November 6, 2025 Charlottesville City School Board Meeting

001All right. Good evening everyone. It is Thursday, November 6, 2025, and I'm calling this regular meeting of the school board to order. If we could start with a moment of silence. Thank you. Please stand and join me in the pledge >> algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. Uh, Madame Clerk, if you could call the role. >> Yes, Madam Chair. Miss Burns >> here. >> Miss Cooper >> here. >> Miss Douly >> here. >> Mr. Morris? >> Yes. >> Mr. Meyer? >> Here. >> Miss Richardson >> here. >> Miss Torres? >> Yes. >> And Mr. Schwarzman, our rep. >> Thank you. Moving on to approval of our proposed agenda. Can

002I get a motion? >> So moved. >> Got a first. Is there a second? >> Second. >> First and a second. Any discussion? All right. All in favor say I. >> I. Any opposed? Miss Cooper was our second. Um, all right. Now we get to move on to uh some recognition. Starting off with all of our students in the back. I think our CHS theater program recognition. Our fine arts coordinator Aaron Ikurst will do the introductions. Good evening madam chair, Dr. Gurley and members of the board. I am delighted to recognize the extraordinary achievement of our theater CHS program which recently completed an amazing weekend at the Virginia Theater Association's statewide high school competition. Starting with a fantastic sendoff show, this incredible group of 45 student performers led by their talented director David Beckard captivated

003audiences and judges with their one act scenes selected from Mary Zimmerman's play, The Secret in the Wings. I'm thrilled to announce that Theater CHS was named one of the top two schools in all of Virginia. The conference does not announce a winner and a runner up since both of the top schools go on to represent Virginia at the Southeastern Theater Conference in Chattanooga, Tennessee later this March. The list of honors from the competition is long, but it also includes best ensemble, best musicians, best use of music, and a first place individual costume design award for Esme Agnum Ant. Additional kudos. Yes. Yes. Additional kudos go to senior Sil Leva for creating the beautiful uh performance poster. We could not be more proud of these students for their dedication, artistry, and teamwork. Their competitive season continues

004this weekend as they go on November 8th to the VHSL theater competition. As exciting as it is for them to move on to Chattanooga, Theater CHS now faces the challenge of fundraising to support their trip. The total cost for this endeavor is $30,000. So, the program will be holding several performance-based fundraisers, including our annual musical, Westside Story, along with hosting other special performances like talent shows and improvisational comedy nights. Um, community members may also donate directly online by visiting the Theater CHS website, theater, theats.weebly.com. We encourage our generous community to support them as they represent Charlottesville as they compete against nine other states. So, congratulations to all. >> Yes. Thank you. Let's give them a round of applause. >> And now, uh, please enjoy a brief performance from the award-winning one act, The Amazing Theater,

005CHS. It's purple. More people over here. Where are you going? My love. Where are you going? My love. There. And there seems to joy in her mouth, her hands, her hair. There was promise in every glance of her own. She had proise everywhere. But inside her mind was a darker place. That's where she lived and called it day. And from there she spoke her decree decree. From there she spoke her and All right, thank you for that wonderful performance and best of luck in all of your future competitions. Um, we get to continue on with some recognitions. Uh, Miss Rasnik with our National School Psychology Week. Good evening, Madame Chair, Dr. Gurley, members of the board. Um, I ask that you acknowledge National School Psychology Week in Charlottesville City Schools. I'm asking you to thank

006our school psychologists for helping students find their path to success through academic, emotional, and social support. They demonstrate compassion and dedication to creating a positive environment and helping students navigate challenges and build resilience. This year, our school psychologists are partnering with our BCBA and leading work with special education teachers in supporting executive functioning interventions. Alongside our BCBA, they've developed resources for staff to provide more effective interventions in the essential skills of self-regulation, organization, flexible thinking, task initiation, and planning. I will celebrate them throughout November, but I ask that you acknowledge them this evening by proclaiming National School Psychology Week. >> Absolutely. So, this is an info and an action item. So, do we have a motion to approve this recognition? So moved. >> Is there a second? Miss Cooper with a second. Thank you. Any

007discussion or questions? >> All right. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? >> All right. Wonderful. Thank you. Um and next um Miss Johnson, Bianca Johnson. Do we get both both of the Johnson's coming up? Johnson and Johnson for family engagement month. Good evening, Madame Chair, members of the board, and Dr. Gurley. November is recognized as National Family Engagement Month, a time to celebrate and strengthen the vital partnerships between our schools and the families we serve, which is a relationship we know is essential for student success. This commitment aligns directly with our divisional goal to provide a culture of safety and belonging by maintaining strong community partnerships. We use this moment to extend a formal invitation to families to continue to actively engage with schools. As your child's first and most important

008learning community, your support is essential to their success, and you are a vital component of the school community to strengthen our partnerships with families, community organizations, and students through their community schools initiative. So excited to introduce Dr. Jones Lewis as our director of community schools. Dr. Dr. Jones Lewis brings extensive experience in education, strategic planning, and community engagement, and we are excited to welcome her to this important role. We also want to thank our community organizations who roll up their sleeves and work right alongside us every day. Honestly, our ability to boost school programs and services for our students and staff is totally dependent on these key relationships. We're especially grateful for their solid partnerships, which has been crucial for keeping things steady and supportive for our families even in current times of uncertainty. We

009would also like to extend a sincere thank you to our building leaders, teachers, and staff. Your continuous hard work, innovative efforts, and dedication to fostering welcoming and supportive environments are the cornerstone to successful family engagement. The strength of these relationships is a testament to your dedication and commitment. Together, we look forward to sustaining our partnerships throughout November and for the rest of the school year. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Chuck. Before you sit down, you are next up as we um have a moment to recognize the passing of Mr. Eugene Williams. and one of the Johnson's is joining me for this uh moment, but thank you for the opportunity to recognize a real legend in our community. Good evening, Madame Chair, members of the board, and Dr. Gurley. Mr. Eugene Williams was half of

