001I, Calvin Taylor, chair of the board, would like to call the April school board meeting to order. It is my privilege to welcome those attending in person at Caroline Middle School as well as those viewing on the CCPS YouTube channel. Each provides an avenue for you to receive information, heightened education awareness and involvement. The school board is grateful for your attendance as we continue to move our school division in a forward direction as one Caroline. Again, welcome to the school board meeting. And now I would like to ask the clerk of the board to call the role. Miss Ava Milligan, student schoolboard representative. Dr. Michael Hubard, representing the Bowling Green District. Mr. Lido Fortune, representing the Matapana district. Mr. Calvin Taylor, representing the Port Royal District. Dr. Sarah Calvaric, superintendent of schools. Dr. Joanda Rollins
002Fels representing the Rei Church District. Mrs. Allison Sears representing the Western Caroline District. Mr. Sean Kelly representing the Madison district and I am Lisa Stevens, clerk of the board. Mr. Chairman, we have a quorum. Thank you. Words of inspiration by Mr. Ladel Fortune. Good evening and 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, teams are victorious. Together, friendships are strengthened. Together is better when unity is a priority." Thank you, Mr. Fortune. We will now turn it over to for a musical selection by Lewis and Quan. As they come
003to prepare, Great Evening, Chair Taylor, Vice Chair Fortune, school board members, and Dr. Calvaric. We are so pleased to welcome Lewis and Clark Chorus to the stage this evening under the direction of Mrs. Don Hudson. Mrs. Hudson has dedicated her time and talent to working with this enthusiastic group of third through fifth grade students, meeting once a week after school throughout the school year. Please enjoy their performance of Miles of Smiles as they share their hard work and love for music with you tonight. [Music] Take a [Music] long time. [Music] together. Now we are done. [Music] Holy baby. [Music] All day. [Music] Jong bell bell jing Lou. [Music] We all [Music] There's not [Applause] Thank you for the performance from Lewis and Clark. And now we will ask that you stand, if you're able, for
004the pledge of allegiance. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Yeah. At this time, we would need to approve the agenda or if there are adjustments, we can take a motion for that at this time. Mr. Chair, so move. Second. Well, we Mr. Chairman, can I amend that motion, please? Yes. Um, I would like to amend the motion to approve the agenda um with the movement of item 10E, which is the first read of the calendar change to move that from new business to 6E information from the district. Okay. Um, is that do you agree to that? I will amend to incorporate that motion. Okay. And yes, second. Okay. It's been moved and properly
005second that we would approve the agenda with the added uh information as presented. All in favor? Let it be known by saying I I I. All oppose. And the motion carries. This takes us to the achieve spotlight. We are now about to enter the recognition part of our agenda. We enjoy having the opportunity to recognize our staff, students, and community members. We ask that you remain seated until all recognitions are complete and then the board will pause for a quick break for anyone that would like to dismiss. Good evening, Chair Taylor, Vice Chair Fortune, and members of the board. As we await information from the governor and the local government regarding FY26 funding, our director of HR, Miss Paige Tucker, and I will provide the board and community with an overview of the power and
006impact the FY25 budget has had upon personnel, students, and services during this current school year. Tonight, we will answer the following two questions. How has FY25 funding and grant money supported staffing needs? What impact have the positions had on students, staff, and productivity? Specifically, we will recap the following FY25 positions, their funding source, and their significant impact on CCPS. 504 specialist, two school safety officers, 30 part-time to full-time driver contracts, exceptional education paras and teachers, the CMS activities director, two novice teacher coaches, seven classroom teachers, a gifted teacher, and various all-in grant positions. Starting with our 504 specialist. With this new position, we proudly have 186 students with 100% compliant 504 plans. All 504 transfer students are scheduled for a transfer meeting within days of enrolling. All annual and trienal meetings are scheduled by the
007specialists to ensure calendar compliance with 34 students experiencing their three-year eligibility process in 2025 and 69 due in 2026. In her first year, the 504 specialist, Mrs. Griggs, made significant strides in building capacity, consistency, and efficiency with the 504 process. She supported 21 case managers through professional learning sessions, quarterly check-ins, and the creation of a comprehensive website with all process documents. Consistency was improved through regular data validation, organizing student cumulative files, standardizing meeting agendas, and ensuring appropriate meeting participation. Mrs. conducted data checks bimonthly and ensured accurate school reporting while also reviewing and organizing cumulative folders. Her involvement in 234 meetings as administrative design saved approximately 175 hours for school administrators, enabling them to focus more on instruction. And she took on scheduling and scheduling and paperwork tasks for 186 students to support case managers. Additionally,
008she developed a range of reference documents and communication tools to guide staff with ongoing feedback collected to tailor support. Looking ahead, Mrs. Griggs plans a summer book study on ADHD, a professional learning session in March 2026, an accommodation guide tailored to student diagnosis in the district. The school safe safety officers have been a valuable addition to Caroline High School and Caroline Middle School as they complement the SRO in increasing safety and security in the schools. They provide added supervision during arrival and dismissal, continuously monitor hallways and restrooms, check exterior and interior doors for door security, supervise lunch, and assist with disciplinary investigations. Just as important, SSOs are visible to and build relationships with students and staff, being another resource for them to utilize. Part-time to full-time drivers. CCPS transportation services department was able to convert
00930 part-time bus drivers of 4-hour contract position status to full-time, which equates to 6.5hour contract positions with full benefits. We have successfully filled 23 of the 30 converted positions with four pending conversions. Having full-time positions gives CCPS the ability to attract qualified drivers that are already fully certified. Converting drivers has allowed the department to minimize the number of unfilled routes. We currently only have one route that does not have a permanent driver assigned. Additionally, driver morale has been positively impacted and converted bus drivers are excited to have access to better base pay, VRS, retirement savings, and cheaper health insurance premiums. Exceptional education, teachers, and pair professionals. VDOE requires CCPS to report the December 1 count annually. As shared in our annual plan, CCPS reported 694 students with disabilities with a consistent increase in the students
010with disabilities population specifically in the categories of speech and language, other health impairism impairment and autism. The addition of five exceptional education teachers and five exceptional education pair professionals has helped to maintain compliant case load management numbers, established new service classrooms, and addressed increased supports for student needs. Transitioning the CMS activities director from ESSER funds to local dollars has been instrumental in increasing participation numbers to 607 unique student participants with 863 total sport activity participants for the 2425 school year. Specifically for athletics, CMS increased student population from 318 in 2020 2324 to 368 in 2425 based on physical numbers. For activities and clubs, CMS increased stipen in clubs this year to 29 offerings split over four sessions based on student survey interest. Last year, there were 235 students enrolled in clubs compared to this year's
011481 students. This incredible increase is related to the activity director's organization and passion for students, resulting in a greater sense of belonging at CMS. In addition, the activities director serves as a liaison and leader for all organizational efforts and execution of the leader and me program for staff and students, organizes all field trips and two schoolwide attendance behavior events, and arranges athletic study hall Monday through Thursday for student athletes. And there are big goals for 2526, including the addition of a pep band, field hockey, golf, and tennis. Novice teacher coaches. Initially funded through ESSER in 2022, our two novice teacher support coach positions focus on helping new elementary and secondary teachers grow strong in teaching practices and classroom management through planning, modeling, professional learning, and continuous feedback. The ability to maintain these critical recruitment and
012retention positions through FY25 local funding has enabled the coaches to expand their case load to include year-long substitutes and international J1 visa teachers on their case loads. Our two novice teacher coaches also support our experienced mentors, lead professional learning, and work closely with teachers to improve their practice, all leading to greater retention percentages and greater teacher satisfaction. General education teachers. These seven general education positions support reduced class size and standards of quality compliance for CMS. The science and history positions help balance class sizes with the new split block schedule that was implemented in 2324. Additionally, the new schedule enabled the students to select another elective requiring an additional CTE teacher. The CCPS English learner population has grown by 71 students over the last three school years, shifting from 124 to 195 English language learner students.
013The FY25 addition of an English learner teacher supports population growth, instruction, and standards of quality compliance. With enrollment exceeding a thousand students at Lewis and Clark Elementary School, additional art, music, and media FTEEs or full-time equivalents were necessary to ensure equitable access to resource classes for all Grizzly students and students across the division. Gifted gifted teacher aligning with the state standards of quality of one gifted teacher per 10,000 students. The addition of a fourth gifted teacher directly addresses our growing student population and ensures we are meeting the mandated support for our high potential learners. This additional gifted service provider has increased service time and reduced gifted teacher course loads. All-in- grant positions, all-in funds from the Virginia Department of Education are earmarked for tutoring, Virginia Literacy Act, and chronic absenteeism efforts. While numerous services are
014being offered through these grant funds, the following four FY25 positions are paid from these grant monies, which expire at the end of FY26. The CCPS attendance officer works primarily on unex, excuse me, on excused absences to improve our chronic absenteeism rate. So far this year, the attendance officer has conducted or completed 1,910 attendance meetings and/or attendance plans for students and families. As of April data, all five schools have reduced their chronic absenteeism percentages from this time last year. The literacy support specialist plays a pivotal role in ensuring the effective implementation of the Virginia Literacy Act across grades K through 8. This position has helped guide the adoption and implementation of highquality instructional materials, facilitation of impactful professional learning opportunities for teachers, and monitoring of instructional delivery within the classroom. The Bowling Green Elementary School administrative
015intern role oversees interventions and tutoring at Bowling Green Elementary School while supporting daily teaching and learning, classroom management and discipline, exceptional education programming, and the various needs associated with 850 plus students. Finally, with over 800 employees and increased payroll tasks and complexities associated with grant funds, a second payroll specialist is critical to increasing the division's capacity for processing and compliance tasks. By the numbers, 58 28 positions and 20 contract adjustments. IM, excuse me, 30 contract adjustments. I measurable impact. Thank you to the school board and the board of supervisors for helping CCPS adopt an FY25 budget for the 2425 school year that indeed put people over things. At this time, we're happy to entertain any questions. Board members have questions regarding the presentation. I would offer congratulations. Long day for Monday, but um congratulations. Uh
016you know I the bus drivers transition is a success story. Uh at the Special Olympics I had the opportunity to chat with about six of them uh thanking them for their tremendous support. Um and they are just as enthused about what they do and what they're doing for uh the kids uh of this county. So I commend you on on that initiative and hope we continue to see the same great things in other areas. Thank you. Other questions? Uh Mr. Chair, just a comment. Uh Dr. Calverick and Mr. Tuck, I don't want I want to thank you for such a detailed and thorough report. Um you've done an amazing job to remind us and the community of the ask um with respect to staff uh and the posit positive benefit uh that each and every
017staff member that we were able to bring on board um based on our u request uh has greatly impacted uh our our division. So, thank you so much for your transparency. Again, thank you for all that you do. Thank you. This takes us to the um board committee updates part of our meeting. Um I'll start with Miss Sears. Um do you have comments at this time? I have no comments at this time. Thank you. Okay, Dr. Rollins Fails. Um, yes, I wanted to thank the faculty and staff that went around with me today as part of uh the CTE um committee. Thank you so much and thank you for the teachers who I had the opportunity to speak to since the last meeting. My updates for other committee activities include um attending COSBA, the National
