001e e e intendent Dr calck before our school board calls to order the meeting for tonight we have a special celebration and presentation in honor of music and art in our schools during the month of March the art are celebrated across the nation showing appreciation as to how the art lifts up everyone validates all of our feelings and makes our community a more beautiful place tonight we have tonika Stevens young CMS course teacher and visual arts liaison and L lce art teacher Stephanie row who will lead us Us in celebrating the Arts in Caroline County Public Schools good evening my name is Tena Stevens young and I'm the proud course teacher of Caroline middle and high school I am here tonight representing our Performing Arts leaone Andrea Brock who was unable to be with us
002tonight I would like to share with you how much Poss POS how music positively impacts our students on a daily basis at the elementary level all students from pre to fifth grade take music class once a week for 40 minutes here they learn basic music skills such as demonstrating music literacy learning performing skills and how to express themselves musically at the secondary level students are offered chorus band and Orchestra our secondary programs are growing bigger and better every year with over 200 students in the instrumental classes and about 100 students in chorus these classes focus on growing student skills in particular in particular instrument physical or vocal or of their choosing students at all of our schools in Caroline are impacted by the joy that music brings them every day and who better to tell
003you that themselves please enjoy this video of our students Express expressing why they love music I like because I like I love Cal down calm I like because tone help me sometimes if I feel sad happy I like music my teer me the notes and makes me feel like a the reason I like music is because it makes me feel when I compl I love music because it makes me really happy I love music because it allows me to express myself in ways that I never had before I've learned a lot of new things this year thank you to our music teachers who help build this enjoyment on a daily basis Andrea Brock Don Hudson Gladis Gonzalez Anthony Jones Nick rmer Stevens Zachary freshwater and myself thank you for your time your dedication and your
004wisdom that you share with your students each and every day on behalf of all of the Performing Arts staff members across the county I would like to thank the board the ccps staff and our community for the continuous support you give without your support our programs would not be what they are today nor will they be able to grow bigger and brighter in the future before I hand it over to our Visual Arts Leah Zone Stephanie Row the CHS chorus is going to share some of their Joy with you tonight by singing two numbers 900 miles by Philip E Sylvie and can Elementos by Victor Johnson for [Music] be my [Music] must [Music] my [Music] BL [Music] all [Music] [Applause] [Music] BL [Music] bless all [Music] so [Music] us [Music] where [Music] [Applause] spe that
005was um a beautiful performance um good evening I am Stephanie row Visual Arts content liaison and proud art teacher at Lewis and Clark Elementary as we celebrate music and art in our schools during the month of March I would like to highlight the importance of art education as it helps students develop creativity critical thinking and problem solving skills it also helps build self-confidence and resilience while developing cultural awareness like music all elementary students receive 40 minutes of art classes each week where the elements of art where they learn the elements of art and use a variety of different mediums at the secondary level classes are offered in photography graphic design and crafts here's a presentation of artwork from our very talented students please enjoy thank you to all of our wonderful teachers Clara Schwarz Jennifer
006harelson Kelly wroe Patricia Jackson Justin Freeman Kate bear Chad Boxley and Katie bolts who spark joy and creativity every day in their classrooms and thank you to everyone that supports our programs and students every day [Applause] do she want to make while we are waiting to get started I just can't pass up the opportunity to congratulate those young people were they not marvelous can we just give them another hand again that's the kind of staff that we have in Caroline you don't get young people to perform like that unless you have the ability to show them what is expected so they did a great job and I'm just thankful that uh the board was able to U see them and hear them Mrs Ava meligan for the we're going to do the roll call Miss
007Ava melan student Schoolboard representative Dr Michael hubard representing the Bing green District Mr LEL Fortune representing the mapai District Mr Calvin Taylor representing the port Roy District Dr Sarah calar superintendent of schools Dr Janda Rollin Fels representing the REI Church District Mrs Allison Sears representing the Western Caroline District Mr sea Kelly representing the Madison district and I'm Lisa Stevens Clerk of the board Mr chair we have a quorum thank you the Caroline County School Board welcomes public I'm sorry see this is what happens when you deviate from the plane good evening Schoolboard members and ccps family students and staff I Calvin Taylor chair of the board would like to call the school board meeting to order it is my privilege PR to welcome those attending in person at Caroline Middle School as well as those
008viewing on the ccps YouTube channel each provides an Avenue for you to receive information heightened educational awareness and involvement the school board is grateful for your attendance as we continue to move our School Division in a forward direction as #1c carine again welcome to the school board meeting and now I would like to ask the clerk or the clerk has already called the role so we do have a quorum thank you good evening everyone thank you for being present tonight before we begin our meeting I would like to offer words of inspiration as quoted by Edward hail together is one of the most inspiring words in the English language coming together is a beginning keeping together is progress and working together is Success together families are stronger together sports teams are victorious together friendships are
009strengthened together is better when Unity is a priority thank you the Carolina County Schools would also like to take a moment to remember one of our very own I would like to share an excerpt from a letter presented to the ccps staff yesterday it is worth a heavy heart that I share the sudden passing of our dear teammate and friend Vince enman behavioral specialist Vince was an integral part of our ccps exceptional education department serving at the central office and each School building with expertise empathy and a deep commitment to supporting our most vulnerable students Vince firmly believed that all students had the ability to be successful when provided with the appropriate individualized support and he dedicated his career career to ensuring they received the care and guidance they needed his passion for his work
010his kindness and his unwavering commitment to students and staff leave a lasting impact on our schools our employees and most importantly the lives of the children he served Vince was a devoted husband to his wife elod and a loving father to his two young Sons James and Isaiah our thoughts and deepest sympathies are with his family during this incredibly difficult time at this moment we would like to offer a moment of silence in memory of Vince enman thank thank you thank you Mr Fortune at this time we will now stand for the pledge flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all okay and I would like to also say thank you to the Battalion Commander at this time
011we will now approve the agenda if I have a motion to do so so moved second it's been moved and probably second that we approve the agenda as presented U Miss Stevens you may call the RO Mrs Sears hi Mr Fortune hi Dr hubard I Mr Kelly hi Dr Rollins spells Mr Taylor I agenda will stand approved as presented that takes us to achieve Spotlight okay good evening chair Taylor Vice chair Fortune members of the board and Dr calic as our community continues to grow so do the needs of Caroline County Public Schools ensuring that our facilities evolve to meet these demands is not just a priority it's a responsibility we all share over the past months we've engaged in meaningful conversations with stakeholders public meetings and gathered valuable input to explore the best options
012for our School Division this collaborative approach is allowing us to make informed decisions that reflect the needs and priorities of our students Educators families and Community tonight I am excited to share the latest facility updates and the steps we are taking to ensure that our schools are equipped to serve our growing Community your input and involvement has been instrument instrumental in shaping these plans as we move forward I will Begin by sharing what I will cover in this presentation this evening informational meetings feedback received new facility websites and then follow up with next steps ccps has been actively engaging in the community parents and staff in discussions about local growth and future facility needs through a S series of informational meetings attendees have had the opportunity to review data from rrmm facility and demographic studies
013gained insights into projected needs and potential Solutions these sessions not only provide critical data but also serve as a platform for open dialogue allowing participants to share their thoughts and concerns by fostering collaboration and transparency ccps aims to make informed decisions that best support the community's education infrastructure ccps has been also circulating this flyer as seen on the screen we encourage continued participation in these important discussions as there are still upcoming meetings where community members parents and staff can review the data and share their input these sessions provide another opportunity to hear the latest facility and demographic study findings ask questions and contribute valuable perspectives to the conversation your voice is essential in shaping the future of our schools and we welcome everyone to attend and be part of the decision-making process stay informed and
014engaged as we work together to plan the needs for our growing Community let's talk about our new website to keep you informed with the most upto-date information we have launched a new website that serves as a central hub for all the facility planning updates the web page includes key resources such as the facility condition assessments on each of our buildings the facility condition index scores the demographic study the master plan options and all Schoolboard presentations related to this topic additionally a community input survey is available to you and the community to share their thoughts and an FAQ section will be added soon to address the common questions that we are receiving we encourage enourage you to explore this site by going to ccps.us Department's facility management and facility information and stay informed and continue to
015engage in the conversation about our community's educational future as we continue these important discussions we want to take a moment to reflect on the feedback we've received so far the meetings that have been held community members parents and staff have shared valuable insights on fa facility conditions projected growth and potential Solutions this feedback is essential in shaping our next steps as we appreciate everyone who has taken the time to contribute their thoughts in our meetings as well as online your inputs help us guide towards the best possible outcomes for our schools and students and let's take a look at our strengths concerns recommendations and we will conclude with questions that attendees have had looking at our strengths and you'll note some of our strengths are also concerns by our constituents prek building or prek M1
016building is a strength building a new school Lotus and cbgs on the CHS site and the county is growing and that plans are being made and the need for a bus facility concerns have also been received on the prek and being in one building the cost Lotus on CHS site Community growth is outpacing capacity redistricting concerns and buy in from the community now we'll look at our recommendations and questions recommendations have been to separate primary and elementary students not to redistrict and to redistricts so recommendations for both ways requesting a recommendation of a state of art High School including cbgs to start soon requesting a new middle school and then also requesting all pre in one building or all pre in a separate in their own school zone for questions what would happen to any
017of the vacant buildings what would redistricting look like and can lockers be removed from the current hallways and would separate entrances be available for Lotus cbgs if at the high school and the timeline for decisions so we will certainly be taking each of these items that we received as feedback and working on our options in the future as well as developing that FAQ based on the questions that we have received so where do we go from here and what are our next steps as we move forward in our next steps our Focus remain to gather input assessing our facilities and exploring viable solutions for the future we will continue to hold Community meetings and Joint meetings with the school board and Board of Supervisors to ensure all voices are heard we will also be conducting
018appraisals of the existing buildings we have con we have a contract with greyl Greylock advisory from ronot they will complete the appraisals on Lotus Academy the Schoolboard office building in the annex and if you recall the these are the most at promise buildings in our facility study by rrmm and all appraisals are estimated to be completed by the week of April 7th the school board and division levels have been sharing four options with stakeholders families and staff in our next steps we will be finalizing potential facility options we have requested rrmm to provide additional calculations for us to include infl inflation for the oute during the design and construction phase we've also requested of them to provide us um options or adjust the options based on high growth versus moderate growth as we are currently
019hearing that from our stakeholders and lastly we will hold all additional meetings with the Board of Supervisors for this joint effort we are also working with County staff and exploring funding opportunities support these initiatives and going as support for these initiatives is going to be the biggest hurdle in this process County Administration will be providing ccps staff with potential funding Avenues together we will explore literary loans Virginia resource Authority General obligation bonds and any others that they may um provide for us to investigate we have also drafted a general obligation Bond timeline so let's take a look at that that this General obligation timeline has been um drafted and it is only in draft it's for us to be able to wrap our heads around the timeline of going for a general obligation Bond it
020in no way indicates that we are definitely headed in this direction but we are getting educated and looking at our timelines we started our timeline back in March of 2024 with creating a bridge plan and we've walked our way up through the facility studies the demographic study reviewing that master plan as well as having U multiple constituent meetings in the community with our PTA with all our advisories and getting feedback in March and April we will work on those a um with the architect with those options and discussions and we'll have joint board meetings we would continue the joint board meetings this month and next month also in may we would need to have a progress update and feedback on those plan options and trying to finalize our plans if we go the route of
021General obligation bond in June we would be required to do resolutions by both boards resolutions also have to be filed um also have to be completed and approved by both both boards and it's sent to the courts we would have to draft the bond referendum question we would have to file the order with the circuit court and then we would have again ongoing education throughout this process on the referendum to our community and then down on November 4th would be election day again this is only a draft and this is only a timeline and wrapping our heads around if we go for a general obligation bond with with the process of a referendum we will continue to explore the options of funding with Mr Cully and his team and we will bring those back as
022um as they provide us additional ones so as I conclude let's not forget engagement is crucial in this process as we encourage the community staff families and students to stay involved as we work together to develop master plan that meets the needs of our growing Community please use our website there is a form on there that allows you to provide the feedback of the strengths concerns recommendations and questions and thank you for your time and participation and commitment to shaping the future of our schools and at this time I'll take any questions you may have are there board members who have questions um on what we have just reviewed I would I would simply add uh thank you for providing uh a way for the community to engage in this this challenging process uh it's
