold medal for Scholastic Excellence so again thank you to the uh region

244for their support of our students and congratulations to our students on their recognition and sticking in that Lan of patriotism and closing if you are not aware Tuesday Happ be the 80th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor December 7 1941 which was of course a date which will live an infamy as expressed by then president Rosevelt as the President also stated with confidence in our armed forces and with the unbounding determination of our people we will gain the inevitable Triumph so help us God so I'd like to take this moment in my closing prise to recognize all of those who have defended our country and all those who have made the and sacrifice as we look back on this date in our nation's history Mr chair that concludes by remarks thank you thank you

245Dr congratulations to all of our students absolutely all right matters of concerns from the board that Mr so again Dr ber thank you for doing that each we it keeps us from having to repeat rep repeat so I really like that so congratulations to everyone that was recognized tonight uh the only comments that I want to make tonight is just publicly thank Dr Hicks and Mr Johnson for your service uh I appreciate the time that we've spent together and I look forward to seeing what you guys do next Missy you back yeah I'm sounding like a broken record um thank you Jason thank you God appreciate you um it's going to feel weird I've been here since I've been here it's going to be weird to not have any here beir not but I I

246do think you wish you the best on your future endeavors um and thank you to the parents for your continued patience and understanding um during the bus driver shortage I oh I know how frustrating it can be you get call the day before you don't have a way to get kids school um so thank you for continue patience and if you know of anyone we found out we had 17 signed up for the driver training on Saturday if you know anyone that would be interested in driving for us send them out um more marrier um have some free yeah the pay St when when were we going to hear from that they'll present February board meeting they'll present February board that's the date that I gave them okay perfect and what am I hearing um

247what is the status of Saturday night at St Riv I know it's the H sa induction which my nie is going be inducted just better in there um but are they still on for that yes man one game was canell but they will push up all the games excuse me so the ceremony will still be at the same time prior to the girls okay thank you so much and last thing is I everybody I hope you have a very Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year um well I want to begin by just saying to both you and Dr that um it's just been an honor for me um to serve alongside of you um I tell you when I when I look at Jason uh we go way back um I was actually um

248his principal when he was um at the middle school and he was just one of my favorite students then and he's still very much a favorite um I wish you the best Jason you've done a fabulous job an outstanding job your heart your compassion your commitment to the students to our school division it's just wonderful and I'm going to miss you and for John we sered as principles together and we had some debates on the years about various things but your wisdom John is just um amazing your Comm I'm going to miss that um and I'm just so grateful to have served along that's all I have Dr u i attended the Christmas Cabaret at je far last week and it was another outstanding performance by the JF the students twoos to Mr M white

249for their efforts I also attended this CBS board meeting last week uh planning is underway for student selection for next year with a virtual program ofite this year for prospective B County students their parents and invitations for that will go out on December 17th and as the final note it's been an honor and a privilege for me to serve all the students of V County and the citizens of District 3 for the past n and a half years I'm proud to have been a part of such an outstanding School Division thatst sir Dr M um I again want to also thank Dr Bergen for the rec that's just fabulous we're not all repeating the same thing and I think you do better job than we did actually so thank you so much for that um

250I I too I I don't even really know what to say to you all I you've given so much of your time and your life will a great job as aair you of could fill that job so uh thank you so much for the the job that you did with that um I know I miss both of you I feel like I really kind of just gotten to know you um and U I just also appreciate WIS that you share with us and Co heads called than one time Jason so um I appreciate that I'm just going to miss you both as well wish you the best and you're going to be having dinner with your wife at the start of the next board meeting in January I told you had to go do something

251fun I don't know what you're doing but it needs to be something fun so you need to pick out something um I also want to thank Mr Edwards for his presentation for you all so thank you Mr Edwards for taking care of that for us um I appreciate that um I also want to thank mom I the angel on your shoulder out Dev the out um I I also just want to um ask if you don't have to answer that at this time Mr Dr it's too late um last last month I asked about the oan REM for um staff that uh some staff uring person use from some community members and I asked about the remedy for that perhaps under own what a remedy could be for them so could you just get with

