School Board Meeting 7/8/2021 - 5:00 PM

001okay dr hicks can you hear us all right thank you july 2021 meeting the bedford county school board to order uh as a side note uh we had to go deep into the bench our vice chair is on vacation and our chair is running late so um i'm coming off the bench for a little bit until jason gets here miss johnson please call roll mr johnson ms harrison here dr hicks yeah mr hill here mr lamy here dr maylie here mrs kirby uh mr lemmy there is a quorum presence okay thank you uh do i have a motion to allow board members to participate remotely in the regular meeting in accordance with bcs policy bdd so moved mr chair i have a motion by dr milly do i have a second second second by mr

002hill discussion all is in favor signify by saying aye aye opposed do i have a motion to approve the agenda uh mr chairman i would like to uh make a motion that yeah but i wanna know for the agenda okay i want to uh for the consent agenda yes i would like to vote separately on 7.06 outside of the all at one time okay i have a motion to amend the agenda to consider item 7.06 separate from the cassette agenda do i have a second second second by ms hairston discussion all those in favor signify by saying hi okay uh item 7.06 will be considered uh separate from the consent agenda do i have a motion to approve the agenda as amended someone listened by mr hill do i have a second second second by

003dr mealy discussion all those in favor signify by saying aye aye all right proposed okay the amended agenda is approved do i have a motion to go into closed session uh mr chairman i make a motion that we go into closed session uh pursuant to code of virginia 2.2-3711a1 to discuss the assignment appointment performance discipline and release of contract for specific school board employees that's it okay i have a motion by mr miller discussion i was in favor signify by saying hi hi all right now in closed session excuse me i want to play with it again my apologies for delay earlier i found out lately about a little health issue so i feel like i'm moving in slow motion right now but it's good to be good to be back uh so do we

004have a motion to come out of closed session mr chairman i move that we come out of closed session all right we have a motion by dr emily to come out closed session we have a second second second by mr lamy all those in favor please say aye aye any opposed we are back in open session that's a great question is dr hicks back yes okay great all right ms johnson would you please certify yes sir all right great thank you sir all right miss johnson would you please certify closed session whereas the bedford county school board has convened a closed meeting on this date pursuant to an affirmative recorded vote and in accordance with the provisions of the virginia freedom of information act and where section 2.2-3712-d if the code of virginia requires a

005certification by this school board that such closed meeting was conducted in conformity with virginia law now therefore be it resolved that the bedford county school board hereby certifies that to the best of each member's knowledge only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements by virginia law were discussed in the closed meeting to which the certification applies and only such public business matters as were identified in the motion convening the closed meeting were heard discussed or considered yes yes yes yes yes doctor pix yes thank you no no action on closed items closed session items tonight okay so at this point we will move into the public portion of our meeting with item 3.01 history curriculum update and i do want to apologize for the confusion earlier about tonight's meeting being closed um and

006want to thank wsct for very promptly correcting that and the story as soon as it was brought to their attention so for the public portion of the meeting dr woodford history curriculum update thank you good evening mr chairman and members of the board we're happy to share an update with you on changes to the history curriculum from kindergarten through 12th grade that has been implemented by the virginia department of education tonight tonight i would like to explain the difference between critical race theory and culturally responsive teaching which has really been the center of a lot of some misinformation across the state and in addition i will share the new training the updated history standards of learning in virginia that is going to be implemented this school year and shares some of the work from the

007african american history education commission that has been working over the last two years before i share anything i would like to define crt to some that may stand for critical race theory but in virginia and specifically in bedford county it means culturally responsive teaching critical race theory is a term that was first used in the 1970s at the harvard law school as a legal term that offers a framework for understanding systematic racism and seeks to examine and evaluate our systems for instance law policy finance health care housing and it seeks to examine how race and systematic racism is ingrained in those systems critical race theory is not an academic curriculum and it is not being taught through any of the updated virginia history sols many have cited that critical race theory is the basis for

008all work with adults and students that is being done with inclusion and diversity which is not true what the state history sols and the education leaders at the virginia department of education and we in bedford county schools are promoting is a culturally responsive teaching and practices this way of teaching engages learners by respecting their cultural integrity it accommodates the dynamic mix of race ethnicity class gender region religion and family that contributes to every student's cultural identity culturally responsive teaching crt attempts to bridge the gap between teachers and student by helping the teacher understand the cultural nuances that shape a student cultural competency and equitable practices are essential for teachers to achieve success in the commonwealth's increasingly diverse schools therefore the virginia board of education has set a new expectation that teachers and administrators be evaluated

009on cultural competencies in march of this year new legislation added cultural competency as an additional standard to the teacher evaluation system in the spring of 2022 the state plans to release teacher training that will be required for teachers and administrators in addition training for the updates to the history sols will also be provided to history teachers examples of teacher work and practices aligned with the new cultural competency standard include disaggregating assessment data behavioral data attendance data by student subgroups identifying and applying differentiated strategies to address growth and learning needs of all students and specifically those students in gaap groups fostering classrooms that create opportunities to assess achievement by acknowledging valuing and advocating and affirming cultural and social diversity in all spec aspects of learning including thinking about gender race ethnicity english language learners and our

010students with disabilities and building on meaningful relationships with all students anchored in affirmation respect and validation by employing culturally responsive teaching practices and by modeling high expectations for all of our students on august the 24th 2019 governor northam signed executive order 39 establishing the commission on african american history education in the commonwealth the governor tasked the commission with thoroughly examining virginia's history standards and professional development practices with the goal of improving the way african-american history is taught in virginia schools commission members included university professors historians advocates school board members faith leaders and k-12 educators from across the commonwealth i am proud to mention that our very own crystal delong served on this commission at the state level executive order 39 tasked the commission with issuing a report no later than september 1st 2020 with recommendations

011including but not limited to technical edits and recommendations for enriched standards related to african american history a broader consideration for the full history and social studies standards and a review process of them and the necessary professional development and instructional supports for teachers to ensure culturally competent instruction the following year the commission met and formed subgroups that then made recommendations for k-12 curriculum edits and additions that created a more inclusive language covers diverse backgrounds and highlight african-american landmarks and historical figures as i shared with you earlier today in email you will see the redline edits that will be implemented this fall in all of our k-12 classrooms that the commission suggested based on the information from the commission and from the virginia department of education bedford county schools will be doing the following this school year

012we will implement all of the updated history sols in k12 classrooms this school year all of these updates have already been incorporated into our pacing guides and we'll be the focus of training in august when our teachers return while there are many edits i want to share just a few examples of what you can expect in the changes as i said earlier i shared the full document with you which is located on the department of education website but just a few pull-outs just so you can see a little bit of what the some of the changes are so for instance in the kindergarten k-3 sol junete june 19th is added as a holiday and an event and a tradition along with martin luther king jr day thanksgiving president's day in second grade you'll see that

013there's just some language changes um you know rather than saying um martin luther king jr worked we used the word advocated and then we just noted or the doe noted that he was an important leader at the civil rights movement who fought to end racial segregation so the red places that you will see in your curriculum crossover guide that i sent today are the additions or changes and you will see that throughout that document it's a lot about language it's a lot about information it's about clarifying information so this is just an example of an upper grade level us history two and virginia u.s history and again it's becoming much more specific and it's giving specific information and truths about our history that are important for our students to understand and so those are just

014a few examples of some of the edits you'll see in that crossover document and some of the information that will be taught this fall to our students in addition this year we're offering um the elective african-american history course at all three hospitals and i want you to know that this african-american history course has been in our program of studies um over a decade um what we did in the fall was we really emphasized to our students that the curriculum was changing in this course and we really wanted them um to try out this course and and see what it had to offer we had history teachers that received professional development and they were excited about that course this is a full credit elective course that surveys african-american history and we are lucky to say that

015we have all three high schools have one section of that course that they are teaching this school year with three of our best history teachers that have been trained and who are going to be working together as we come back in the fall to put curriculum together i would be happy to answer any questions that i can that you may have regarding this information that i've shared and i'm also available i know that the documents for the curriculum are lengthy and probably you need a little time with that and i'm happy to answer questions over the next few weeks or at any point if you have them okay yes i just have one parents are able to access this through the vdoe website this document correct and it's also located on our website um under

016the instruction tab under history so there's a link to the document that's either place that they can go and see all of the changes that have been made all of the changes and we've uploaded it as the red line version so you can see what's been added taken away all of that so parents just done i'm speaking more to the parents have any concerns they should go to that document regarding their child's grade level to see if uh to review what will be in the courses this coming school year correct and if they have any questions they too can feel free to reach out to myself or to our new director secondary education dr trasper we'll be happy oh thanks for living what produced you on one of your slides you specifically identified or addressed

017correction to misinformation would you care to cite some specifics of the misinformation that has been corrected so some of that information would be um that kind of a soft example is that you know the idea that um slaves perhaps were happy and satisfied the language is just very clear that slavery was you know not a positive thing in our history and that we should talk about it and be open about that so it's a little bit about how the language has been worded that it's very um specific to exactly what happened rather than i would say maybe being a little bit weaker in the language of what we're teaching so it just gives very specific information about what actually happened and it has added a few details in history that perhaps we haven't been teaching

018in the past and i and i don't have my uh paper with me but i'm happy to look for some specifics and send it to you i appreciate that sure and i read through the african-american history course map and i took i took a few notes okay and i recognized it's not a bedford county public schools generated course map correct i'm a history major college psy i have no problems with history being taught on any topic the issue that i have with this course map is how it's taught it's being taught with a sociological stand slant with some history with history embedded into it in my humble opinion in its current form the this course map is simply state-sponsored progressive political activism and indoctrination and it's camouflaged as a history elective i'm glad to hear

019that it's on i'm glad to hear that it's on the website uh i encourage parents to look at it and draw their own conclusions that's my humble opinion what other curriculum options are available to bedford county public schools so so the standards of learning and the curriculum provided by the doe um are our guidelines and our map before we purchase any resources and before we were to purchase a textbook it would go through the adoption process for teachers to look at for us to look at for parents to look at and we would be very careful about what resources we purchased just because it's recommended by the department of education doesn't necessarily mean we're just going to automatically purchase them we will look at different resources and we will be very careful about what we

020put into our classrooms um and any resources that that promote critical race theory would not be something that we would purchase and put in classrooms okay so we are not we are not by statute or regulation required to follow this particular course fact is that correct or incorrect so the information like those are the topics that would be covered and that's the information that would be covered i think where we get into uh more of what you're concerned about is the curriculum resources we purchase to teach that information well i mean where i'm going with this is i saw i think it was page 56 a reference to 1619 project which uh exists to reframe history which i'm not a fan of also reference to candy things like that disturb me and i have serious

021reservations about again about how this this course map is written and how it's going to be presented to our kids if you don't mind if if i could go back and look at that and the resources with it and and i will get in touch with you and we can talk about your concerns thank you i don't want you to be concerned about anything we're teaching very concerned so matt mr hilton so my question is this class an environment for our students to graduate no sir it's an elective so it is not a required course it's an elective how i i heard something about we were making sure we were going out to our students to encourage them to take this course well we what we were doing is we were letting our students know

022that this course was still available even though students hadn't been signing up for it um what we let them know is that there had been updates that there were updates to the course and that if they were interested we did have a course on on african american history and so i think what you know students are starting to get more involved in in thinking about history and so we just had more students sign up and you know we encourage them that the other thing is we've always talked about we needed at least 15 kids in a class to make that class go and we kind of committed to even if it were a small group of kids we were going to try to support that course and and still allow it to to move forward

023we didn't have to worry about that we had plenty of students sign up so so when we were signing up for classes was our administration encouraging kids to take this class no sir no we no guidance counselors were just you know when students were looking at electives they were talking through these are electives that are offered um and you know this this course has been updated if you're interested in it so it's always the student's choice especially with electives the the other piece was we we also part of the encouragement is to encourage teachers to get trained so we were encouraging our teachers if you're interested in teaching a course like this training is really important and we had teachers who are interested so that also helps us make a course more available to students