010what the Daily Progress called a civil rights power couple. In light of his passing on October 18th at the age of 97, it is appropriate for our schools to pause and honor him tonight. His service to our community extends far beyond his impact on Charlottesville City Schools, but that is where we will focus tonight's appreciation. I will read a portion of the text from the historic marker that is installed at Tall Oaks Elementary, which was of course then Johnson Elementary in 2019. This marker tells the next chapter of Charlottesville's desegregation story after Venal and Lane High School were desegregated on September 8, 1959. The historic marker at Tollix continues, "However, further integration was minimized and the other city schools remained segregated. To address this, Charlottesville's NAACP president Eugene Williams and his wife Lorraine, herself a

011teacher in Charlottesville City Schools, sued to allow their daughter's transfer from all black Jefferson Elementary into all white Johnson Elementary. 15 other students and their parents were part of the suit seeking transfers to Venal and Lane appealed to the US Supreme Court. Dillard versus school board of the city of Charlottesville ultimately forced Charlottesville city schools to stop the discriminatory handling of school transfer requests. Consequently, on October 24, 1962, Johnson Elementary was integrated by Carolyn Cheryl Williams and by Michael Lewis and Rosalyn Whitlock, whose parents whose requests to transfer into Johnson were also approved following the court ruling. Each victory paved the way for greater access to an equal education and the ruling had significant impact across the state and country. We honor Mr. Williams for his work to transform our schools, but we recognize that

012his service to our community runs much broader. from creating and sustaining a portfolio of well-maintained but affordable housing in our community to raising awareness of our local black history by successfully advocating for historic signage. In their lifetimes, he and his wife were recognized by the Charlottesville School Board, the Charlottesville City Council, and the Virginia General Assembly. As we reflect on the life and legacy of Mr. Eugene Williams. We honor him for his unwavering commitment to justice, education, and community uplift that transforms Charlottesville and hides inspired generations. His advocacy for equity, equality, and opportunity reminds us that true progress is built on courage and compassion. His selfless activism paved the way and will continue to guide us towards a more just and inclusive future. Thank you, Mr. Williams, for who you were to this community. Thank

013you for sharing those words. Um, and I would like to take another moment of silence specifically um, in reflection of the contributions of the Williams family. Thank you. Uh we will move uh now to comments from members of the community and we get to start with comments from students. I think we've got a few lined up here to go. The first on my list is Miss Gold. Mia Gold. Hi, I am um Mia Gold and I and I will start by saying um when before I joined theater, I was like didn't really talk to anybody. I was just like keep to myself and um and I wasn't really out there and I was like couldn't really speak in front of people because I had like really bad social anxiety. But when I joined like CHS

014theater, it just like got better for me. Like last year I started my first play and um even though I didn't really have any speaking roles, it just felt like I can like speak out more and like say things and this year we got the opportunity to win at VTA and now we are going to SCTC which I think it's a really huge deal because this group of people that I'm like working with working with is like really awesome. They like put in so much hard work and dedication and I feel like this is a excellent opportunity for us to bring I mean not bring represent Charlotte and Virginia and by possibly winning at SCTC. So I um Oh, we also did get to go. This I won't say this was our first time. We

015kind We didn't really get to go because it was during COVID, but we were able to kind of go, but this would be our first time going, so I think it would be nice for all of us to get the opportunity to fully get to go. That's all. >> Thank you so much. Um, next up, if you can help me with your name, I'm sorry. Excel P Gonzalez. Um, hi, my name is Excel and I'm a sophomore at CHS. I love this program and I'm very proud of everyone who is in it. They are amazing people who have fun and make theater enjoyable. One of the reasons why I love theater is because you can really do anything and everything here and it is a place where creativity is wanted and needed. It's a place

016where we get to have the opportunity to be as creative as possible. It's a place where we all have a voice. And this year, we placed in the top four schools and get to represent Virginia this March at STC. This took a lot of time and effort from everyone from the people who made the costumes to the people who made the props and sets, lighting, sound, and of course the actors. Being a part of this wonderful program is such an honor. Uh even in the stressful moments, I still wouldn't want to be in any other program. Our next production is Westside Story, a show that challenges us artistically and brings our community together together through music, dance, and powerful storytelling. That being said, these things do come with a significant cost for travel and production

017materials. We would deeply appreciate any support we could get from the board. can provide to help us continue representing our school with pride. Thank you for believing in us and making programs like ours possible. >> Thank you so much. Um, next up, Esme Ogden on >> Hi. Um, I'm Esme Ogden Amped. I'm a junior this year uh at CHS. I'm the costume designer for this show and I'm hoping to pursue this as a career path. Um, so for me going to VTA is a huge opportunity for my future. I got to meet professionals in my field. I got to talk to colleges. I got to go to workshops to learn the skills that I'm going to use in my future. And it was also really cool to meet all the different high schoolers who are

018doing the same things that we're doing and seeing how they're doing it differently. You know, how their experiences are the same and are different. Um, and I think a lot of the people here can attest that it was a really cool experience for that reason. And SCTC would basically be twice that. It's it's the regional version of that. It's even more professionals, even more students, even more opportunities. So, it would be really amazing if we were able to go. And I know that everyone here has put in just so much work to be able to get to this point. And we're so incredibly pr proud to have been given the opportunity to go to SCTC. And it would be really amazing if we could get any support that would make it easier for every student

019to go. >> Thank you. And Aiden Cla. Hi. Oh, sorry. Hi. My name is Aiden Cla. Um, I'm a senior here at Churchill High School. I've been doing theater for four years. And the first play I ever did was Book of Will. and we took that one to VTA and that was my first experience with theater and it couldn't have gone better. Every year I've gone to VTA and it's been just as excellent as the one before if not better and it's an amazing place for uh schools all over the state to come together and we can celebrate our shared passion, learn plenty of useful things in theater and outside of theater and see some fun shows. SCTC has been a dream as part of that for four years for me and finally winning this

020year was truly amazing. I can VTA is already a highlight of the year for me and SATC the next level above it is only destined to be the highlight of maybe my whole high school career and I feel I can speak for the rest of us when I say it's going to be an amazing experience. We all know it. The fact of the matter is that it it is costly and while it's a once in a lifetime unique experience, it is everyone here has put their all into this and deserves to be able to go. Any support that we can get in financially allowing everybody to be able to go, it would mean everything to me and to the rest of us. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you all so much. Um, are there