023a great initiative and um I applaud you your team uh for their efforts in and getting out the work so thank you thank you uh again thank you for the input and again thank you to the persons who took time to be a part of the study and to give us your ideas and be assured that we will do everything that we can to meet the needs of Caroline County students and address concerns of the citizens as well at this time that takes us to board committee updates uh this time in the meeting board members will uh talk about committees or meetings or actions that they have had since our last meeting so I would start with Mr Keller thank you Mr Taylor I had the privilege of of uh attending the marry wash um
024uh governing board for the lab school with Dr Cal veric and like most entities uh locally we are um finalizing and going through our budget process uh one of the nice moments was we're also as a it's a first year program and we are going through the process of attempting to establish an evaluation procedure um for evaluating the new director there and it was great to see Dr calic step up and um talk about what we do as a board to evaluate our superintendent and it uh garnered so much support that other uh board chairs and uh sup uh superintendents were coming asking us for emails so we could share why our process is so successful because we're apparently we're pretty meticulous compared to a lot of other divisions so it was nice to kind
025of get that informal uh approval I attended the gifted advisory committee and did a great job uh I thought with uh Miss Tre Haley uh fantastic activity on um identifying some of the characteristics of students with gifted that are gifted and talented and some of the struggles that they go through so much so that I've encouraged her to reach out um to the director of the Commonwealth Governor school so we can share those practices because as a teacher in that I just those were great things that I learned haven't been in that program for almost 20 years so it was wonderful to see it come from Caroline and watch that grow um did the calendar committee and I think that's hopefully knock on W we're pretty much done with that one I'm getting the shake
026of the head yeah we're good there and I think on Wednesday the athletic advisory committee is going to meet uh once again for and get that restarted it's kind of fell off to the Wayside so hopefully next month I can get some updates on that that concludes my reports Mr chairman thank you Mr C next good evening I um attended the Commonwealth Governor school board retreat that we had um and this Retreat really was for us to come together as a board and focus on strategic planning and what we want for the future of the Commonwealth Governor school it was extremely productive um and we we've set some goals for oursel and I'm very excited for what's to come and that is all I have thank you um Mr chairman I have attended the Virginia
027Schoolboard Association Eastern region meeting um we'll talk in more detail at the end of our meeting and my other comments um I also had the opportunity to attend the CTE advisory dinner where um our statistics and our programs were showcased um so I'm looking forward to that and I know we have a presentation again later on in the agenda coming up on Wednesday I will um be facilitating the student School Board member Workshop um next week I will be in Atlanta for the cosba National Conference and I will be attending the Southside and the Blue Ridge uh Regional meetings in the next two weeks so those are my committee reports thank you Ava okay okay that's fine okay I'll move to Dr H uh real quick um you know I I just got back from
028uh uh the Far East uh and I had the unique opportunity to showcase our FFA program with some Farmers uh in the Far East and I will tell you that they are incredibly impressed with the handson uh operations that our our folks have here uh so Caroline not only is local and state but it's now International as well so we'll keep Champion that the Innovation Challenge took place uh here um at the University of are Washington in which we had uh High School uh Team represented um they did not take first place but there's next year uh so we we'll keep fighting uh uh in that category as well that's it Mr chair thank you uh thank you Mr chair um the only committee meeting that um I was scheduled to attend since our last
029board meeting was a calendar committee meeting uh unfortunately I was not able to attend due to a family emergency but I definitely want to thank Mr Kelly for Pinch hitting for me um in my stad um I'll have further comments later on during the agenda thank you thank you Mr Fortune um and I will close by uh saying I I did um attend the Virginia School Board Association eastern regional uh conference which was very good enlightening lots of uh good information was shared there and students art showings were excellent um the other thing that I did that was very enjoyable um I had an opportunity to take part in a rocket launch at the middle school and if you've not launched a rocket and you ever get a chance you will see it's a a
030really great experience uh I want to compliment the middle school students uh and the staff uh who were a part of this lunch the lunch was held by one of the local fraternities Omega Sci-Fi fraternity and they came out with the students and they helped it was a two-day process they the first day helped the students to make the rockets and to do those things to prepare them for lunch and then they came back on the second day and they actually launched the Rockets it was very enlightening it was very good the students uh enjoyed it it was a a real learning experience and again I I was really impressed with what uh I saw those students do uh that takes care of my uh information that's being shared at this time okay that takes
031us to the recognition part of our agenda uh the art student of the month Dr calary good evening chair Taylor Vice chair fortune and members of the board exposure to Art is critical to the development of every child art not only teaches students how to express themselves in creative and individual ways but students who participate in regular art related activities perform better academically develop greater confidence and sharpen their fine motor skills Beyond these benefits our education promotes problem solving critical thinking perseverance growth mindset collaboration focus and accountability all power skills ccps graduates need to be 3E ready enrolled enlisted Andor employed our amazing art teacher from Caroline High School Miss Katie Boltz will now come forward and introduce the superintendent Student Art honor student as our March art student of the month good evening I
032would love to introduce uh Jay kaher who is a phenomenal Visual and Performing Art student uh we have her self-portrait from art two class this year up here on display um she also is in the crafts class she will be the lead in the spring play as Anastasia so I want to share that she is an allaround amazing um student love having her in class oh one more thing Jay has an application into the summer Regional Governor school program fingers crossed I think she's going to get in [Applause] thank you that takes us to recognition B ABCD Awards Mrs Tucker good evening chair Taylor Vice chair Fortune members of the board and Dr calic I am thrilled to be here tonight to rec recogniz the exceptional staff members who are nominated for and are being
033awarded the third quarter above and beyond the Call of Duty Awards or our ABCD Awards this quarter we received 20 nominations for ABCD award recipients the ABCD award honors employees who truly go above and beyond the Call of Duty in their roles this includes all staff members teachers administrators support staff office professionals instructional assistants asss nurses nutrition services transportation and maintenance once nominated individuals are evaluated based on one or more of the following criteria making significant contributions that approve job efficiency enhance the quality of services increase safety or conserve resources performing humanitarian or heroic Acts or resp responding proactively by anticipating needs and solving problems without specific Direction I am now pleased to announce our award recipients right our first award is for miss Emily brilhart attendance clerk at Madison Elementary Miss brilhart plays a
034crucial in multifaceted role in the front office at Mees as the first smiling face families and students encounter when entering the office she warmly welcomes new families and works tiously to ensure that students are enrolled promptly in her primary role as attendance clerk she actively communicates with families regarding absences updates attendance records and ensures the accuracy of all in tenant data Miss brart consistently goes above and beyond staying late to complete enrollments register students and wait for late bus riders she also provides vital support to students who need a brief break from the classroom offers check-ins for those seeking a compassionate ear and lends academic assistance to students requiring help she is always willing to step into a variety of roles whether as a nurse administrative assistant or even helping staff members with bathroom breaks
035or escorting students to and from classrooms in addition to her work at Mees Miss brart is passionate about dance and has contributed her time and expertise to Afterschool events introducing students to the World of Dance her commitment dedication and unwavering support makes BR miss brilhart one of the hardest working and valuable members of the mees team [Applause] we have Miss Laura masan occupational therapist at Schoolboard office motion sorry Laura Laura is DED is a dedicated hardworking and deeply invested in her Student Success she consistently plans engaging in creative activities that not only capture her students interests but also Foster their growth and development week by week Miss mhy has played a pivotal role in establishing a safe nurturing and enjoyable learning environment she spearheaded the creation of a sensory space and took the initiative to
036train staff on its use additionally she has been an invaluable member of the ATT of the at Team continuously expanding her knowledge through professional development sessions and generously sharing her insights with colleagues throughout the school year she is an exceptional accet asset to Caroline public schools and everyone she works works with finally we have Miss Susan Robertson who food service at Bowling Green Elementary Miss Robertson is truly a ray of sunshine she is an exceptional team player always ready to lend a helping hand whatever needed consistently she steps in to cover for staff members when they are absent always with a positive ad attitude and without hesitation she always goes above and beyond in her role Miss Robertson greets every student with a smile and they eerily look forward to seeing her each and every
037day want to make sure I mention all of our wonderful nominees They will receive a copy of their nomination forms keep up the good work doing all things with Excellence thank you thank you that takes us to recog C with Mr Bird fall and winter athletes good evening chairman Taylor Vice chair of Fortune members of the board and Dr calic tonight we celebrate some more of our amazing high school students in alignment with achieve 27 these accomplishments demonstrate in goal one teaching and learning objective 1.2 access and opportunities through a variety of opportunities that are offered through our schools and programs through Sports and other extracurricular activities at this time I invite Mr Josh grind to the podium to help us recognize some of our student athletes good evening board and thank you for this
038opportunity to celebrate our student athet and their achievements I also want to take this opportunity to publicly thank our coaches who work tirelessly and give their time and energy above and beyond to our young student athletes fall Sports went really well I want to start with football who had a six and four record which is our best record in over a decade I'm going to ask coach Alexander to come up and hand out the certificates as I call the players guys as I call your name please come up and stand on the where the choir stood and we're going to get a picture of you we're gonna start with Vlad joas Vlad is a running back who had the honor of First Team all district and second team All Region next we have Ty Williams
039who has a defensive end was first team all district next we have Trey Kohl's he was first team all district linebacker next we have Blake Morris Blake played several positions wide receiver defensive back and kick returner and he was second Team all district in each of those categories next we have Malik Johnson as a wide receiver he was second Team all district and as offensive allpurpose he was honorable mention next we have Angelo té Angelo was our Center and was second Team all [Applause] district LeBron Walker was second Team all district and he is currently at work trante Ballard trante is a defensive tackle and was second second Team all district next we have zavon Tomkins who is not feeling well today so his sister Alia will come up zavon was a defensive back and
040he was second Team all district [Applause] Payton Fletcher pton was our quarterback and he was honorable mention all district taore Kohl's could not make it tonight but as a tackle he was honorable mention all district Javon Morris as a linebacker he was honorable mention all district finally we have Cody Swan Cody was our kicker and as a punter he was honorable mention all district [Applause] as you can see we had a pretty successful football season coach Alexander thank you for your hard work and for leading these young men you want to get picture [Applause] thanks again coaches as well as team players this brings us to the next recognition oh sorry sorry sir we have a few more Sports okay all right we're going to move on to volleyball and I would ask coach forehand
041to come up and hand out the certificates first we have Coach forehands daughter Riley forehand Riley had a fantastic year she's First Team all district first team All Region and second Team all state Gracin Edwards Gracin is First Team all district Kay laini K leis second Team all district Allison Mullen Camp Allison was second Team all district a little bit about the season the girls made the District Tournament they finished third in the battlefield District they also hosted a regional game which they won and made it to the second round of the region tournament and the good news is three of these young ladies are coming back next year so big things are expected [Applause] all right we're moving on to cheer coach Douglas please come up our first cheer leader is ala Tomkins Alia
042was first team all district and second team All Region Alicia Coleman Alicia was first team all [Applause] district Paige Comer [Applause] Paige was first team all district and finally Alia [Applause] Baker again she was first team all district [Applause] these young ladies finish second in the battlefield District comp [Applause] cheer thanks all right next we have field hockey coach kapler please come up all right our first field hockey player is Hope Shannon as a junior hope Finish First Team all district and First Team all region Miranda Dixon Miranda as a midfielder finished second team All Region Reagan Parkinson as a midfielder Reagan finished second Team all district and second Team all region allur not as a Defender Allura finished honorable mention all district and second team All Region Jaden Pucket as a Defender Jaden finished
043honorable mention all district these young ladies won seven games this year which was the most in was that ever ever they made it to the region tournament where they lost o to 0o to one to monin [Applause] finally we have cross country and our cross country athlete that we want to honor is Matthew duder Matthew's senior year went really well he finished second place in the battlefield District race he finished 10th in the regional race and was a state qualifier so he competed in the state tournament as [Applause] well again board thank you for your time and thank you and congratulations to all of our team winners that takes us to the Beta Club and Cavaliers debate team Mr mud yes good evening again chairman Taylor Vice chair Fortune members of the board and Dr
044calic once again I'm delighted to celebrate some of our amazing high school students who are part of our Beta Club and debate teams at this time I invite Dr Connelly and Ruth Taylor to the podium to shine a light on some of these students we going to start first with beta thank you Mr Ming good evening I'm very excited to share our accomplishments tonight uh introducing members of the Beta Club Tean Allen and uh collaboration connection Jaden carneal and leading outside the box in a project proposal cydney Davis again with collaboration connection Alex gon collaboration connection and leading outside the box Samantha gon collaboration connection and project proposal Olivia Jones who took home first place in recyclable art Caitlyn clock with a collaboration connection team Caitlyn LEP with leading outside the box and project proposal