024because we have people trained to do it and do it properly i am interested in number of students that have signed up for this class pre and now the other thing that i will make a statement on i see that the word legends has been crossed out and the word narratives have been replaced narratives can change to whatever people want them to change to so that is a big concern for me and again i want to make sure this was not a bedford county public school change no all of the changes that's a state change that's the virginia department of education this this red line map is not created by bedford county schools this is the curriculum this is the sols of virginia but it is not a requirement for any of our students to

025take this class the african-american history course this class that we're talking correct and sol is not a requirement it's not part of any credit requirement for our students that that particularly african american history course content no sir if that's in order for our students to graduate from bedford county public schools it is not a required credit for them to get a diploma i'm interested in the numbers i'm also interested in how the students were encouraged because my next question would be what other classes are we encouraging our students to take and the other thing that would be a concern is you mentioned the number of students and that we were willing to teach that class anyway i have a concern of that we do that often when we're trying to build a cte course or

026we're trying to build a chorus program sometimes if we have a strong course program at a high school we may have to start small with the so we've done that for lots of courses sometimes that's how we build a program to make sure we were doing it for all yes sir okay this hairstyle thank you mr chairman this is what for the cultural training that the teachers are going to have is it are you using the train the trainer model um actually the training will come from the virginia department of education and i'm not sure how they'll roll that out if it'll be training us to train others or if they'll put out um a module i don't know if dr calvert has heard yet i haven't released it yeah they haven't released it they're

027going to release i believe in the spring so i can let you know once we know how they're going to release that uh dr woodford yes i just have to note that in the year 2021 i'm amazed that douglas wilder is just finally making his appearance in the virginia sols i mean you would think virginia's first african-american governor and i believe the first in the nation would have made his debut in virginia history courses before now and the fact that he's still a dean of virginia politics years from now the politicians from both sides court his endorsement every time you run they run for governor but regardless um so i i guess my my question for you is i know quite well the three teachers that are going to be teaching the african-american history elective

028uh this year and personally i believe they're three of the best history teachers that we have and i can honestly say when i think of radicals none of these teachers come to mind so i i feel very confident with with these three individuals in a classroom but my my question i think aligns well with uh mr hills how much latitude do these teachers have to determine what they will be using and what they will be pulling i know the standards yes but the resources are very much up to the teachers and bedford county schools so we can make sure that the resources and what they're presenting in the class aligns with the interests of bedford community while still giving our students the first opportunity to really study specifically african-american contributions to american history correct correct

029we are fortunate that we have added back into our organizational chart a supervisor of history and so we will be able to make sure that there is appropriate training and appropriate resources sometimes our resources have to catch up with the curriculum so we want to make sure we get those resources to teachers and that we are you know it textbook adoption if we if we go that direction that is a is a more lengthy process and involves a lot of people parents students the school board and so we will be looking at all of those materials to be sure that it aligns with um you know what our community and what the virginia department of education is asking us to do okay so basically more updates to come yes sir okay when might we expect

030those would that be at the august meeting or would that be in between august or i can get this information to you and in probably the next week or so the questions that you've asked me i don't know that i'll have information about trainings until later in the fall and i depending on how quickly we get everything in place for resources it hopefully will be obvious i hate to like promise but as soon as i have it so i need clarification this class is going to begin the updates to this class begins this august or next august it's august this is across every year so that's next month and resources and training haven't been released by the state well there are uh okay that's that was the question back and forth there are resources on

031the doe website they've been released in training okay how are teachers you mentioned that they're evaluated on their culturally responsive teaching that sounds like a kind of squishy subjective sort of uh evaluation process how does that even work so that is not going to be implemented until next year and that's part of the training that will be released in the spring and so there'll be also training for administrators on what does that mean and specifically what are the standards and what does that look like and some of that if i can go back to um so some of it is just about the classroom the environment just how the teacher is making everyone feel welcome how that they are addressing cultural differences also that when teachers are looking at data that they are looking at

032are subgroups and our gap groups as when we do sols for instance reading sols there are subgroups we have our you know our black subgroup we have our hispanic subgroup we have our students with disabilities so when teachers and when administrators are looking at data they are specifically being making sure that they are paying attention to those subgroups and then responding in ways that would be culturally relevant to those students because when you engage with a student understanding their history you can engage them and help them move forward they'll engage with you in instruction if they if you have a relationship with them and they feel like you understand where they're coming from um and building those mutual relationships and again we'll get more training on that that's not being implemented this year that is

033coming down the road the sols are being implemented the culturally responsive um evaluation system added to teachers will start in the next school year and that's what we're going to get more training on okay because it sounds well it sounds obviously there are no metrics in place to adequately adequately um measure that that's my concern is we're going to have we're not going to have to be able to measure or evaluate based on hard data we're going to it's going to be feelings and you know that's subjective and that's unfair and i think it'll be just like the the standard on climate in your classroom and classroom management some of those things are um you know you can measure with data and some are just your kids feel safe and so the doe will give

034us standards and metrics um and and they're working through that and i think they have a very in-depth plan um and they will roll that out to us so and we'll bring that to you i mean that's part of the teacher evaluation system so you'll see that before it's rolled out to teachers thank you dr whitford here's that funding mr hagler sorry everybody's sitting in a different place tonight so i'm gonna struggle to find you all right um talk about some funding um this past year there was uh multiple funding streams that came through uh what i'm going to talk about tonight is really the cares act funding and mainly it's called esser and there are three buckets under that um so i'll refer to them as esser one two and three um under so3

035there were specific requirements to really engage the community and get feedback on what our plan was on that so we we've done that and go did you turn it on well did you turn it off i did i was trying to say i want to see if you thank you there we go um we engaged different stakeholders so um we engaged the bcea the pta and also the superintendent's advisory um and actually we had a shell presentation present to them on an overall plan that the executive administration had put together but that wasn't a final plan we had money in there that wasn't allocated we wanted feedback to really build out what our plan is going to be so we went and presented a plan similar to what i'm presenting tonight on powerpoint uh this

036what i'm presenting tonight covers esser one two and three really with that group it was just tested three which was the requirement to engage on that um the plan has to be submitted to doe by august first and then the actual application by september first that's the yes or three plan esther one and two applications have already gone in we'll we'll be amending those as we go along um these are working meetings and um and we had great feedback and great participation as we went through this i we really went into the meeting saying this is our initial plan anyway but we really want your ideas back on this to help us build out the rest of the plan and so um some of the some of the things that actually were not in the

037original i wanted to put up there as bullet points um i'm not sure which group had recommended this but uh i shared different things that came forward with groups that came in subsequent to that water dispensers in all schools some of the schools newer schools have those water dispensers with the container and so uh dr jewish went out and looked at how much we could estimate a cost to put all some of those in all our schools uh to allow kids to take their containers and fill those about 120 000 so we plan on building that into the plan this was a very interesting one with our high school's music instruments cleaning those deep cleaning those they get rotated and passed back out so a lot of your wind instruments we want to make sure

038those are deep cleaned um after coving and so a lot of that has to get we have to outsource that so we are researching and looking for um that device or that equipment that we can do that ourselves i put an estimated cost of 30 000 we don't have an actual quote on that but we're going to look at try to build that into plan so we can do it ourselves for all three schools um and on top of that having more equipment to rotate and pass out was something we believe we can put into the plan so uh we're gonna go forward and uh put our plan into the state hopefully they'll approve it and allocate down about fifty thousand dollars per high school to add additional instruments some of these instruments are 20

03925. they're quite old so it's really a reinvestment into our music programs but also additional equipment to rotate and for for better hygiene there um and then the final one was we do have quite a bit of money in our local budget set aside but there are some hard to fill teaching spots and this estimated we're gonna put aside another hundred thousand dollars to really encourage teachers to go after certain certifications that we find hard to fill and really supporting them in their education to get those certifications for additional training so that's an estimated cost there it might be more than that might be less but we're going to roll that out and try to cover the cost that is kind of prohibitive for some to go ahead and pursue that so all told we

040took about another 400 000 and added it and built that into the overall plan um the next few slides i'm going to show show the board really what our plan is by budget year not by sr 1 2 or 3. it's all blended together i'll be pulling from each of those and reimbursing those but real quick the funding sources before we get into the expenditures you can see about uh 1.2 million there for sr1 most of that has been expended i have to reimburse that by september 30th of this year so we've got to turn that one around pretty quickly and we'll meet that deadline sr2 was about 5.3 and then the biggest one was s or 3 8 over 12. under sr3 were some additional requirements another requirement under sr3 was 20 of that

041must be focused on learning loss so as we go forward you'll see some projects some hvac projects for air quality that's fine but you had to allocate at least 20 percent towards learning loss under the sr3 so for the 2021 year which is already over um some digital content we're gonna apply um reimbursement for that um we provided daycare for our um for our teachers because daycares were closed and so for our teachers to come in and teach face-to-face last year we occurred uh some daycare costs so that can be reimbursed and then custodial support we had we outsourced uh with a custodial company so our custodians could stay inside doing the cleaning and or they could do the clean air custodians were also mowing so to to provide for cleaner buildings we did quite

042a bit with that and are continuing to do that through the fall as we get prepared for school to open here we want to make sure custodians are focused on cleaning the schools and preparing that for the kids and there's a lot of mowing to be done right now so we're trying to get that accomplished um i've got my notes on here uh the digital content you'll see on each of these screens let me talk to that a little bit there's quite a bit of digital content added last year through other funding sources didn't have to use all this but uh in talking with the instructional department and looking forward to next year a lot of our teachers took that digital content that we have we added last year for distance learning that we needed

043to put together and they incorporated that into their classrooms we're going to take this next year to really look at that content and have to make a decision what are we going to continue to fund long term because the cares act and esther money does not go in you know forever so there's quite a bit of money being put into that digital content and we're gonna have to decide how much of that is going to make it into future local budgets to support and some of it won't make it in but we really want to take this year from the instructional side and our content specialist to really look at what's working at what level because some of the some of them were bought for the whole division and it really is great for the

044secondary but the elementary didn't use it and then vice versa so we can pull back on our licenses save some money and really focus it to where those teachers and we heard that feedback back from these groups that we engaged and you had both elementary was saying yeah we really used it secondary saying no we didn't use it that much it's not that important so we want to make sure that we don't pull anything back where people developed all their curriculum and then pull back right now as we get ready to go into the next year so this will be an evaluation year and you'll see digital content in each of the years as we go forward you can see the musical instruments there the water dispensers um i just spoke about the digital content

045and um some of that digital content is also paying for the virtual virginia students that will be attending and paying that bill that comes in for that um i'll move on to the staffing and go down through that um the grant coordinator there's a lot of money to manage um and so within within this money it's perfectly acceptable to have somebody kind of coordinate that and manage that to make sure the timelines and also the requirements so uh a grant coordinator to help with that that grand order coordinator would also be picking up title four title three in some 21st century but primarily right now making sure we're hitting the deadlines and writing the grants and amendments for the esser one two and three um in our regular budget we added quite a bit for

046an intervention design specialist i think nearly 11 positions were added in our regular budget uh instructional department looked at this and said an additional two with pester money uh would help round out and get us through this year so the plan would call for two additional ones special sped supervisor compliance a lot of discussion with the groups on this one with our kids coming back there's been learning loss and some gaps and and so making sure we're standing with clients and then identifying that or no i'm not over identifying people that might be going into meetings and requiring you know special every requirements or is it just learning laws so making sure that we're taking care of everything because there could be a lot of that coming forward so we're we're going to put some