018School Board Association meeting in Atlanta, uh the Virginia High School League meeting. Um, I sat on the superintendent of the year uh committee. Um, also attended the FCCLA state conference and congratulations to our students who won and placed there. Um, I had the opportunity to travel around the state in my state role. Um, and so I had the opportunity to see the center for applied technology and career exploration in Rocky Mount. Um the southside regional meeting was held in Denwitty and then the central region meeting was held in Buckingham at Buckingham Middle School. So learned again a lot about their CTE programs. Um I did want to pause because I don't know um if Miss Ava was here at the last meeting, but um she attended the student uh schoolboard rep um meeting and represented
019Caroline County very well. So I wanted to give you your public congratulations and thank you for your voice. um in that meeting. Um and those conclude my committee reports. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Fails. Ava, do you um have comments at this time? I have any comments at this time. Thank you. You're welcome. Dr. Mike, of course, you never you know, I'm never going to give up the opportunity. Uh let me first of all I want to commend the exceptional education uh team for the awesome Special Olympics uh that took place. Um we had a a great time uh a lot of can do attitudes and camaraderie uh not just from our team uh here in Caroline but from the other folks who came in uh from other counties to participate in the uh uh
020the Special Olympics. So, I I applaud everyone for that. Um, I want to also send out kudos to uh uh Mrs. Golden, Amanda Andrews, and Miss Haley for their tremendous efforts in the pause pantry uh trying to address some of the uh food insecurity uh issues that we have amongst uh our own students. Uh that's a it's an awesome thing and I I just wish they uh continued support. Um kudos to Miss Shyber and her team for uh the continued efforts with the outdoor classroom um in which we're trying to ensure folks, you know, understand and respect the you know, the beauty of outdoor uh activities and and whatnot. Um a special special thank you to Mrs. Ross uh for ensuring that uh the policy committee members were fully prepared uh and equipped uh for
021the uh Head Start audit that uh I think went well despite the fact that I was uh part of that uh uh group. Um so thank you once again for for that help there. Um uh for those of you who've been to the high school uh and seen that massive baby grand piano that's sitting on the uh the stage there. I think that was a compliment of Mr. and Mrs. JD Young. Um and that that that's priceless. Um and we we witnessed the beauty of music right here this evening. Uh and with that type of continued support, I think uh we're going to continue to do great things. Lastly, uh I had the opportunity to chat with a few students who uh went on the sixth grade uh field trip to DC uh today. They
022are worn out. Uh but uh every the ones I spoke to really really enjoy themselves. Uh so kudos to uh that group for putting that together um and getting them up to DC to appreciate uh the history uh that this nation is all about. And with that, Mr. Mr. Chair, short of God. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Hubbert. Uh, Mr. Fortune. Uh, Mr. Chair, I'll uh reserve my committee reports to uh at the end of the agenda. Oh, thank you. Um, I just have a couple of, as I always say, thank you for what you do because we could not have the great school that we have were it not for our staff and students and parents. and we all have a role to play and I appreciate us uh meeting those needs. Uh one
023of the things that I've done um over the since the last meeting is I've had to had an opportunity to try to get into the schools uh just for a visit just to see uh not necessarily what's going on but just to see how I can be of assistance or if there are things that uh that I could do as a board member to assist in any way. And of course, I I I had the opportunity of coming into the middle school here and I witnessed um uh a concert uh by the middle school choir uh which was a a very good concert. The kids sang very well. But even more importantly than that, I was very impressed at the behavior of the students. They listened to the songs. They they clapped. You know, there
024are some schools that you can't bring students into a large area like this because they will not allow you to do what you need to do. Sometimes they act inappropriately. That was definitely not the case. Uh the the choir did an excellent job. I think the the the teacher did an excellent job as well as the students. And so I was just glad to be able to do that. I also had the opportunity to visit Lewis and Clark as well as Bowling Green Elementary. Uh, you know, we we hear a lot about the overcrowdedness in our elementary schools and the need for uh additional space. And so I had an opportunity to go in and see the classrooms and see what's being done and I compliment them on what they're doing. Uh but there is
025a need for more space. We have instruction going on in some of the hall areas and we've had to take some of the places uh that were designed for other things and and turn them into classrooms to try to meet the space need. So um I appreciate what's been going on and I appreciate the help of the staff as well as the students. And I would like to thank Miss Nancy Long. She Miss Nancy Long is the chairman of the board of supervisors and she came over to the school and we walked the building together and this is what we have to do. Uh we are two entities working together and I think that it was very good and I enjoyed that and I will save the other comments that I might have uh for
026later. Any other concerns? If not, we'll move on. Uh, now this takes us to our recognition part of our agenda. And again, as I said before, I don't know if you caught it or not, but I made a mistake. So, you know, I'm just like everybody else, it doesn't always come out the way we wanted to. But, uh, this is a recognition announcement. We are here to recognize portions uh, of the agenda. We enjoy having an opportunity to recognize the staff and students and our community members. We ask that you remain seated until all recognitions are complete and then the board will pause for a quick break for anyone that would like to dismiss. Dr. Kelber. Good evening again, Chair Taylor, Vice Chair Fortune, and members of the board. Exposure to art is critical to
027the development of every child. Art not only teaches students how to express themselves in creative and individual ways, but shows students who participate in regular art related activities that they can 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 3. enrolled, enlisted, and/or employed. In cooperation with CCPS art teachers, I have the great fortune to recognize one student each month with a certificate of honor for their individual artwork. The students art will be on display at the schoolboard office for the remainder of the month. Our amazing art teacher from Lewis and Clark, Miss Clara Schwarz, is now introduced and invited to the podium to introduce our April
028recipient of the Superintendent Student Art Honor. Riley Murray, if you are here, please come forward at this time. Hello. So, I'm so happy to be here tonight recognizing one of my very talented students, Riley. Um, Riley's not only a very talented artist, but a very passionate one. And I brought a piece that I think captures her essence very well. Um, and it showcases her high skill level and her fun personality. Um, in this project, students learned about tertiary colors and analogous color schemes and then how to use these color schemes schemes to create form in the form of a disco ball. Um, and then they also recalled on some previous knowledge of tints and shades. Um, this is pretty advanced color theory for fifth graders. Um, Riley's understanding is extremely impressive and I just love
029seeing what she creates and I can't wait to see where it takes her in her journey. Congrats, Riley. [Applause] by her mother, her grandmother and her grandfather. So, shout out to you for supporting her. [Applause] In addition, this is the National Assistant Principles Week, I believe. So, uh, we will recognize those persons at this time. Great evening, Chair Taylor, Vice Chair Fortune, school board members, and Dr. Calverick. National Assistant Principles Week was celebrated last week, April 7th through 11th, as an annual celebration of the unsung heroes in our educational system. Specifically in Caroline, our dedicated assistant principles work tirelessly to bolster teachers, motivate students, support their principal, create a positive learning community, and face the many unpredictable challenges that land on their desk. Assistant principles play a crucial role. So we pause and dedicate this
030time to recognize them for their hard work and commitment to our schools, students, and overall profession. While they were given the gift of time tonight and are not here in person, please join us in celebrating these incredible school leaders who will be receiving their certificate um in person at their schools. Thank you so much. [Applause] Good evening, Chairman Taylor, Vice Chair Fortune, members of the board, and Dr. Calvaric. I'm honored to be here tonight to celebrate some of our amazing high school students in alignment of achievement uh achieved 2027. These accomplishments demonstrate goal one teaching and learning with access and opportunities through a variety of opportunities that are offered through our schools and program. This evening we celebrate the accomplishments of the Caroline High School Scholastic Bowl accomplishments. To share more about these achievements, I'd
031like to welcome to the podium Scholastic Bowl coach Carl Young. As he is walking down to the podium, please join me in thanking him for his support and dedication to these students. [Applause] I'm going to call up all three of our Scholastic Bowl athletes um who are here tonight. the entire team has put in a lot of work over the past two years, uh, winning the Battlefield District twice and, um, this year going to nationals for the first time. So, um, first I'd like to welcome up Ava Milligan if you want to come down. And then we have um, Alexis as well and Micah as well. Uh both Alexis and Micah were captains this past season and they were instrumental in making sure the team stayed on task. We were learning all the content and
032we went into each match with the drive and determination to win. [Applause] This takes us to agenda Item number six, information from the district, the community health assessment with Mr. Jeff Wick and Mr. Aaron Perkins. Good evening, chair, Mr. Taylor, Vice Chair, Mr. Fortune, members of the board, and Dr. Kel Veric. For several years, the Rapahhanic Area Health District in conjunction with Mary Washington Healthcare has been working on the community health assessment, sometimes called the CHA, CHA, for planning district 16, which includes Caroline, Fredericksburg City, Spennsylvania, King George, and Stafford. The health assessment provides health data for all five counties with each county having the goal of creating a community health improvement plan, also known as the CHIP, to address areas of of need. Tonight, I'm going to introduce to you Miss Aaron Perkins from
033the RAHD, who will present data relevant to Caroline County. Miss Perkins. Thank you, Mr. Wick. Uh, good evening, everybody. Uh, my name is Aaron Perkins. I am the population health coordinator with the Rapahhanic Area Health District and wanted to thank you all for inviting us to come out here tonight and sharing the key data that we found from our most recent community health assessment. Um so we'll go through a couple of the five key areas that we found in collecting all of our data. We'll talk about some of the crosscutting themes. Um if you could go on to the next slide. I actually think that slide was wrong. Um so uh as Mr. Wick had mentioned a couple of the definitions and abbreviations we use throughout the slide presentation tonight are CHAW for community health
034assessment, CHIP for community health improvement plan, PD16, Caroline, Fredericksburg, King George, Spennsylvania, and Stafford counties. And then lastly, social determinance of health, SDO. Um, and those are non-medical factors that weigh in on one's health outcome. Um so we took a series of data um we took some qualitative data from going to small focus groups and kickoff meetings um and hearing from members of the community directly in face-to-face interactions. Uh we also conducted a community member survey in which we had over 1,300 responses. uh we also did some quantitative secondary data where we collected data from sources like the CDC and the US census. We used some data from Mary Washington Healthcare where they do social determinant of health screening of all of their inpatients over the age of 18. Um and then we also had
035a community partner survey where different organizations were invited to respond to a quite lengthy survey about resources and and assets that they have available. Um, and so what we're doing is trying to look at where all three of these in uh sections overlap right there in that very dark blue section in the middle there between the community partner assessment, the community feedback, and then the quantitative data. uh we determined that we had five uh priority health needs and they're just listed here alphabetically not in any kind of rank or importance but we had aging related concerns behavioral healthcare utilization and access physical activity and healthy eating and social determinance of health. So I have in the presentation um some data on all of those areas. I think I actually cut aging related concerns out of
036the presentation just for interest of time today. Lisa, if we could go to the next slide. Thank you. Oh, no. You know what? I sent you the wrong presentation. That is my fault. Well, we'll we'll go through anyway. Um, so in the um the biggest health concerns that we had, and unfortunately this slide doesn't highlight both of them, but as far as behavioral health, uh if you look at mental health, this question was answered by more than half of the respondents to our community member survey. So this is one of the main questions that was in the community member survey and we had over 700 individuals respond as mental health as one of their top priorities of those. Um and then we also had uh aging related concerns and substance use disorders as um three
037of the top four. Next one please. Um we talked a little bit already about the focus groups and survey. So this is in related to aging uh related concerns. So they talked about isolation and loneliness, aging in place, communication challenges, their social determinance of health and chronic conditions. All right. Uh we can skip this slide and that one. Sorry. Okay. Uh we did have high rates of suicide death in this age group. So um the older population 65 plus attributed to 21% of our su suicides. uh but only 13% of the population in PD16. Next slide, please. All right, next one. All right, so again, behavioral health. Um top two of the top four responses were mental health as a concern as well as substance use disorders for the biggest health concerns uh that individuals