021any other students present who wish to give comment? All right. Um, if there are any Oh. >> All right. So, as you approach the podium, if you would say your name and limit your comments to three minutes. >> Hello, my U. My name is Joshua. Uh, I'm just very excited for SCTC. I'm very happy for my group of peers that we made it this far. I'm very happy for my friends to hang out with them, to get to spend more quality time with them because I am a senior and it's my last ride. So, yeah, basically. Thank you. >> Thank you. All right. Um we will move on to um adult members of the community. Um first up is Mr. Hartline. If you as you approach the podium say your name and limit your comments

022for three minutes. Good evening, school board members and superintendent Dr. Gurley. Derek Hartline, 1517 Twinet Avenue, lifelong city resident. I'm here this evening to follow up on a couple of items I discussed at the October board meeting. I brought before the board a concern that the falling leaves at Jacksonia would need to be picked up earlier this year to avoid another potential safety issue. I suggested that the first leaf pickup could be occurring on Monday, November 3rd, when staff would be at CHS and PD's leaving the lot clear. At Monday's PD, I spoke with Dr. Gurley, and when he asked what would I be bringing before the board this evening, I let him know that it depended on a lot on whether or not the leaves got picked up. He assured me that the request

023was submitted for to be done. I am honored and privileged to announce that all the following leaves so far were picked up on Monday morning. And on my way home that day, I saw that all the leaves also at Tall Oaks were picked up as well. On behalf of the staff in Jacksonville, I want to express my sincere thanks and gratitude to Dr. Gurley, the board, and Mrs. Powell for your support in this matter. It truly means a lot. Over the next several weeks, more leaves will continue to fall, and unfortunately, there aren't any days where the lot will be empty until Thanksgiving break. I plan to support this effort in the interim to help remove the lease from the lot until the city can get back for another pickup. I was wondering if the

024board would be willing to make another request for the second pickup the day before or the day after Thanksgiving. In about 10 days or so, I will be removing what leaves have built up since Monday's pickup. Please let me know your thoughts as I want to partner with the city in this effort as I feel our combined efforts will prevent another fire from occurring due to builtup leaves. Second and last of this evening, I wanted to update you on the speeding along Harris Road. Just last week, the 15 mph flashing light as you head west on Harris now has a real-time speed indicator attached under the sign showing drivers how fast they are going. And when that um speed reaches 25 miles per hour or more at any time of the day, it starts to

025flash red. This change is already making a difference. And if the board had anything to do with this recent installation of this real speed indicator, I want to also thank you for your support in keeping this corridor safe for students, families, and staff. Thank you for allowing me to speak this evening with you regarding my updates. >> Thank you so much, Mr. Hartland. Um, Miss Bryant, Miss Miss Horn, go ahead. Excuse me. You both will have an opportunity to speak. Miss Horn, if you want to go first. >> I'll be quick. >> Hello. Thank you so much for the opportunity to speak. This is not what I planned to say. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm Jen Horn. I had a whole laboriously crafted piece about screenfree classrooms that will have to wait. Be excited. Due to

026the fact that many of you replied to my email about standardsbased grading, many right before this meeting, that's what I'd like to talk about in brief. I do not think that standardsbased grading is the correct tool for assessment in the humanities. I have sent a letter to division leadership and to the school board. I outlined my research and my concerns. What is clear is that there was not input from teachers of the humanities when the decision to move to SBG in every discipline was made. It also seems clear via the emails I've received that discussions as to whether SBG in all disciplines is optimal are happening. I would very much like to participate in those conversations. I would very much like for my colleagues teaching in the humanities to be part of those conversations. The

027strategic plan calls for equitable grading, but SBG is not the only means to achieve that goal. I ask that before we truly begin down the arduous and timeconsuming path of implementation, we stop and talk, perhaps considering making SVG optim optional for the humanities as is standard in many SBG schools. Talk to your teachers, please. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Horn. Uh, Miss Bryant. >> Good evening. Uh, Zion Bryant, Charlottesville, resident. Um, so I wasn't going to speak this evening, but I was really impressed by the students from the theater um, department and I think it would be great to have the support for them to be able to do um, the competition that they are asking for support for. Um, I do think it's important for students to have access to spaces to have

028the ear of those who are making decisions and I don't know what the support would look like from the board or what you can offer to them in this way. Um, but if you're not able to like make a monetary decision for them, it would be nice to open it up to the community and direct people in the direct like point them in the direction so that they can support. Um, we have a lot of nonprofit organizations that support the arts. We have a lot of philanthropists locally. And so, one thing that I heard recently from a lot of community members is that there are people in in the community who want to support. They want to volunteer more. They want to give donations. they want to just support students and support our staff. And

029so I think a way that we could do that is by starting with this kind of lowhanging fruit. I think it's a nice first project to see um a good request for community support and it's similar to the snack drive and things of that nature. So I just want to elevate and amplify their request for support. Um and also just remind you that like student voice is so important and it's it's really scary to stand in front of this mic as a student in high school. Um, I did it a lot when I was in high school and it never got easier. So, kudos and applause to those students who came out this evening to speak to you. I hope you heard them and I hope that you're able to follow up with them in

030some way. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Bryant. Um, any other members of the media center who wish to give public comment? All right. Anybody on Zoom? If you are interested in giving a public comment, you can raise your hand and we will elevate you to a speaker. All right. Thank you. And that will close our uh community comment period and we will move on to our student representative report out. Mr. Schwarzman. Hey, is that all right? Perfect. Okay. Um, I'm Sullie and if you haven't seen me at any of the other board meetings or in the halls of this school, I'm the student representative for this board. Quite a lot has happened since our last meeting, including elections just two days ago. So, I'd like to take a moment to congratulate on behalf of

031the students, all those who will be serving in the next term and worked hard on campaigning for their positions. The student body looks forward to see what will happen in the future. And I'd like to offer a special congratulations to Mr. Moore for all that he's done for this board. Thank you. Um, I'd also like to congratulate CHS theater. It's amazing to see so many people at a meeting advocate for what they want. And it's even more amazing to see CHS winning at state level competitions. It's amazing in a lot of different ways. Um, as us at CHS get back from our long Halloween Halloween weekend and start looking ahead to the holidays, I feel like it's a good time to reflect on some of the issues that have been brought up um to me