047money to make sure that we're on top of that and we're making sure we're properly evaluating kids and meeting their needs um learning coaches for liberty middle school for um next year learning coaches for virtual virginia that's kind of a requirement with virtual virginia that you have connectivity to those kids so we would use the s or money to pay for those coaching positions at least for you know in the fy 2122 plan year uh the last one is maintain staff maintain staff in our budget we talked about using the the cares act money because we heard feedback from our stakeholders that do not reduce staff um our enrollment's going down normally we would cut staff so what we decided is leave our staffing the same even though our enrollment's going down and we'd use

048kara's money to to bridge that gap ultimately we do have to come back on staffing or go up on a revenues or find other means to support that but the goal is for this next year to set aside a million dollars once again this is a plan or a budget the instructional department with uh and dr calvin are working with each school to see where we might have difficulties in either elementary or high schools and they're they're allotting out staff where they see special needs and so that's about 20 positions if we need to go higher we will there's quite a bit of money there and we want to make sure we deal with the learning loss so a million dollars for the 21 22 is what we're estimating uh we'll see what that actually

049comes out to so that's the 2122 year when we go to 2223 a lot of the same type of things you see there digital content additional certification support that was the hundred thousand i mentioned earlier that made it into the plan based upon feedback and then also again staffing if you look at the bottom one there maintained staff uh teachers it goes down to five hundred thousand dollars it's my advice it was my um guidance it was saying okay when this money's gone to eliminate 20 to 23 positions in one year would be pretty hard so let's kind of land the plane softly rather than nosedive it so it's kind of going back from a million to 500 000 and then we'd go down to zero at least with federally funded shares act money what

050we do in our local budget could be different but at least with karezak money let's not try to cut 20 23 positions in one year maybe go from 20 then go down to 10 and then down to zero with federally funded money and so that's just kind of phasing it out over the next two years 23 24 pulling back on some of that staffing once again landing that plane a little bit softer and not having as much and so that would be the 23-24 year and and you can see in the 23-24 year the only digital content i built in is for virtual virginia that's an estimate we don't know how many kids are going to be in it that year but all that other digital content goes away in that year that'll be the

051year in our regular budget we're gonna have to decide what makes it in what doesn't make it into our regular funded budget without the s or cares act money so that's we've got a couple years to evaluate that but there's some hard decisions because there's quite a bit of money in digital content right now and finally i didn't put the projects uh on each year because not entirely sure when all those are going to come along but maintenance projects um and what we're seeing there under hvac projects spending about 10 million on there estimated you can see the schools we have slotted for that some of the schools that you know we're doing hvac on right now are not on there because we're using different money for that not these funds we're already moving forward

052with those carpet replacement at quite a few of our schools duct cleaning all schools some with our maintenance department that these ac companies are already seeing an escalation prices of 25 50 um supply chains are stretched uh not enough people to do it all schools have received the money we have and a lot of people are going after hvac projects so we're under a tight timeline to get a lot of this done based upon how many schools we have to do so these will have to be bid out and we'll see what the prices come in if they come in way more than we estimated we'll have to pull back on how many we can do they come in lower we can free up money to do other things so these grants as we go

053along will have to be amended multiple times based upon actual expenditures and how they come in a breakdown on overall money not sure why that broke out like that it was all kind of aligned so i apologize on that digital content about two point uh six millionaire 13 positions about 17 daycare was under a percent custodial hundred percent and you can go down there projects came out about 64 over 12 million so that's how the summary breaks down over 18 million dollars in the three grants being spent over between now and september of 2024 is when it must be spent by um so that's our overall plan um presenting it to the board if there's ideas the board has we can go back and kind of make some tweaks and stuff but we do have

054to submit our plan and a a template to the state by august 1st which we plan to do and then we'll actually write the grant application during the month of september uh during the month of august and get that into doe by september 1st so with that i'd be happy to answer any questions or any of the other executive members of the team that put this together might be able to help them add more clarity um mr amber i may have missed it but um i'm very leery about using grant money well let me back up are these renewable renewable grants they're not okay so i'm very leery about using grant money for to pay salaries because when that grant money's gone where are we where is that coming from or is that a question

055for us to figure out down there that'll be future budgets because uh i think we made it pretty clear to all of our staff because we're transitioning back in we were face to face most of the time last year but now we've re-jumbled everything moved people around so for this year as we transition back let's maintain our staffing to help us get through this next year we plan on pulling back on that next year and then the following year eliminating that and so i agree you don't want people to get used to okay there's only eight people only eight kids in the class that's we can't support that long term what these positions are doing is as we transition into this year we're specifically placing we're specifically placing teachers in schools where we see there

056might be there's some elementary schools that have split classes in certain years we don't want to have that this year i don't believe and so we might say that might be normally a split class first and second let's give them another teacher so that's not this year so we can catch up with you learning loss that's what it's being used for it's not long term saying we're going to support these staffing levels it's only for a two-year period that we plan on doing that and pulling that back and then we have to address overall staffing would have to come to the normal budget process and you know and um and how we build that out so i agree with you you really don't want to build something long-term but it's totally acceptable within the grant

057and acceptable and it's actually encouraged to deal with learning loss and this is one one of the uses to do that for all right thank you okay training wheels basically mrs harrison mr hagler i appreciate you making reference to learning loss that i know along with all of us is a great concern that we have and also something that you mentioned regarding and i had asked about this last board meeting combination classes so i want to be clear um this upcoming school year beginning in august will we have combination classes at the elementary level i'm going to defer to dr whitford or dr calvert who've they've worked with all of our principals and on all this and allocating out staff so i'll defer them so um we just had our rollover in powerschool and so

058what we're trying to look at is actual numbers in the schools now principals and you guys know this because you've done this you estimate you think about you think you know you have certain students especially kindergarten students and so we have asked our principal to make sure that we're using actual numbers and so some of our principals had talked to dr calvert and me about we might have to go combination class if we have this number of kindergarteners come and we said well at the rollover when we see actual numbers of kids in we're going to start evaluating that mr hagler and dr calvert and dr connor started working on that today to look at our actual numbers and so once we see our numbers and and as as always we have some schools that

059we see maybe overstaffed and some that are under staff so we'll start making those adjustments we'll start hiring teachers we won't have combination classes i'm going to promise you that principals may be looking and saying oh i might have to have a class like that we've assured them we will make sure that that's not going to happen but we didn't want to add more staff if we didn't need to so we want to see actual numbers it's very hard to predict our kindergartners this year because we had so many that didn't come last year they decided to wait a year so again we just want to be sure that we are are not burdening our budget when we may have the staff already we just need to move them around a little bit but i

060promise you at the end of the day dr calvert and i we are going to make sure we have staff in place that we don't have combination classes thank you doctor and that's recorded so it is going to be yes absolutely i made a mental note too okay uh mr hill and then dr mealy um certification i think it says around 100k we were advocating for that are we asking for terms if we're paying for certifications and if we are what are those terms yes sir um because we discussed that when we build this out i believe we've already developed a document so there are going to be terms we have an educational expense agreement um so we are asking for dates and you know college information cost up front that they would stay in

061the area for three years after completing the certification we're giving them three years to complete the certification depending of course on what it is the ones most recently i've been looking at is the library so those are of classes so that would be given a three-year window and then we would expect three years for them to stay in bedford county if not it would have to be reimbursed learning coaches for virtual virginia is that something mandated no no sir it is something well let me go back virtual virginia asked that we have mentors on staff at the schools to support students and so with our additional staff we thought it would be helpful um those learning coaches are um working in our bedford connects remote learning at the alternative education center so those learning coaches

062are not only supporting our virtual virginia students but also supporting our alternative education center as we try to make some changes to that program um and so it's it's only a few but what they will do is make sure they're helping parents with the communication to teachers at virtual virginia helping students stay on track making sure that their grades are staying up we have right now one at elementary one at middle and we have two high school support staff there so it is required that we have a mentor at every school and this way it's not as much staff and they're more they're specifically focused on those virtual students so we can be sure that they are staying in touch and connected at all times so we have not provided those learning coaches we we've

063had staff support virtual virginia in the past but not a learning curve correct it's normally been at the school level we've not typically had as many students in virtual virginia so it's not something that we are committing to do long term oh no sir it's just a temporary okay uh water fountains 120 k 149k i saw two different figures are we actually able to be able to use the water fountains yes we uh we're going to make sure all our water fountains are working again we have had them for as a safety health and safety measure off limits for the year um these are touchless uh dispensers we're talking about here um we think we'll be more sanitary and encourage hydration and health and wellness through you know in all of our schools schools have

064gotten grants for these or paid for them with money they've cobbled together from one group or another ptas things like that in a few instances um that this would allow all our schools to have them in common common areas to be used love the idea but i'm going to go back to my question are we able to use this okay so the water fountains are the ones we have on and if as we're able to replace some of them with these new models they'll be on also yes um i noticed mold uh i think it was at the two high schools is that right so what's causing it and are we fixing it versus just cleaning it no we um we're fixing it we have uh in a handful of classrooms at both of those

065high schools uh in the science buildings moisture that has gotten in behind some cabinetry um and so we we are at simultaneously addressing uh the the exterior issues where you know the roof and window issues that causing that and um remediating inside so we're taking the cabinets out in some instances we're cleaning cleaning behind them and putting them back some instances we're replacing some of some of that um but uh it's it you know it needs to happen and and it was isolated to those ex those rooms on the exterior of that science building on one side of both of those schools all right and then randy the last one's for you i just want to make sure uh reversion money yes so we've got a deadline approaching and i just want to make sure

066all of this money that we've allocated which i know is temporary money i want to make sure we've got that in sight and we're yeah the reversion um some years out but 29 i believe but it's coming quickly the current plan is that each each and every year the the initial uh the first five hundred thousand dollars of new revenue that we would receive would be put aside into the cip plan to spend on projects not necessary hvac but roofing projects and other things that we can spend that in each year another 500 000 go in there and then by 29 hopefully 4.5 to 5 million set aside for that and then we'll look at what the uh the amount of money that uh reverse money would go away at that time and work with

067the county at that time so we're building up to that so the answer is yes i'm just i'm going to make sure it's on our radar there is a plan and and we're moving forward and hopefully there's always new revenue to fund that and if there's not any given year we'll have to work with our supervisors and see what we need to do on that but there's a current plan to get pretty close to that so dr emily and i'm just going to play off mr hill for just a moment with the reversion money is it possible when we get our quarterly reports with revenues and that um and especially in budgets yearly budgets that that i don't know maybe is put in in parentheses underneath to reversion money ends 2029 because i i just

068never keep that in my head and that's a little scary we should know if that revenue number contains six million dollars that's not going to be there in x amount of years within the budget or even maybe my first quarter update next you know next year i can add a document that just says here's reversion here's the plan and here's where we would be in and any gap that would still exist at that time based upon the current plan and just give that to the board okay that 2029 just keeps slipping out of my brain i also want to um add to miss harrison's combo classes dr woodford i i'm just so pleased to hear that but i really think also it needs to be a priority even moving past this year as an elementary

069principal i think all three of us understand that is never a good option i don't care how hard you work to do it um it's just not a good option so if we could do that and have that i think is bored we need to think about that as well it's just never a good option especially when you're building foundational skills for students to to have a combination class um and dr berg and i wanted to i want to post this to you you can redirect it if you need to i'm really thrilled to hear about the examination of the digital content that we've been using um and the review by specialists so um is there a plan at this point so that when that money that the largest portion of the money runs out

070this is completed or are we just at the beginning stages of that we are just at the beginning stages the first goal is to get all of our supervisors hired then we'll start looking at content and getting feedback from our teachers the other thing if you'll recall part of what we had in the budget was science textbook adoption and english textbook adoption and there are so many digital resources with that so we hope to also as we're going through those two adoptions this year to be able to say what do we not need to add we're going to get that with our textbook adoption and then what is really being used and where so we'll that's going to be a process we're going to probably be working through looking at usage reports all year so