038felt they had. Thank you. Um and then kind of what we think aligns with this um are the these ideas of health behaviors to be addressed. We to look at bullying, isolation or loneliness, driving while drunk or high, drug use or prescription drug misuse and alcohol misuse. So those kind of weave into the behavioral health over there we go. Um, in this slide here, this is talking about adults with frequent mental distress and adults 18 or over with poor mental health. Uh, if you look at the teal color there, um, that is the rate for Caroline County. So, we're looking at 17.8% of adults that report frequent mental distress, that's more than half their days in a month where they feel overly stressed. Um, and then, um, 18.8% with poor mental health. Uh, also in
039teal here is the rate for Caroline County and that is showing the rates of depression coming in at around 18 or so percent in 2019 and rising to about 23 24% in 2022. Um I wanted to point out here that some of the early numbers are prior to COVID. Um and then we see uh a jump to increase um right around the onset of COVID. We don't have all of the data that we would need to, you know, completely say that COVID had a significant impact, but we do see those trend lines going up in all of our localities since 2020. Right? Okay. So this is suicide rate um per 100,000 for population. So that does not mean that we had 21 suicides in Caroline County. This is adjusted to 100,000 population. Um so we
040had to um you know even out the numbers there. Um and so Caroline County is coming in at just bel just below 22 per 100,000. And that is for I believe 2022 data 2023 data sorry. Um, additionally with substance abuse, uh, the graph on the left is showing all overdose deaths at a rate per 100,000. Um, so a big spike in 2021 and then it kind of dropped off in 2022 and started climbing back up again. Overall is an improvement over a few years ago. Um, but we're still, you know, obviously looking at that. Additionally, all drug overdose ED visits at a rate per 100,000. So, a huge jump in 2019 into 2020 and then kind of leveling off from there for healthcare utilization and access. Um, just wanted to point out in this table
041and and all of the tables in this presentation, any of the gradein boxes are ones where they are fairing less favorably than the state or United State, the Virginia or United States average. Um, so Caroline County, we're looking at 9% of individuals are uninsured. We have one primary care physician for every 10,440 individuals in the county. Uh we have one dentist for every 3,990 individuals and uh we have one mental health provider for every 2,130 individuals. Uh maternal and infant health again areas less favorable outcome uh pretty higher than the state average for infant mortality rate per 10,00 live births. uh low birthw weightight deliveries, teen pregnancy rate, pre-term births, late or no prenatal care, and maternal smoking. Um so again, just in areas where Carolina is fairing less favorably than the state. Um additional
042healthc care findings, dental concerns. This was primarily a response in our lowincome Hispanic population. It was not a high response rate overall, but when we stratified the data and looked at demographics, um that came to the top for that particular group. Uh long wait times to see a provider, you know, some folks waiting six or nine months to get in with a primary care physician when they're in need of care. Uh long driving distances for rural residents and for specialty care. Um and then also discussion of just general provider shortages and the workforce pipeline. Um so trying to get more providers in and available um especially in rural areas. Right. So physical activity and healthy eating. Um this the top two health behaviors to be addressed responses in the community member survey were lack of
043exercise and eating of unhealthy foods. Um so it was very prominent in that survey. Um we also tie in with rates of obesity. Um, again, teal line for Caroline County. So, we're seeing this climb in recent years overall. Um, and we're looking at somewhere in the ballpark of 42 to 43% uh for adults in Caroline. And again, chronic conditions. Um, so these are just some of the chronic conditions that we had pulled data for. Caroline County, they're fairing less favor favorably than the state of Virginia in many of the categories. Um what we really see is high blood pressure across all of our planning district. Um and then obesity in several of our localities as well. All right. And social determinance of health. So housing, economic factors, and transportation. Um, one thing that kept coming
044up when we talked about what would most improve health, these are the top five responses that we got to that question in the community member survey and you can see um affordable housing. Uh, it's not circled, but affordable healthy food and affordable child care. So, this idea of being able to afford the things that you need was very prominent during that survey. Um this graph shows medium income versus housing costs. And so teal uh is Caroline County all the way on the left there. Um median income is just below 60,000. And that red line is the minimum income needed to afford median house sales. So as you can see a that shows a lot in Caroline are unable to afford median house sale prices. Uh the green line is for rent uh for minimum income
045needed to afford an average asking rent. So fairing a little bit better there but still um you know very challenging for folks to afford affordable housing. Um this is based on um I think 30% of income. All right. And then this is also showing some of our um poverty rates. I had a map on my other presentation, but um one in five children in Caroline County is living below the federal poverty level. Um and so this is um is showing that here as well as um I think some of the the food insecurity that we had discussed earlier, not quite as high as the state average, but still quite high. All right, educational attainment. Um, so this is just showing how high of a degree individuals get. Um, Caroline really showing that high school only
046is about the highest that the the majority of residents have attained. Uh, this is social determinant of health screening from Mary Washington Healthcare. So again, this is based off of questions that they ask of their inpatient population who are 18 years of age and older. Um, just wanted to point out here that the food need is the second highest need on that. Um, and we're looking at about 5.5% of those from Caroline going into Mary Washington Hospital are reporting a food need. And then cross cutting findings. Um, so we heard again and again that communication about these resources is important. Uh, folks are having trouble navigating those resources or finding what they need. Um, and so we're working on aligning the resources that exist within planning district 16 and collaborating with community partners in order
047to match those resources to those who need it. Um, and then we also saw quite a increase in population growth and how that changed and strained resources. Um, and then our community partner survey really stressed that our community partners are interested in part participating in the CHA and CHIP. um they want to be able to provide their services and resources for folks who need it. All right. And then this is just a little graph about our process. We uh follow the MAP process and that is mobilization for action through planning and partnerships. Um so we completed phase one. We built the community health improvement um foundation. We talked, we formed our team. Um, and then we moved into phase two where we did all of this assessment and data collection. And now we are moving
048into phase three where we're getting ready to uh develop our community health improvement plan. And then in another three years, we'll be going it back into phase one and starting all over again or continuing on really. Uh, this is an old um chart of our next steps. Uh, that's our core team. name. So, Allison Balis, John, uh, Belle Milroy, Xavier Richardson, and myself. Um, if you have any questions on the presentation, I'm happy to answer them or, um, you're welcome to contact me. Thank you. Thank you. Did board members have any questions or Dr. No, no, no. Well, okay. Um, the data is sobering. Um, and it, uh, it speaks volumes. Um, my hope is that the data, uh, this is a datadriven division. Uh that data is being shared with not just the school
049board but with our local leaders as well as our uh our delegates in the House, senators uh and federal representatives as well because uh what you have highlighted in this report is staggering and we need to make sure that we we're addressing it and we can't continue to ignore it. That's one. Since Mr. Wick is also here and I don't see him anywhere else in the uh briefings tonight, I want to take this moment to thank you personally for what you have done for the safety of our schools uh certainly over the course of the last few weeks uh and what you continue to do throughout. And um I've had a few phone calls from parents who are are uh pleased to see the safety of the schools and the children within are are maintained.
050So uh kudos to you sir. Now back to you ma'am. Thank you. Uh yes well we do have the full um community health assessment report available on our website as well as an executive summary if you don't want to read the whole thing. the the whole thing is about 65 pages. It's quite lengthy. Um but we have that available. We also um will in May we're having our next community health improvement plan meeting and you all are welcome to attend. That information also will be available on our website. So thank you very much. Okay. The only question I would have is do you all ever make uh any recommendations? Uh so for and it it's unfortunate that it wasn't I didn't send over the right presentation but what we do next is we collaborate with
051groups. So we've identified our top three priority areas for the community health improvement plan and they're very similar to what we did the last goround. And so we landed on housing uh behavioral health and access to health care yet again. And so we're going to be working with community partners who work in those areas to develop strategies, goals, objectives, and plans or or um I'm sorry, priorities, goals, objectives, and uh strategies to address specific issues with each of those three program areas. Okay. Thank you so much for being with us this evening. I do want to take a moment to talk about how deeply rooted Caroline County Public Schools is in this process. We were instrumental in participation in the last round which of course was um somewhat impacted by COVID and we're grateful um
052to be participating here and now as well. But I do want to point out that not only have we participated in the roundts, but we've had you of course um host uh webinars that we've attended as small groups, we've had a speaker come to our student advisory team so that our youth are hearing some of this information and then you are of course here this evening and I did happen to mention it at public comment last week at the board of supervisors meeting. So I do put out a call to action to take Dr. Fel's terminology to our community. The word sobering is an accurate depiction of some of those data points. And the only way we will move the needle is to do it together. Schools indeed are a large part of that puzzle,
053but we are all going to need to put our minds around what we have seen before us this evening. And I'd like to plant a seed. This may be rather courageous of me to do so tonight. But as we talk about facilities and the need for space in Caroline County public schools and I look at the access to health care providers, one to 10,400ome people, wouldn't it be an amazing day to have a ribbon cutting on a schoolbased community health clinic that provides services to families both mental health and physical health? That's a lofty goal, but together we can do that. Thank you for being with us. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, I have a question. I'm sorry. I was trying to catch you before you moved. I'm I missed the acronym of MAP. MAP.
054So, mobilization for action through planning and partnerships. Um, thank you. I don't have any other questions, but I did have a comment. Okay. Is that okay, Mr. Chair? True. That's fine. Um I often talk about our community needs assessment. Like I hype on that because I think sometimes we lose that in the conversation. We don't um in general realize that there's data that has been done through a solid methodology that informs just what you did tonight. Um and so and this is directed at staff. I I would like to see us put this um the health assessment beside the community needs assessment because a lot of this is going to cross cut anyway and really paint that picture. Um when we look at our strategic planning, I'd like to make sure that we're not losing
055these pieces. Um our achieve 27 is a living document. So, there may be some ways that we need to tweak this um or make sure that we're monitoring our activities in alignment with what we've heard tonight. Um the other note that I made was I'm always listening for alignment. So when we look at our budget presentation and our programs that we're suggesting and the advocacy that we are putting forward, I am hearing that we are on the right path with how to take our division forward because it is aligned with the data that you just shared. Um and then the last thing um I had three goals in staying on the board and that was one looking at housing for staff. I see that again here. Um, child care. I think there are three licensed
056facilities in this community. So, I'm concerned when I hear negative conversation or comments about early childhood programming because when you look at the data, it says that there is a need for us to open our doors to our earliest learners. Um, and so I need to make a comment on that because that has really caused me some heartburn in the past month or so. This is why we have to open our doors to our children because our families need it. Um, and then the last thing, um, when we look at community partners, um, I have shared this in multiple venues. It concerns me when I see organizations use PD16 data to apply for grants and to get money and to have programming and then I don't see the alignment when it comes to services coming
057to Caroline County. And so I'm thankful for your report and this data. And I would just say to staff and I don't know if that's who that is, Mr. Mr. Wick, I don't know if that's you, but we need to make sure that we have a presence in meetings where resources for PD16 come up to make sure that they don't stop just above Caroline. Um, as has been the case in the past. Um, and I don't mean that in a negative way. I do mean that there is an alignment of resources and your survey is saying that our community either don't know about it or they have difficulty accessing it and agency time is a is a huge hurdle. So, thank you so much. This is a passion point for me if you can't tell.