252me and figure out if there is anything that can be done if that happens true fure I apprciate that and um just because um we're running late here um Dr I do have some um I appreciate your memo about the gas thank you so much but I do have some other questions about that so I will um get with you um about um how we can even refine that a little bit more um I just do have one question do we do we get our gas from a broker or an actual gas company we solicit bids each year for fuel to lock in a price for the year that Mak sense so done that the last several years um companies U some of them direct providers some of them Pur from another vend enter bids

253and so we piow price is that happen now are with at time um I I I don't know that I can answer about their corporate structure but I certainly can find out we do have new new bid information going out very soon so that we can consider that January the next um because I'm just concerned remain concerned about about that and um why even prior to to um the pandemic we were periodically running out of gas also one one more question and I'll ask the rest call you um is the tank at been replaced or is that still in the pipeline to be replaced it has not and it is in the pipeline to be replaced do we know when that will happen I don't have a date uh we're also considering the tank is

254in the middle school for an upgrade um both the size and the um environmental U safeguards you know with a new tank will be be an improvement and so um uh we have placed tank m schol a long time to come to us but it's it's on its so um we'll be looking to definitely inrease small [Music] tank as we begin researching that uh and and then studying all of our tanks um size of the tank is one thing um their ability to meet environmental requirements and so um into the prioritization there and so we felt first priority to go after that um certainly okay thank you think that's all I have I also want to um just wish everyone a Merry Christmas thank you dry be remiss if I did not begin with a

255few congratulations as always uh so congratulations to coach Kim Jones of the stiner varsity girls basketball team for uh for Milestone 200 career wins as a coach uh happened Friday night Liberty High School the only thing that would have made that 200 win mark better was if that 200th win had come against JF but you know we had to take our wins where we can and the season is Young so maybe that one will be will be coming in the future um attended the Bedford Christmas parade on Saturday and saw a number of our students in in there U JROTC at Susie Gibson bands from all three high schools Cavalier theater spreading a little uh Christmas cheer along the Route uh the Liberty Middle and the Liberty High School ffas um and Forest Football team

256I don't think was Forest Middle School team but it's a group of forest kids so great to see all of our our students out participating in that showcasing their talents for the whole Community to see uh finally also congratulations to JF JS one act play I got to see the performance of that of the comedy be one of those Shakespeare plays little SE there um but I wish them all the best on Saturday when they're competing and trying to get that three p state tournament um when so best of of luck to them Dr Hicks it has been an honor and a privilege to serve alongside you over the years your wisd we have a little say in our house that Dr kcks doesn't speak often but when he does it's worth listening to and

257that has never been more true than this year and I thank you for as everyone said your your calm quiet leadership and your wisdom and I I know you've had a long career at education I hope you can get some rest and spend some enjoyable quality time with your family um and thanks to the community for giving me the privilege and opportunity of serving you for just over nine years there's something unique and special about serving the community that you grew up in and that no matter what you may heard that you live in um I attended Med Elementary St River Middle and St River High and so to have the opportunity to go in those schools and see the work that they do there day in and day out see the amazing teachers that

258we have the amazing students that we have I could not be prouder to serve those it is one of the highlights of my professional life I've had been blessed with some great jobs but to be able to cheer on the local kids has been great one of my finest memories will always be standing on the sidelines when Stant were played for their first ever state championship in football 50 plus years never been to a game until that one I don't tell you who they played because that was my co-workers never let put on down but it was a fantastic experience all the performances and everything that I've got to attend it's been wonderful I've never missed a meeting or skipped a meeting there have been a few I haven't been able to attend in person

259so I called in never missed a hard vote um when I shortly after I uh joined the board I talked to a friend of mine who was the executive director of the Republican party of Virginia and I told him you know I don't understand because when I was running these issues seemed so clear so black and white and now they're so gray and he gave me some advice Jason everything looks different on the other side of the Horseshoe when you're in the gallery or you're watching from home you see one side of the story when you're here and you get all the information you see something totally different and the decisions become harder and more complex in Nuance than you would ever imagine and it would be easy some nights when there's a difficult vote