071we can make really good decisions about that thank you mr chairman around the digital content i thought we had had a discussion that that would eventually be the same as textbook funding so for these dollars that again this is cool this is great money correct but eventually the digital is not going away correct so it will be used in the textbook funding as well correct we we did um because we we were just so unsure about if we were going to have to go out of school and so we really gave teachers as many digital resources as we could um and so yes we already had some digital resources in place that were being pulled out of the textbook fund and so part of what mr hagler and i have talked about is these additional

072resources that we've purchased what makes the most sense because it will eventually have to come out of the textbook fund and so we want to be sure we have a plan to be able to keep that going so yes that is what we're monitoring in addition talking about the textbook fund um after the recession in 2009 textbook adoptions just didn't happen in all districts it everybody fell behind because that's where a lot of budgets were being gutted as we get back into this digital content we have some we'll have carryover funds from last year that will help us get through the reading and science adoption next year of that i'll come back to the board after the audit and we'll reappropriate that towards there also this is helping towards our digital content but ultimately that's

073part of our budget too so i'll be working with the instructional department to come up with a five six seven year plan on how do we start refunding re put more money into that textbook fund so we can support the digital content and also adoptions because adoptions happen usually every seven years and it's a big ticket item a million dollars plus so we have to put enough money aside to fund that and also the digital content that we're we're paying license fees on each year so we need to have a long-term plan for this and we need to build up to it this money and also carryover money will help springboard us to get caught up on some things but we're gonna have to deal with that long term with our local state funding and

074and the state gives us money for textbooks but we got to make sure we allocate that and spend it on the things that are working best in the schools so there is some money that we're going to have to start putting into the textbook fund on top of what the state is putting in to do this and also adoptions and so we play i plan to to work with the staff this year and bring something to the board as far as this is a long-term plan to get it to that level um doctor i just want to make be clear so these content area supervisors are going to vet these resources based on any changes that have occurred to the sol such as history not just because i like it but it actually fits the

075content okay thank you any questions you're still with us dr hicks mainly just a point of clarification so the mold removal is if not our highest priority at the very top of our priority list what's happening right now it's happening oh perfect okay it's going to be done regardless we hope it's supported in this in this grant application to pay for it but you know but it's happening regardless what's happening now that's one that would have happened even if we didn't have these ones so that's what i was hoping you were going to say yes okay so that that's already in progress and take care excellent okay great so we'll submit this plan to the state august first first and go forward and as we if we have any major amendments we'll bring that back

076to the board based upon actual expenditures as they happen throughout the next three years sounds good well making his debut at the big table tonight um dr josh cornett with um criteria for recognizing students and staff accomplishments welcome award good evening board member of the board tonight i am sharing information requested at the last school board meeting regarding the development of criteria for recognizing student staff accomplishments at school board meetings i worked with the communications team and the executive staff to develop this criteria so let's just turn it in here wait you turn it on i turn it off you're not pranking the new guy are you all right so to qualify for school board recognition honorees must meet one of the following criteria achievement of first or second place in national competitions or events

077achievement of national recognition for outstanding achievements such as the national merit finalist achievement of first place and regional and defined regional multi-state competitions or events achievement of first or second place in state team competitions or events achievement of first place in state school sponsored competitions and last but not least achievement and being selected as the state player of the year for equivalent and bhsl activities in sports i'm happy to answer any questions that you might have great so this means we're going to start seeing a parade of students in this room regularly instead next school board meeting great sounds good oh that was fast well you know last time we went over the dinner break mr hill has never let me forget that so let's go ahead and break for dinner now and we will

078go back to the cross-funding after the break i think that might take more than five minutes so we will be back at seven o'clock foreign so is dr dr hicks is on okay great all right so we will begin tonight with the pledge of allegiance and we'll wait for mrs yeah it's okay to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all so we'll now begin the public comment portion of tonight's meeting this meeting is limited to 25 minutes individual speakers are limited to three minutes while anyone representing an organized group will be allowed five minutes provided they are the sole speaker from that group or organization speakers or speakers are asked to state their name address

079voting district and organization or group if applicable the school board is here to listen to your comments but will not engage or respond to speakers during this 25 minute period please remember that this is a public meeting and that we expect all speakers to refrain from any foul abusive or hateful language so dr calvert will be serving as our timekeeper for speakers with a ringing bill indicating that a person has 30 seconds remaining and a second bell will ring indicating the person's three minutes have expired dr calvert will also serve as timekeeper for our cumulative 25 minute period when the three-minute timer bell rings please just continue speaking and allow the next person in line to come to the podium should you be unable to finish your comments please send them or give them to

080our clerk mrs johnson and she will give them to board members mr chairman tonight we have nine speakers starting with congressman bob goode lacey johnson mandy baber eden baber heather fariola david beauregard ryan minnie joshua birch and kenyon cat now great thank you ma'am so for the great fifth district of virginia congressman good thank you so much and i want to thank our school board and our school administration and everyone involved here tonight for all of your hard work for your difficult and demanding job and for allowing folks to share a little bit tonight i want to thank all of our parents and community members and family members who are here tonight uh you are right to be concerned uh we are losing across the country in our school systems in terms of what our

081children are being taught and the indoctrination that's happening and i am fighting that aggressively in washington dc as a person who sits on the department of ed i'm sorry the education labor committee and i have time during i sympathize with our team members here tonight because during my four years in campbell county i was on the joint schools committee where for four years i was attending the meetings the combined meetings we had with the school board when you look at what this administration on the federal level uh how the what they are trying to do to look at everything quite frankly through a racist lens and trying to divide us and pit us against one another dr ben carson someone just told me they talked with him and he said they asked him what was

082the greatest one of my colleagues that best after ben carson what's the greatest threat to the country and he said division and he said you know he to quote president lincoln he said a house divided against itself cannot stand a nation divided itself against itself cannot stand and you look at this governor and i sympathize with our school administration our school board because much of what was shared tonight is handed down from the state from a requirement standpoint the demands of richmond on what we teach our children in bedford county or my home county and campbell county but this governor to atone for his own seemingly uh con questionable background shall we say said hey i'll dedicate the rest of my term to bringing equity and and fighting uh this battle from how he perceives

083it anyway for the remainder of his term uh it's concerning when it comes from the uh from the state here with some of the remarks that dr woodward shared on what's going to be taught or the perspective we hear a lot of words and we don't know what they mean it seems as if the narrative now the national level is first of all defend crt critical race theory which says that we are defined by our race we are inherently racist if we're the wrong color we're inherently victims if we're the wrong color and that we should look at everything through a racist narrative a racist lens and that our nation is irreparably systemically racist which is just not true that's absolutely not true i'm thankful age 55 we live in a different place than we

084did when i was 5 or 10 or 15 you know having grown up in this area but it is very concerning when it seems like the narrative is first of all defend crt on the federal level claim how great it is but then secondly say it doesn't exist and these conservatives these republicans just made it up thirdly teach it under a different name just change the name for it and then fourthly you know claim that if you're against crt critical race theory not what we heard tonight that that means you don't want history taught that you want to deny the history or pretend it didn't exist again at age 55 i grew up learning about slavery i grew up learning about discrimination i grew up learning about the achievements of those of african-american descent like

085right here booker t washington or frederick douglass or so many others that was not kept out of the curriculum that i learned as a kid and to suggest that it is today i think is dishonest and again it's divisive for us uh this should be just the first step tonight letting our schools and our administration know that parents and community and family members are going to be engaged in what's taught in our schools what's taught in our classrooms we're going to hold folks accountable for that think about it bedford county if we have an issue in bedford county think about the state and about the nation because bedford's a conservative county uh and so uh but we have but often the school boards don't reflect the greater community that's happened across the country so it's

086great that you're going to be engaged it's great that you're going to hold folks accountable and again this just needs to be a first step i appreciate the remarks particularly mr leahy and being concerned and i've raised this in washington about the 1619 project which is dishonest history and about the writings of mr kennedy and if you don't know who that is i encourage you to look up ibrahim kennedy and what he has written what he has said which is a basis for critical race theory and a bad course if it is a bad course that's taught as an elective is still a bad course and i would just challenge our friends here in you know in bedford county to stand in the gap and to push back against the state when the state is

087wrong we've seen that with our board of supervisors we've seen that with our sheriffs across the state when they doing things wrong the school board i'm sorry the board of supervisors the sheriff's department have pushed back and tried to stand in the gap for the citizens of their county and i certainly hope that our school board will do that when it's warranted so i recognize what you do is very difficult i recognize the pressures that are put on us from the state but but we need to stand for what's right and we need to stand up for what's best for our kids and we need to push back so i just want to thank everybody for being here tonight i really appreciate you giving me a little bit of time to say a few things

088and so thank you very much and as we say up there i yield back to the chairman and whoever might be next thank you congressman lacey johnson and then after lacey we have mandy baber if you would like to also kind of be standing up ready to go good evening my name is lacey johnson i'm a bedford county resident with three children two of whom attend public school in bedford county i will be speaking to you this evening about required mass usage specifically for school-aged children and asking that this requirement be lifted within our county i have found nothing documented from the county that would prevent parents who desire to mask their children from being able to do so but i'm here on behalf of parents in this county respectfully requesting that this requirement be

089lifted and masking our children via choice a recent study conducted by the university of florida mass spectrometry research and education center evaluated six masks worn by school-aged children for five to eight hours per day these masks were considered new or freshly laundered five of the six masks tested positive for fungi bacteria and parasites three of those tested positive for dangerous pathogenic and pneumonia causing bacteria eleven pathogens were detected during testing including pneumonia tuberculosis meningitis sepsis diphtheria and e coli a recent study was published in may at the university of louisville and it concluded our findings do not support the hypothesis that sars cove2 transmission rates decrease with greater public mass use furthermore the study concludes prolonged mass usage greater than four hours a day promotes facial alkalinization and inadvertently encourages dehydration which in turn can

090enhance barrier breakdown and bacterial infection risk british clinicians have reported mass to increase headaches sweating and decreased cognitive precision they also state by obscuring non-verbal communication masks interfere with social learning and children likewise mass can distort verbal speech and remove visual clues excuse me visual appears to the detriment of individuals with hearing loss a study just released on june 30th by the journal of the american medical association entitled experimental assessment of carbon dioxide content and inhaled air with or without face masks and children showed that children in mass particularly young children had over six times the proper amount of carbon dioxide inhalation symptoms of high carbon dioxide include headaches dizziness difficulty breathing increased heart rate and poor concentration we are expecting our children to go to school and learn however their maths affect many aspects

091of their health but namely their cognitive precision and or concentration these three studies clearly show masking our children is detrimental to their health and well-being maybe you're wondering about the health and well-being of those who come in contact with our children on a daily basis at school the official journal of the american academy of pediatrics published a commentary in relation to coveted 19 and the ending states about six months into the pandemic accumulating evidence and collective experience argue that children particularly school-aged children are far less important drivers of sars cove2 transmission than adults the cdc official website states that less than 10 percent of coven 19 cases in the united states have been among children and adolescents aged 5 to 17 years i implore you on behalf of the parents to make masking our children

092a choice and not a requirement thank you [Applause] mandy baber and then following mandy we have eden baber that's a good evening and thank you for the opportunity to speak to you all tonight my name is mandy baber district six i live on founding ray road in bedford and miss harrison dr harrison used to be our children's principal so it's nice to see you again i have three children in bedford county public schools and it's with great sadness and frustration that i come before you begging and pleading on behalf of the innocence of our children recently the department of education has handed down a 27-page document for school boards to consider regarding the model for treatment of transgender students this entire document is of great concern to me and many of the other parents here