058Um, and so I appreciate the data, but I want to encourage us not to just receive the report, but to use it. Um, and to Dr. Hubard's point, not just the school, but the county as well. So, I'd be interested Dr. Calver and Mr. chairman and and vice chair if there is an overlap with our county strategic plan and our Caroline County public schools strategic plan and if we can get that on this three this is a three-year cycle correct yes a three-year cycle and then Miss Ross I think the needs assessment is two is it two years or three okay very good I think we need to do these in concert those are my comments comments. Thank you. Thank you. And I keep saying one other thing, but this is the last. Do you
059have any um communication or involvement with the social services? Yes, we work with them on quite a few of these initiatives. Um the uh head of Caroline Social Services, the director is part of the steering committee for the community health assessment. Um and we work with representatives from social services and all of the other localities as well. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. All right. This takes us to uh update on energy performance contract by Mccclure, Miss Stevens. Good evening, Chair Taylor, Vice Chair Fortune, members of the board, and Dr. Calic. Tonight we have Mr. Chris Stoaltz and Miss Christy Sheriff from our partners Mccclure to give us a brief overview of phase one energy performance work that has been completed and to give a briefing on phase two which includes solar. Welcome. Thank
060you Mrs. Stevens. Thank you chairman Taylor. Thank you Vice Chair Fortune and members of the board as well as Dr. Calveric. Thank you so much for having Chris and myself here. I'm going to do a quick update on where you are with your building performance side of our project for you. Um roughly a year in the making our partnership has been so we've be deep embedded into the construction and the roll out of your project. As you can see at the top portion of where the blue arrow is where we are in your project phase is at that final push over the summer. We will complete the uh heating and ventilation, air conditioning, the mechanical portion of your project. And we're in the process of coordinating that now. And you'll see where we'll talk Chris
061will talk more about solar in just a moment. Put in a little bit more of a pleasing way for viewing pleasure. Uh where we are with your project is we have completed the internal project elements in your scope. The lighting is completed, building envelope is completed. and where we will f spend our focus over the summer once school is out and minding summer school. We will work on phase two, mainly the HVAC portion of your project focusing on Caroline High School and Caroline Middle School. If you have any questions, we'll wait until Chris is done if you have any moments on questions on the building performance side. But without further ado, Chris will talk to you about solar. Good evening. um appreciate the time that you're going to take to hear some of our updates.
062Um from the last time that we met, I was able to give you some updates at that point. We're much further along at this point. Um so I wanted to walk through a couple of the steps and how we ended up where we're at today. First, when we originally looked at the project um over a year ago, we came to you with some options at Lewis and Clark, the middle school and the high school is the primary focus. Um RM stands for roof mount. You can see the the various sizes of the arrays. They're shown there on the right. Um, and as we went through the projects, we went through the performance contracting portion, dealing with the mechanical upgrades, the lighting upgrades, and was just continuing to work with your local utility. as we went
063through this knowing that we would get to a point where we were looking for um an a power purchase agreement in order to help supplement the savings from that project where you'd be purchasing the power off of the solar arrays at a lower rate enabled you to have additional savings for your programs. Um so what have we learned since then? We've had multiple meetings with your utility, Rapahonic REC, um, dealing with utility costs and offset rates, interconnections, sizing requirements, which required us to resize the high school array in its design down from 1.63 megawatts to 1.27. Um, we have submitted interconnection applications for all sites and they've all been approved at the new sizes for interconnection at the utility and we are currently finalizing all of those PPA details based on um direction including that
064of uh Virginia Energy who we're in contact with as we're looking at your existing performance contract and means to amend that. That's what we spent a lot of our time um in the past few months kind of sorting out how do we move forward with this now that you've had a contract and how do we look to implement that power purchase agreement. We've updated utility usage agreements and interval data that's detailed to your buildings not just looking at the monthly snapshot but rather on 10 and 15 minute increments and different ways of contracting methods for that amendment again for the PPA and through Virginia Energy. So that original concept, three buildings, it utilized a blended rate approach for the proof of concept for the savings. So our target from that point was about $108,000 annual
065utility savings with about $3.3 million over 20 years. when we started working with utilities, started reviewing into your increment data, um revised rate impacts at Lewis and Clark, um Madison, uh yeah, Madison and Bowling Green Elementary, um required those rate changes to to happen, which also impacted some savings. So, um those initial discussions with your utility changed the essential savings of the program from that blended rate and how it was looked at in size and demand. Um, so you'll see that we looked at, okay, what if we expand the program because it's a PPA, there's no upfront cost, there's a savings to your utility bill. So we started looking at Madison and Bowling Green elementaryaries in those um in those scenarios. And we started looking at what we called a building recommissioning demand shift. And
066I'll show you that in a minute as what that actually means and shows as we got into the increment data of your utilities and how that would impact the overall savings. So, where we ended up after that concept revision was about $84.5,000 annually and over 20 years about $3.2 million. Um, we came back uh met with your staff in the fourth quarter of last year. Talk through some of these different things, different things we were looking at, um, as far as investment tax updates and how they impacted the cash flow um, for Mccclure and rolling out the project. We looked at more robust recommissioning as we dug deeper into that increment data and we've started working through the schools um with Marsha and and Chris. Um and what we were able to find is with
067the original three schools by themselves with what we're going to call an advanced recommissioning effort at no cost, we can get back to a savings of about $84,000 and about $2.9 million over 20 years looking at the original three schools. when that's expanded to the five schools. So when you include Madison and Bowling Green, you'll see the savings jump up to about $115,000 a year and about $4 million over 20 years. With that, as we went along, one of the things we found out is some of your facility conditions assessment findings dealing with roof conditions. Um, so that kind of put some brakes on the other two schools as we as as we were developing. We have again some of the background of what that could look like. um as far as knowing that in
068your future you're looking at different roofing options for those schools and how we might be able to assist and implement potential solar roll out there for additional savings. So I mentioned a demand shift. So what you see at the top um is the original increment data for uh I believe it's the middle school and you can see the dark blue in the background is how the building uses its energy on 15minute increments and you can see how it peaks and valleys depending upon the part of the day. What you're seeing is a Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, the weekend and a Monday. So the demand shift is looking at shifting that background blue color to more be in line with the green. and the green is the projected production of the solar array. So by better
069aligning those two graphs, you realize more potential savings on your utility bill. So that's the first step in recommissioning. So you see there's a the oval outlines a a monthly peak of energy. So that's something we're working with your team to find out what's happening there. What caused that peak? The second part is the building coming online so early in the morning. it does generally meet the end of day requirements for your students and staff, but you can also see how early it's starting to come online and some of those peaks. So, there's different methodologies and one of the reasons we took a deeper dive into the recommissioning is to address those needs to better align those those two graphs together. So, you can see in the bottom um that's the the cumulative impact of
070shifting the demand to better align as well as removing some additional usage and lowering some of your baselines. this recommissioning what that impact could be and why those savings are so much more monumental um than originally thought for those three buildings. So, where we're at today um for the original three schools, we are in discussions with Virginia Energy in the process of how to look at that amendment and bring to you a power purchase agreement that you can look at um and review. We want to finalize all of that by your next meeting. We're finalizing those scopes of work at those three original buildings so that we can provide a holistic amendment that meets Virginia Energy's background uh of needs as well as any type of legal solicitor review on your end. Um and we're
071looking for some direction on what to do with those buildings by this summer so that we can begin the procurement process um buying the panels, buying the inverters, starting starting the work over the summer so that we can can get it online um early in 2026. It's interconnection dependent. Um you have a relatively small utility that we've been working closely with. So I don't know that it'll take a full year for them. However, it it will take some time for them to go through the designs and the interconnection. Along with that, we've presented options to look at the additional two schools that finalized the design and the financials while we're implementing the other schools. um developing any additional potential additional scopes such as the roofing that we can integrate into that program at your direction.
072Um and again another amendment review approval potentially in the fall uh for an implementation rolling into next summer to bring those online. So, we really have come to you tonight to give updates on those original three schools so that we can have those discussions and and get those in place um for CCPS so that you can start to recognize those savings sooner rather than later. And I'll open it up to questions. Board members have questions. I may start this one. Um, so you've been we've been a part of this for a year now. Do you have any figures that might show any savings that we've realized to this date? We don't currently. Um, your programs just came online towards the end of last summer. We do implement construction period reports. So, I would expect you
073to see one probably early to midsummer for the work from last summer. Um, very preliminary, but it's the heavy lifters. It's your building envelope and your lighting. So, th that is forthcoming, just not available yet. Okay. All right. Uh, what about other variables that are necessary to to to see these savings like like um windows and roofs? H how do they how do they impact this uh these savings either in a positive way or a negative way? It's a great question. Um so all of our analysis is based on the existing conditions. We do surveys. We know what the insulation is in your roof and your walls and your windows and we can make recommendations for those types of things. Um they traditionally have very long paybacks. You're you're talking millions of dollars for roofing
074upgrades, right? um and they provide minimal insulation gain from what's there now. So it's a very capital intensive cost. So that's one of the things um we provide but it's seldom looked at because we're comparing an HVAC system where you're maintaining that same envelope. The only variable you're changing is that HVAC system. Now as you would tighten the envelope, improve the windows, you're going to see incremental savings. Um but it's kind of diminishing return. So, you're trying to trying to take on the most savings for your dollar spent. Okay. Other questions or comments? Um, I have a question. Um, so, and I could be wrong, so please correct me. It's a lot to keep straight in my head. Um, I thought when we initially talked about this that there was a committed savings amount and
075is it correct that tonight I'm hearing that that savings that was projected can only be met by now adding solar to all schools versus what was previously committed to. Yes, I will say that is correct. The projected amount was based on our knowledge of the utility and initial conversations and tonight where we're at is not quite to that amount. You are correct. However, what isn't shown in there and still being finalized is those additional recommissioning savings of shortening the time period of operation and lowering it. And that is that is on us. we we feel obligated to come back and get as close to that as we possibly can knowing that was a projection and where we're ending up now after we've talked to the utility finalized interconnections sizes all of that. So that is
076something that we're doing um to better align those to get that as close as possible and then that would be whether it be an annual savings or the total savings over 20 years um we're trying to meet both goals. Okay. So with that, it was my understanding that with that committed savings that your company would then have to meet the shortfall. So, if you said we're guaranteeing a hundred bucks, just make the math easy, and there's only 50 that you would be absorbing that $50 difference. Am I hearing you say that that's the space that we're in? And to mitigate that risk, that's why the suggestion is coming forward to do five schools. Not entirely. Okay. So the contract that we currently have with you does not include the solar or this recommissioning okay scope