260that you don't want to cast to just you call and Si or be out of town but I never did because reps need to be here and I'm proud of that do I have a fear with reps absolutely there's always in nine years a few votes you might want to take back here and there but I live by um something Kevin Willis told me when I first started he said Jason at the end of the day you're the one who has to look at the man in the mirror and the question is are you going to like the reflection looking back at you I'm pleased to say mes yeah I can say that reminds me of something Teddy Roosevelt TR said I don't want to go all mixian on you but um a little TR

261quote for you he said I'd rather go out to politics having the feeling that I had done what was right and stay in with your approval all men knowing in my heart that I acted as I ought not to leadership is about being willing to make unpopular decisions to protect the people and the institutions that you serve I knew that actions that we had to take this summer were not going to be popular universally and it would be easy to take the easy route out but that's not what leadership is about leading the board during turbulent times like this requires that this cby is you move into the chair role next year I hope when those hard votes come up that you can dig deep and find that interv courage um thanks for my parents

262um I rent to Governor McDonald former Governor McDonald in Lynchburg back in Maine and he pointed out and he of all people should know this the public service is often harder on the ones you love than it is on people and and you heard a little taste of that uh tonight um so I want to thank my mom and dad for their patience and their long suffering for all the nights that um I spent in the other room on the telephone instead of uh spending time with you um looks like you're going to get to spend a lot more time with me now For Better or For Worse um and I know it hasn't been an easy nine years in the last year especially you had to hear a lot of things um Jason doesn't

263live in Bedford County Jason's a liberal I heard that tonight um calling me a liberal my my actual liberal friends find this hilarious by the way um that I'm a communist um my favorite was that I'm a George Soros plant I I would like to confirm on the record that I have never met nor received any checks from George Soros um but you know many thanks to to M and dad for for dealing with all of that with Grace and humor and the the jokes that we make about um about some of the crazy stuff that that people say uh about me sometimes um now on Election Day someone asked me so how long have you lived in bford County well um it's a long story so I when my parents brought me home from

264lunburg General Hospital it was to house on White House Road that's basically where I've lived ever since but my family goes way back so my ancestors first came to Bedford County in the 177s during the American Revolution and we've lived in the Stant River area before Smith Mountain Lake uh ever since this is a picture you know those of in the back and watching from M probably can't see it but this is air School air School is located a mile from our house Bedford County built it in 1913 for a grand total of $650 a little bit different from the prices we heard tonight for the new auditoriums this is where my great grandparents all attended and my grandmother and her siblings my grandmother Emma Mayu loveed learning unfortunately in school only had seven grades

265as did most of our field schools at that time um so what did to do when she finished seventh grade she repeated it twice more because she wanted to continue learning the nearest high school was 5 miles away in Manita but B County didn't offer public transportation at that time [Music] and farm families couldn't provide transportation so Emma did what she had to do um it was only 40 years earlier that public education even became a thing as we know it today in bford county in 1870 even though um Mr Jefferson had proposed it about a century earlier it wasn't until 1870 with the Reconstruction ending Underwood Constitution that the public school system as we know it today was created that Constitution I'm proud to say was passed with the support of two Republican delegates

266from Bedford County Gaston Curtis and Reverend de David Staley they made possible to have public education shortly after that my great-grandfather John Quincy Mayu was named after the president who um made a name for himself opposing the excesses of Andrew Jackson was one of the first students in that school and he got this little little book from his teacher Sophia thural um for spelling uh from Bedford school number six March 29th 1887 one of about 170 schools that existed across our County um during during that time 1902 the Underwood Constitution was thrown out by John G Bedford who was recently honored with a banner in Centertown Bedford who presided over an illegal Constitutional Convention that proclaimed Virginia's Jim crew Constitution without a public referendum public education survived the new constitution but the hard earned civil