045Brian pennick with first place in the cake decorating and Brook Williams at the Virginia state beta leadership representative and first place division in painting thank [Applause] you good evening um my name is Miss Taylor I'm an English teacher over at the high school and I'm am the speech and debate coach at the high school I want to recognize my team for this year um I have senior Michael Williams he has three years participation in original oratory and impromptu and he took sixth place at regionals in [Applause] impromptu sorry go over there sit down um I have senior Steele Meyers this is his first year in debate and he is moving on to Super Regionals um next Saturday in student Congress one step away from State senior Kennedy de this is also her first year she's
046in speech um she took fifth place at regionals in impromptu I have freshman's mateline Tuttle and Carly steel this is their first year in debate they took fourth place at Regional in public forum debate as a [Applause] team and then we have freshman Destiny Deano who took first place in speech I'm sorry it's her first year in speech fourth place at regionals in storytelling then I have two more that are not here this evening Junior McKenzie Ballard um it was her first year in speech she got an honorable mention in storytelling and Senior lilan males um three years participation in speech and debate um she got a a honorable mention in original oratory thank you very much thank you again and congratulations this brings us to the final recognition women's History Month Mrs Haley and
047Miss Landa thank you great evening chair Taylor Vice chair Fortune members of the board and Dr calic so very pleased to stand before you today with Courtney Lander our history and social science instructional Specialists to bring recognition to women's history month thank you Miss Haley and good evening everyone throughout history women have been at the Forefront of Education shaping young minds breaking bear barriers and fostering a future filled with knowledge and opportunity from trailblazing leaders in the classroom to advocates for educational Equity women have played a critical role in empowering generations to achieve their fullest potential the national women's history Alliance has named this year's theme moving forward together women educating and inspiring Generations Caroline County Public Schools recognizes March as women's History Month the school and Greater Community celebrate and honor the women in
048Our Lives who move us forward as the wind beneath our wings a gentle nudge and an Unstoppable force of stalwart support when we need it because we do inspiration and education are powers that transcend the classroom Cleo Coleman Cookie Davis Susan cely Cynthia golden Dr Sonia Hudson the first Schoolboard student representative Megan McCoy and the current student Schoolboard representative Ava Milligan We Salute this example of women and those who lift up and Inspire others to move forward in pursuit of their goals and embrace lessons handed down at a grandmother's knee as a captive audience in a car ride or in a classroom I charge all of us to take moments in the near future to turn to a woman in your life sincerely thank them for a time when they have inspired championed or supported
049goals in your life in closing this recognition serves as a reminder of the significant impact on our society and the importance of fostering an inclusive and Equitable learning environment for all students thank you and thank you again and congratulations to all the great women U that serve not only in just one month but they they serve all the time and we can't say thank you enough to those ladies that takes us to agenda item number seven information from the district introduction to the uh generative AI what is the division doing to prepare staff and students with exposure to generative Ai and education Mr Robinson good evening chair Taylor VI chair Fortune members of the board and Dr calar this evening I present to you some background information and ongoing planning to prepare our staff and
050students for the use of generative AI we will cover three main topic areas to include defining generative Ai and its impacts on education examine the risks and rewards associated with generative Ai and an implementation timeline that displays past current and future events to fully prepare the division for a generative AI release to our students to for the 2025 26 school year at the conclusion of the presentation there will be time for questions that the board may have so what is generative AI generative AI is a category of artificial intelligence that employs machine learning models to create original content that resembles human created content it allows machines to generate new content based on patterns observed in existing data the content can include text images audio video and or simulated data some examples are chat GPT Claude
051or Gemini this is different from an AI learning assistant which is an advanced educational technology that utilizes artificial intelligence algorithms to tutor or coach students with personalized and adaptive learning experiences designed to emulate the role of a human tutor AI learn learning assistance offer individualized support and provide guidance at crucial steps in the problem solving process AI learning assistants are typically part of a learning platform and are limited to a particular Focus such as mathematics or literacy zern zern math Lexia are examples that use learning assistance when we use a generative AI application the AI generates outputs from pumps that are created by the user prompts can be the general or specific and the more specific the prompts the more likely the desired outcomes are achieved now that we have a foundation of what generative
052AI is I would like to provide some insight on how its use impacts education the use of generative AI can even further personalize the learning for students as an example we can take a reading passage and prompt AI to provide that passage on multiple different reading levels therefore in a matter of seconds we can have a differentiated set of reading passages that meet students where they are or can challenge our more advanced students the use of generative AI directly assist an educator with lesson planning prompting AIS can generate lesson plans that follow a specific template or generate a lesson with a specific set of objectives in mind for example if I know I'm about to embark on what experience is said is traditionally a boring unit I can prompt generative AI to provide me an
053anticipatory sets that May incorporate humor to attract my students engagement generative AI can also provide ways for create creativity to come out for various projects there is generative AI that can create a podcast Based on data input what a spin on History if we could prompt generative AI to reverse historical events and then go back and fact check what we know is historically accurate to determine if the reversal was possible these are just some of the many left up to the imagination of the user ways generative AI can be used in education however while we may be able to empower learning and engagement the use of generative AI always needs to be fact checked this is why generative AI is not a replacement of an educator but a way for an educator to be more
054efficient and be able to shift Focus where specifically needed think of generative AI as a way to always get off ground zero and based on prompting eventually get to the desired outcome keep in mind that with anything like generative AI with rewards comes risks with proper training and guidance along with routine evaluation we can balance out risks and rewards of generative AI while I mentioned some of the benefits in the previous slide I do want to make every everyone aware of some risks associated with Gen of AI there are times where gen of AI will output bias and misinformation also known as hallucination meaning that what it produces could be inaccurate or bias to a specific gender race or nationality the constant use of generative AI without review and Examination for bias or misinformation can
055lead to dependency where one becomes too reliant on the tool thus hindering critical thinking additionally as with any emerging technology such as AI there are privacy concerns over data collection and usage at no time is ccps promoting the use of specific identifiable information of users in any generative AI platform even the ones that do not store inputed information I also want to mention a more powerful risk associated with generative generative Ai and that is a deep fake a deep fake is a realistic image video or audio recording created using AI where a person is depicted saying or doing something they never actually did with the intention to deceive viewers by making the output seem authentic it is risks such as these that can seem to supersede the reward of using generative AI which is why
056training and collaboration are critical with this emerging and everchanging Technology this particular slide portrays a timeline of events from December of 2024 to a 2025 26 start of school year goal regarding gener generative AI this timeline of events also provides a snapshot of how the division is providing training and follow through to ensure that we are doing our due diligence with implementation in December of 2024 the team of innovation Specialists developed a training course and schooly for all staff to participate through the use of Ed puzzle they are able to track progress of Staff completing video viewing with stopping points on all things relevant to AI from what it is best practices use of AI in the classroom examples of AI tools and various risks Associated during this time members of the technology team began
057to modify the acceptable use policy and create an AI regulation or policy in January of 2025 the schoolagy course is released to staff to complete by the end of January for further training in February at which time there is a face-to-face session with staff to begin exploring various AI platforms focusing on specific everyday tasks a staff member May complete where using AI may be more efficient during the month of March Innovation Specialists are collaborating with staff on various ways generative AI can be used to increase engagement and facilitate daily staff activities they are also updating the schoolagy course of various nuggets of information and resources related to generative AI on a bi-weekly basis there is the launch of a page on the division website with information about genor AI resources and frequently asked questions April
058and May continue to bring have excuse me to have the Innovation specialist collaborating with staff and updating the schooly course with more resources and documentation as generative AI is quickly evolving and changing this will produce a complete course built with resources and trainings that can then be transitioned into a summer course through Vector for staff both current and newly hired June will bring information to the board on an updated acceptable use policy and a draft regulation or policy on generative AI in Carolina County Public Schools at the conclusion of all of this training and collaboration the division will have trained staff a method to train future staff a regulation or policy adopted and an acceptable use policy that reflects the use of generative AI after achieving all this it seems prudent to release select generative
059AI platforms to students in grade 6 through 12 for the 2025 26 school year in closing we have covered a vast amount of information as it relates to of AI as you can see there is a need for structure and modifications to our current documentation to align with the introduction of AI tools I hope it has been demonstrated how the division is doing its due diligence to provide training and follow through for staff prior to introducing AI to students with that being said we need to remember that the use of generative AI is not a replacement of personnel but a way for personnel to make certain tasks less time consuming and provide more Innovative approach at this time I will yield the flooor to any questions you may have okay does board members have questions
060at this time uh no question uh just a comment I just want to say Mr Robinson kudos to you and the tech team for all the work that that you've done in this space um I've had an opportunity to uh learn about generative AI as part of the Cort um that we uh engaged in over several uh months and um I do know firsthand that the technology seems to change almost by the hour yes sir um so thank you so much for the work that you've done in this space and the work you'll continue to do in this space yes sir Dr calar Mr Robinson is there any information on future training for our students as they return into the school year for 2526 yes ma'am the plan is to once we train staff is
061to embed that training sort of like with our Innovation Specialists going into the classrooms and assisting where needed but also by that Foundation from the staff having between now and the start of the school year to also help support that training process I guess you would say and model that behavior of using of those AI applications again uh thank you Mr Robinson for uh the information uh it is good to see that we are being proactive uh AI is not going anywhere and so it's going to be incumbent upon us to find a way to make it um beneficial to our students thank you thank you that takes us to uh 7B information monthly revenues expenditures and ADM update evening chair Taylor Vice chair Fortune members of the board and Dr Kel Eric I'll be
062presenting the February fy2 financials this evening operating revenues for February were 4.2 million with year-to date revenues of 41.5 million or 65.4 n% special fund revenues for February were $455,000 with year-to dat revenues of 5.3 million or 53.7% total revenues for off funds for February were 4.7 million with year-to-date totals of 46.8 million or 63.88 per. under expenditures for February expenditures in February were 5.8 million with year-to dat expenditures of 36.3 million or 57.3 3% special funds expenditures for February were $463,000 with 5.3 million year to date or 53.1 18% total expenditures for all funds for February were 6.3 million with year-to dat totals of 41.6 million or 56.7 s% be Happ you to take any questions from the board on the February fy2 financial report uh yes uh Dr yeah pardon my senior moment
063here um but I know we've talked about this before but um the Esser McKenna vento and the school Improvement Grant we're showing 272 uh spent and 342 um you what was I know we've talked about this before uh can you just refresh sure so what you see is the initial Appropriations for Esther mckin vento is 10 grand for school Improvement was 28 we had applications after this came before the board for the initial appropriation and we were awarded grants and so the funding the reeven went up significantly and that's why you see the percentage increase great thank you sure yeah I I really appreciate because the the overall report suggest a stable and healthy realization um but more importantly it demonstrates balanced spending uh and that's uh something we need to continue to Champion to
064all who uh are following the the finances of of the division thankk you thank you would M have questions okay next I have the ADM update good evening again chair Taylor Vice chair Fortune members of the board and Dr Kel veric I'll be presenting the average daily membership update for February 2025 average daily membership is determined by dividing the total total aggregate daily membership by the number of days schools in session during the school year the February 2025 ADM is 4,39 866 the year today ADM is 43325 68 be happy to take any any questions from the board on the ADM report board members have questions about the ADM report thank you sir thank you so much that takes us to uh 7B of the consent agenda uh the consent vote approval of school board
065meeting minutes of February 10th 2025 March home school report approval of donations approval of monthly bills and financial reports and approval of Head Start financial report are there any items on the consent agenda that board members question if not I will accept a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented so moved second it's been mov in properly second that we would approve the consent agenda as presented Miss Stevens will you call for the vote Mrs Sears I Mr Fortune I Dr hubard I Dr Rollins FS hi Mr Kelly I Mr Taylor I and the consent agenda stands approved this takes us to the citizen comment period announcement the Caroline County School Board welcomes public comments during regular meetings and public hearings speakers May address an item on the board meeting agenda or an item
066not on the agenda during this time all comments should address the matter related to Caroline County Public Schools each speaker may speak for up to 3 minutes once you see the red light on the traffic light portioned in front of the clerk please make your last statement the school board chair is responsible for recognizing all speakers for maintaining in proper order and for adhering to the time limit stated above the chair is authorized to stop and or remove any speaker who uses language that is obscene constitutes fighting words truth threats or solicitation to commit crimes and inites imminent Lawless action moreover the chair May stopped and or have removed any person who disrupts the orderly functioning of the meeting by making loud boisterous or threatening comments once you come to the elector if you have