077that we have found in digging into your incremental data of of the outside buildings that we didn't do we did primary work in this building there wasn't a lot of work in the other buildings lighting building envelope those you know um simple scopes so as we found those it brought to our attention the opportunity that you have for additional savings um because it wasn't in that original contract There's no obligation for because right now there's no contract for us to move forward with that. It's one of the reasons that we're here. However, we are striving to get back to that original projected amount. We're fairly close. What you mentioned it was 300 I think. Yeah. If you just did the three schools as originally intended, um it's a few thousand dollars a year, but over
078time that's about 300,000 over the 20 years. So one of the re one of the things we came back to the group with to the group as we were looking at this was can we expand it to your other schools because there is no upfront cost and it's simply paying a lesser utility rate than what you would. We had already cleared that and obviously have the interconnection agreements with the utility um as a means to make that up. By the time we came back you got your facilities condition assessment. We found out that you had issues with your roofs. Um, so that kind of took those off the table which then led us back to the drawing board of how can we look at how the buildings are operating to better align them with that
079solar curve. I think I have a question there too. Sure. Um, because when the recommendations were made, there were questions about solar specifically. There's diverse schools of thoughts on that. And the question was, is this recommendation based upon the actual looking at the roofs? And so I paused because we received the recommendations with a yes to that, which is why I personally have been on board with this. But now I'm hearing that with the new facility study that something is emerging that was not initially considered. That's on two buildings we didn't initially propose. Okay. That's on Bowling Green and Madison. The buildings that we looked at, the high school, the middle school, and Lewis and Clark. All good. Okay. Thank you for your patience with the I want to make sure that there's a lot
080going on. Yeah. If you can imagine in in the market now um so so in this time learning different things that have happened with the investment tax credits, supply chains, tariffs along with utility and learning the the biggest impact to to what we originally projected was this rate change because of some of the rates that your your facilities were grandfathered into and having to somehow have the utility. if we would do solar, they wouldn't be able to recognize any revenue, which isn't fair to them because they are still actually providing you power after hours, right? So, that's the this rate change that caused some some discrepancy in in how we got to where we were. Okay. And the last question I had was um you mentioned shortening the period of time of operations. Um and
081I don't maybe that's an internal discussion. In my mind, I'm thinking if we have Is that a waste? Is that a true waste of time with turning on, you know, heating and cooling and all of that to get the buildings prepared and how long we have kids in the building in the evening? At some point, there's a realistic window of time that it's just the cost of doing business. Um, are you seeing that that is extending beyond a useful window? That's a great question. That is what that recommissioning effort looks at. So, um, your systems in various ages have been upkept fairly well. Um, but what we're seeing is them taking longer to get to temperature, longer to um, meet the needs of the space. And there's different strategies that we'll be able to employ
082um, as experts in this field with intelligent startup procedures for your buildings and select location overrides. So you don't want to run your entire building after hours just so you can have this auditorium space conditioned. So that's the kind of things that we're working through like where are those differences in operation and how can we really make the building operate exactly how you use it the most efficiently. And that wasn't very evident when we first it was here because we did a major we're doing a major project here but not very evident at the other schools where we were looking at snapshots and monthly utility bills that made sense for what your other elementary schools um were doing. But when we got that increment data, it was very eye openening of there's opportunity to help
083redo some of these control sequences where we can dedicate some time that that you your team may not have the ability to. They have other fires. So we can come in and help say, "What if you started instead of starting this building at 4:00 am so that it was at temperature by 8, what if you did this other sequence that allowed you to bring the building on at 7 or 7:30 and you got to the same point and you didn't bring all the spaces online at the same time." So you didn't on that graph, if you can go back to that graph, you'll see there's a giant peak. That's everything in the building turning on at one time to meet a set point. And then you saw it dropped off and it gently went up
084and then you had a plateau. So, what we want to try to do is gradually get into that plateau so that it better aligns with the solar that you're going to put on the building. That's going to make the biggest impact to your utility bills. That's that's the differentiator in that rate shift that change things and that's how we've uh proposed to take take that into consideration. Long-winded answer. Does that that's I specialize in longwind so I'm good. Um but I do want to say thank you. I am listening for alignment with original agreements and big conversation with patients for how things develop. So I appreciate you being transparent and coming and say, "Hey, we have new information." So thank you. If I may. Um I I appreciate you mentioning supply chain uh specifically uh
085because you you highlight that there are variables involved in this process that you don't have control over uh and with the economy and everything that's going on uh right now. There are there are a lot of things uh that are concerning uh as we certainly look at long-term um projects such as this. Uh my I heard you say at no cost. I think I heard you say it twice. So, as we're going forward, as we're doing the research and looking for ways, uh, am I also hearing to say that there will be no additional cost to this school division, uh, as we go forward to amend the project to do the solar PPA and that necessary re well, it's not necessary, but to do that recommissioning to garner those savings, there is no additional cost.
086It is a power purchase agreement, so you have no upfront cost. The way that it works is we provide you power at a lower rate than you're paying the utility and you're buying it from us from the year and that's where your savings are generated from. So with that there is no there is no need to come with an upfront cost. It's one of the benefits of a power purchase agreement. Perfect. So you're you're going to be our power company uh for for lack of a better phrase. So as uh Rapahhanic or Dominion whoevers we start seeing spikes in the cost of electricity are you saying that we are going to be immune from those spikes because you are going to regulate that and if there is uh if there are spikes that that cost
087is going to be absorbed by you and not the division. That is the other great thing about a power purchase agreement. you know what you're going to pay for the next 30 years of that agreement. You'll have a schedule. It's one of the things we're putting together to provide. It'll say year one you're going to pay X cents, year two X, year 3X. And along with that, there's a minimum production guarantee. So, we tell you you're going to you're going to get at least this amount of power from us and you're going to pay this rate. So, you'll know the window and range every year for your budget for the next 30 years. So if all of the sudden the So last summer there was a five-fold increase um I can't think of the name
088of the auction but there's an auction for capa it's capacity auction that's what it was there's a five-fold increase in that value um as people start to see what's coming with AI and infrastructure. Um so that five-fold increase is going to start showing up this summer. You're going to start to see changes. I've already seen it in my own personal bill. We've seen it in schools that we go to. You are in fact, yes, insulated from that because your bill, you'll still get a bill from Rapahonic because they're still going to provide power to you after hours. They're still being connected to the grid, but the goal of the overall program is those weekend days is to overproduce power so that your meter at the end of the year stays at zero and ultimately you're
089just paying your customer connection charges with the utility. That's that's the goal of this net metering. So we're guaranteeing to you a minimum production, a maximum production that you would owe. So if we overproduce, you would owe us up to a certain point. So it's usually like 85 and 105 or 110 of the value that we calculate and you know the rate. So you can figure out easily for the next 30 years what to expect. So yes, that is ultimately the goal of a power purchase agreement is for you to be insulated from those market variations. But that's also how it's difficult for us to project what savings could be because we take your utility rate now and escalate it at the national average at 3%. And show that. So if all of the sudden
090there's a 10% spike and it just keeps going at 3% from there, your savings, sorry, your savings increase. Does that make sense? It makes it makes sense. Yes. I'm I'm I paused and I'm not going to go too deep into the weeds on this um for sake of time, but you know goals is goals is a goal. I'm with you on the goal. Uh but eventuality, you know, are we actually going to see the realization of that goal when there are so many outside variables that can have and play havoc on those goals? And I just want to make sure that you know we are insulated from that and we can stick to at no additional cost to the school division. Thank you. Other board members? If not, thank you very much. We appreciate your
091time. Yes. Thank you for having us. Greatly appreciate it. Okay, that takes us to um the enhanced staff benefit. preschool. Good evening, Chair Taylor, Vice Chair Fortune, members of the board, and Dr. Caleric. Tonight, Miss Herren, Miss Ross, and I are happy to share with you an exciting new benefit for our CCPS staff. The possibility of providing preschool for children of our staff who may not typically qualify for our preschool program has been a question presented to us in recent months and maybe over the past year or so. This winter, Miss Heron, Miss Ross, Miss Stevens, and I put our heads together to see how we might make this a possibility for CCPS staff. We're excited to share with you this evening that we have a plan that we are prepared to implement in the
0922526 school year. This evening, we will share with you how we got here, explain some preschool rebranding that will take place for the coming year, and share information about criteria in the application process for students of CCPS staff members, all of which will help to make this benefit possible. The enhanced staff benefit has been suggested in the past, including during our fall 2024 soup with the soup sessions. This winter, we conducted a staff survey to determine interest. We used that data as a team to consider how we could make this happen for staff who were interested in this benefit in the coming school year. Our plan plan involves some rebranding and enhancement of our current preschool model that Miss her Miss Herren will share with you in just a moment. Consideration of adding these students
093is done on a space availability basis and involves a nominal fee assessed to the parents of children offered these spots. It's important to note that we are able to make this happen at no additional cost to the school division and it does not involve adding any additional classrooms or hiring additional staff to accommodate these students. Next, Miss Heron will share more information about our rebranding and model enhancement. Good evening. We are excited to announce the rebranding of our CCPS preschool program. With the rebranding, we will truly be #1 preschool. Our VPI, Head Start, Title One, and ECSC classroom will all be known as preschool classrooms. Within the preschool program, we will offer a continuum based on the family qualifications and the student needs. With that being said, our current ECSC classrooms will become peer modeling
094classrooms. In these classrooms, we will be placing typically developing children with our exceptional education students to be social and educational role models for students with disabilities. This will provide an opportunity for all children to develop a positive self-image and a healthy attitude about the uniqueness of others. All preschool classrooms will have the Frog Street curriculum for threes and fours. Follow the child plus enrollment process. Follow all health procedures and the ASQ developmental screener. Miss Ross will now review the application process and criteria. Good evening. The CCPS preschool program uses a single point of entry and staff members that have applied for a slot in the peer modeling classrooms will complete a child plus application and meet with family engagement coordinators at the child's home school. To be eligible for a peer modeling class, children must
095turn three or four years old by September 30th, 2025. Students should be able to dress, feed, and toilet themselves independently, follow directions, express themselves appropriately, and interact with peers. All staff will be responsible for daily attendance to I'm sorry, daily transportation to and from school and regular attendance is expected. Next, Mr. Mud will share more about our fee. I mentioned to you earlier that staff whose children do not typically qualify for preschool participating in this program will be assessed a fee. Our fee for the 2526 school year has been set at $550 for the year. This money will be used for costs that we will not be able to use grant funds to cover, including Frog Street home backpacks, daily snack, field trips, as well as miscellaneous costs for various events, classroom materials, and licenses.
096Staff will be able to pay this fee in two installments, and this fee will be evaluated annually. At this time, we have nine staff members who are interested in considering this option for 2526. I'm happy to report that we are able to accommodate all of these students next year. We recently met with staff members um who are parents of these children to review information and criteria. They are currently reviewing these considerations and will let us know by April 30th if they wish to take advantage of the benefit. We cannot guarantee space for additional students for 2526, but we'll review quest requests this summer and evaluate space and capacity determine if to determine if we can consider other students. At this time, we are happy to address any questions you may have. Board members have questions.