267rights that the Underwood Constitution established did not and believe it or not it would not be until the 70s before that Constitution was finally scrapped and the new one was created it was under this Constitution that Bedford County would essentially operate two separate and very unequal school systems until 1966 when the Johnson Administration finally put its foot down on massive resistance the superintendent was summoned to roll up along with other Regional superintendents to learn more about the federal government's expectations regarding integration Board of Supervisors apparently in a m moment bulked at Federal interance in a local decision encouraged the board to forego Federal funding various Community groups urged the school board to resist at least interest in L until Jefferson Forest could open in' 67 he argued the school system was promoting communist anti-christian ideas

268I share the story for two reasons first it shows how far we have come as a School Division um and it also demonstrates Solomon's wisdom that there is truly nothing new Under the Sun today we still have people seeing Communists working behind every Bush and believe every new policy is the Vanguard of the Revolution we still have people destroying scripture and weaponizing religion to justify their own personal views we need more Republican leaders like Gaston Curtis and David Staley I chose to run again not because I was a parent but because I saw a need and I wanted to step up and we have many families and individuals like that in our County I think of my friend Barry TSH his son's graduated from Stan River he has no one else there but he stays

269on so the PTSA can continue to operate to continue to support our teachers and our staff there if we are to be effective as as a School Division it can't just be parents it has to be parents and community and students and teachers working together in cooperation we used to have a a saying that guided our School Division what's best for kids we heard that a lot um that's something I think we need to get back to sometimes what's best for kids is not always what's popular or what people are going to like but it's what's best for them so I think of some of the issues that we addressed on that and it was bullying and my friend and neighbor Laura Ellis and her mom Brenda that worked so hard to get an anti-bullying

270policy we've come a long way and I remember my own experience as a as a bully or being bullied I remember kid in Middle School who spattered my face on the school bus and then my dad and I had to take it to miss hariston for adjudication I remember how it feels to be bullied and I never wanted another student to feel like that we've come a long way we still got a long way to go but now we have Anonymous reporting apps and we have worked hard to create more awareness of B when I first started we only had I we at five schools fully accredited we had overcrowding in our schools mobile classrooms I think we had more mobile classrooms and we had brick and M buildings had infrastructure and accessibility issues we

271still have have many challenges but we have addressed those together some of the things that we do still need to continue focusing on learning loss in our changing world statistics say that today's students will change careers not just jobs but careers multiple times two to three at least how are we preparing students to constantly reinvent and adapt themselves as as things change staff morale we've heard a lot about sta morale what can we do for that drivers driver shortages we constantly hear about that infrastructure needs we talked again tonight about the Kennedy era um auditoriums that need something done to them that's not the only thing we finally got an elevator at Stan middle school so that students who have mobility issues don't have to go outside in the rain and the cold and yet

272we still have people saying we don't really need that it's not going to help that many people we have a lot of infrastructure needs that got postponed because of the Great Recession it's time to get to work on fixing those addressing these challenges will require teamwork and CR critical creative thinking to solve problems there will be no oniz fit-all Solutions and basketball games won't move the needle on this we have to dig deep and find real honest Solutions so to everyone out there tonight especially our School Employees to our teachers and our Librarians who feel tired and burnt out to our Paras who constantly have new challenges facing them every day to our bus drivers dealing with lots of different regulations and emotions to our nurses who get harassed probably more than any other School

273employee right now to our nutrition workers dealing with uh supply chain shortages to our custodians who do God's work every day keeping our schools clean and safe our office staff and our Administration both here and in our schools I want to remind you one of my favorite verses let us not be weary in what doing for in due season we shall reap if we faint not so keep on keeping on on the days that look Bleak and dark when you get cursed at on the phone when kids are a little crazy because it's almost winter break be not weary and well dooing keep doing God's work day in and day out because people are counting on you the next generation is on your shoulders and my final comment that would like to thank Santa Claus

274for the the um camo time that is the first article of camo I have um and I I think it just I think it just proves a point if we would log off social media turn off cable news pause those podcasts and actually get out and talk to our neighbors not about politics but just life we might find that we have more in common than we think and as Mr Reagan would say you might find that your 80% FR is not your 20% enemy so on that note I'd like to wish everyone a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year and this is not goodbye Mr do hick should do the your last sounds great so on that note do we have a mo with the final motion have second second by Mr hilling

275there's no discussion all those in favor please say I any post