032by the student body. First, SRO's in the first meeting of many meetings that I spoke about SRO, I said that students are cautiously optimistic about the possibility of SRO. And in all of my speaking to people, I have found that that is even more true than I thought it was originally. And not only that, I found that the opinion of students is likely going to remain similar or the same for the foreseeable future. Um, students and administrators have long recognized the current problems at DHS and it's been reflected in people's opinions of SRO's. They want change and they think that SRO's could be extremely good at making that happen. The group of people who are excited about the possibilities is a significant group of people and it's an extremely commonly held belief among students at

033CHS that SRO's could bring a lot of good change. That's not to say that there isn't opposition within the student body, but a crucial thing to note is that generally people the more that people learn about SRO and how they're actually going to be implemented, the training procedures, the weapon locks, the feedback systems, and the many changes that this board and administration have made to ensure security, the more people think positively of SRO's as um like possible tools for positive change in the schools. And that's why people are optimistic. They see that SRO's could be good for change. But people are also very very cautious about this plan for one major reason in my interpretation, which is guns. What I've learned talking to people is that as long as guns are part of the SRO

034plan, there will always be caution. It's a terrifying thought for any student that they could be killed because of a single bad judgment call. and that there's no and there there's nothing that the board can do to make these students feel entirely safe. There's no policy that we can pass, no rule or regulation that can make people feel perfectly safe when guns are being displayed in a school setting. And that's just a fact of the SRO policy that we need to accept. That being said, there's one thing that I think that this that this board should really continue to do, which is educate people about the SRO's. So far the board and the the administration have had many many different ways of reaching out to people and they've worked for the people who have interacted

035with them. The problem is not everybody wants to do that and we can't make them do that. So my advice is from the perspective of the students to this board to not stop educating to make sure that all students can access resources to tell them what's happening with SRO whenever they want whether it's this school year in one school year or in five. If this is going to be a long-term plan, we need a constant stream of educations so that people can understand what is happening in their schools. And I think that so far this board has been doing a spectacular job of that. I would just like to ensure that that continues. Um, moving on to a different topic. Since our last meeting, we've gotten through the first quarter of the year, which has

036um which has had a lot of students approach me and ask about the grading system. So, I'd like to relay two of those main comments. First and most importantly, many students really agree with the use of zeros for various assignments, and many people are happy that the data surrounding the passing and failing rates is actually based on correct information rather than 50s on assignments when no work was done. Preventing this kind of great inflation is crucial for getting accurate data, and it's fantastic that the board has done this. Truly, it's a huge step towards addressing the problems that have existed in our schools for a very long time at their core. Also, some students and teachers are concerned about the way that P school makes grades unavailable in between that quarters end and the release

037of report cards. The purpose of that policy is to prevent students from annoying teachers about grades during that time. But because uh Canvas doesn't display final grades, students just end up asking teachers even more questions and reversing the impact of that um that policy. That's been something that a lot of students have reached out to me about. So, if the board could look into that, that'd be amazing. the student body looks forward to the rest of the year and whatever this board has to bring, we're going to be ready and it's going to be amazing. So, thank you guys for having me at this meeting. >> Thank you so much, Mr. Schwarzman. Um, next up is moving to adoption of the consent agenda. Is there a motion? >> So, move to adopt the consent agenda.

038>> Okay. Okay. So, I'm going to give Mr. Meyer the motion. M. Torres, do you second? Okay. Um, we've got a first and a second. Any comments or discussion? All right. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? >> Thank you. Um, next up, um, is our action item for this evening. Um, which Miss Torres, are you talking us through this? Maybe. would you please? >> Sure. Um, so I represent I'm one of um a couple of represent represent >> Thank you. Can't find my words tonight. representatives from the Virginia School Board Association for the nominating committee um where we u based on the region that we are in, we then solicit um whether or not there are any interest to fill a chair and vice chair position for our central region. So,

039um another um co-representative from one of our uh neighboring divisions and I have reached out and we did receive um interest from our current vice chair, Miss Amanda Burns. And so we um she has submitted an her application and we are bringing that to the board tonight um for approval and then we will turn that in and that will be something that will um occur in a couple of weeks in Williamsburg. So that's what's before you tonight is um the nomination for vice chair for VSBA regional or central division. >> Thank you so much. Um, and thank you, Miss Burns, for being willing to put yourself out there for this nomination. Um, part of the nomination packet is approval, um, by the majority of the board to submit. Um, and so, at this time, if

040we can have a motion to approve Miss Burns nomination for vice chair of our region. >> I'll make a motion to approve um, Amanda Burns as the vice prime. >> Thank you, Miss Cooper. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Meyer. Um, we have a first and a second. Any discussion or questions? >> I'm curious. I have a question. I'm just curious, Amanda, what I mean, you want to put yourself out there. >> Well, Miss Torres asked. Um, so that's helpful. I've also been um involved in the central region pretty heavily, not just in the capacity of learning and education space, but also taking on a role with the BSBA task force for students in schools and challenging environments. And so really leaning into that piece and leaning into the legislative arm

041of the SBA and just learning a bit more. Um, and so I think in this role I can bring some of that experience to this role and then help I think further our collective voice in this region to advocate for our students who need it the most. >> Appreciate it. I appreciate you. Thank you. I just think uh I think Miss Burns, you've uh been a very uh impressive, passionate leader uh for us over the last two years and I know you've also spent a lot of time uh engaged in state level uh schoolboard association matters. Uh I know you've done a lot of uh sitting on different committees again and and also trainings and so I can't think of a better person to to nominate. Thank you. All right. So, we've got a motion

042and a second. Um, at this time, I'm going to call the vote. So, all in favor say I. >> I. Any opposed? >> Miss Burns, you can't vote against yourself to get out of this. So, thank you. Thank you for your service. And it passes uh unanimously. >> Thank you. >> All right. So, we're going to move up or move on to some discussion items. Um, starting with a literacy update from Miss Rel. Good evening, Madame Chair, members of the board, and Dr. Gurley. I am here tonight to provide the fall 2025 literacy update with you. This update ties directly into our strategic plan, specifically priority one, increase academic achievement, and the goal that all CCS learners will demonstrate mastery in reading and math. The data we will show look at tonight shows that we