097Yeah. The um Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh the eligibility criteria. Uh this is very similar to what you briefed at the policy council. Correct. That is correct. Thank you. All right. The 550 is paid by whom? The staff members. If the staff member elects to have their child participate and they did not typ they did not qualify through our typical process, they would pay the $550 annual fee for their child to participate. Okay. There were there are some materials that we can't use grant funds for for students in who do not qualify. Copy. Okay. Thank you, Dr. Rollins Mills. No questions, just a comment. I'm so excited. Yay. Thank you. And I'm gonna look to my left um and over here to my left because when we put a suggestion forward, we are governance. We
098we don't operationalize that. And we've been talking about this for a minute. Um, and $550 for the year is a wonderful value ad for our staff. I go ahead. I just want to say thank you for recognizing that. When we met with the few staff members the other day when we mentioned the fee, they looked up at us and they were like, "That's it." very excited, very appreciative of the cost being so nominal and a wonderful retention strategy so that our staff is supported. I'm so excited. Good job everybody. The only thing I can say is where were you when my kids came along? Likewise, because daycare is about a hund I won't say but per week. Um, yeah. Can I get a refund? I was just going to ask if any of you wanted
099to provide a trench story of any individual who is going to hopefully take advantage of this that lives out of county but now is able to remain as a single parent within our school division because of this new endeavor. Oh, absolutely. Um it it again it goes back to soup at the soup when I I know one employee that I I know very well um expressed concern and does live outside of the county and just recently you know went through some family transitions as we all experience. Um and so the cost for a single mom living outside of the county and the fact that her child will be able to go to the school that she actually works. So how great is that? There's no change to her daily schedule or anything and to have
100your child in your building. I mean what a great feeling is that Mr. Fry. Uh thank you Mr. Chair. I just want to echo the excitement expressed here in the DAS you know to have this opportunity uh for our staff. I know it's going to serve as a great uh recruitment tool and and retention tool. I see uh Miss Tucker shaking her head with u absolute joy. Uh just one quick question um regarding the payment of the fee. Would there be an opportunity for uh the fee to be taken out as a payroll deduction for ease or question? I'm reading the room, Mr. Fortune. Um I don't know that that would be possible for this coming year. Um we did talk with the the staff who were interested and some of them said they would
101pay the full amount upfront. um and others were appreciative of being able to do it in two installments. And our plan is that they would pay half when they um indicate that they will take advantage of the benefit and then the second half will be after the first paycheck of the new school year. Right. Thank you. As a HR professional, I just like to ask that question. I appreciate it. Can I ask one more question? Yeah. Oh, certainly. You have nine that are what how much capacity do we have? So, that's a great question. Um, the nine students will be sprinkled across all three of the elementary schools. Um, we're looking for the peer modeling classes, I think, at a max of 15 students. So, again, combination of students with disabilities and then the peer
102modeling students. Okay. Well, again, thank you very much. We we very much appreciate it. We look forward to it. Okay. That takes us to monthly revenues and expenditures ADM update. Dr. Farley. Good evening, Chair Taylor, Vice Chair Fortune, members of the board, Dr. Caleric. I'll be presenting the March FY25 financials this evening. Operating revenues for March were 3.8 million with year-to- date revenues of 45.3 million or 71.55%. Special fund revenues for March were $462,000 with year-to- date revenues of 5.8 million or 58.31%. Total revenues for all funds for March were 4.3 million with year-to- date totals of 51 million or 69.74%. Expenditures operating expenditures for March were 6 million with year-to- date expenditures at 41 million or 64.72%. Special funds expenditures for March were $465,000 with 5.7 million year to date or 57.43%. Total expenditures
103for all funds for March were 6.5 million with year-to-ate totals of 46.7 million or 63.72%. Be happy to take any questions from the board in the March fiscal year 25 financial report. Does board members have questions? appears to be none. Thank you very much. Thank you. Okay. Oh, I'm sorry. It's all good. You're the boss. Good evening again, Chair Taylor, Vice Chair, Fortune, members of the board, and Dr. Kelverick. I'll be presenting the average daily membership update for March 2025. Average daily membership is determined by dividing the total aggregate daily membership by the number of days school is in session during the school year. The March 2025 ADM is 4316.50. The year today ADM is 4330.624. Be happy to take any questions from the board on the ADM report. Board members have questions. Okay. Thank
104you very much. Thank you so much. That takes us to um new business item E the first read calendar change for 2526 school year. Mr. Mud. Yes. Thank you. Good evening uh Chair Taylor, Vice Chair Fortune, members of the board, and Dr. Calveric. Tonight I'm sharing with you some calendar updates that do not require board action. So this information for you um this evening is for your information. This winter, the calendar committee gathered to review the 2425 and 2526 calendars. We discussed the strengths and opportunities related to the 24-25 calendar and tweaks, potential tweaks to the uh 2526 calendar. The primary item we explored was the consideration of making some changes to the 2526 calendar to provide for a week-l long Thanksgiving holiday for students and school staff. While we considered this option in January
105and February, we were also experiencing a winter with significant weather which resulted in CCPS implementing asynchronous learning days and exhausting remaining makeup days in order to recover some of our missed time. The next slide will detail a change in our makeup plan for 2425 followed by a slide that will share some data collected regarding the possibility of extending the Thanksgiving holiday. On this slide, the chart on the left details how we keep track of our inclement weather inclement weather days, makeup time, and required school hours. This chart is also available to you in your printed materials on the DAS this evening. You will note that we missed nine full days of school this year, plus six additional hours missed due to delayed openings. It is important that we do our due diligence when considering how
106we address time missed. We consider bank time, makeup days built into our calendar as well as other options permitted by the DOE such as asynchronous days. And we ran the gamut this year implementing all of these strategies, including our available makeup days. May 22nd was originally our last day of school with May 23rd being a work day for staff. May 23rd was also one of our designated makeup days. When we missed February 12th due to inclement weather, May 23rd was captured as a full day makeup day. We recognize the need, however, for our staff to still have some time at the end of the year to perform endofear closeout procedures. Since we are now beyond our winter weather months, we are able to re-evaluate our makeup time and have decided to make May 23rd an
107early release day for students. Making this change allows us to implement the makeup strategy while at the same time preserving some time for teachers to complete end ofear duties. In making this change, we are still within our required instructional hours. We communicated this change to staff and the insider last week. The flyer on the right is a reminder flyer shared with staff regarding our two remaining makeup days on April 21st and May 23rd, which is now an early release day for students. The next update I'm sharing with you is the data we collected from a one-quest survey conducted in March regarding the possibility of making the Thanksgiving holiday a full week off for students and school staff. We discussed and conducted a similar survey with the calendar committee in February. We narrowed down some choices
108as a committee and that we considered and we launched the survey to staff in March. The results of this survey have not conveyed to definitive data to inform a change to our 2526 calendar. We had 222 staff members respond. Of the choices provided, the two most popular choices were with were le within less than 2% of one another. One of these choices was to make no change and leave the calendar as it had been adopted. After reviewing this data, this topic will be included in discussion items when we launch a new calendar committee next fall and begin building calendars for the future. It is clear there is interest in making this change to the Thanksgiving holiday. However, making this change appears to require deeper discussion and community input. At this time, our 2526 calendar will
109remain unchanged and it will remain as it has already been adopted. This information was also communicated to staff and the insider last week. And this concludes uh my updates for you regarding our instructional calendars. This information is provided to you this evening to keep you informed. No action is required on these items. However, I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you, Mr. Mood. Did anybody have questions or comments? No change. Sounds good. Okay, that takes us to the consent agenda which includes consent vote AB. Approval of schoolboard meeting minutes for March 10th, 2025, approval of donations, approval of monthly bills and finance reports, and approval of Head Start financial report. Are there any items that any member would like to pull from the consent agenda? If not, I would accept a motion
110to accept the consent agenda as presented. So move. Second. It's been moved and properly second that we accept it as presented. U Miss Stevens, would you call for the vote? Mrs. Sears, I. Mr. Fortune, I. Dr. Hubard, I. Dr. Rollins spells. I. Mr. Taylor I and the consent agenda stands approved as presented. That takes us to citizen comments. The citizen comment period announcement is as follows. The Carolina County School Board welcomes public comment during regular meetings and public hearings. Speakers may address an item on the board meeting agenda or an item not on the agenda during this time. All comments should address a matter related to Caroline County Public Schools. Each speaker may speak for up to three minutes. Once you see the red light on the traffic light portions in front of the clerk,
111please make your last statement. The school board chair is responsible for recognizing all speakers, for maintaining proper order, and for adhering to the time limits stated above. The chair is authorized to stop and or remove any speaker who uses language that is obscene constituting spiting words, true threats or solicitation to commit crimes and incites immediate lawless action. Moreover, the chair may stop and or remove any person who disrupts the orderly functioning of the meeting by making loud, boisterous or threatening comments. Once you come to the elector turn, if you have not signed in with the clerk, please complete the appearance request form. State your name and your district. At this time, the clerk will call those who have signed up prior to the meeting. Mr. Chairman, uh, no one has signed up prior to the
112meeting. Okay. Hearing none, are there any citizens in the audience that would like to make citizen comments at this time? Are there any citizens who would like to make comments at this time? Seeing no one with the intent to comment, I will declare the citizen comment period closed. That takes us to [Music] the oh action uh action section A action approval of student fees. Mr. Mud. Good evening, Chair Taylor, Vice Chair Fortune, members of the school board, Dr. Calvaric. Tonight, I'm presenting for you a second read of policy regulation JN-R student fees, fines, and charges. as it has been updated for the 2526 school year. While no changes were made to the fir from the first read to the second read, I am going to share with you a recap of proposed changes as presented
113to you at the March board meeting. For elementary and middle school, we proposed a removal of the agenda fee for elementary and middle, addition of a $5 fee for STEM and music at the middle school level, and an increase of $10 for middle school a fees. Also on this slide for high school changes reflected an increase of $10 for the parking fee from $40 to $50 and reductions to the fees associated with AP environmental science and environmental science courses. This slide also included elimination of dual enrollment course fees. This final slide for high school. The changes for high school fees included an elimination of fees for theater, business, marketing, and entrepreneurship, fee reductions for carpentry, criminal justice, and cosmetology courses, and an increase in the cost of the cosmetology and barber kits, an increase in
114fees for high school, a culinary courses. We appreciate the board's review and request approval of the updates to policy JN-R school fees. Board members have questions regarding the approval of student fees. If not, we will entertain a motion to approve the action as presented. So moved. Second. So moved and second that we approve the student action fees as presented. Mrs. Stevens, would you call for the vote? Mr. Fortune, I. Dr. Hubard, I. Mrs. Sears, I. Dr. Rollins Spells, I. Mr. Taylor, I. And the fees stand approved as presented. Thank you. That takes us to the approval of 2526 Perkins grant application. Dr. Neighbors. Good evening, Chair Kelly, Vice Chair Fortune, Dr. Caleric, and esteemed members of the board. Tonight, I will share an overview of the Perkins Grant for final read from our from our
115last meeting, we determined the priorities based on our um local needs assessment. One, continuing professional learning in innovative ways like this year um to ensure our teaching staff have the up-to-date knowledge and skills to support our growing fields. Two, growing our industry uh industry certifications and credentials. Uh three, providing curriculum or resources to support new courses and our academy model. And then four, modernizing equipment to update and expand. This is a breakdown of our alloc allocations. You'll notice that the majority of our allocations for Perkins are dedicated to equipment as that is one of our most expensive resources. On the final slide, you'll see a breakdown, which was not included, but the amounts are the same amount as we brought into the first read, a breakdown of each of the budget um numbers. Um and
116so we have a thou in budget code 1000 we have um $1,000 and then $76 for employee benefits our purchase services which includes a lot of the curriculum and resources is 30,750. Um our 5,000 indirect costs and other charges 14,500 and again our largest amount under capital outlay and equipment which allocates for 70% of our um our grant is 40, um61.69. 69. Do we have any questions for the final read of the Perkins grant? Okay. Dr. Neighbors, can you please verify the credentiing test and industry certification with the 13%. Does that cover all costs associated with testing? Yes, it does. So, all students are covered to take the assessments of their courses. Thank and we and we shift that over depending on what the the students need. So there's a number of different credentials and
117so for instance we have students that um we students actually I just found out passed the ACE assessment for automotive um and so they won't take the workbased readiness test now. So it is a juggling trying to get them to pass the credential that most um aligns with the coursework they're taking and so and then to get them that credentiing. Thank you. Quick question if I may, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Uh, so I know I'm about to ask a hypothetical bad thing. I apologize, but I'm gonna ask anyway. So, if we lose federal funding for this type of a grant, uh, am I understanding correctly that to sustain it annually, you need at least 86,000? Correct. Thank you. If not more. Other questions? If not, I will call for the vote um an approved for
1182526 Perkins grant application as presented. So move. Is there a second? It's been moved and second that we would approve the 2526 Perkins grant application as presented. Miss Stevens, would you call for the vote? Dr. Hubard. I Mr. Fortune I Mrs. Sears I Dr. Renfells I Mr. Taylor I and the motion carries. That takes us agenda item D first read um which is waved. Oh, I'm sorry. No, no, that's it. Oh, action. The first readad start budget revision waving of the first read. Miss Ross. Good evening, Chair Taylor, Vice Chair Fortune, members of the board, and Dr. Calber. This evening, I will present a Head Start budget revision for fiscal year 2024. As we work to close out the school year and grant cycle, it has been determined that in the fiscal year 24 Head
119Start budget, there will be 12 28,000 of funding from staff benefits that need to be reallocated. Several staff members did not take the full benefit package and four teachers hold long-term sub positions which are not eligible for benefits. The slide before you shows the reloc reallocation of these funds. The first item is professional learning. This summer a two-day intensive conscious discipline training will be held with all preschool staff participating. Conscious discipline is the behavioral social emotional component to our frog street curriculum. In addition to the intensive training, each teacher will receive coaching from a conscious discipline trainer. Additional funds will be reallocated to support office classroom supplies and conference travel. We have several pair of professionals completing their CDAS, one family engagement coordinator completing their Head Start family certification, and several teachers are enrolled in
120programs that lead to early childhood lensure. Funds will be reallocated to support their continued learning. And finally, three new items have been added to the budget, which are fuel purchases for Head Start vehicles and contracted service costs for the facilities appraisal and physical inventories that are required per Headstart performance standards. And at this time, I ask the school board to approve my ability to submit the fisc year 2024 Head Start budget revision, but of course, I'm happy to answer any questions at this time. Are there questions at this time? Yes. Uh this was the same policy that you uh presented to the policy council and received unanimous support for. That is correct. Same PowerPoint and everything. Thank you. Other questions? If not, we will entertain a a motion to accept the Head Start budget revision.