093that won't be allowed to speak tonight due to time i read each of the 27 pages and find that they are requesting tolerance of a very small margin of people with a blatant disregard for the safety of a large group of people the department of education is overreaching and outstretching itself and meddling in the private affairs of all public school children i'm not here to debate any particular group of or community that chooses to do what it wants to do privately i am here however to point out that the safety of all of our children is being compromised by what the department of education is asking the school board to consider if those that are born biologically male are permitted into locker rooms or bathrooms of a student that is born biologically female this will

094cause a problem at this time we have laws and policies already on the books that thoroughly address bullying and harassment in schools including federal laws such as title ix that provides gender-based harassment of all students prohibits gender-based harassments of all students regardless of actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity of the harasser or targeter public schools and their school board should make reasonable accommodations for all students in restrooms and locker rooms as needed which can be handled on a case-by-case basis without overreaching policies adopting the virginia department of education policy is putting all of virginia public school students at risk i'm asking you to just say no no to putting my daughter at risk my two sons at risk no on behalf of parents who didn't or could not come here to speak tonight

095no to endangering my children while they are entrusted in your care our neighbors in roanoke have already made a decision to just say no i quote one of the school board members we have discussed it and have no plans to adopt new policies just as in the past if a potential transgender student comes to us the principal guidance counselor student and parent will sit down and have a discussion we have offered a separate individual bathroom for use in the past and it has not been a problem not just my personal opinion here but it's another example of overreaching the state and not letting schools make their own policies end quote i ask that each of you spend time in prayer over this as i certainly will be praying for wisdom for each of you let's

096stand together to protect our children from the overreaching arm of the government power and remember what galatians 5 9 says a little leaven leavens the lump we cannot it permeates all that it eden touches and following ian we have heather and i apologize i'm not going to try to mess up your last name good evening my name is eden baber and i am a seventh grader at forest middle school i know for a fact that me and my friends at forest middle will not be comfortable or feel safe using the same bathroom as a male that identifies as a female if you allow these model policies to be passed and you are pleasing a small amount of the population um but what about the other majority of our school's populations letting these model policies be

097passed will be making more people uncomfortable and unsafe than it will be pleasing people psalms 100 39 14 says this i will praise you for i am fearfully and wonderfully made marvelous all your works these verses this verse can taste but i just wanted to point out these key parts changing your gender is considered to be a sin and you are allowing and you are saying that god has made a mistake in your gender by allowing this rule to be passed you are abiding the sin i hope that you will think about what i have just said and thank you for your time good night [Applause] thank you eden and we have after heather we have david beauregard good evening thank you so much for allowing us to all come and speak my name is

098heather fariola i live here in town i have two sons here in bedford county public schools as well as two step children i've come today to speak to you about the new changes being made to the virginia transgender student policy i have many concerns about this policy and the welfare and safety of all students when the policy was written it seems to only have considered those who identify with a gender other than their biological one consequently in our community those who identify as the opposite gender or in as the opposite gender or in the minor um who do not identify as the opposite biological gender in the majority that is not to say that those in the minority don't deserve safety respect and dignity but we must reach for a solution that everyone can feel

099comfortable with one major concern i have is for safety it should not be hard to imagine the safety concerns for young women being in a bathroom with young men as a whole men are larger stronger and larger and stronger than girls it is a biological fact as a society we've been unable to stop predators from taking pictures of young girls in bathrooms as well as sexually assaulting them in public places having this policy and being unable to challenge a student's motives leaves young women vulnerable the school board as well as the state of virginia must be aware of the potential legal trouble they will face if a student's privacy is invaded or if there are any counts of sexual misconduct boys should also be protected for potential allegations of sexual misconduct that could come from

100this we cannot let one demographic of people hold more value than another one obvious solution to this problem would be to have single private use bathrooms around each school children that feel uncomfortable using the bathrooms or getting dressed around peers can use this it will be open to everyone who wants to use it transgender students would have the privacy and dignity by being able to use the bathroom without having to choose which side to go in all other students could continue to use the bathrooms assigned to their biological gender this would eliminate the risk of trolls going into the bathroom that is not assigned to their biological gender like i mentioned before i do think these new like i mentioned before i do think these new transgender policies will result in lawsuits our neighboring counties

101have already taken a stance on this issue to have private bathrooms available to those students who might identify with abs with the opposite biological gender virginia has gone to an extreme to make the transgender community feel included it is imperative that bedford county goes to that same extreme to make all of their students feel comfortable and included we must take a stand we have to stop this policy and do what's best for all of our children [Applause] thank you david beauregard and then ryan minnie ladies and gentlemen of the board fellow citizens to thank you for this time i just had a statement for decades now government has relied upon and used to its great advantage the lack of interest and participation of its citizens the source of any and all governmental authority to seduce

102and to override the will of the people they the government servants have enacted rules laws ordinances edicts etc under a false authority because the citizens have not made them accountable on a regular basis election times and results are not the only time that people may call their servants into account particularly in the state of virginia and bedford town and county as it is established and written article 1 bill of rights section 2 people are the source of power that all power is vested in and consequently derived from the people that magistrates are their trustees and servants at all times amenable to them it is all too obvious that our society is imploding and on the verge of catastrophic consequences that may well not be revived unless the people actually stand against and reject the policies

103and forces that clearly are intent on destroying this nation and silencing the people through various isms isms such as communism marxist neo-marxist ideology critical race theory transgender edicts and socialism just to name a few it is not in the school board's purview to high detrimental indoctrination plans which violate the first amendment of free speech and to seek to force curriculum practices and dogma on a free people practices that have clearly demonstrated for millennia to tear down disarm and subject otherwise healthy vibrant long-established ways for communities to live for the most part in harmonious cooperation boards who seek to edge out and silence the voice of parents and the natural parental right in the upbringing of their own children have violated their oath both constitutions and ultimately the right to serve the people the state of

104virginia has mandated and the school board seeks to inculcate the crt and the transgender indoctrinations so we the people of this county town state and nation unequivocally reject these anti-american anti-community proposals the supposed rights for some at the expense and detriment of the rights of the masses contradicts the equity and equality that this board this state and these ideologies seek to espouse and obfuscates long-established healthy and thriving community values for millennia citizens honor one another through responsibility accountability for behavior which in turn benefits the whole society and reproof and correction for contrary behavior that is harmful to that society things these things are plainly visible and well known as our servants closed meeting is a violation of the second article uh not being amenable or accountable at all times complete rejection is what we want

105of the virginia department of education mandates for transgender model policies and complete rejection of the culturally responsive teaching clinical race theory thank you ryan will not be speaking joshua burch and then following joshua we have kenyan nap good day thank you for i i live on periville road here in bedford so we celebrated our independence day but why did we separate from the english in the first place our founding fathers believed that there were three forms of law moral natural law civil law and judicial law civil non-judicial law are set up by men speed limits fees or jail time moral law was given to us by god telling the truth don't murder self-defense property marriage these are summed up in life liberty and the pursuit of happiness they explain they explain in the declaration of

106independence whether a government creates law or not it is not um if it is not in alignment with the moral law then that law is illegal and is the responsibility of the people to stand against it this is the reason that for the birth of america all men are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights it was not taxation without representation actually that was one of the last parts of the declaration of independence the the one of the the first parts was to create wholesome and moral laws laws that are in alignment with the lord so god's laws have to do with people's value and people's identity directions from our current government are in opposition to the moral law and is our responsibility to stand against it there are two sexes male and female

107marriage is between a man and a woman people are created in the image of god and created to reflect his nature people are not separated into oppressors and oppressed we are all equal equally in need of a savior and jesus died and forgave us all and made it to make us all right with god anything taught ignoring this truth or an opposition to these truths is harmful the schools and should not be taught in our schools regardless of what any judicial or civil law may say everybody who agrees with me please stand up thank you kenyan now yes thank you for the opportunity to speak to the board tonight i'm a resident of forest virginia and obviously here in bedford county and a parent to six kids and i need to address the virginia transgender

108student policy i should also mention that i'm a mental health professional i've been a licensed professional counselor and professor for over 20 years i'm speaking as a private citizen not representing any of the seven universities i've worked for over the years there's a transsexual agenda in america today that suggests that a person can transition from being a man to a woman or a woman to a man as a counselor i'm quite familiar with this group of people and their efforts to be the opposite sex they undergo plastic surgery called sexual reassignment surgery cross-dress and then seek to persuade the world that you can change one's sexual one sex and that it's truly possible the american psychological association refers to this condition in the dsm as gender dysphoria which is a disorder i urge you not

109to have any kind of transsexualism education program here in bedford county as the vast majority of these programs promote a controversial and divisive social and political agenda which is not in the best interest of school children dr paul mchugh from johns hopkins said of transsexualism quote it is a disorder of the mind not a disorder of the body psychiatrist dr ritz fitzgibbon said it is a fixed false belief which is a manifestation of a serious thinking disorder specifically a delusion transsexualism is identity confusion often after a sexual abuse history which i can confirm having been a counselor for many years and no amount of plastic surgery will ever change a person's sex it is delusional to think that a person sex can change as a person's dna does not change heart and lung capacity do

110not change and many other biological features that people do not change implementing a transsexual program in the schools brings in the topic of deciding a sexual identity to a child or to children who are developmentally unable to process abstract ideas gene piaget and other developmental psychologists have demonstrated that children often think in concrete ways and when you introduce abstract ideas all you get is confusion which i don't think we want transsexualism is also connected with high rates of suicide and i can tell you that as a counselor this is true not because society does not accept transsexuals but because transsexualism gives a false promise to a confused person that if they remove their genitals and cross stress they will be complete and whole this is a lie which i've seen repeated over and over again

111with the client feeling more empty after surgery than before and thus many attempt suicide what's needed is therapy for confused persons not a curriculum based on a delusion discussions related to controversial sex topics like this are best left to parents thank you [Applause] so since mr minnie yielded his time we do have time for one additional speaker is anyone else that has not signed up that would like to speak okay yes ma'am make sure to state your name so we can have that on the record hi i'm brianna bartnett i go to jefferson forest and all this stuff about i always don't have a speech but all this stuff about guys going in girls bathrooms everything about transgender gay and there's a lot of people who aren't this stuff really uncomfortable and i feel really

112uncomfortable having guys going into our bathroom because not saying that guys at jf are not good people but i know some of them who use this as an excuse to go into the girls bathroom just to get looks okay so that will happen and guys will use this as something that oh i will get in trouble for it i'm just going to go and do it and that's not something that needs to happen and like someone said it's just sin transgender is a sin god made you the way you are and he wants it to be that way just take that and be gracious for it because he made you perfect and everything like this is just wrong and thank you very much thank you brianna thank you to everyone for coming out sharing your

113thoughts tonight and especially eden and brianna thank you i know public speaking is a little scary sometimes but good for you getting an early start all right so with that we will move into approval of the consent agenda so do we have a motion to approve the consent agenda mr chairman i make a motion to approve the consent agenda except for section 7.06 as requested prior okay so we're voting on 7.01 0203 04 and 05 and we'll do 7.06 separately okay so we have a motion on the bulk of the consent agenda i'm sorry that was your emotion muslims i'm sorry yes i am i'm playing from behind today we do have a second note second by mister [Music] any discussion on that um mr chairman i think we wanted to remove employee number 42

114from the personnel due to duplicate that is correct yes so dr emily would you like to amend your motion to exclude employee 42 yes do you want me to repeat i think that that should be fine yeah okay so 7.01 02.03 with the exception of both employee number 42 and 7.05 okay all right all those in favor please say aye aye the consent agenda as amended is approved all right 7.06 appointment of special education advisory committee members see we have a motion on that uh mr chairman is there a way for us to vote on these number one number two number three or is it a all or nothing i could vote on them individually okay yeah and we can absolutely do that you have them so uh my motion is to vote on these