043are on our path towards target one which aims for 80% of our students to demonstrate proficiency in tier one instruction and target nine to increase reading achievement to at least 75% across our student groups. Tonight we will begin by looking at our fall data for the present level of performance and I will share what we are doing in response to the data and to support our achievement of these goals. In Charlottesville City Schools, we use three assessments for early and ongoing literacy monitoring. First is the Virginia Language and Literacy Screener. We call it Vals. Um it is administered in preK through 8. However, it is used differently in different bands. In preK through 2nd, it is a universal screener, meaning everybody takes it. And it provides a band of risk. Students that are identified in

044the high-risk band must receive a student reading plan. For third grade, there's a set of criteria. students who are new to the state, previously identified or attended summer school. It's only used for a small group of kids and if they are in the red, they continue with a student reading plan. fourth through fourth grade through 8th grade was new this year and it's only administered to the students that failed the reading so or if they passed the reading so but received an audio or readaloud accommodation. All students must also receive a student reading plan. It does not identify a band of risk, but because we administered it because they failed the so they automatically get a student reading plan. Second, we use Dibbles. It's also preK through 8, but again, it's different bands. PreK to

045second grade is optional. It is mandatory or a requirement for our third through 8th graders. It's a universal screener. We use it to help identify what students need support to progress monitor and in the creation of some reading plans. We also use it some at the high school for students that are getting intervention as a progress monitoring tool. Finally, we have the MAP assessment. It's a nationally normed assessment um and measures student growth in reading. We use it in grades 3 through 12. It's computer adaptive and provides a projected goal. Now we'll look at kindergarten through 2 grade data. The chart on the left is the fall vows data for kindergarten to second grade. As you look at the chart, it's important to know what each of the bands of risk represent. The green band

046is those students who are identified as low risk on the screener. This means they're at low risk of having reading difficulty. They should continue to receive systematic and explicit instruction within the classroom in order to continue growing as a reader. The yellow band on the chart represents the students that are in the moderate risk band, meaning they have a moderate risk for developing reading difficulties. These students need to receive some targeted explicit instruction within their classroom and may also need a little extra support or reinforcement based on their instructional indicators. An example of this would be a first grade student with strong alphabet knowledge. They know their sounds and they decode real words. However, their encoding or spelling may have some gaps. This student would do fine in the classroom. However, during the writing portion

047of theruct structured literacy lesson, the teacher may need to provide extra support or attention to help the students spell as they write their dictated sentences. The reddish band on the chart represents the students that are in the high-risisk band, meaning they are at a high risk of reading difficulties because they are significantly behind in some basic literacy development and need targeted explicit instruction. Teachers and specialists will create student reading plans for these students in order to ensure that they get the additional literacy instruction to help close some gaps in their literacy skills. Our early literacy data shows positive improvement compared to last year. Last year, 36% of our kindergarten students began the school year in the high-risisk band. That is six. This year only 31% of them are in the high-risisk band. That is 16

048students that moved into the moderate risk band in first grade. It's also important to notice that last year we we had 36% of our kindergarteners in the high-risisk band and this year we only have 19% of our kindergarten students in the high-risisk band. Another important note is that 72% of our black kindergarten students are now in the moderate or low risk band. For second grade, we've seen a 3% decrease in students identified in the high-risisk band compared to last year's 37%. And 44% of our black and brown students are in the moderate or low-risk band. These trends show our focused efforts on early literacy are starting to yield results. The letters and the VA training that our teachers participated in last year was focused on what the systemic systematic and explicit instruction looks like in

049the classroom and how to teach reading. Implementation of those strategies will support our strong tier one classroom instruction and continue to positively impact student performance. So, what are we going to what are we doing to continue to grow our readers in kindergarten through 2 grade? First, we're going to continue to implement the strong systematic and explicit literacy instruction. Additionally, we've implemented the new HMH structured literacy modules in kindergarten through 2 grade. The scope and sequence aligns with the science science-based reading research and is rigorously paced. so that our students are prepared for the next school year. We also purchased new decodable libraries that provide our students with extra time and practice implementing the skills they're learning through authentic and meaningful reading. We've also increased our tier one supports with some of our reading specialists pushing

050into the classroom to support our students. There are also many collaborative meetings happening in schools that include specialists, ESL teachers, gifted special education teachers all together, working together to plan for the explicit instruction and provide the scaffolds so that our students can all achieve. They are working together to implement some of the SCOP training into their instruction and it's making a difference. We are raising our expectations for students and providing the scaffolds so they can succeed. Another important item has been working with Dr. Korab and her team as we begin to prepare for the early learning center and making sure that our students are kindergarten strong. The preschool team along with a few reading specialists and instructional coaches are completing the early childhood letters course. This will mean that all of our prek through fifth

051grade teachers will have completed some form of letters training. We're also working to align some of the instructional routines and components which will help to make sure that they are pre kindergarten strong as they transition. As we move to look at the grades three through five fall assessments, remember that the fall assessments are different. We now have dibbles and map that are administered to all of our students. On the left is the dibbles data and on the right is the map data. While the charts look similar, it's important to remember these assessments provide us different information about the students. Dibbles is a series of short timed subtests used to assess reading progress. It includes phonics, fluency, and comprehension connected to grade level expectations. We then use that data to identify students that may be at

052risk for reading difficulties, monitor their progress, and guide their intervention strategies. Students in the green and blue bands would be similar to the lowrisk band we talked about on the VAW assessment. These students should be successful with little or no additional support in the core instruction. The students in the yellow band represent those who may need strateg strategic support during the core. This may look like partnering to read the grade level reading passage or pre-teaching some vocabulary words to support their comprehension. Strategic support occurs within the classroom by the classroom teacher. That means that all the students needs for yellow, green, and blue bands should be met within their classroom or tier one setting. This means that about 75% of our students reading needs should be met within the classroom. You may remember our strategic