121So moved. Is there a second? Second. It's been moved and properly second that we would accept the fiscal year 25 24 Head Start budget revision. Miss Stevens, would you call for the vote? Dr. Rollins Fels, I. Dr. Hubard, I. Mr. Fortune, I. Mrs. Sears, I. Mr. Taylor, I. And the motion carries. That takes us to agenda item nine, first read 2526, HS Transportation Waiver. with roles. Good evening, Chair Taylor, Vice Chair Fortune, members of the board, and Dr. Cover. This evening, I present to you the 2025 2026 Head Start transportation waiver. As you know, the CCPS preschool program adheres to Head Start performance standards, and to remain in compliance, we must submit an annual transportation waiver. The waiver requests the wa the waiver request applies to child safety restraint systems and bus monitors on any
122buses that transport preschool children. CCPS buses are not equipped with child safety restraints, nor do we provide bus monitors on all of our buses. The preschool policy council will review this and approve next week as well. Um, and I need schoolboard approval prior to Head Start submission. We must submit months in advance to get it approved in a timely fashion. So, when we're ready for the school year to begin in August, at this time, I'm happy to answer any questions, but I do ask for school board approval this evening. Board members have questions regarding the waiver. If not, I will accept the motion to approve. Mr. Chairman, I move for approval as requested. Second. Second. Okay. It's moved in and probably second that we would approve the uh 2526 Head Start transportation waiver as presented.
123Are there questions? If not, Miss Stevens, would you call for the vote? Dr. Hubard, I. Mr. Fortune, I. Mrs. Sears, I. Dr. Rollins Fels, I. Mr. Taylor, I. And the motion carries. It takes us to new business. First read fiscical year 25 Head Start grant and supporting documents. Miss RS. Good evening, Chair Taylor, Vice Chair Fortune, members of the board, and Dr. Crick. This evening, I will present a first read of the continuation Head Start grant. As a reminder, the Head Start grant is a five-year cycle and CCPS will be entering year three for the 2025 2026 school year. The Head Start continuation grant package is quite comprehensive with more with four main components. Head Start requires goal and programmatic updates, a detailed budget with corresponding narratives, a self- assessment and community assessment updates along
124with an annual programmatic report. The screen before you shows the purpose of each of the components. You all have access to all of our draft copies in board docs, but the first component I'll explain is the self- assessment. This drives our planning, our programmatic planning, and helps us identify areas of needs, primarily in instruction. While the community assessment identifies community strengths and potential gaps in services for our families, CCPS has been awarded a total operational budget of 1,124,989. The budget will be finalized the next time I come back and by then we will have updated in kind costs per pupil expenditure costs and of course updated projected salaries. The final component of the grant package is the annual report. This is a detailed summary which includes information regarding school readiness goals, family engagement and budget
125which will be made available to our community upon approval. And so I will be back at the May school board meeting. I will present all final documents and updates and then ask for your approval at this time at that time. But right now, I'm happy to answer some any questions. Board members have questions regarding the Head Start grant. If not, thank you. Thank you. That takes us to the first reading for the member member the MOU between CCPS and CCSO. Mr. Good evening, chair, Mr. Taylor, Vice Chair, Mr. Fortune, members of the board, and Dr. Calvaric. Every two years, CCPS is required by the DCJS to review theou between Caroline County Public Schools and the Caroline County Sheriff's Office. So, we are up for renewal going into next school year for two years. Theou is
126in board docs for you to review. And this was reviewed, of course, by myself, uh, the Safe and Drug-Free Committee, the Caroline County Sheriff's Office, as well as school principles and SRO's. And through all those reviews, um, there were no recommendations to change any portions of theou. So, it's here tonight for your first read and any questions you may have. Okay. Board members, have any questions regarding theou? If not, thank you. Thank you. That takes us to the alternative peril pro assessment. Mr. Tucker. Good evening, Chair Taylor, Vice Chair Fortune, members of the board, and Dr. Calverick. Tonight I am here to present information as a first read to request approval of an alternative local assessment for pair professionals who must meet highly qualified status. PAR professionals must meet the highly qualified designation to serve
127in a title one school. To meet this designation, pair professionals must satisfy one of the following criteria. They must either hold an associates degree or higher from an accredited institution, complete at least 60 semester hours of coursework from an accredited college or university, or meet a rigorous standard of quality by demonstrating through a formal state or locally approved academic assessment the knowledge and ability to assist in instruction in reading, writing, and mathematics or in reading, writing, and math readiness as appropriate. The Virginia Board of Education has approved the parapro assessment which is administered by ETSS as the formal state statewide academic assessment for PAR professionals. However, local school boards also have the authority to approve and implement their own locally designed assessments that meet the same standards of rigor. Some school divisions are choosing to
128develop their own locally designed academic assessments for good reason. Creating a local assessment can significantly cut costs, eliminating the $80 fee tied to the standard pair pro assessment. This makes certification more accessible to a wider group of candidates. Additionally, testing in a familiar school environment can reduce anxiety and help participants better showcase their skills. With the added benefit of flexible scheduling, divisions can offer assessments at times and locations that work best for their staff, making the process more convenient and inclusive. CCPS was provided a local assessment developed by another school division. Our instru our instructional leadership team will conduct a comprehensive review to ensure alignment with our academic standards. This review will include refining questions as needed and ensuring each item reflects appropriate rigor and instructional relevance. To ensure fidelity to testing protocols, human resources
129will administer the assessment in person at the schoolboard office. Pair professionals will complete the assessment through the vector platform. Following the assessment, HR will review the results and notify each pair professional of their outcome. If a retake is necessary, HR will coordinate and communicate the next available testing date. Thank you. At this time, do you have any questions? I I do have one question. Um, is there a difference in salary for the persons who complete this than maybe a another pair of professional who has not? The only difference for a pair of professionals would be the scale if they on the 205 or 206 scale if they have a bachelor's degree. Okay, any other questions? Okay, thank you. Okay, thank you. That takes us to the first read for 2025 VSBA policies. Mr. Mud. Good
130evening, Chair Taylor, Vice Chair Fortune, members of the board, Dr. Calvaric. Tonight I bring to you VSBA policy suggested changes that have been uploaded to board docs in draft mode for your review. The Virginia School Board Association provides updates in February and May of each year that are based on changes in law and regulations. In addition, a few policies are revised for editorial reasons or to correct technical errors. In the following presentation, we have the policies that are currently being revised and/or reviewed by Caroline County Public Schools. Tonight, we are providing the first read and in May, we will ask for the adoption of these revised policies. As I go through each slide, I will announce the policy reference and share a brief description. The changes are listed on each slide for your review. Policy
131BBB, student representatives to the school board. Policy CHD, administration in policy absence. Policy DI, financial accounting and reporting. Policy DN, disposal of surplus items. Policy EF, food service management. Policy EFD, food sanitation management. Policy FB, facilities planning. Follow policy GBEA, unlawful manufacturer, distribution, dispensing, possession, or use of a controlled substance. Policy GBLA, third-party complaints against employees. Policy GBN, staff hiring procedures. Policy GBR, Voluntary Retirement Savings Program. Policy GDQ, School Bus Drivers. Policy IKG, Remediation Recovery Program. A special note, this policy was deleted because it is it is encompassed in other policies. Policy JCA transfers by student victims of crime. Policy JCB transfers by students in persistently dangerous schools. Policy JCB option one admission of non-public students for part-time enrollment. Policy JCB2 option two admission of non-public student non-public students for part-time enrollment policy JFCA-f formerly
132referred to as JFCA- student removal form policy JFCC student conduct on school buses policy JHDA A, human research policy JAC, student athlete concussions. Policy JM, restraint and seclusion of students. Policy J OD, release of student data and records. Policy KA, goals for school community relations. policy LBD home instruction which is also continued on this slide. The following policies have been reviewed but not res revised. Policy BCG school attorney policy B DD D quorum. Thank you for your time and attention to our policies. First read. Please refer to board docs to review all changes in draft mode. We will return in May for approval of all revised and reviewed policies. Did any board members have questions regarding any of the policies? If not, thank you very much. Thank you. That takes us to uh board comments.