067not signed in with the clerk please complete the appearance request form state your name and your District at this time the cirk will call those who have signed up prior to the meeting there are none that have signed up prior to the meeting okay hearing none are there any citizens in the audience that would like to make a citizen comment at this time are there any citizens in the audience that would like to make a comment at this time seeing no one with the desire to speak I would now declare the uh citizen comment period closed this takes us to agenda item 10 action school board meeting date adjustment okay members of the board and Dr calary tonight our first action item is the school board meeting date adjustment in January of each year we
068approve the regular school board meeting dates in January of 2025 we approve March 17th 2025 as our March regular school board meeting at this time ccps calendar had March 10th today as a day off for students due to the weather inclement days ccps chose to use March 10th today as a makeup day since school is in session we were able to have tonight's meeting on our typical second Monday and for that we call the special regular meeting I would like to ask for a motion to approve the cancellation of March 17th board meeting as it is no longer longer needed to be on the calendar so moved second it's been moved in properly second that we would councel the March 17th board meeting all in favor let it be known by saying I I I
069all opposed and the motion carries the second action item School Board consideration and approval of fiscal year 26 superintendent proposed budget Dr calber good evening chair Taylor Vice chair fortune and members of the board I am pleased to be alongside our chief operations officer Mrs Mara Stevens this evening to present the ccps FY 26 operational budget proposal four major objectives will be achieved during tonight's budget presentation objective one building FY 26 budget context objective two an overview of the state budget objective three ccps FY 26 budget priorities and objective four budget financials associated with revenues expenditures and special funds the ccps budget development process is intentional inclusive and transparent and considers various internal and external factors a brief overview of these elements will heighten your understanding of the FY 26 proposal the foundation of the
070budget development process is our five-year strategic plan achieved 2027 which serves as a filter for all decisionmaking and fiscal appropriation the four overarching goals of the Strategic plan are teaching and learning relationship health and safety and talent management these guide the division's daily work and help ensure alignment of Financial Resources with the school division's identified need goals and objectives this visual portrays just a few of the first semester fy2 successes that demonstrate strong fiscal stewardship of fy2 funds and intentional alignment with achieved 2027 goal one teaching and learning highlight highes include science of reading letters Volume 2 training the launch of the Caroline Academy's model at CHS the adoption and roll out of a new Elementary English language arts curriculum known as Benchmark Advance increased student access to advanced placement courses and all-in tutoring and
071Saturday school goal two relationships all-in funding has supported greater communication and family engagement when tackling chronic absenteeism specifically the hiring of an attendance officer and the use of the school status attend attendance program Additionally the addition of two Secondary School Safety officers has helped further connections between students and adults at CMS and CHS goal three health and safety reflects the completion of energy efficient lighting at all school facilities extensive HVAC replacement at CMS and the completion and publicizing of demographic and facility stud stud results paired with architect and Engineering facility recommendations to address student and programmatic growth and finally goal for talent management the welcoming of our Filipino Educators from greenart exchange the roll out of I te and Richmond teacher residency Pathways to teacher ler the completion of our William and Mary reading specialist
072cohort in beginning of the ODU math specialist cohort and the implementation of vector Solutions as an anytime anywhere PD platform for all employees these artifacts serve as visible evidence of the school division's focused commitment to achieve 2027 and the need for a strong needs-based annual budget with the goal of being transparent and inclusive the budget development process reflects a multifaceted approach which spans multiple months specifically October of 2024 through May of 2025 from submission of school and Department budget requests to stakeholder input through advisory groups and surveys to lobbying and legislation to public hearings to school-based budget presentations to collaboration with local government officials ccps is committed to developing and delivering a needs-based operations budget reflective of all stakeholder voices ultimately the school community's voice ccps data standards of quality and programmatic needs yielded a
073clear funding trend for FY 26 people over things with over 700 individuals providing feedback stakeholders identified compensation and benefits licensed employees and support staff as the top priorities for FY 26 Mrs Stevens will highlight key aspects of the state budget there were not many changes to the state budget which were introduced by the governor yonan this year his 3% compensation increase for S soq positions which was introduced for the fy2 banum budget remained with no changes there was one 1 billion in New State education funding focusing on basic Aid English learner s soq and the 3% compensation the general assembly approved the budget with few amendments to the governor's amended budget both with the Senate and the house proposed amendments to continue removal of the support cap and there is also an introduction of a
07410% add-on for special education funding these amendments were in the approved General Assembly budget and await the governor's signature the majority of State funding is provided to the school divisions as the average daily membership ADM is the membership of a student from the first day of school until March 31st of each year based on Rising ADM numbers the reported fall membership and the state's projected ADM ccps is adopting 4,340 students for not students ADM for fiscal year 26 budget calculations the School Division monitors ADM on a monthly basis and will continue to update the projections once the March 31st ADM is reported in April for this current year the local Composite Index is the calculation of the locality's true value of property adjusted gross income and taxable retail sales this formula determines the school's locality
075the schools local locality's ability to pay educational costs related to K12 education as LCI goes up the state funding goes down due to the locality's increase ing ability to pay Caroline County's physical year 2526 LCI decreased from 3613 to 3501 a 3.10% decrease please note that the data in use for calculating the bium LCI is significantly delayed based on reflecting the um county numbers as of 2021 per the state LCI for formula in total the general assembly approved budget includes an additional $1.36 million in new funding due to a slight increase of ADM the compensation increase for the S soq positions basic Aid removal of a portion of the support cap and the special education add-on funds this also includes a reduction of one-time all-in funding of 1.2 million the increase in the County's local
076required match and share is $872,500 over the prior year budget I will now turn it to Dr calic to go over our priorities this year ccps principles and department heads submitted 49 budget requests each aligned to an achieved 2027 strategic plan goal or objective each item was reviewed and categor ized as mandatory critical need need or want with over 700 advisory participants and Survey respondents six major budget priority Trends resulted greater details will be provided over the next several slides in relation to compensation and health insurance exceptional education student Support Services general education teachers support staff and Technology it is important to note that all of our priorities reflect full benefit costs and a step five salary let's begin with compensation and benefits for the 2026 fiscal year ccps is proposing a 3% inclusive excuse
077me 3% increase inclusive of a step for all employees this aligns with the governor's proposed 3% compensation increase for each year of the 2526 biennium for all standards of quality positions the cost associated with a 3% increase is $1.35 million additionally while ccps has made great strides and improving compensation on our teacher scale over the past three years our support scale remains behind our regional peers as such ccps is proposing a pay increase beyond the 3% % by making adjustments to our educational support scale and adjusting starting pay from $ 12288 to $13.75 per hour this increase will be for a large number of our support staff which includes instructional assistants custodians food service technicians and cashiers the cost of this scale enhancement is 1.5 1.05 million in addition ccps is proposing to adjust the
078teacher scale to have a set 1.45% step increase consistent throughout the pay scale per a recommendation in the 2022 paypoint salary study the cost of this teacher scale adjustment is 1.2 million this totals 3.6 million for employee compensation as you recall ccps conducted a salary study in 2022 circled above is the successful FY 23 retroactive implementation of step one which raised our zerye teacher starting salary to $8,699 although funding was not available in FY 23 FY 24 or FY 25 to complete steps 2 through 4 ccps has worked outside of the study to identify alternate compensation methods let's take a look at the impact of these longitudinal efforts in fy22 ccps provided targeted compensation to bus and car drivers raav raising the starting pay of car drivers from $12.89 to $14 and bus drivers from
079$13.51 to $16 per hour for a total investment of $77,000 effective February 1st 2022 in Fe in FY 23 targeted compensation was provided to custodians grounds par Educators family engagement coordinators itas Food Service techs cashiers assistant managers receptionists Elementary School attendance clerks and the parent teacher resource staff and a 7% increase was provided to all employees additionally in FY 23 step one of the paypoint HR study was implemented which provided teachers on steps 0 through 18 with retroactive pay at the end of the fiscal year increased ADM monies were utilized to fund this $563,000 all FY 24 skills were adjusted so employees received a 5% increase inclusive of a step also in FY 24 ccps used State Monies to provide a 1% retroactive salary increase to all staff in January of 2024 in fy2 local
080funding paired with State funds enabled ccps to provide a 3% plus step to all emplo employees and finally as previously shared for FY 26 ccps is proposing a 3% increase for all staff which is inclusive of a step and adjustments to the education support scale to increase the starting wages for select support staff from $12.88 to $113.75 per hour this will impact 285 of our support staff members in the custodian food service technician and cashier and instructional assistant Arenas in addition ccps is proposing an adjustment to the teacher scale for the salary study recommendation to ensure a consistent 1.45% increase is between each step on the educator scale to further emphasize the positive impact of the fy22 fy2 efforts ccps compared our first and fifth year salary to neighboring divisions we are so pleased to
081report that over the past four fiscal Cycles ccps salaries are now falling in the mid-range of our region placing us ninth out of 20 for both first year and fifth year teacher salaries for those of you that have been with us for quite some time you know that I was standing at this Podium and quoting a statistic of 16 out of 16 and 15 out of 16 so this is tremendous evidence of our l um yielding great fruit in reviewing the seasoned portion of our scales ccps compared our year 20 25 and 30-year scales to Regional peers we ranked 11th out of 20 for 20year teacher salaries 10th out of 20 for 25e salaries and eighth out of 20 for 30-year salaries these data reinforce the importance of completing step one of the salary study
082which lifted steps 0 to 18 in FY 24 because as you can see the first 20 years of our scale are now comparable to the back half of our scale and place Us in the middle of the recruitment region for our complete teacher scale as a small rural division having said this we must maintain and make additional progress in order to remain competitive in all employee categories specifically support staff take a look at the massive disparity in the following support staff categories custodians par professionals food service technicians and cashiers when compared to a smaller pool of region of regional competitors for support staff we rank six out of six for a full review of what's needed for FY 26 compensation take a close look at the three red circles ccps needs $2.3 million to support
083the Ed support scale adjustment as well as modify the teacher scale to reflect the 1.45% in between each step 64200 is needed to provide a step for all employees plus 76,000 for a cost of living increase which equates to a 3% increase for all employees moving on to health insurance ccps received our renewal from the local Choice based on our prior year claims we've received a 12% increase in our premiums this results in an employer increase of $775,000 it is important to view our longitudinal data surrounding health insurance rates specifically State Health Insurance averages are anticipated to increase between 9 and 10% and the national average Falls between 8 and %. while the bar graph above documents a rather volatile pattern the 8-year average for Caroline County Public Schools participation in the local Choice shows
084an average of 8.16% let's shine a light on the office of exceptional education's needs ccps currently utilizes outside agencies to employ six licensed practical nurses LPN at approximately $50 per hour the LPN support students medical needs outlined within their individualized education plans also known as IEPs Medical Services vary but currently include feeding tube support seizure disorder support toileting support with colostomy and catheterization and physical support for shunts transitioning from an external provider to School Division employment would provide a significant cost savings provide greater opportunity for professional learning and service flexibility and ensure compliance with the code of Virginia nursing requirements five instructional AIDS and one teacher as the ccps exceptional education population continues to grow so do the needs for additional service models and providers specifically the annual December 1 count from 2223 documented 589
085students with disabilities 651 in 2324 and 694 students with disabilities were reported on the December 1 count for 2425 the 2-year increase of 105 exceptional education students represents an 18% Increase five instructional AIDS and one teacher are needed to address the increased number of students and programmatic needs for building case managers Nationwide teacher shortages have significantly impacted exceptional education by limiting the availability of licensed teachers for students with disabilities this has led to larger case loads less individualized attention potential for Less experienced staff to fill vacancies within ccps 64% of our exceptional educators are novice meaning they are provisionally licensed with three or less years of experience Prov providing every school with a building case manager would would enable our novice exceptional education teachers to master differentiated instruction progress monitoring and Service delivery while the
086seasoned building case manager would support case management and Regulatory Compliance student Support Services secondary mental health provider Caroline County has been identified as a mental health desert at a provider to Patient ratio of 1 to 3,70 individuals the inability to access a provider and appointment secure transportation and navigate medical insurance complexities are a few of the hurdles our ccps students and families experience as such school counselors and social workers are being called upon to support students experiencing more significant mental health needs in the school environment for example during the 23 24 school year the secondary level completed 119 risk or threat assessments 90 at the middle school 29 at the high school with 17 being elevated and requiring immediate assistance outside of the school division this additional Position will provide in school Mental Health Services