053goal plan states that 80% will demonstrate proficiency in tier one, and we're on our way to meeting and exceeding that goal. On the right is the MAP assessment. MAP is the computer adaptive assessment that measures growth. It measures reading vocabulary and comprehension and predicts the future. In addition to being a different being a different assessment, it reports five performance bands. Students in blue, green, and yellow, above average, average, and high should be successful in the tier one setting. The next performance band orange is the below average band. Some of these students may need the strategic support within the classroom and someone benefit from explicit instruction in addition to the classroom instruction. The students in the red band would be those most at risk of reading difficulties and would benefit from the intervention and supports. This

054next look is a historical look at our fifth grade cohort using the dibbles data. You can see that we're increasing our students in the core band while de decreasing the intensive band. Since the strategic band remains the same, we know that some students are making gains and improvements in all performance bands. All right, third through fifth grade. Based on our historical and present data, we have intentionally added or increased several instructional practices. First, the introduction of the integrated reading and writing assessment two years ago allowed us to look at building our writing in response to reading instruction more explicitly and intentionally. million or earlier grades. We realize that writing in response to reading supports comprehension. Our students are building skills to locate and use evidence when responding to questions and thinking critically while they are

055reading. We've also increased our use of paired complex texts and novel studies. On Monday, teachers in third grade, fourth grade, and seventh grade met for professional development to implement their new novel studies. We are aligning these complex texts to our core curriculum. This allows us to increase the rigor while providing scaffolds so that all learners can participate and grow. Teachers are also participating in purposeful planning. On Monday, they worked with their colleagues across the division to ensure that our plans and expectations are aligned to the 2024 standards and together they completed some long-term planning. Then within their PLC's, they're working together to meet the needs of all students. Again, I've seen ESL teachers in adding visuals to the vocabulary cards and CRTs are finding extension passages that would extend the learning. Everyone is united, collaborative,

056and purposeful in their planning. Sixth to 8th grade, looking ahead to reconfiguration, I'm sharing the middle school data for grades 6 through 8. The assessments are the same that we looked at for grades 3 through five. Keeping in mind that on dibbles, the blue, green, and yellow bands are the students whose needs should be met within the classroom or tier one setting. For the MAP assessment, the benchmark would include the blue, green, and yellow. We can see that on both assessments, the percentages of students showing proficiency is not as close to our strategic goal of 80% proficient. We continue to provide systematic and explicit instruction while also working together to address these gaps and learning needs. As you will see on the next slide again this year we have we have purchased Lexia powerup lic

057l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l licenses for all of our students we've also had professional development and training sessions for the teachers about how to intentionally implement Lexia students are setting goals for weekly units earned and teachers are monitoring progress and providing small groupoup intervention and extension when needed. At Charlottesville Middle, they have also worked to implement an incentive program to support their usage, including an Octaki fest. We've also increased our fluency routines and expectations, and we have two full-time reading specialists at each of the school sites that are supporting literacy instruction and intervention. We continue to use paired text and

058comp paired and complex text. We want our students to read texts across multiple days and classes in order to increase their reading stamina and engagement. We're also asking higher level questions that require our students to think critically and analytically and to talk about what they're reading. Before we move to looking at the high school data, it's important to take a moment to talk about the student reading plans. As the Virginia Literacy Act expanded into grades four through eight, so did the Vows assessment and the student reading plans. This slide shows the number of students required to have a student reading plan in grades 4 through 8. Please remember that it's required for anyone who fails the reading so with a fail basic or a fail below basic score. Additionally, students who pass the SO but

059require an audio or readaloud accommodation may also receive a student reading plan. As you can see from the table, we have a total of 57 students in grades 4 through requiring a plan. This is a significant number. The data shows a relatively consistent number across our grades, ranging from 97 students in grade 4 to 105 in grade 5. Our response efforts across all grades are critical to dra dramatically reducing these numbers next year. Now for the high school, we really only use the MAP assessment to universally monitor student proficiency at the high school. Again, the blue, green, and yellow bands represent students in the average proficiency or higher. This means that about 74% of our students should be successful in the classroom or tier one setting. The chart on the right includes historical data showing

060the percentage of students performing below average. That means we want the bars to be as short as possible. You can see that in the last three years we have decreased the percentage of students performing below average. As students are receiving explicit and systematic instruction, this should continue to grow and improve. Here we can see the trends and patterns on the map assessment through cohort data. On the left you see the grow group group or cohort of students and then follow across that row and you'll see the percentage of students in the average to high band of proficiency. So in this one we want the percentage to be high. If you look at the cohort of 2028 our current 10th graders and follow them across we can see the performance decrease in the middle school grades

061and then bounce back at the high school. We hope that by reducing the transitions through reconfiguration, we will decrease that drop in achievement. But the good news is our students are growing and performing. At the high school, we revised our pacing guides to reinforce the text first planning and increase the qualitative complexity of text. The units connect to a variety of texts and are centered on an essential question that requires the students to think critically and deeply. We're also exposing students to a variety of texts that will increase academic and working vocabulary. Again, I would like to celebrate that we have two full-time reading specialists and a secondary literacy specialists that support our high school students. They are helping to provide intervention for those students with ski struggling skills, struggling reading skills. We saw a

062lot of progress in our interventions last year and the team worked hard to start their interventions and sports even earlier this year. We recognized the urgency to support these young people. They are also working to push into classes and providing the scaffolding supports for students as they as well as wraparound support for some students by pushing in. CHS has also made a commitment to increasing explicit vocabulary and comprehension routines in their literacy classrooms. To do so, we've connected with Dr. Jade Wexler at the University of Maryland. At the start of the school year, she provided a schoolwide literacy training and then extended her work more explicitly with the English team, ESL teachers, and special ed teachers throughout the school year. The goal of the work is to consistently implement vocabulary and and comprehension routines so

063that the students can use the strategies in any context during high school or after. We're looking extend at extending the training to history and science teachers in the spring because we recognize that students read in all classes and they need strategies in order to be successful in any setting. >> Thank you, Miss Fle. Um Madame Chair, members of the board, and Dr. girly. Um, in addition to all of the professional learning and the instructional routines and practices that Miss RLE described to you, we wanted to take just a moment to also share with you another way that we're responding um to our data and addressing our achievement gap and that is in advancing um the data analysis um work with our instructional leaders. So we've always looked at data. Um leaders in our division have