115uh individually um based on number one number two and number three sure okay so in that case do we have a motion to approve um individual number one ms beth hein to represent the liberty zone on the special education advisory committee promotion by mr hill do we have a second second commissioned by mr kill a second by ms harrison discussion i'll call for vote all those in favor please say aye hi all right any opposed all right so his hein is unanimously added to the special education advisory committee we have a motion on individual number two becky jayla from the force zone so moved motioned by mr hill do we have a second second second by dr miley any discussion on that one no all those in favor of candidate number two say aye aye

116all right are you opposed right is wajela and i apologize if i am butchering your name as i probably am uh is approved unanimously right we have a motion on candidate number all right yeah three motion by mr lainey do we have a second second second by ms hairston any discussion on that i'll call for a vote all those in favor please say aye bye all right all those opposed tonight all right ms johnson could you please pull the board on that mrs harrison i'm sorry man thank you dr hicks mr hill no mr johnson no mr lamey yes dr maylie no there are four nays so candidate number three jessica the board is not so will um the committee bring another recommendation for that slot and so as applicants come in that would be

117something they would bring back to the board okay okay great so we'll be on the lookout for for that one then at a future meeting okay great thank you great superintendent's comments dr bergen mr chairman let me just thank all the parents grandparents citizens who are in attendance here your participation in our board meetings appreciate that i'd also welcome a chance to meet you and speak with you as i'm able uh as the new superintendent i have shared online on our school news and website a entry plan where i am in a public library each tuesday to meet with citizens uh whoever would like to come and meet with me between 5 30 we've been advertising it to end at seven and i've been in the parking lot as late as 8 30 or 9

118o'clock so we've been closing up the libraries and then having the meeting after meeting in the parking lot there are two questions that i have for our citizens that i keep asking and i'm i'm listening for our parents and our grandparents and our business owners and our faith leaders and our students our staff what is it that you love about bedford county that you want your new superintendent to know which i would call our strengths that we can build on together and what are your concerns about bedford county public schools what i call areas of growth and then we can tackle our challenges together through conversation so i've had three of these meetings i'll just share the dates again all this information is on our website so as you leave here and you think gosh

119i want to go to one of those libraries on a tuesday i'll be at stewartsville on july 13. i'll be in montville on july 20 and i'll be up in big island on july 27th so look forward to seeing you there if you are so inclined again we start at 5 30. there's no agenda it is an open floor i start with those two questions and then we just we just share out with the group um tonight we have a number of new administrators to introduce to the board and many of them are here in the room uh i think maybe some of the seats and maybe some along the aisle there 17 new administrators have been approved by the board between tonight's personnel report and last month's and i would like to recognize these

120new administrators one at a time so uh the 17 include because of the reorganization plan that the board approved uh two new executive directors and one new director who have assumed their seats here at the table tonight we're gonna recognize them in just a minute five supervisors uh most of them within curriculum and instruction we referenced some of them earlier tonight science math social studies special education i'm going to be introducing them as well we have three new principal assignments two are current principles that will be in new schools this year and then we have uh one individual who is new to us assuming a new principalship and four new assistant principals so it's a lot of bio but i really am looking forward to introducing these individuals to the community and to the board

121so i'll take them in the order that i just shared i will mention six of these 17 individuals were not able to be present because they're on vacation good i hope everybody has a chance to take a vacation and breathe some during the summer so i'll read their biographical information but they're not here to be recognized the other 11 we're anticipating are in the room we'll find out in just a minute and if you're one of those 11 and you brought a guest after i read your biographical information i'll ask you if you have someone that you would like to turn to and and introduce as your guest so when i and also when i read your name if you'd kindly stand so that everyone can put their eyes on you so we'll begin right

122here around the table with the new executive directors dr calvert yes so dr liam calvert is a familiar face to all of you uh through the reorganization plan and through your action at the previous board meeting you have approved dr liam calvert as our executive director for human resources and talent development dr calvert has been an employee of bedford county public schools since 2001 and for the past two years she has served this school board faithfully as the director of recruitment and retention prior to that role she served as principal and assistant principal at jefferson forest high school and began her teaching career as a math and chemistry teacher for lynchburg city schools he earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics from fairmont state university a master's degree in educational leadership and a graduate certificate in

123literacy studies and a doctorate in educational and education leadership studies all from lynchburg college congratulations dr kim any guests tonight no [Laughter] we're we're all here unsupported dr cornett another very familiar face to to our community dr josh cornett through your action board members has been named our executive director for school administration dr cornett spent 18 years in education all of them right here in bedford county the last six and a half years he served as principal of stanton river high school prior to serving as principal he was assistant principal at stanton river high school as well as an assistant principal at jefferson forest high school and a math teacher at jersey forest high in 2008 josh was named teacher of the year for jefferson forest high school dr cornett earned his bachelor's degree in

124mathematics from louisville college he has a master's degree in educational leadership from lynchburg college and he holds a doctorate on educational leadership and policy studies from virginia tech congratulations dr sean trosper also a familiar face to our community dr trosper through the board's action has been named our new director of secondary education and cte sean dr trosper has been employed by bedford county schools since 2006 he began his career at liberty high school and remained there for seven years where he taught social studies coach baseball and basketball in 2012 he was hired as assistant principal of stanton river middle school and served in that position for four years he then was principal of minita elementary from 2016 to 2018 at which time he became the first principal of the then brand-new liberty middle school and

125then shortly thereafter was named principal of liberty high school where he served in 2019-20 and 2020-21 school years dr trosper earned a bachelor of science degree in social sciences and a master's degree in administration and supervision both from liberty university and he also holds his doctorate in educational leadership and policy studies from virginia tech university congratulations sean next i'd like to introduce you to five new supervisors several of whom are are here with us this evening and some who could not be here due to their vacations i believe audrey's in the laundry board ms audrey bowyer has been named bedford county supervisor of mathematics she spent 17 years in education last 10 in bedford county and most recently serving as administrator at bedford connects also been an instructional coach and algebra 1 teacher at stanton

126river middle school prior to her time in bedford county ms bowier served as an 8th grade math teacher from roanoke city schools a 7th grade gifted math and history teacher for gwinnett county in georgia and an 8th grade math teacher also in georgia at madison county schools she earned her bachelor's degree in middle grade's education with a concentration in math and history from emmanuel college and a master's degree in administration and supervision from favorite university congratulations on many people here in support of you congratulations just to belong so i think this young lady is familiar your actions tonight board members on the purse report is now serving as our supervisor for history fine arts and world languages mr long has spent 23 years as a social studies teacher six years of those were overseas in

127turkey and morocco and the remaining 17 years have all been right here in bedford county public schools she started her career at stanton river middle school and has spent the last nine years at liberty high school during which time she was honored to be the 2017 virginia region 5 teacher of the year she has taught 20 different social studies courses in her career she served as a department chair an ap reader a curriculum writer and she has led both division and state level professional development mrs delong earned her bachelor's degree in history from roanoke college a master's degree in international education from the university of bath and that's in the uk she's currently working on her educational leadership with jmu and she has served on numerous department of education and advanced placement committees most recently

128on the african-american commission on history education congratulations to you on your appointment [Applause] okay i was just asking did you have a guess you wanted to that's one right uh carmen johnson hello carmen so this is a new face for us board members this is miss carmen johnson you have now named to be the supervisor for pre-referral and compliance in our office for special education services ms johnson has eight year career in education the last three of them right here in bedford county serving as a special education teacher at forest middle school prior to her time in bedford she served as a classroom teacher in campbell county at yellow branch elementary school and prior to that was a classroom teacher in stafford county at stafford elementary and in fairfax county at belvedere elementary she earned

129her bachelor's degree in special education general curriculum from the university of lynchburg and earned a master's degree in early childhood special education also from the university of lynchburg congratulations carmen on your appointment [Applause] anyone to introduce no ma'am all right not attending tonight but i would like to recognize jean-marie johnston for her appointment under your action at the at the previous board meeting 26 years jean marie has worked here for bedford county in our school buildings and she is now moving into a central office role as our supervisor for federal grants which was the position that randy was sharing with you earlier she started with bedford county public schools as a sixth grader i get that right as a sixth grader okay and subsequently then graduated from jefferson forest high school after earning her ba

130in english at randolph-macon women's college she began teaching english at jefferson forest high school she earned a master's in administration and supervision from the university of virginia and for nine years she has served as an assistant principal at jefferson forest high school and for the past two years as principal of liberty middle school we congratulate marie and supervisor of federal grants also not able to attend here tonight but i did want to introduce you to a new member of bedford county and the role of supervisor for science and computer science miss allison kepler and she is also on vacation not able to be here tonight we're very excited about about ms kapper joining our team she has served as an instructional technology resource teacher or itr team for lynchburg city schools for the past nine

131years she is also at the state level a facilitator for code va or code virginia for the past two years which if you're not familiar with that organization they focus on providing equitable computer science across all of virginia's across all of virginia mrs kapler served as a classroom teacher prior to becoming an instructional technology resource teacher at heritage elementary school in campbell county she earned her bachelor's degree in elementary education from liberty university and she holds her master's in science education from the university of wentworth so we're very happy to have allison capper join our construction team so that rounds out our supervisors i'll now move on to one two three four five principal announcements uh is mr tucker in the room there you are justin uh through your action board mr justin tucker is

132now following miss dr trosper as the new principal of liberty high school mr tucker has served the students of bedford county as a social studies teacher an instructional facilitator an assistant principal and as an experienced principal mr tucker taught at bedford middle school and at stanton river high school and he has served as an administrator at stanton river middle school since 2016. in 20 000 in 2014 he was named stanton river high school's teacher of the year he earned his bachelor's degree in social sciences and secondary education as well as a master's degree in administration and supervision both from liberty university congratulations mr cocker and your appointment to liberty high school principal do you have someone you'd like to know my wife's christie uh i'm sorry that uh our next appointment could not be here

133so that you can meet her because she is new to bedford county but uh we'll bring her back at a future board meeting so you can lay eyes on her darcy parker has been named the next principal of stanton river high school follow josh kardashian mrs parker has 17-year career in education the last six of those years she has served as an assistant principal at ocean lakes high school in virginia beach and prior to her time at ocean lakes mrs parker served as an administrator at lansdowne high school and as a classroom teacher at renaissance academy and lancetown middle school all of them in virginia beach she earned her bachelor's degree in biology and performing arts from mary washington college who holds a master's degree in educational leadership and administration from george washington university she

134is coming home mrs parker for those of you who are who may have attended stanton river high school in the early 1990s would have known her as darcy hart and so her family still lives in stamp river and she and her beautiful family are relocating back home to bedford so that she can be the next principal of stand river high school very proud congratulations he's probably listening next and and also uh not able to attend because she's on vacation is the new principal of stanton river middle school she'll be familiar to the stanton river middle school community because she's currently there as the assistant principal and that's mrs jessica geider very proud to share with the community that jessica guyer will be following mr tucker at stanton river middle school mrs geyer is entering her

13519th year in education she has served as an assistant principal at stanton river middle school for the past three years and has been a part of the bedford county public schools team since 2015 where she previously served as a history teacher at bedford middle mrs geyer began her teaching career with hanover county in 2002 and served in various capacities including special education athletics and leadership positions she earned her bachelor's degree in early childhood development from lynchburg college fuels a master's degree in special education from vcu with virginia commonwealth university as well as a master's degree in educational leadership from the university of lynchburg so congratulations to mrs geier and her appointment as the next principal of the stanford leader next uh not new to bedford county but new to bedford county administration is john a

136lee john are you in the room there she is welcome john a lee through your action at the last board meeting board members has been named the principal of menita elementary school mrs lee was born and raised right here in bedford she's a graduate of liberty high school and she has 24 years of experience in education whose last six years have been in neighboring roanoke city serving as an elementary special education coordinator middle school special education coordinator lead special education coordinator for the school division and most recently as an assistant principal prior to this time mrs lee served as an english teacher in lynchburg city as well as being a ged instructor and high school diploma coordinator for the department of labor and a special education teacher here in bedford county she holds her bachelor's