133Uh do I'll start with Ava this time. A, do you have a comment you'd like to make? Yes, I do. Good evening, everyone. Um, this past past month, I was able to attend the BSBA student representative workshop and learn about other or learn about champions for impact and discuss with other student representatives about some challenges that occur with being the school board rep and how to overcome them. I also would like to Dr. Phils for being at that event and for teaching us so much. It was very informative and I want to thank you on behalf of all of those other student school board reps. Um, we also got to talk about some different or like some problems that different schools are facing and just like get a new perspective of like how the other
134schools are dealing with some issues that we are also dealing with and just like some information about like other issues that we aren't dealing with at the moment that could occur and just like how that those schools are dealing with those. Um, some upcoming events we have are the CHS production of Anastasia, which I'm very excited about. Um, we have a senior walk to the middle and elementary schools. Obviously, we have graduation coming up. And I will also be presenting my findings on my personal project during the May meeting. Um, I also visited Loose and Clark a few more times and I also visited Madison Elementary and will hopefully be visiting Bowling Green again soon. finalize some of the research that I have. That's all. Thank you guys. Thank you, Ava. Dr. Hubbert, do you
135have comments? Sure. Um this Wednesday, our board uh school board and board of supervisors will convene to address a matter of profound importance. The future of our public school facilities amid rapid growth and fiscal challenges. Caroline County stands as the fourth fastest growing locality in Virginia with a 9.3 population increase since 2020. This surge has led to overcrowded classrooms, particularly at Bowling Green and Lewis and Clark elementary schools, where space is being repurposed to accommodate students. Superintendent uh Calvaric has presented and the board has approved a $67 million operating budget for the FY 2026, highlighting a $2.2 million shortfall. Key factors include increased uh instruction costs, uh exceptional education needs cost, mental health services, uh etc. As we face these challenges, it is imperative that we come together as a community to prioritize our children's
136education, we must find a balanced approach that addresses immediate needs while planning for sustainable growth. This work session demands a serious collaborative disposition from all participants, elected officials, administrators, community stakeholders alike. The gravity of the most of the moment requires us to rise above differences, listen with open minds, and engage with mutual respect and a shared commitment to the future of Caroline County's children. Your voice matters. Engage with your representatives, attend meetings, and participate in these discussions. Together, we can ensure that Caroline County remains a place where every child has the opportunity to thrive. Let's commit to building a future that reflects our shared values and our shared aspirations. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Dr. He. Mr. Fletcher. Uh thank you, Mr. Taylor. Uh since our last uh schoolboard meeting, I did have the
137opportunity to attend the novice teacher appreciation night at the Carolina uh community center. I just would love to give kudos to all those who made this event um possible. Uh I think this is an excellent way to show uh not only our novice teachers but also our future teachers how much we appreciate um you know their support and encouragement. I actually had one novice teacher come up to me and say, "Wow, this is a great retention tool." So, once again, kudos to all those who um put that uh night together. We had an excellent dinner um and we were uh blessed to u witness um the play move now and then. So, uh had a wonderful time. Also, since our last uh board meeting, I had an opportunity, as uh Mr. uh Taylor did, to
138tour Bowling Green Elementary. And I definitely echo Chairman Taylor's sentiment that it's one thing to read the data, see the data regarding our over um crowded schools, but it's one thing, you know, to walk the halls, take the tour, and see our students receiving instruction uh in in hallways and such. So, I definitely encourage my colleagues, if you haven't had an opportunity uh to tour Bowling Green Elementary and Lewis and Clark Elementary in particular, um to please do so. And um as Dr. Dr. Hubbert alluded to, we definitely are in the process of making some very critical decisions uh with our colleagues um in the county. Um I want to thank the community who has uh taken time enough to provide their feedback on how we should best address our current over capacity needs or
139issues as well as our projected growth. Uh so all those who have participated in surveys, who've participated in our public uh meetings, thank you so much and please continue to be engaged uh as we work uh through these particular issues. And finally, Mr. Chair, I definitely want to encourage everyone who has not yet registered for the inaugural golf tournament supporting the Carolina Education Foundation uh to please do so. Uh once again uh the golf tournament will take place on April 25th at the golf club at Madapana Springs and once again the the proceeds from this tournament goes to benefit the Caroline Education Foundation. Thank you Mr. Chair. Thank you Mr. Fcher. Dr. Robert Fails. Yes sir. I gave my committee um reports earlier. So my comment this evening is in anticipation of our Wednesday meeting.
140I personally am excited. I really truly am because we know that we have immediate needs and we know that there's an opportunity to look forward. Um, one of my favorite quotes is by Henry Ford and it says, um, if I asked people what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse. A faster horse is not going to cut the conversation that we need to have. And what I love about where we are as a community is um, we have invested time to research. We are looking at the data. We are looking at the facts. We've contracted with subject matter experts that um can provide us with um real potential uh future uses. We have that historical perspective. We have the community members who are coming out. Um and so I think we're in a
141really good place. My second favorite quote um Mr. fortune actually opens our meeting with every time and it says coming together is a beginning and I think we've done that. Um staying together is progress and as a Caroline community we do that. Um and now we're at this phase of having to work together. Um and to echo Dr. Hubert's words to come with a spirit of collaboration to come with the expectation that we will move the needle forward. And so I'm excited to join with our board of supervisors who are asking good questions um and putting some good things on the table um along with our team to champion what we need for our next generation of schools in Caroline County. The time is now. The time is now. So I look forward to Wednesday
142with open ears um and looking forward to what action steps we can come out of that meeting with. So those are my comments. Thank you Dr. Fails. Uh Miss Sears. Thank you Mr. Chair. Um since our last meeting I have attended the STEM expo which was hosted here at Caroline Middle and it was a wonderful display of um our students work. Um, it was great to see. There were I mean I think every cafeteria table was completely covered with science projects and that was just really great, creative, um, fun to listen to all the kids explain what their project was. And so, um, congratulations to all the winners who are going on to the regional science fair which is coming up either this week or next week. I have been out watching several sporting events
143as the weather and spring really kicks off. Um, middle school baseball, middle school softball, track. Um, so congratulations to all of our students who compete and our athletes and thank you to the coaches and parents who really put in a lot of time and work to make that happen. U, as Ava talked about, our Cavaliier players um are working really, really hard on the spring production of Anastasia and so I really hope that you come out and support them. Um it's April 25th, 26th and 27th. It's very exciting. I also um attended college night at um the high school this past week and it was a really great opportunity to learn the process of FASA and how to decide a college and how how do you decide what questions to ask when you're meeting with
144colleges? Um and it had several um is available to speak to representatives and I just thought that was really great. So, thank you to the CHS counselors and staff and everyone who put that together. And those are my comments. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Sears. Um, I gave most of my comments earlier. I would again like to, as I always do, thank the staff for all that you do. And I would like to also reiterate what we were talking about the difficulties that are before us as far as uh the funding of our schools and moving forward and getting those necessary um uh finances that it takes to give our students the best quality education that we can. Uh I do believe that every person on each of these boards really wants to do what's
145best for children. Sometimes we have different views about how we might reach that goal, but at the end of the day, I think the goal is the same for all of us. I especially like to thank our staff for the work that they've done in putting together the information that's necessary for us to substantiate uh what we are asking for. It takes a lot of time. It's a lot of hard work and uh this board I believe I can speak for this board in saying we truly appreciate uh the work that you do. uh we get asked the hard questions. If we did not have the type of staff that we have who provide the information that we do or that we need, it would be very hard to answer those questions. So again, I
146I thank them for that. And I thank this board for us being able to sit at the table and work together and talk and agree and sometimes disagree, but at the end of the day, we put our best foot forward and we do what we need to do to move the school system forward. In closing, I would would just say that unfortunately last week there was a terrible situation in Spennsylvania that in unfortunately involved some of our students. But I want to thank our staff again for coming together and putting programs in place that made our schools a safe place that kept our students safe. Things could be much worse. Uh we are concerned about our children. We're concerned about our parents. We're concerned about our staff. And when I go throughout the schools and
147I look at what's going on, I see a lot of positive things and I see a lot of good students. And I would just ask that the public would not judge our students based on some of the behaviors of a few of our students. The majority of our students are good. They are hard workers. The majority of our parents are good. I believe all of our parents are good. Even though they may make some decisions that are not good. Maybe we may make some that are not good. But I've yet to meet a parent that didn't love their child. Sometimes they don't do all of the things that they need to do. Sometimes they don't make all the right decisions. But I've yet to meet one that did not love their child. We love these
148kids and we out to do what we can do to keep them safe and to make them successful. We've always done that and I believe that we're going to continue to do that. That's uh my comments. I would now u give way to Dr. U Calvaric if you have comments. Thank you, Chair Taylor. I'm going to embrace the sandwich model tonight and start with celebrations, then safety, and then I'll close out with some upcoming dates. So, a quick shout out to Sabrina Anderson, PAR educator at Bowling Green Elementary School, who prior to spring break was announced as the county support staff of the year with approximately 33 years of service as a pareducator. Also, we recognize Mr. Jeremy Thompson, a novice teacher here at Caroline Middle School. If you have not seen the post on
149Facebook where his students unplanned evoked this emotion through song. It is worth the viewing. So, please take a look and it is evident why Mr. Thompson is a change agent here at the middle school as the novice teacher of the year for the county. Also want to give a shout out to our team at the elementary schools who operationalized a great kindergarten registration. Our National Junior Honor Society students who were inducted this past week with the um sponsor Baker Latin here at CMS. A shout out to the exceptional ed department for a great special Olympics little feet meet, especially since there was such a large safety crisis occurring at the exact same time. They were able to lift that work in the absence of those of us that needed to be together um to handle
150communication and response strategies. Also, congratulations to the JOTC program at the high school. They competed recently in a Raider meet and they placed first overall in one of two team categories, placed first in three of five events and took second place in another. So great showing and we heard earlier tonight that our FC CLA students competed over spring break and they had not done so in a number of years and achieved a number of first, second, and third place um standings. So congratulations I do want to thank our building level leaders specifically at the high school. I want to thank Mr. Wick, our directors, our Caroline County Sheriff's Office, our families, and our students for really leaning in and having courageous conversations about the safety matter that happened this past week and how we can
151work together to continue to create an environment that acknowledges scenarios of this nature, but comes up with ideas together. specifically our student advisory group at the high school. They are currently going through all students feedback on what are new techniques we can use at the high school to continue creating a sense of belonging and a sense of safety and they will develop themes and then those will be reported out into action steps and from the mouth of babes comes great power. So we're very much looking forward um to hearing more on that um method that was embraced by um Dr. Connelly and his team. And then I do want to close out, we will not have another board meeting until miday. And we all know the calendars are very full. I will not repeat those
152items that have already been shared, but the same weekend as the theater performance of Anastasia. On that Thursday, the 24th is our countywide art festival. So it indeed is a weekend of the arts. Come out Thursday night to see K12 art on display at the high school beginning at 5 o'clock. and then come out Friday, Saturday or Sunday for Anastasia. We also have our employee recognition banquet on May 1st. We also have our partners and education breakfast coming up on Friday at Matapana Barnes. We have senior sunset and decision day on May 2nd and senior awards on May 5th. Many more dates after our May meeting, including prom, which is on May 16th, and then we move into the final days where we moving up days and transition days. With that, I'll yield the floor.
153Thank you. That takes us to the close session portion of our meeting. Uh, I would like to entertain a move to enter into close session for the purpose of the superintendent's personnel agenda for the discussion of appointments and stipens, resignations, terminations, corrections, position changes, step change, inservice debt, sub substitutes, resignations as authorized by the section 2.23711. 23711A1 of the Code of Virginia 1950 as amended and to discuss the purchase of real property for school purpose where the discussion in an open meeting would adversely affect the bargaining position on negotiating strategy of the school board as authorized by Virginia Code 2.2-371 1A3. I will entertain a motion to that effect at this time. So moved. Second. It's been moved and properly second that we go into executive session under those uh codes mentioned. Uh Miss Stevens,
154would you call for the vote? Mr. Fortune, I. Dr. Hubard, I. Mrs. Sears, I. Dr. Rollins spells. Mr. Taylor, I eyes have it and the motion carries. We are now in close session. So moved. Second. I I I carry. Do we certify that we only discussed those things in closed session that we went into discuss? Um I'm Allison ISO certified. Okay. ISO certified. Okay. ISO certified. ISO certified and ISO certified. Okay. So we don't Okay. So Okay. A move for German. Oh no. We have to uh discuss the upcoming dates. Uh Lisa, do you Mr. Chairman? Yes. I move for the approval of the superintendence agenda. Oh, that's right. Um close session. Okay. Personnel. Thank you. I move for the approval of personnel. Second. It's been moved and proper second that we um approve the
155superintendent's personnel agenda. All in favor, let it be known by saying I. I. And the motion carries. Okay. Lisa, you want to give us the the dates? Just a reminder on Wednesday of the gates are there. important to be there. We'll let you know about that as soon as they come in. RSVP schooler is coming back. Okay. All right, I'll move for adjournment. So move second. Been moved and properly seconded and we adjourn. All in favor by saying I. I. I. All oppose can stay. And it carries. Thank you.