064always always looked at data, but this year we're setting a new standard for how we use it and the intentionality with which we um examine it. So um we've been very intentional about developing our leaders capacity to analyze data deeply, make meaning from it, and maximize the tools and the reports that we have. Um so two key areas that have been emphasized here um which you'll kind of see over on the right there are leveraging multiple data points and drilling down to the individual student um level. This has really anchored our work um with our division instructional team which includes our instructional coordinators. We began with taking a deep dive into um all the reports that MAP has to offer. Um we engaged in a data analysis workshop and self-reflection where we analyze the individual

065um practices that that coordinators have and how they look at data vertically by courses and grade levels and membership groups. Um we thought about how we respond to the data and communicate that. Um we decided to do a cohort analysis. We actually selected sixth grade um because they had recent SOS in in all the um subject areas and we focused in on our black students um as that is um uh a focus area um in terms of our achievement gap. Um we looked at students fall scores and reading from the time they were we looked at the students who have been with us from third grade through sixth grade and looked at the trend across time um longitudinally at their um their performance in literacy um across time. We also um made connections between their

066growth and achievement and other indicators like chronic absenteeism through the um as part of the state accountability measures. um content coordinators shared their own um data from their content areas and um student membership groups um in that cohort as well. Um we have done this work with our principles and are continuing to do so and we'll be doing some more next week with them. Um but we did the same taking a a deep dive into MAP reports and all that we're able to accomplish um with the tools that are in and learn um about students and their achievement um from the map reports. We analyzed um black students fall data in um reading in MAP um grades 3 through 12. We shared those with principles and we overlaid their previous year's so score with them.

067Again emphasizing um the multiple data points. So, you know, when the more data points we have um that are manageable to sort of analyze at once, we can really start to when we drill down to the individual student, we can really start to see sort of, you know, what it what is happening here, what's going well, what's working, what's not. And in cases where it's not, make informed decisions about next steps versus just using, you know, single points of data. Um and um we've also guided our principles and leaders through um accountability analysis looking specifically at membership groups, their proficiency level and expected growth absentee patterns um with the um new state accountability framework. So, we're really trying to capitalize on those reports and features that we have um and really focusing in on drilling

068down to individual students. And we're trying to model that as leaders um for our school and division leaders and also um not just looking at the individual student but at multiple data points um with the goal of strengthening our collective capacity um for all instructional leaders to be able to um confidently interpret the data, identify needs and um take action um that leads to meaningful outcomes for students. Amazing. Thank you. Yes. Um Mr. Schwarzman, I'm going to start down with you. Any questions on our literacy presentation? >> Not right now. >> Thank you, Mr. Meyer. >> Uh thank you very much. Uh very interesting and and I want to go back to I think slide 13, which shows the the trends over the cohort years. Uh, Miss RLE, you correctly and I think you you

069noted the drop off between grade four and five and then the bump up between eight and nine. And I have my own interpretation of what's going on, but I'd like to hear yours again. What do you think's happening there? I I do think one of the key factors is the fact that we have we are making a transition to Walker Upper Elementary for two years and then another transition to the middle school for two years. And I do think like that transition does impact and cause that small slide, but they come back then when they go to the high school. So that we're losing a lot of students, I would say, to the private schools and then they come back and then we're seeing that's that swing because we go we lose our our rates

070go down looks like by five or six points and then they bump back up between eight and nine. But your numbers don't hold on I might my vision your numbers don't decrease that significantly with the enrollment in the middle school like it's some but it's not much when we're following that 10th grade cohort across in the middle school there's 264 and there's 283 in 10th grade so it's about 20 students but there's still that 20% that big that jump from 69 to 76% so I think That's like I do think there's something more happening there than just enrollment back from them. >> Okay. >> I think the reconfiguration will help us with that. >> All right. Yeah. I mean it's yeah I think o overall is you know what I'm not seeing you know we

071get to the last years there it looks like and we're up to our high 70s but I mean my concern is don't we need those high 70s earlier? >> Absolutely. And I do think part of what with the novel studies and like the longer text that we're reading, we've built in more expectations this year for them. Um it's much more rigorous and at the middle school and they're performing. The kids are spending more time in text. >> Um they are doing more reading and I think we're going to see the gains in that. >> Okay. Well, good. And Dr. Hinsley, you know, I like I heard you speak a lot about we're analyzing data a lot of different ways. We're engaging with it. we're taking down the individual. Um, right. I mean, each child's individual

072has it own unique aspects. I mean, I'd be interested in in the future, you know, what is the the percent of kids who are needing tier two and tier three supports. You know, how of them are chronically absent? You know, if we look at black students, all right, is it uh are there interest, you know, what other factors are associated with those students too? And to your point there, is there something more beyond than just the reading supports that we need to be, you know, and providing them? Are there other things too when we look beyond just the reading supports uh but other things that we can also look at that I'd be interested in learning about in the future? Thank you. >> Excuse me. >> Um my question is in regards to the data

073analysis. Um I appreciate the effort coming from the instructional team and principles. I guess my question is more so like how does that filter down to the classroom and specifically the teachers um and if if there might be evidence of certain approaches working better than others and and how that might be addressed. >> Yeah. No, I appreciate that. Um well, we know that the principles are the instructional leaders in the building and um we want to make sure that they're fully equipped with um you know a full understanding of the scope of the reports that we're able to to access and that we're um able to utilize. We're also doing this work like I said with the coordinators. So you know a lot of times the coordinators are are the instructional supports that are also

074in PLC's and working with teachers. Um even today at one of our school success meetings, we we heard all about um the level of support from our um secondary um literacy specialist who has been working on data analys like data um spreadsheets and analysis work for um the teams just sort of facilitating some of that work that the teachers are then utilizing. Um certainly we're doing we I'll be working with instructional coaches in the morning actually um also on this work and they're working really closely with teachers. So, one of this one of these efforts is to really just get everybody on the same page with like feeling equipped and um fully confident in in the ability to support teachers in that work and um to make sure that we're setting that tone and that