137degree in childhood development for grades four through eight from lynchburg college has an endorsement in special education from old dominion universities and her master's in administration and supervision is from liberty university we're just so thrilled to welcome john ailey as the next principal of india elementary [Applause] not able to attend but we wanted to share with the community that a familiar face and that current principal kevin spalding will be moving to montville elementary mr spalding after volunteer teaching for one year in wilmington delaware began his teaching career here in bedford county in 2009 as a third grade teacher at new london academy after two years at new london mr spalding taught sixth grade and then fifth grade at mont vale where he's now going back to lead his principal until 2016 at which time he

138was named assistant principal of bedford elementary in 2018 he became the principal of menida he had earned his bachelor's degree in human development and interdisciplinary studies from lynchburg college he has a master's degree in special education from mary baldwin college as well as a master's degree in educational leadership from lynchburg college congratulations to kevin on his new appointment to montville elementary school and then last but certainly not at least we have four new assistant principal assignments and most of these i believe are from retirements and folks moving out of the area yeah i didn't hear too many couple assistant principals moving on so we'll begin with lisa wilson mrs wilson has been appointed as assistant principal of goodview elementary school he has spent her entire 27 years of education right here in bedford county thank

139you for that mrs wilson she served four years as a classroom teacher at bedford elementary and between 98 and 2018 she served as an instructional facilitator principal designee classroom teacher and mentor at big island elementary in 2018 she moved to mottvel elementary to serve in the capacity as a facilitator for the success for all programs in 2020 she was appointed as the assistant program administrator for bedford connects and she was awarded teacher of the year in both 2013 and 2016. she earned her bachelor's degree in early childhood education from lynchburg college and a master's degree in administration and supervision from the university of lynchburg so congratulations to you lisa on your appointments assistant principal supported here by her friends all right uh tawanna hancock welcome mrs tawana hancock has been named assistant principal at jefferson

140forest high school she has 18 years experience as an educator the last three and a half years have been right here in bedford county where she has served as a long-term substitute teacher at bedford middle school an english teacher at liberty middle school and for this last year was the lead teacher for instruction at jefferson forest high school where we're now naming her as assistant principal prior to her time in bedford mrs hancock worked at lynchburg city serving as a supervisor for professional learning coordinator for student learning and success and as a classroom teacher at bedford hills elementary prior to that she served as a thinking maps trainer as well as a classroom teacher at fox road elementary school turner creek year round elementary morrisville year-round elementary and west cary middle school i believe all

141those are in wake county yes in 2008 mrs hancock became a national board certified teacher in the area of middle childhood generalist she holds a bachelor's degree in human development with an early childhood education concentration from virginia tech as well as a master's degree in curriculum and instruction from virginia tech she also earned a master's degree in educational leadership with a pk 12 administration and supervision focus from lynchburg college and if that wasn't enough she's currently working on her doctorate in leadership studies from the university of lynchburg congratulations mrs hancock on being named assistant principal at jf [Applause] this is my huge supporter my husband ken uh not able to be here with us tonight uh also being on vacation i would like to share with the board of the community that mrs sarah yost

142has been named assistant principal of liberty middle school mrs yost has 21 years in education the first seven she worked as a middle school teacher in fulton county georgia and as an elementary school teacher in gwinnett county director she moved back to bedford in 2007 and her first three years in bedford she worked at the alternative education school from 2010 to 2020 she called stanton river middle to her home school there she taught u.s history civics and pre-algebra she also served as their pbis coach behavior coach and student consultative team coordinator most recently she returned to her alma mater liberty high school as the instructional technology coach mrs yost earned a bachelor's degree in interdisciplinary studies from bluefield college and earned her master's degree in administration and supervision from university again she is the incoming

143assistant principal of liberty middle school congratulations to sarah years last but certainly not least is christina moxley there she is christina moxley has been named assistant principal at stanton river high school she has served in bedford county schools for the past five years and prior to that worked in higher education as an advisor for five years mrs moxley served the stanton river community for four years as a social studies teacher at the middle school where she was named teacher of the year in 2020 this past year she served as the lead teacher at forest middle school she earned her bachelor's degree in social science from liberty university has a master's degree in secondary education also from liberty university and just recently completed her educational leadership program through longwood university congratulations christina moxley new assistant principal

144at stan river high school so mr chairman i think i counted three tac grads and only one uva and a lot of a lot of people a lot a lot of liberty university yeah nice assortment of the great schools we have in the commonwealth yes we have great schools in the commonwealth and uh just so pleased with all of these new administrators and appreciate the board support of our recommendations with these fabulous administrators congratulations to all of you and thank you to your spouses and friends who are here tonight and i apologize in advance for the many hours we're going to keep them with us during the work thank you for your support i'm back to you mr jacob all right thank you dr bergen and behalf of the board to everyone taking on a

145new position congratulations uh we're excited we hope that you enjoy your new role and i just have to say as in a personal side we often say that the river is rising it sounds a little tonight like the river's risen so much it's starting to overflow and spread throughout the county so uh we look forward to sharing some of the good work that we're doing at the river with all of our sister schools around the county [Laughter] the staff and items not addressed in the five o'clock session i believe we are back to the newly appointed dr josh cornett to talk about lacrosse funding good evening once again tonight i'm sharing information requested the last school board meeting regarding lacrosse since the june meeting staff worked with high school principals and athletic directors to obtain

146data for estimated costs for adding boys and girls jv and varsity lacrosse teams to all three bcps high schools feedback was also obtained from liberty and stanton river for interest in developing lacrosse programs because jefferson forest high school already has a program developed the estimated cost per year for boys and girls jv and varsity lacrosse teams would be 31 200 per year this includes sixteen thousand two hundred dollars for coaching stipends ten thousand dollars for transportation and five thousand for the replacement and reconditioning of equipment there would not be any additional costs for startup equipment as this would be donated from the current program because of this the first year estimated cost would be the same as the annual estimated cost moving forward in addition to the estimated cost associated with funding a lacrosse team

147at jfhs liberty and stanton river high schools would require twenty thousand dollars per school for a one-time startup expense for equipment and approximately two thousand dollars per year per school for resolding the fields around the goal areas each year because they do not have a turf playing surface the first year estimated cost per school would be forty eight thousand two hundred dollars per school and annual cost moving forward will be approximately thirty three thousand two hundred dollars so in total the first year estimated cost to add a lacrosse programs as bhsl sports at all three schools would be approximately six 127 dollars and the annual estimated cost after year one would be approximately ninety seven thousand six hundred dollars so when obtaining feedback from both lhs and srhs both schools were very concerned that lacrosse

148would pull athletes from other spring sports for which they already struggle with recruit you can see the enrollment number as well as the number of spring sport athletes at each school both liberties and stan rivers numbers are significantly smaller than jf's i will add that since becoming srhs principal in the in february of 2015 i've had around four to five students casually approach me concerning the lacrosse team for a lacrosse lacrosse program at srhs dr trosper reported that he has had no one express interest to him concerning lacrosse at lhs during his two-year tenure jfhs first implemented lacrosse as a club sport 2013. they were on probationary status for three years and in 2016 jfhs lacrosse was first recognized as a vhsl associated sport there have been nine years since first implementation to get their

149current level it does take time to develop a strong jv and varsity program if there is student interest there are some exceptions but schools locally who currently have lacrosse programs are typically larger schools schools who currently have the lacrosse programs include william byrd hidden valley cave spring franklin county patrick henry christiansburg blacksburg ec glass salem and rockbridge county another concern that was identified by liberty and sand river was the lack of adequate practice field space jfhs currently transports to thomas jefferson elementary school for practice fields currently the srhs boys soccer team practices in the front lawn of santa river middle school beside route 24. the lhs varsity soccer teams currently share one field the addition of lacrosse teams would require either transportation to another location or light installation for current spring sport practice fields an

150estimate for the cost of lighting practice fields has been requested if all site locations could be secured there may be additional costs for field maintenance and transportation the last concern that was identified was the lack of an established lacrosse youth feeder or recreation program for both stanton river high school and liberty high school forest rec has a youth lacrosse program as well as several travel organizations embedded in their area so it was apparent that both schools are very supportive of the advancement of the jfhs boys and girls lacrosse programs administratively we are supportive of jfhs becoming a funded vhsl sport and we are supportive of community organizations offering clinics and camps to determine if there are any interest in stanton river and liberty high school communities i'll be happy to answer any questions yeah so

151marcus are you ready i'm waiting oh you're waiting okay so would anyone like to go first well mr hill okay listen okay um i'm kind of bottom line kind of guy so is there is there not student interest at stanton river liberty high school for lacrosse programs based on the feedback not at this time how was how is that information collected through the athletic directors and process so they actually reached out to the student body at both schools to to gauge interest my understanding is they reached out to the coaches the spring coaches um they they did not reach out to students okay well if you're reaching out to the spring coaches they're going to be like not only no but heck no you can't have my soccer player to play with blue cross um

152you can't have my baseball player to play lacrosse i mean i we need to reach out to the students not to the coaches come on you're you're a principal you know the deal we need to reach out to the kids i have no issue with jf moving forward none whatsoever they've got an established program but i want a true feeling for student interest in those in lacrosse at both schools we don't have that right now we have the words of the coaches not that i'm questioning them but i think that they have a parochial interest in protecting their own turf no pun intended so we need to we need to reach out to the kids period yeah and i would agree and i maybe we weren't clear enough for the presentation so here's my take

153there isn't an established presence of lacrosse in those two persons there aren't any opportunities for 10 year olds or 12 year olds or 14 year olds or 16 year olds to our knowledge to play lacrosse so we're supportive of helping the community to gauge if there is interest if there are kids who want to play lacrosse we're going to have lacrosse programs in those schools we need to find that out there we do we do need to find it out so we're proposing that we go into the community we offer clinics jf said they would help to fund those clinics and and coach those clinics we'll go into the communities and say who's interested raise your hand show up here's a a basket yeah i'm not a prospect the concern honestly is the numbers are

154up on the screen between all of the sports if if we have 15 or 18 or 28 or 35 kids who say i want to play lacrosse we'll have a lacrosse program it's very likely that we won't have a jv soccer team or baseball team or a track and field or any number of the spring sports there just aren't enough kids it's just 131 kids so you would have no bench i mean we could probably put teams together for all of those sports and there'd be no one on the bench if there was an income because there's just just there's so many programs now but the kids should pick what they want to play right so if we lose the baseball program or we lose the track and field because the kids are more interested

155in lacrosse so be but marcus how long has lacrosse been nurtured in the in the south 13 years 13 at least 13 years yeah and so it's not gonna we don't anticipate will happen overnight uh but within within a couple of years we need to hear from the kids we do and so we're proposing that we will have clinics they'll be open to anybody we're going to take our friends up on their offer to help coach those clinics and leave those clinics and determine if there is true interest in stanton river liberty and then we will build up a program there we did want the board to know what the costs are uh randy you'll correct me if i'm wrong we already spend over a million dollars a year in athletics and this is another

156hundred thousand on top of that so this is 1.1 million towards athletics to add another program to the products which if that's the will of the board and there's community interest that's the direction where do we get that money from for next year um the for the jf program next year since it wasn't budgeted but there is club money available uh what was in the budget is the 10 000 for transportation so that's already taken care of it's already in the budget so josh what was the number for jf next year so we need 21 it actually and the club sport itself i think they had 27 thousand dollars which they said they would turn over so really next year is not an issue the next year we'd have to put more money in there

157for just the jf and if other programs came available that would have to make it in the budget in the future and where would you propose that we get that money from the suggestions in the future budgets if we say we're going to support a varsity sport at any school that has the interest in that once it gets up in the running we just have to put in the budget um just like electrical it has to go in there and it's not taking from somewhere else it takes it takes new revenue to do that so any new revenue would go to that first because you have to fund that the board you know if the board takes action on that that would be a committed cost i have to build in going forward mr service