087to Lotus Academy Caroline middle and Caroline high school and will help spearhead the risk and threat assessment process School C counseling the conversion of two 10 and 1 half month to 11mon contracts for high school counselors supports master schedule completion ontime graduation monitoring and continued progress on the new 3E performance framework requirements additionally this additional contractual time will enable school counselors to better Meet Virginia code which mandates 80% of counselor's time being hip-to-hip with students and 20% on program planning and administrative tasks the additional 0 five School counseling position is slated to address Bowling Green Elementary School's growing student population and an increased number of student risk assessments this increase would support bowling Green's ability to provide Mental Health Services School counseling lessons small groups and Crisis Intervention for students and families moving into general
088education teachers first up Reading Coach and innovation specialist our current CMS reading specialist position is funded through all-in funds which expire in 2526 local funding of this critical position is essential to Caroline Middle School's continued Improvement and is required by Virginia literacy act at 1100 students in grades 6 through 8 ccps currently has five Innovation specialists in which one FTE or full-time equivalent is funded through the title one Grant due to diminished funding increases and atrisk federal funding ccps is requesting this 1,00 to1 standard of quality position be moved to local dollars 8.5 classroom teachers the following 8.5 classroom teacher requests reflect needs associated with enrollment growth program expansion student teacher ratio and access to coursework one full-time equivalent for Spanish this would be a job split between CMS and CHS to address increased course
089requests High student teacher ratios and the need for greater access to World language courses to complete the requirements for advanced diploma um for an advanced diploma 0 five American Sign Language this part-time position is needed to support students with completing their sec qu for a standard or Advanced diploma at the high school two elective positions Agriculture and art both at CMS and CHS they have experienced increased requests for these electives one Ela FTE the Department of Education monitors ratios for English teachers and they must fall within an average of 1 to 24 currently the overall English language arts department ratio at the high school is 1 to 23 so we want to make sure we start the year appropriately with Staffing two English language learner FTE the standards of quality English language learner Staffing ratio
090changes effective FY 2026 and is based on student English language learner proficiency the new student ratios require ccps to have 6.64 English language learner teachers and currently we only have five two general education unassigned FTE ccps is requesting to unassigned teachers to address Rising ADM the stringent K3 class size reduction ratios and the growing CTE class size ccps must be prepared for the establishment of additional 25 26 classrooms at the beginning of the school year as many students enroll un or enroll unexpected an example is two positions being added to Bowling Green one in August and one in November due to increase in enrollment support staff support staff are the backbone of CPS ccps so let's take a close look Lunch Buddies admin intern and receptionist Lunch Buddies provide students with a trusted adult at
091the elementary level reinforcing positive behavior intervention system expectations and fostering connection with within the cafeteria environment additionally their presence ensures that teachers receive an unencumbered lunch and that students support and safety is increased admin in turn currently Bowling Green Elementary School has an admin intern position which is funded by Allin Grant monies which expire in 2526 local dollars will be needed to continue the level of leadership support Bowling Green requires to service 868 students three administrators continue to be essential to the successful monitoring of academics Behavior exceptional education and student culture and finally Lewis and Clark Elementary School serves over 1,000 students and families to provide high quality customer service data entry and responsiveness Louis and Clark requires an additional front office assistant to align with the ccps Staffing formula for schools payroll specialist and
092administrative assistant with over 700 employees and increased payroll tasks and complexities a second payroll specialist is critical to increasing the division's capacity for processing and compliance tasks this second position is currently paid under all-in funds which expire in FY 26 an additional administrative assistant position is needed to support the coordinators of assessment and students support services this position would provide support to yearr round assessment processes mckin vinto 504 Medicaid tracking and other administrative and budgetary tasks associated with federal and state regulatory requirements and our final category technology in past years the capital Improvement plan has appropriated a 100,000 for classroom and staff technology due to rising cost costs and increased positions 113,000 is needed annually to sufficiently replace classroom and staff technology additionally new Chromebooks are provided to all Rising third Sixth and nth graders
093to align with warranties and refresh Cycles these purchases historically funded by by vpsa and grants now face reduced Grant availability with 180,000 from vpsa and a 36,000 local match the division must purchase 1,162 Chromebooks at $350 each totaling $47,000 overall $59,750 revenues and expenditures Mrs Stevens It's essential to review revenues by source to identify potential Revenue gaps in the school division's annual needs based budget State revenues are projected to increase by 1364 million of new monies we are also showing an increase in our other Revenue category as this is due to we are expecting to purchase some e-id equipment in FY 26 this is a onetime Revenue increase which will be reduced in fisical year 27 once the equipment is purchased so no local no should no local operational increase be received the ccps fiscal
094year 26 proposed operating budget will have a revenue gap of $2.2 million the expenditures by category displays how the school divisions revenues will actually be spent in during fiscal year 26 the largest increase is in our instructional category which is a result of compensation increases and newly proposed positions for those in that category which is the largest number of employees in our division there is a large increase in administration attendance and health category this year and it is due to the request of the five skilled nurses and one mental health professional which are all in the category of attendance and health per VOE guidelines technology also has a large increase due to due to those proposed eate equipment purchases as well as the technology equipment purchases noted in the fiscal year 26 budget priorities the
095noted expenses reflected reflect all of ccps budget priorities including the requireing additional County support of $2.2 million to close the revenue Gap the special Grant f F textbook and Food Service funds have been adjusted based on estimated projected revenues the special grants is seeing a 2.8 million decrease due to the expiration of pandemic funding the textbook fund amounts have been adjusted based on the state calculations for textbooks utilizing the updated ADM in addition to utilizing fund balance in that fund for FY 26 to adopt a math curriculum the budget financials document a revenue gap of $2.2 million and these funds are needed in order to operationalize the fiscal year 26 budget priorities presented this evening we encourage all community members staff and students to remain involved in the budget process on Tuesday March 11th the
096FY 26 budget will be presented to the Board of Supervisors the County Administrator is scheduled to present the FY 26 County budget to to the Board of Supervisors on March 25th with the public hearing currently slated for April 8th at this time we would be more than happy to entertain any questions are there questions regarding the budget from board members I would I would start by saying wow that's a lot a lot of data but yeah as we started the process a while back uh we made a priority to focus in on the support staff uh and while we still have a lot of work to cover a lot of ground to make up we continue to make progress uh supporting you know that the backbone of you know of this organization of this division
097uh so I I commend uh all for that uh and uh and Champion our continuing effort to make sure that we're looking at everyone to try to lift everyone's uh all boats but um you know paying attention to that support staff is crucial um if if we're going to continue to have the success I think that we we've been having thus far so thank you for doing that but also uh we still got work to do yes sir thank you Mr Kelly did you have a question yeah I just wanted to say thanks for the the detailed information on the staff and every um and and where the money is going I always feel like that's an important piece for us and just to Echo your comments from earlier I do feel like this is
098the year um that considering the money that removal of the support cap has been really instrumental for us and and you know I and I remember when I first moved here and like the the teacher salaries were just they weren't a good times and it's good to see us to start to move up into the middle of the pack using so many resources that we can uh looking under every Zone beating every single Bush finding good quality staff and paying them what they deserve um I'm extremely optimistic about this budget getting passed um and about the Board of Supervisors working with us hand in hand considering that the growth that we've had in this County and the people that are coming in here and getting the right buildings I think it's a really really bright
099happy time for Caroline County and I think we're really at the Tipping Point of the precipice of just doing fantastic wonderful things in our community thank you Mr Kelly I do think your point in relation to if there ever was a year to have a fully funded budget this may be the case we were able to incorporate all budget priorities provide a 3% increase to all staff and then focus on those support categories that we have been uh highlighting for the past year and with the county um local required effort um expecting $872,000 of of new required money we really beyond that would only be looking for an approximate 1.2 million to make all of this happen and so how amazing would it be to be able to say that both boards have collaborated on
100this effort and we have made this lift together so let's uh make our motto together we can other board members I just wanted to say thank you um in the role of a superintendent this is probably one of the big task that you have to put forward um for me I did pause with the ADM um and so I went back and looked at the chart and again um I have confidence because our number is I'm careful to say always but we tend to be um in a really good spot with that so a projection of 4,320 really shows the growth that we have here um I also appreciated the longitudinal data because I think that is uplifting and empowering um and it shows the work that we have done in those spaces where we've
101not been able to do maybe what we wanted to do um it does show where our priorities are and so thank you for providing that um information my last comment um I noticed several times in your presentation you talked about uh funding sources that um previously existed that are coming to their expiration um and as a board we always get those reports but I thought it was really wise that you are articulating how you have monitored the cliff evaluated what's necessary and then how can we shift um funding to continue those places where um those things are needed so thank you um just wanted to highlight that I noted those pieces thank you I do take great pride in our team's work both with Esser funds that are no longer um under the guidance of
102Mrs Stevens and Andrea Ross and now there's a large team working with the all-in monies we meet regularly to track those funds and evaluate the effectiveness of any human capital that may be associated with those funds so that we are able to come to you and say this position indeed has made an impact and we cannot move forward without it has become critical to our mission so I appreciate you recognizing that and I um believe a shout out is very much um needed not only for Mrs Stevens but also for her finance department they have worked long hours over the last few months um to make sure that we had accurate numbers to bring to you tonight um and I'm really pleased with the budget we have presented um as a proposal U thank you
103other other board members other comments if not I again I would like to thank you for the uh work the staff for the work that they've done done I did have one question um I noticed you know we talk about the local Composite Index and I know that's a locality's ability to pay um I was wondering if there is any correlation between the assessment of property because you know we are in sort of the middle of of that could you talk about that a little bit and how that might reflect the uh uh the Count's ability to pay our local Composite Index is a very delayed calculation I believe as indicated when Maria was reviewing that slide that we're currently using 2021 data and next year when we are working in a new bium the
104first year of the bium with a a new governor um I would imagine that our local Composite Index will be uh greatly impacted because we'll have a whole new set of data that will be coming in and we did in the county Carolina had a a big lapse of time um where they hadn't assessed the worth of property values and so when that was done I think each of you on the DI probably saw a rather substantial increase in the worth of your property and that will it's going to raise the local Composite Index because it's going to show that our county has greater wealth and ability to pay and in turn that will lower the amount of money we re we receive from the state so um we are awaiting those numbers and in
105the next fiscal year but that's my prognostication and I will certainly invite Mara to provide any deeper Insight certainly and I know the county is in an assessment year again this year however they're going to be looking at that next two-year period so the 23 numbers will be the next time and that is when the county had done an assessment previously it had been P five years prior to that in which they had conducted an assessment so we believe we may have that increase in looking forward right okay uh that's all that I have I don't think any other board members have questions uh Mr chairman I move for approval of the FY 26 superintendent proposed budget and uh presentation as presented second it's been moved in probably second that we would approve the uh
106the budget projection as presented uh Miss Stevens would you call for the vote Mrs Sears I Mr Fortune I Dr hubard I Dr Rollins FS hi Mr Kelly hi Mr Taylor I and uh the motion pass us thank you okay that takes us to new business the first read 2025 special education annual plan M thank you good evening chair Taylor and vice chair Fortune members of the school board Dr calic tonight I will share with you the special education annual plan and the regulatory requirements for idea the annual plan is a regulatory requirement and provides governance on the funding for idea as a rem reminder Caroline County Public Schools currently Services all 13 disability categories that are recognized by the state of Virginia the vdoe requires school divisions to report an unduplicated count of students
107with disabilities receiving special education services on December 1 for State funding and federal reporting under the provision of the individuals with Disabilities Act or Ida ccps reported the December 1 count for the 2425 school year as 69 for students with disabilities as of March 1st 2024 we currently have 742 students with disabilities under Virginia IEP this slide shows the December 1 historical data since the 2014 2015 school year and as you heard earlier the increase numbers of 18% in the last three years the annual plan requirements include local policies and procedures maintenance of effort proportionate set aside and excess cost information as a part of the annual plan the maintenance of effort is an annual collection or allocation from the US Department of Education and it provides supplements with the local and state funding to
108serve students with disabilities within the division for the proportion set aside each Lea receives funds for the provisions of special education and related services for homeschool students and parentally placed private school children with disabilities the purpose of the Federal requirement for excess cost calculations is to enable leas to determine the amount of regular education funds being expended on the basic education of its students with disabilities ccps will be determining the amount of exess costs as the budget is being finalized this slide shows that the 611 Grant is for schoolage children um ranging from kindergarten through age of 22 this grant currently covers salary and benefits for 12 special education teachers and one Behavior Specialists the 619 Grant is for our early childhood special education students ages 2 through five this grant currently covers the salary
109for one ecsc coordinator stien and the partial funding for one ecsc teacher in AE previous board meeting you were given an overall data update on what exceptional education looks like in Carolina county this slide shows our current Staffing at Bowling Green Elementary the next slide shows our current Staffing at Lewis and Clark Elementary this slide shows um the Staffing for Madison Elementary this is the Staffing slide for Caroline Middle School and the last Staffing slide shows that of Caroline high school things to consider for the exceptional education cost having exceeded the funding due to the increase in student population and the impact of disabilities that we service here in Carolina County as student numbers and needs increase one or more positions may need to be moved to local funding the office of exceptional education will
110continue to monitor student enrollment and make the appropriate adjustments to meet the regulatory requirements at this time I am asking that you wave the second read and approve the sped annual plan as presented I will take any questions that you have at this time okay I guess the only question I would have is there any objection to the waving of the second read and are we legally allowed to do that yes Mr chairman I move for approval of the uh special education annual plan as presented is there a second second it's been moved in properly second that we would wave the second reading and approve the special education annual plan as presented um M Stevens would you call for the vote Mrs Sears I Dr hubard I Mr Kelly I Mr Fortune I Dr Rollins
111spells Mr Taylor I and the motion carries the plan if if I I did have some questions you approve but I'm sorry sure okay I I will complete the motion and I will give you a chance to ask okay so it's approved as it stands approved as presented U Dr H great thank you um uh first of all I commend and appreciate the uh comprehensive uh approach with dealing with historical data and bringing that uh it it does give us you know a a good feel for where we're at where we've come and and and currently where we're at um uh reviewing the proportional set aside uh um that seems to be fluctuating rather drastically um and I'm just wondering how uh your budget how do you plan for that when we see such such
112fluctuation in that me sure the proportionate satis siid again deals with students that are parentally placed in private schools and we have one private school here with the Carmel Church school and then students that are homeschooled fortunately for our students with disabilities we have had several to come back to the comprehensive schools here which is why you see a decrease in the number of P portion set aside great thank you now do we see okay I can add to it for how we account for that in the budgeting process so we'll project the budget as a whole including the proportional set aside in the past several years we have not actually spent it on on the proportional set aside after June once the grant is getting ready to expire we are able to move it
113into the funding stream of compensation and benefits in which we are paying the 12 employees and one benefit specialist to help offset you know not being able to to to meet it earlier on correct got it um now is is there a separate report where we're we're actually going to see the outcomes of the efforts of uh you know our exceptional education programs um because as we look at scores uh we continue to see um some challenges associate with our exceptional education students um in like the future because I I guess it's really not a part of this report but is there a forthcoming report that we will see how effective are uh our efforts are um at achieving uh student uh positive student outcomes sure so the reporting that I believe you're speaking of
114would be our so data and then our new performance standards that will come starting 25 26 school year so all students will receive that report so we would look at that report to see how we're doing specially designed instruction and tailor to meet the needs of our students that's the next report that comes out this specific report is just talking about the funding sources of it okay last question sure uh professional development uh are uh you able to capitalize on the opportunities of getting the staff that we do have you know giving them the professional development uh as Dr kic pointed out all of those you know extras that they need to have you know are there enough funds to meet those types of requirements uh going forward so we are currently doing our professional
115development we do monthly training for staff and we do a tiered approach as Dr calic mentioned we are significantly we have a significant number of uh no staff so we had to do a tiered approach to that learning really going back to the basics of sped 101 because you have students are you have staff that are coming here that don't have the pedagogy of teaching so you have to provide that information to them and then from there we move on to the tiered approach of what is Sci what does it look like to write a lesson plan all of those things we have been providing and then we also do individual supports through our uh compliance coordinator Miss Darby and then also we have school supports where I bring our team in and we provide
116that support we just did a training with the middle school here last week and I will piggyback off of that because there is just a plethora of opportunity available we have a registered behavioral technician training going on for our par professionals we have multiple Pathways to the classroom underway through the office of Human Resources specifically the Richmond and teacher residency program we're also working with umw um to develop a an apprenticeship pathway and all of those have extensive supports in the classroom with uh extreme amounts of mentorship um and then we also have our novice teacher coaches and they are boots on the ground using the electronic feedback system simme with some of our novice um provisionally licensed staff as well thank you and I really appreciate appreciate your continued uh hard work in you
117know in this effort uh as those numbers continue to grow those are ex additional demands that are being put on uh a very limited staff so uh I thank you and your team for for your continued efforts here thank you again thank you uh for the information and for the hard work there is just one other question I had I know we talk about being able to evaluate the the success of what we do and you know very often we do that by the S so's but I know in special education and I don't I can't remember what it was but there was a different way to evaluate some special AED uh students can you sure sure so we don't call it evaluation we call it progress monitoring and we look at their goals and
118if students are meeting and achiev achieving their goals and based on that we identify what those goals are first and then we move accordingly after they have achieved a goal we add on to it for functional skills social skills Behavior academic um and emotional okay and so that way it doesn't it doesn't show up as though the the the student is not progressing right it's not a number grade but the progress monitoring is over a percent of this time what they are able to achieve based on the goals in that individualized education plan okay thank you very much did other board members have questions or concerns if okay thank you very much thank you okay all right uh that takes us to uh the first read for student fees for 2526 Mr mud yes good
119evening chair Taylor Vice chair Fortune members of the board and Dr calic policy regulation jn- student fees fines and charges has been reviewed and updated for the 5 26 school year and revisions and additions will be shared this evening for a first read the Carolina County School uh public school team appreciates the board's review with hopes that policy jn- R school fees will be approved upon second read in April once approved the updated fees will be shared with all students families and Community via online platforms through social media and hard copies um at each of our facilities the proposed fee list for for 2526 is available to you in your printed materials this evening on the dis the slides that will show this evening will reflect the redline proposals the 2526 uh fee overview begins
120with elementary and middle school fees followed by high school fees the fee list for elementary and middle school next year no longer includes a fee for an agenda this fee has not been used in recent years and we are updating our fee sheet to reflect this change at the middle school level there are proposed new fees of $5 for stem and music the stem course fee will be used for consumable such as filaments for the 3D printers paint supplies for student projects and the music fee will be used for instrument accessories such as reads bows and other instrument parts that are needed throughout the year as well as some assessment fees and to purchase new music Middle School a course fees have increased by $10 in each course to cover the cost of consumables in
121addition to covering Future Farmers of America or FFA dues which is a new requirement for every student enrolled in these courses all other fees for elementary and middle school remain the same Al on this same slide at the High School level you will see an increase in the parking fee by $10 which aligns with a neighboring School Division you will also see fee reductions in AP environmental science to $10 aligning with our other AP courses as well as a reduction in the environmental science fee to $5 you will also note the elimination of fees associated with physical education currently there are funds in the PE budget lines at ch tests that are adequate for meeting the needs of our a PE teachers and Staff feel that the Fe PE fees are no longer necessary for
122these courses at this time a noteworthy fee elimination on this slide is the elimination of fees for dual enrollment courses the 2024 College and Career ready Virginia program and fund house bill which was approved during the 2024 legislative session calls for the following ing local school boards shall not charge qualified high school students tuition or fees for enrolling or participating in program courses this change takes effect beginning in the 2526 school year staff is currently working to identify funding sources to support this change we have several options we're considering we're confident that we will be able to meet this requirement as part of our budgeting for 2526 on this next slide you will find more changes to high school fees you'll note the elimination of fees for theater business marketing and Entrepreneurship theater has done
123well with fundraising in recent years and does not find this additional fee to be necessary at this time business marketing and Entrepreneurship have supplies that can be covered under the Perkins Grant rendering the fees for these courses no longer necessary fee reductions you will note in carpentry a fee reduction is possible thanks to some grants and donations and the criminal justice fee reduction um is a result of the CPR card fee that that was originally part of the um $10 fee we can Now cover that portion um that CPR card through our Perkins Grant so we're able to reduce that fee the cosmetology course fee is being reduced by $5 the cosmetology cosmetology kit fee is increasing the current kits at the $155 rate do not provide enough materials for students for the entire cosmetology
124program this increase reflects a one-time upfront cross for students the materials provided with the more comprehensive kit will support the student throughout their entire cosmetology program and the students will be able to keep the materials at the conclusion of the course the barber kit fee is also increasing for the same reason similar to the Middle School level the fee increase for the high school ad classes reflects the requirement for students enrolled in those classes to be members of the FFA this fee increase will cover that cost and finally the in fee increases in The Culinary courses reflect the need to offset the rising cost of food supplies that are impacting this program this review con concludes our overview of um the presentation for first read for our proposed changes to fees for 2526 we thank
125the board for consideration of the of these proposal proposed fees I'm happy to answer any questions you have at this time do Ward memb have questions regarding the fees yes sir Mr chairman I have one question um you mentioned Mr mud that the ad class fee um is increased to include the student membership for the student Leed organization that's right is that true for other classes that have a student organization I'm trying to think of an example and see if Miss fry um may be able to answer that for us um not sure if we have another similar example if you're bed your question um no because it is not a requirement of the class for example culinary arts you are not required to be part of FCCLA so you do not pay that fee
126unless you are going to be a member of FCCLA because FFA has now made a requirement for any agriculture student to become a member we want to offset the part portion that we as a school pay okay we can discuss later but I'm wondering if that's a it makes sense to me that um students enrolled in those classes would also participate in the student organization because that's where they're able to compete ex etc etc and it opens up opportunities for them so I'm wondering if that'll be good for other programs um and again we can it's just food for thought that can be discussed at a different time is your question uh consideration for other courses that have memberships to include that that fee as part of the fee in the future correct okay thank
127you there is discussion of that happening with other ctsos um at the state level I would be hesitant to make that jump before it happens at the state level because it may um eliminate some opportunities for our freshmen who want to explore career career and Pathways that may not want to necessarily join that ctso and they just want to see if it's an option for them and by having it open or by not having it as a requirement when it's not required at the state level we also get more students um competing that truly want to compete and aren't just a me an active member because they paid a certain dollar amount good other questions yeah just one the um Barber kit and the cosmetology kit that's 250 bucks um is that you is that
128going to be a a hurdle that's going to cause some folks to not participate we we recognize that that's a significant increase for both The Barber and the cosmetology um I do know and I'll miss fry jump in and and likely the principal as well we work with any student who where we where a fee is associated where that may be a hardship um and and make it possible if it's a course that they're um interested in taking I don't if you have anything to add to that yeah so Perkins cannot cover the kits for every single student because it it's the student property they buy it in cosmetology one and keep it for their entire time in Caroline um and then they take it home however because it is a requirement to have a
129kit for your state board exam if you are a special population or if you are um low so socioeconomic status we can support and take care of those students what's a special population um so for cosmetology it would be males taking the cosmetology class because it's typically females Dr Connelly did you want to add and uh thank you Mr one thing I would like to add is we're not going to allow student fees to permit barriers for any student in the building so if the student fee is truly a barrier we're going to find a way to to make that work whether it be um finding sponsorships from the community other scholarships other grant funding sources but student fees are not going to be a barrier for any student who wants to enroll in any
130of our courses if I could make a follow-up comment and this is likely a suggestion it could be a very quick no in response but a fee of that nature is most definitely cost prohibitive and I know that there are indeed pots of funds that we utilize but I'm wondering if a payment plan per quarter and or charging a monthly fee or at the semester Mark could we break that in half have we ever considered that type of situation so uh any family or anyone who needs to be placed on an installment plan for any reason uh whether it could just be a request uh we we do make those accommodations so these are not um all going to be do immediately if a family needs to an installment plan over one year two year
131four years we just ask that all fees are paid by the time they walk across the stage so that um so yes we we do that that is definitely something we will continue to do great thank you Mr chairman if I can just add what that cosmology and barbering I'm I'm actually while that gives us sticker shock I appreciate the price increase so the kids have what they need in the kit versus getting to your state board exam and you're sitting for it and then there's an additional fee so just wanted to offer that I'm I'm glad to see that it's included thank you uh yes um I would like to give my student perspective on this I was actually like a part of the cosmetology program and actually got my license last year and