158i wanted to check because i knew i had provided some information around grants so and to make the board aware there is a parent who seeks grants for fyaa lacrosse every year and so he is a grant writer he is also seeking for the club sport at jf but also volunteered his time to also write grants for the other two high schools if a program was you know determined i would just like to say um part of the reason we have not gauged from students is because they haven't been in school and i want to take that for dr cornett i asked him to do the presentation but i did most of the information gathering as dr francis was leaving and dr cornett has only been with me about four days so i want to

159take that and that that's on me and i will um we will work with our principals to see if we can reach out to students during the summer um lots of them don't check their emails from us and things like that but we will gauge and i think that's again what dr burgin and dr cornett were saying that we are very supportive of our students if they're interested and wanting to really gauge them when they get on campus where they're more likely to answer our you know questions about that we can certainly survey them this summer and see what results we get and happy to do that well i don't have any illusions that we're going to magically create two programs from scratch and you know before the school year i i got that grasp

160of reality but my point simply is that we need to ask the kids absolutely and we are and um and thank you for the information on the grants too dr francis looked into those with me prior to his leaving and we have to get an established group who are ready to deal across before we can receive grant funding so i think it's definitely a process that dr cornett is willing to work with the schools to see that interest while we still continue to support jf and their their movement forward so i mean i think it's they've got the program less support i also want to mention um so ms harrison okay i i just simply wanted to say i know that we've talked about this in previous board meetings and one of the things we

161talked about was having the jf's lacrosse students speak to the stanton river high school in the liberty high school students i think there's value in having students share their excitement right so i hope that's still going to be a part of how we're going to do this and kind of gauging whether those schools are interested those students are okay and ms harrison that's what i was going to touch base on so the jf team has offered for september timing if those two schools are available for our students at jf and the actual club to come over and do some of those introductions and camps whatever those two schools are interested in they are willing to come over and do this and that's both boys and girls right and i think that's one of the reasons

162dr cornett recommended uh like a clinic so that they're just like hearing kids talk about it but actually participating in the play so they they see how it works because our students in those two zones haven't had that wreck experience with lacrosse so we thought clinics would be a good idea if we could work with jf to provide those that's great no offense mr wilson but i think if stanton river and jf learn there's another opportunity to possibly beat jf in something they will be they'll be happy to travel great so um my question is let's say there is never interest at stanton river or liberty sufficient to field a team would it be possible to create another team at those schools that they might be interested in so maybe jf is the lacrosse powerhouse

163but stanford rick comes the central virginia fencing um champion is that something that we can do maybe instead of every school having to have the same exact sport both schools um stated that they were very interested and they felt like a need of their communities and schools were to expand across country and track programs into the middle school level to feed the high school level tracking and cross country so that did that did come up um in that conversation so a nice middle ground there if there isn't sufficient interest is maybe expand programs that liberty and stanton river want and allow jf to expand the program and develop into full varsity and jv teams but if you do that we're still going to compete yeah no absolutely yeah like you guys you do you we

164like fancy you too mr chairman are you volunteering to do the fencing coaching do i do i think that's a great compromise because i i absolutely think we should support jf but there's a part of me also that thinks that some money should also go to these other schools to expand programs if that's what they think is important i would prefer not to give money to one school and not the other so i do want to support the jf program but i like the option of if there is not interest that we can spend that so maybe this upcoming year yeah this upcoming year could be an exploratory year to see if there is interest to try the clinics out and if not then the following year we could expand country or or whatever schools

165so do we agree to that i mean i think that's that was my next question what is our action on that do we need any action since you're recommending that we move forward with that program um well we'll capture this in the minutes this this board was very clear in the previous meeting and we're also affirming we will be we will have sanctioned vhsl lacrosse at jf high school that this school board will be will be covering in partnership with the club they have agreed to turn over their current assets so there's a fair amount of equipment it does not need to be purchased and they have some sort of balance to help with the coaching stipends in this first year so it's an easier year for us to implement and uh where mr lamy

166really started this we're going to find out what our students interests are so we we are committed to doing clinics uh appreciate the reminder of september time frame what i heard so we'll make sure that we're offering clinics to engage interest and we'll follow our students so you know uh to to your comment and follow comments if the students don't show interest to lacrosse but they show interest in something else we'll nurture that as well we are all about student athletes as well as fine arts athletes as well as ffa participants you know the the life that happens at the end of the last instructional bill as important as the life that occurs between the instructional goals administratively what do we need to do to get the ball rolling forever uh adding a sport a

167varsity sport is a budget process it's in policy that it's through a budget process so if the board has consensus we can start moving forward and i would prop it's as simple as me amending the budget and bringing that club money back into the school system and reappropriating that for varsity lacrosse sports that is a budget process and you're adding that in that has to be built in and following years so if you wanted to move forward with any other sport at any other school you have to amend the budget that's the process that's the policy that the budget has to be amended to add at any time or through the original project budget process so i'll bring a um amendment the money's there it just has to be brought in from the school to

168here it's really uh no impact to our budget funds will come in and take care of it and uh but you'll still take action on a supplemental appropriation so can we do that next month let me just like breathe in okay and then can they change to say i'm unfamiliar with when they compete with in support will they be able to establish a varsity schedule i'm looking at josh but i mean they're already competing yes i know ec glass is our biggest rival you know of course being nearby so we have consensus for this right do we need to but we'll be revisiting this formally in august lacrosse being sanctioned bhsl backyard support system so we look forward to uh hearing more from the land of the flow and seeing how um seeing how that

169that goes officially so okay great thank you great matters and concerns from school board members let's start with dr emily um i just again want to say for those of you still here [Laughter] congratulations i hope they watch this oops i'll play it next time of course um just congratulations um and and thank you all for all of your work to you know get these people in place i know this has not been easy but i really appreciate all the work that you've done and the people i'm very excited about the people that have been brought on board i'm very excited about the reset of our organization and i just think we're headed in totally a different direction and a much better direction so i thank you for that and unbelievably write this down i

170have no other comments i am see diana did you get that i need it right [Laughter] george and i were talking all the way here and i said this is unbelievable to say i don't have any comments tonight believe it ms harrison before dr miller can think of something there again i just want to echo the same sentiments i'm just so thrilled with the administrative assignments um just just thrilled i'm looking forward to all the wonderful exciting things that's going to take place in our school division this year so congratulations to all of those who aren't sitting in those seats uh congratulations to you i also want to just uh take just a moment to thank dr woodford and the other team and presenting to our community the information regarding our new history sols i

171appreciate that clarity in which you brought and also i want to encourage the community i've received lots of phone calls and and emails from members of the community questioning the history sols and so i did advise them to go to the virginia department of ed site take a look at those sols but now they can actually go to our school site and take a look at that and look at your information that you have so i would encourage them to do that that's all that i have that's really neat um you know congratulations to the new folks and are welcome to the new folks and congratulations to the folks that have moved on to positions of greater responsibility um we're here to support you so just you know let us know what you need um

172situational awareness uh i want to talk about i was really pleased with the the number of people that turned out tonight i wish we could see that every meeting um it's important for parents grandparents and just any taxpayer to maintain sexual awareness situational awareness regarding what's going on as far as education is concerned my biggest frustration yeah that word frustration has been over the years that we see crowds like we do tonight for hot button issues but we need to see crowds like we had tonight every night so that everyone stays informed even if you don't physically come sit at home pop your favorite beverage and watch it on youtube but the bottom line is just stay situationally aware of what's going on with with us with admin and with the schools that your your

173kids or grandparents or relatives are attending uh like ms harrison said you know i encourage everybody to go on the website read the two documents um that dr woodford presented tonight that will increase your situational awareness of what's going on and here's here's something just totally out of the blue that i i've been thinking about uh historically this board and it's it's premature but historically this board has had dynastic chairmanships where we've had the same chairman for extended periods of time i think it's time we we shake that up and i think it's time that we share the wealth and we allow other members to be chair vice chair you know bring new blood in and give everybody the opportunity to sit in that hot seat because when you got you know people like mr

174hill want to amend this and that you know and you're trying to figure out where to put everything it's it it's really interesting twice he's a target so just something to think about in january december january time frame we can revisit this and you know all right just think about it all right um that's all i have and i'll say that was twice tonight johnson is calling me out for dinner and then you call me but that's okay i'm here i'm here all day that's the real hot seat over here there you go all right so um really excited to see miss manley's update this week about 30 year old carpet coming out of forest elementary school i know that sounds like a broken record but that's good stuff uh for anybody that's been in

175those schools and smelt that carpet it's time so uh thank you to the board for us approving that and actually seeing that take place that's good stuff you'll hear me until we do it meetings at different schools we need to be in our communities love this board room but we need to be out in schools so any opportunity that we can have these board meetings throughout our zones i think it's important uh i think we'll have bigger crowds like we did tonight when we go to them versus us expecting for them to come here um had an opportunity with dr burgin to go to boonesboro elementary to read to our learners um you know i was expecting to tag along with dr berg however i got through in the hot seat and i also read

176to the environment so it was fun it was um also um attended one of the tuesday night meet and greets at forest library i would publicly thank our board of supervisor john sharp for also attending that meeting i thought it was a great meeting to hear from our constituents parents grandparents it was really a good meeting so i enjoyed tagging along there one of the other things that i am most proud of this year because one of my kids got to participate our jf boys varsity soccer team was the runner-up for our state championship over in smithfield virginia very exciting season went in at 15-0 to the state championship we didn't get what we wanted but it was an awesome season so uh very proud of them i think we will see them in the

177next couple of meetings hopefully to put a spotlight on them so that is all for me dr hicks hi yeah um i'd also like to congratulate the uh dan doctrine [Music] great thank you sir um i would like to begin by thanking mr laney for filling in for me uh when i was late um found out last night i actually have a lyme disease so i am moving a few steps slower than than normal so i appreciate his patience and everyone else's patience as i'm uh trying to think through things a little bit slower pace than i'm used to um but hopefully i will be back back to full speed soon um in the meantime however i would like to congratulate charlie moser of liberty high school and emma jackson of stanton river for being

178one-third of our virginia state ffa leadership team um we had a little discussion as to was this the first time one county has produced so many leaders um but we were told it was not we may have been beat out by one of our neighboring counties but i can say which one it was um but it was the first time i believe that one county has produced the two top leaders in at the state ffa so uh congratulations to to them on that i know they've both had very long and successful careers at their ffa chapters and looking forward to watching them get to travel the state now that coveted restrictions are easing and they can actually travel and share their knowledge and their wisdom with ffa chapters across the state speaking of ffa um

179dr bergen and i got to attend the bedford county ag board meeting last night and they they got to meet dr bergen and ask him a few questions and talk to him and we got to recognize not just um charlie and emma but also all of our um county ffa members who have accomplished great things throughout this most unusual school year and that was that was wonderful and charlie actually helped me solve a mystery by identifying the gender of two of my chickens that i adopted so um how often can you say the state ffa president eased my mind that they were kins and not roosters soon enough i do want to thank everyone for coming out tonight and sharing uh their thoughts i appreciate it we appreciate hearing what the community thinks and feels

180about these issues and i would also encourage you please reach out to richmond reach out to the governor reach out to the general assembly if you have strong feelings about things that are coming out of richmond because that's where a lot of these decisions are being made and so we need you to to share your thoughts with them on that note dr bergen were there any other board um items that we need to um bring back next month our board requests we need to bring back next month across i mean there are other notes i took but just for myself but no no action okay all right um okay in that case we have a motion to adjourn so good motion by mr hill do we have a second by ms hairston all those in

181favor please say aye aye can you post all right hearing none tonight's meeting is adjourned see you next month