132I really appreciate the increase of the kit because I know I had to go like to the store and get more materials because I did not have enough in my kit and it probably ended up costing more than the increase in this kit and like I I really really appreciate that because an um there was like a mishap in my cosmetology exam because the stand that I got was so low quality that it like knocked off and messed up my haircut during the exam so I think that this is a great idea to get like the students what they really need in order to be successful in this course thank you I'm Mr chair one one question regarding the parking fee increase uh Mr M you mentioned that uh the rationale behind the $10 increase
133was associated with uh the increase uh bringing the total parking fee on par with other divisions or yes sir so that fee was there was a a look around at what some of the other divisions were charging for parking um one of the neighbors to the north charges $50 um one to the South $75 we were charging 40 and so um The Proposal was to increase from 40 to 50 with the anticipated increase in revenue for Park from the parking permit is there a need that needs to be addressed with those anticipated increased funds or is there simply that we're charging below other divisions I'll let Dr Connelly jump in um we had a brief conversation about this um one of the one of the uses of the funds there's a couple of ways the
134funds can be used one potentially is to support um some of the infrastructure needs within the parking lot itself um or around the building um the other the fees can be used for um things to like supporting uh student graduation caps and gowns those types of things um I don't know if you want to add to that in regards to need um that that that's pretty pretty much it one of the things we we did look at is knowing that that money can be used to support facility upgrades specifically in the parking lot resurfacing striping things like that and with the increasing cost of those materials right asphalt sealant it's not going down the price is going up um associated with the increase in cost of moving graduation from Mary Washington to the EO Sports
135and Event Center which was an amazing event last year we would like to continue keeping that that fees can go to support both of those projects okay other questions do our students still have the opportunity to paint a parking spot and if so could this money go towards repainting so that it's a fresh canvas for the next incoming group of students sure students do still have the option to paint their their parking spot if they wish um they it can be used to repaint right now we have so many unpainted spots that it's not like there is a uh a shortage so in the future yes it definitely could be used for that or when all the spots are painted and it needs to be resealed and recover it it covers up that paint we
136stripe it and we start all over again um for the next 20 to 30 years but uh yes it can be right now there's not the need for it because of the number of painted spots just is not that high okay other questions if not thank you very much we appreciate your time and the information thank you that takes us to the first read for the Perkins of gr me again yes good evening chair Taylor Vice chair Fortune Dr calic and esteemed members of the board tonight I share with you an overview of the Perkins grant for first read When developing our Perkins Grant this year um Staff first turned to our CTE annual performance where we met the performance in all areas but one in the 23 24 year we met or exceeded all
137performance standards with the exception of the post program placement we were just a little over 1% away from meeting that goal in reviewing surveys and talking to students who graduated which is where this data comes from we were able to determine that we had several students who took what we refer to potentially as a gap year um after graduation where they were employed in either part-time or full-time jobs outside of the CTE areas so that's that's what what we noticed on that particular data point for students in CTE programs the report also documents their performance in English math and science based on endof course testing performance we're happy to report that we exceed performance standards in the this area one other indicator from the report that informed our analysis was our work with work-based learning
138again this is another area where we exceed the standard for for both uh CTE completers and special populations in regards to our CTE priorities as a result of our analysis and needs assessment we have determined our priorities for the Perkins grant for 25 26 as the following one continuing professional learning in the in innovative ways as we did this year the field is constantly changing it's moves very swiftly we want to ensure that our teaching staff have upto-date Knowledge and Skills to support the growing Fields two growing our industry certifications and credentialing for our students is a priority as our goal is that each student graduating for each of the Academies will have an industry credential from their pathway three providing curriculum and resources will support new courses and and the academy model with updated
139resources for teachers and for modernizing our equipment uh to ensure that we are able to expand and that things are up to dat we have addressed our priorities in the grant through the following allocations we use Grant guidance documents to help us work through the formulas to determine the amounts we need we need for each area balanced with our program needs and goals going around this slide here we'll move clockwise um we will start with equipment and I'll I'll explain um our grant allocation proposal for each area under equipment money for equipment falls under the Perkins Grant heading of CTE program size scope and quality we're allocating $99,000 in this area for this portion of the grant which can be used for consumables for materials and supplies for classroom instruction also under equipment the CTE
140program implementation is another part of the Perkins grant that can be used for equipment $ 31,5 3370 is allocated under this particular section These funds will be used to purchase equipment to move improve improve expand and modernize quality Career and Technical education programs including relevant and Innovative technology equipment instructional materials and online resources These funds will support the expansion and enhancement of our health and medical Sciences programs and meet industry standards These funds will be utilized after spending the state equipment and special equipment funds allocations next on the graphic you'll see new programs and courses in this in the grant This falls under the heading of CTE program alignment to labor market we have allocated $ 22,24 in funds in this area to be used to purchase equipment to improve expand and modernize quality Career
141and Technical education programs including relevant Innovative instruction Innovative technology equipment instructional materials and online resources these funds will support the expansion and enhancement of our cosmetology automotive and carpentry programs and meet industry standards this amount will be utilized after spending the state equipment and special equipment funds allotment under credentialing test and Industry certification we have allocated $1,539 under the grant heading of CTE student performance These funds will be used for certification and credentialing test for all students similar to other areas These funds will be utilized after spending the state industry credential funds allocation ctso competitions as well as the next area on the graphic special populations both fall into the areas of our grant dedicated for CTE program access $1,539 is allocated to support special populations to determine career choices and Pathways developing a plan
142to share career pathways through uh field trips uh guest lectures and work-based learning opportunities Based on data collected providing opportunities for special populations to attend ctso District Regional State and national conferences and finally under professional development we address the component of the grant entitled CTE program staff recruitment retention and development a total of $15,750 is allocated in this area for opportunities for staff to attend and participate in training conferences workshops and other sanctioned VD options teachers will receive training to ensure current best practices are utilized in CTE classrooms funds for business networking lunches for Business Leaders and partners to network and provide resources for special populations in the CTE programs this concludes our overview of the draft Perkins crant for first for first read um I have asked Miss fry to stay here with me
143we're happy to answer any questions you have about our grant again board members have questions regarding the Perkins Grant yes Mr chair um Mr what is the total amount of that Grant so our total with the um state grants that come with it the five state grants that come with it it is expected to be 91,000 next year I forget the exact number but it was 91,000 Miss fry can I ask that you go into the presentation and next to the percentages can you put the actual dollar amounts for us and then the total at the top of this slide that will help us reflect between now and next month in relation to the parts and pieces absolutely thank you very much all one question will you finish sorry I'm sorry I just wanted to
144make sure you were finished thank you yes sir I am okay go ahead sorry Mr chairman that's all right um did I hear you correctly say that there is a uh a method for collection data on outcomes uh post you once students graduate are we we have the ability to track employment so we can see the effectiveness of the programs it is actually a requirement for CTE so Every Spring starting in June we have the starting very end of May to the middle of June we have time to complete um the previous year's completer survey so we reach out and contact every CTE student that is considered a completer meaning they have taken a part one and part two course and completed an industry credential last year I made contact with almost we had a
14599% completion rate for the survey um um which is very high and um we spend the time um asking specific questions determining what they're doing now what their plans are for the future and how impactful their CTE forces are on them and I'll add for context as I know we've been talking a lot about Head Start for example recently um so as Miss frad mentioned um that analysis similar to um Head Start that um needs assessment is a requirement in order to write your next Grant so you're using that data in order to make the decisions that you're making to for how we're allocating funds great thank you other questions Dr k sorry I have one more question I'm using my question quota Melissa did you evaluate the new school performance framework and the requirements
146associated with 3E ready when the money was appropriated to the different categories for this upcoming Grant yes I did okay when I was looking at it when I was writing the original draft of the Grant and then working with Dr neighbors we looked at the 3E framework to make sure that we were working towards Mastery level and also making sure we were hitting the um workplace Readiness goals and how we can build those Partnerships as well great because I want to make sure that we are really looking at that high wage high demand Workforce area for those for work Bas learning experiences yes and um in the in the actual Grant itself I make reference to Vee and P yes excellent thank you any other questions the only thing I would add is it it
147really concerns me with things like the Perkins Grant and those funds is there any well let me put should should we be doing something to prepare if those funs go away and how they would actually affect our program is there any thought about that um the Perkins Grant has been around for a very long time we this past year we actually lost about $3,000 no $6,000 in the grant but I don't foresee it going anywhere because CTE is the future of our businesses and the point of the Perkins Grant is to make it accessible to everyone so I don't foresee it going anywhere but I don't think that answers your question are those federal funds though yeah okay all right and I'll I'll add that's this is not a grant that I have heard or
148read anything about yet that is um one that is being eyeballed for any kind of reduction not to say that that can't happen but to at this point that is not on my radar okay while I have you both as a captive audience this is my my third question I will be done when this is over here I received an email from Dr Connelly this past week noting that asbab testing has been postponed for our students who may have an interest in going into the military and or all of our students who we were assessing in order to determine if they could get credit on the new performance framework have we gotten an update on that since you're here with the board so the ASVAB is postponed because there is not the funding for travel
149for the Proctors of the ASVAB um right now it is still up in the air as to whether or not we can have our second test date for the students who are interested in going into the military we are working with recruiters to get them into on-site testing locations it wouldn't count for us but it would help them get into their career choices excellent and I have submitted this topic for a state meeting on Friday with the state superintendent so hopefully there'll be more information shared and there are several people upset by it based on the reply all emails I got Dr Connelly did he he made his way down the aisle so I want to give him a moment to uh to add to yeah um I was just gonna um Echo what what
150Dr calber and Miss fry had already said so no need to belabor the point but thank you for the opportunity good okay other comments or questions uh if thank you very much we appreciate uh the report that takes us to um Schoolboard member comments we did some committee reports earlier so I don't know if board members have additional comments but certainly if they do uh we can uh maybe start down this end this time AA I don't want to put you on the spot but I don't want to leave you out good evening any everyone um so some highlights from February there aren't that much because of how much school we missed from snow but hopefully Spring weather is actually here this time um but boys and girls basketball made it to re the regional
151tournament so that is a huge accomplishment so kudos to them um some upcoming events are we have spring sports starting and I for one am super excited to see how that turns out with the amazing year we've had with all of our other sports um we have the start of the fourth quarter and the Middle School Dance I'm pretty sure is also happening this week and I'm in the works of scheduling meetings with the elementary schools and the Middle School to talk to them and to talk to the students and possibly some faculty about my survey that I sent out so hopefully that all goes well and then I'll update you guys on that at the next meeting okay thank you very much okay uh Dr H you know um as I mentioned earlier had
152the opportunity to uh go overseas and I actually uh visited a school imagine that uh much my wife s gr but um uh I say that because I had the opportunity to observe English being taught in um uh in uh an elementary school um in Vietnam uh a lot of good things going on there but my point is what you all are doing here in Caroline County is so far above and beyond what you know what is taking place in a lot of foreign countries you're doing good and our students you know are are excelling and I think you ought to take a moment I know what we're in the third quarter I believe now uh to take a moment Pat yourselves on the back because what you're doing matters uh and while sometimes it
153may not be as obvious uh or may be at times where you're getting drilled by a member up here on the Das but you're doing an awesome job keep it up you're doing the right types of things and those outcomes are going to make our students prepared for for the future um and that will be the shortest uh brief or uh comments that I will provide thank you thank you Mr Fortune uh thank you Mr chair uh first of all I want to uh congratulate our uh art student of the month uh our third quarter ABCD award recipients and uh those who were nominated as well as our fall and winner uh athlete athletes who were awarded uh winners tonight and our Beta Club members and calf uh debate team great job um one in
154all uh I had the opportunity to attend the uh Caroline NAACP black history month program um on February 17th it was a um magnificent Affair kudos to those who um were involved in that educational and entertaining um night so I was definitely U privileged to uh to attend that event um as was noted by some of my colleagues on the dice um I also attended the vsba eastern regional spring Forum held at U mapat Springs um it was a great great event and I just want to thank uh those who participated from Carolina High School um our JROTC Color Guard presented the colors for the event our Rifle Team um did an awesome job with their gun tossing demonstration and our Carolina High School instrumental Ensemble um provided music for the evening um while we
155ate dinner so Kudos um to all who participated in that event um and finally I want to um shout out once again um the Caroline education foundation's inaugural golf tournament um to be held on April 25th at matanai Springs um anyone who's interested in either playing or sponsoring U the tournament uh please contact me or uh please uh visit the matap Springs website where you can register thank you so much Mr chair oh thank you okay Dr Rin fils yes sir um Mr week just need to let you know that I know I've had some scheduling conflicts with my job with safe and drug free schools I have been able to work that out and so I will be replying to your emails and joining that committee meeting as a sign so thank you for
156your patience and thank you for accommodating a virtual format for me I know that's a little extra work but I appreciate um so that's an ACC accountability moment for me with the board and with you so thank you yes sir um second I am on the CTE committee I'm really looking forward to that I haven't been involved um with that Committee in a number of years and so Mr M I would like to follow up with getting on your calendar and with Miss fry so I can ask some questions that may not be appropriate for this format um third uh this weekend I was um had the esteem honor of being recognized by ignite your life for life and the focus of that conference was working with students with autism and I was able to
157share um the phenomenal story of our very own Joey fry um his Studio to share his artwork A commission piece that I have from him um and his 2025 calendar so I just want to encourage you all stop by downtown Bowling Green and go visit Joey um I taught him in third grade and it's just amazing to see him as an adult and see him thriving in his work um and that was an International Conference and so it was an honor to bring Joey with me in that format um I also wanted to say thank you to Caroline County thank you to the Eastern region um it was not lost on me that the Eastern region meeting was absolutely phenomenal um I was super proud that we were able to host of I think it's
15815 or 14 other divisions and um I really appreciated how um Dr Kar and I'll call you out specifically as as well as the board um you embrace the champions for impact um I want you to know that word has spread around the state the bar is High um another region reached out to me and they have uh five videos and just know that you've created quite a buzz and I appreciate having the support of my home team and then lastly in honor and recognition of women's History Month um I do want to look to the women who are serving on the board I want to thank you um for your voice and also felt good that I knew what I was talking about with that cosmetology thing so thank you um but your voice
159is so important we can get bogged down in policy and news and this sort of thing but your position is critical and so I want to encourage you um in what you're doing and to share your voice whenever I get an opportunity to give Dr Cal her Kudos publicly I do so because it's not easy um in this position it's not easy um sometimes sitting between two board ws and having to navigate those worlds and you do so with such Grace such dignity um and I respect you um and I wanted to honor you with my comments and to my lady to the right um I hope that uh you have a sense of peace that you are inspiring other women to do just what you have done as they learn your story about saying
160you know what I want to serve on that board one day and you stepped out courageously and fearlessly um I appreciate your voice as well um I love learn a lot from your quiet uh disposition but when you speak you notice that everybody listens because you always have something of value to add and so um I want just wanted to take a moment to highlight and honor you as a new board member and just give you your flowers publicly so those are my comments Mr chairman thank you Miss good evening um I don't have much to say this time but I'm excited that we are thaing out from a very cold and snowy winter and as I was coming and going picking up kids and running them all around it was great to see conditioning
161for spring Sports and tryy outs and I want to say congratulations to all students who have made an the number of sports teams we have going on um and I hope that if you are able to come out to support our students to cheer them on that you please do so um thank you to all the coaches and volunteers that it takes to make all of these teams um work so well um also uh rehearsals for the spring CHS Cavalier players production of Anastasia have are well underway and I'm really excited to see the show which is at the end of April I believe it's the last weekend of April and thank you guys so much for everything that you've been doing this quarter in this year that's all I have thank you Mr Kelly
162yes sir uh yeah also as a reminder spring Sports starts I think the soccer teams got their first scrimmage on uh Thursday and my son has already reminded me like be there we're really good this year and there's like we got all these really good kids and we've all like grown up because most of him and his buddies are on 11th grade uh I'd like to thank Andrea Ross for holding my hand last week as we are partaking in our um uh we're getting audited by Head Start which is normal process um but as the former board chair I have to sit through and she was gracious enough to give me her time and help prepare me for that interview process and give me some ideas as to what they may be looking for and
163it was funny because she said she was asking me questions about like what does our board do for community relations and I just it was like oh this is this is the easy one like how how how how well versed is our board in community relations and talking to people and do we know what we're talking about and the answer is for the most part yes and if no we have a fantastic staff like I just said can hold our hands and and walk us through this process when needed um and I think this board so much in the community of Caroline as I already mentioned the Eastern Forum was fantastic and we I was thinking the same thing Dr Ronald SPS we raise the bar because we have gone to so many of those
164things and they are nice and it's good to see the other board members and we've hosted it before but that was definitely bringing the aame and showing I think at least the Eastern region what this thing should probably look more like um and this board I've said it 100 times we are recognized masterboard training and all that stuff but this board is constantly looking for ways to get better what do what do we need to do and I already mentioned with Dr calck and the staff beating the bushes looking under rocks where can we find great staff how can we get some money to help pay our staff this board I think mirrors that same effort we go to the conferences we go to the conventions we're hopefully I think Lisa is probably going to
165mention the Hot Topics conference coming up in April we have talked amongst ourselves about going to cosba as well with Dr Rollins Fels Madam president um but it's great to be a part of a team that not just wants to succeed but always get better and look for that Competitive Edge so I'm thankful and M Ross thank you again for holding my hand the other day and I think the actual date is the 26th when I will sit down and do my little interview and I hope to make us all proud thank you Mr chairman that concludes my comments thank you uh and I just have a couple of comments as always I want to say thank you to the great staff that we have um I believe it is probably the greatest staff that
166you can have uh is not that we are not without uh some issues everybody is but the attitude and the willingness to work together to make it good for the student students of this county is phenomenal and I really appreciate that I appreciate the working together of this board uh we have different ideas and we see things differently but we are always willing to sit down and listen and talk and come up with uh a solution that we can all get behind and I think that's the makings of any good group of people whether they are a board or a committee or whatever being able to work together and come up with a solution get behind it and make it work um I did have an opportunity to uh do some of the uh black
167history programs I I went to the one on the 17th which was was very good uh entertainment was good it talked about many of the African-Americans who have done uh significant things to make this country what it is and it was it was very good I also had an opportunity uh to be a part of the podcast uh I thought that was very interesting the students did an excellent job um we were able to talk about education we were able to talk about um the African-American Community as far as education how it got started the transition from then to now and how two groups of people got together and decided to do the right thing and we made it work and this is the result of what the people of Caroline County did as far
168as coming together and building schools and educating our children so I was very pleased with that uh I guess the final thing I will say is uh this weekend uh thanks to Mr Jess and the Middle School people the uh the links which is a corporation of ladies and again attribute to women in the great things that they're doing well this this group uh will be sponsoring a health uh fair or a health Forum here at the middle school on Saturday from uh 10: to 2: in the afternoon uh and they're going to have different groups here to talk about um health concerns high blood diabetes um heart disease and and many other things mental health they're going to have um mental they're going to have health officials here doctors uh nurses uh they're going
169to be a number of people here to talk about health and the things that we are plagued with um as far as our health is concerned it's from 10 to two it's free uh they want anyone to come uh who is interested or might have concerns or want to know a little bit more about how to take care of your your body so uh and then and I did say the last thing but this is the last thing I I had the opportunity to come to the school board office this morning and we had a memorial um and we talked about uh Vince uh enman and the people it was a a nice time to get together and uh I wanted the staff to know that this board is with you in your loss we
170are concerned about you we don't just sit here and make rules and and pass judgment but we are family and we work together and when we lose a member of our family we come together because that makes us stronger so we certainly um have the staff uh the people who work with uh uh Vince uh we're concerned about his family and we're going to do everything we can to to ease this this burden um there's nothing we can do uh that's going to make this a Feelgood thing but we can let each other know that we are here to support them and we can let his family know that we are here to support them and again uh I just thought that the tone of that meeting was just really really good and I'm glad
171that uh we were able to be a part of it that takes care of my uh uh remarks and I'll now turn it over to the superintendent thank you chair Taylor I want to play off your closing comment in relation to Vin inmin this morning we were able to gather and share memories and talk about life lessons that we have gleaned from our friendship and collegial relationship with Vince he always kept his family at the Forefront and our work family is essential when we have highs and extreme lows such as what we have learned over the last 24 hours with his sudden passing and I'm so grateful that we were able to lean in this this morning um and appreciative of the operations and the instructional team coming together to demonstrate unity and support specifically
172for our exceptional education department um in keeping in mind that good things come from tragedy when we lift one another up and so I was so pleased that Mr Taylor was able to join us and grateful that Reverend tilpa from wri's Chapel was able to join us and lead us in Fellowship for those that um elected to participate so um wanted to make sure that um I breathe life into that aspect um do want to give an update to the community and to the board that we are in the final stages of probably the most simplistic contract but the most complex in getting approved and that is the nfhs video streaming for athletics please know that we have been working on this really I should say for years but ultimately they have had an attorney
173transition and so we needed to start back at Ground Zero as they would not accept our um last legal counsel advice and um it has been delayed on their end and we are going to continue to um burn the phone up and send emails to ensure that we can get that underway during spring Sports so more to come um I do just want to quickly give a laundry list of things that occurred while we were out of school in February for a number of days we have been busy um and some of these items have already been said so I've crossed them off my list but congratulations to London who came in fourth place from Lewis and Clark Elementary School at the Fredericksburg Regional spelling be um hopefully we can have him in and celebrate
174him one more time we announced our support staff and our novice teacher of the years at all of our buildings we attended the Caroline Middle School Black History Month event Not only was it a phenomenal Community celebration but they also had many of senior staff members judging their hallways which was great spirit to see amongst the um competitive staff and students we um had a number of Staff members go down to VCU to support our Chesapeake Bay Governor school students who presented their senior Symposium projects this past Saturday shout out to Cassidy Kyer who was selected to move on um and represent Caroline um in the next set of competitions we also had a group Dr neighbors Rebecca sheber and myself traveled to West Virginia and we were the key Spotlight um for this conference
175panel um talking about our environmental literacy plan that we have created with Friends of the Rapa hanic the soil water conservation and I'm forgetting a third Group which is always dangerous when you start listing um organizations um and so we're really excited um about that Spotlight we also had the CTE habitat event where the county building inspectors came into the classroom and educated our students on building inspection and then they went out to our veterans house that's being built and they um walked through that space and talked about what needed to be done to ensure everything passed code and so those are just some of the key highlights of what has been going on but what is coming up mark your calendars March 12th CMS stem Expo 5 to 7 April 9th little feet me
176at the high school 9 to 12 we have the ccps Art Festival which is division wide at the high school on April 24th from 5: to 8 we also have the golf tournament which is the inaugural CF event on April 25th we are looking for forums if you have a business please contact Mr fortune or myself or Kimberly Young young we will get you linked with a forsome also um we have the decision day and Senior sunset on May 2nd we have senior Awards on May 5th we have CHS prom on May 18th excuse me May 16th we have Bach glor at for seniors on May 18th we have graduation at the henrio sports and events center on May 20th May 19th is Bowling Greens fifth grade moving up celebration the May 21st is lisis
177and Clark's and May 22nd is Madison's and finally May 23rd is e8th grade moving up ceremony so that fourth quarter we are locked and loaded with lots of goodness so please join us be engaged be informed and make a difference thank you thank you uh at this time we will go into close session um I move to enter into close session for the purpose of the superintendent's Personnel agenda for the discussion of appointments stiens resignations terminations position changes step change and substitutes as authorized by the section 2.2-inch it's been moved in properly a second that we would go into executive session uh as stated all in favor let it be known by saying I I all opposed the motion carries we are now in executive session e e e I move that we return from
178closed session second motion was made by Mr Kelly she seconded it all right okay um we are I need a motion to go back into regular session so moved the Technic is moved in probably a second that we go back into regular session all in favor let it be known by saying I I I all oppose the motion carries okay now I need a motion to approve the superintendent's um recommendation point of order okay move for certification of closed session oh I'm sorry yeah I need a motion oh I'm sorry we need to approve that we only talked about those things that we went into executive session four is so certifi do you certify ISO certified okay ISO certified ISO certif I so certify I so certify okay now we need a motion to approve
179the superintendent agenda so moved second it's been moved in properly second that we approve the superintendent's agenda as presented uh Miss Stevens would you call for the vote oh don't worry about it I I I Mr Kelly I Mr Taylor Dr Rollins FS I the superintendent's agenda stands approved as presented uh a motion to adjourn so moved is there second second it's been moved in prop second as we adjourned all in favor let it be known by saying hi hi all oppos and we now stand adjourn