075you know regardless of who's in the PLC that data analysis work and the sort of most importantly the next steps decisions are at the forefront of that. So um it's sort of starting there and you're right um that work is happening in NPLC's um with teachers and that's that is the hope. >> Thank you. I think my questions surround um more the high school level that when we look at um how many students that's affecting, we don't have as much time to recover them. And I just wonder like are there enough reading specialist coordinators people to address a group of students that we don't have much time left with them and we don't want them to drop out. We don't want them, you know, we want them to leave here, as Dr. Gurley always says,

076the day after graduation is the most important day. What does that really look like for those students and how are we getting them to that successful hopefully space? >> I can say one of the greatest things about our reading specialists here is not just the it's not the quantity, it's the quality. Like we have two amazing specialists who make really deep connections with our students. They come, they work, they learn like and they were exiting and adding new kids and constantly throughout the year. Those kids are going in back into the classroom and using their strategies and now we've built it up where we want to do like that wraparound and they're pushing in to see how the kids are using it within the classroom also. So I mean I we feel the urgency here

077at the high school also but we are doing a lot of really intentional work to make steps and and strides in a very quick manner. >> Thank you. >> Um Dom took my question so thank you. >> Fair enough. Richardson >> um I appreciate the presentation. I think for me and I understand that we are focusing when it comes to data um on our black students, the uh SWD and ESL, right? And I guess for me, I kind of want to see data on other backgrounds as well, just so I just so we can compare because I know that we emphasize on black students and improvement and the numbers are low, but I I want to see other numbers as well to compare to just to make sure that we're getting the correct data. Sure,

078we can get that for you. We've got it. >> Miss Richardson, did you mean other um membership groups or what? What data were you? >> Just I wasn't sure what you were asking. >> The demographics. >> Yeah, other groups. >> Thank you, ladies. Um just a couple quick questions. I I do want to say I I also have an interest. I mean, one of our strategic goals is is looking at all membership groups, right? And so you've listed kind of a whole and then um on the slides are our black students as well, but I'd be curious to see um the student with students with disabilities and other just to see where we are as far as trending towards the goals that we're making. And then as far as the students who have the readaloud

079or um supports and it's may have the the reading plan, can you speak to that a little bit? >> Yeah. So, it's not an automatic. We if they have an audio accommodation and passed the assessment, then we need to look at abundance of resources and data points to make the decisions about what's going to meet their needs best in order to have that accommodation. They probably most likely already have an individualized plan and we need to make sure is it being met there? Does it need to be something additional? We just need to make really good decisions that are student-based with a prepundonderance of evidence. >> Totally not related, but um Dr. Eley may be able to um reflect back um to to a student that scored a perfect on her math so um when

080she was in third grade and I believe Dr. Eley, you were her teacher then. Um, and at the time I just was curious nowadays. Um, and she I don't know that she had a readaloud at that level. I don't remember. But I know that it was a point of contention or there was a question about whether or not students with disabilities and she definitely needed the readaloud support for her her uh reading disability and challenges, but I think they weren't going to allow her to use the readaloud for math. um and which I found was just confounding um for somebody who struggles to read but was a a really strong math student. How do we deal with that now? Do you know in general? >> Yeah. So, there are guidelines for the accommodations and what's

081allowable um for students depending on what their disability is or or what their um need is. So that all goes through um Miss Swift um works with with um STC's testing coordinators on those um and and what is either in the IEP or 504 or you know um some of our um English learners may have accommodations, but sort of there's different allowable um accommodations. So there's a there's a team that that looks at each student individually about what they what they would qualify for. >> Yeah. Thank you. Um and then just curious too with the data and the intentionality and just the work that we're doing as a division um and with Dr. Gurley's kickoff um at at uh the beginning of the year which was great. So again, and maybe this was answered a

082little bit, but um once you are looking at that data and then again drilling it down to individual students, what do you need or what can we do or or do you have the people in place to then individualize what those students need to make the improvement? >> Yeah, I think a lot of it is just figuring out, you know, what's going on. So we may be looking at a student and we see consistent really strong um you know maintaining really strong scores sort of all the way across. We may see a student who's had a steady steady climb all the way all the way. So the the main idea is that you know we don't look at all the students who fell in the average band on MAP and say okay this is what

083these students need because you know what what we see is when we look into that that might there might be one student who for whom that's the highest MAP score they've had yet to date and they're on this trajectory upward and maybe they haven't passed their SOS but this year they're predicted to or they're right right at the cusp of being predicted to be to pass whereas there may be another student um for whom they've they've had really steady steady strong scores and then this this one they're in the average band but that's actually the weakest the weakest score they've had so far and so we need to like the way we would address that or look at that is going to be different for the student who's on kind of the upward the upward

084trend and so um it really and then you know then we are able to overlay other pieces with it like how did they do on their so last year have they been missing school like um you know what did they did they make their appropriate growth that's a new um with as part of the accountability ility system. We can see, you know, um not just our students who didn't pass, but also students who did pass, like are they making growth? So, there's a lot of pieces that we're um looking at. And then I think, you know, I think we do I think we have we have um we have the resources in place, I think, to be able to to do that work. It's just getting down to sort of the individual student and and

085making really um informed next step decisions. >> Great. Thank you. And then I'm sorry I didn't mean to pivot to it. So slide number four when we're looking at grades um it was the kindergarten first and second grade scores. And if you look at the fall of for the kindergarten group where it says high-risisk ban. I just want to make sure I'm looking at this correctly and thinking about it. So 36% were in the high-risisk ban. Correct. But then when you look at fall 2025 first graders, that was a drop, right? That's that same cohort or not? >> No, I I tried to bold those. So in fall of 2024, our kindergarten students, the 36% who were in the high-risisk band, the next year in first grade, it was only 31% in the high-risisk band.

086So yes, we decreased the number of students. Sorry, I I when you said dropped, I was like, "No, it was a good thing." And so, yeah, we did decrease the percentage of students in the high-risk band, and we increased from 37 in the low risk to 46%. >> Okay, great. Thank you, Mer. >> I just had a quick question in reference to like the student success plans. when you are able to identify a student that may may need the additional supports, how are we reaching out and engaging the families to bring it bring them in to be a part of that? I know they send like um if your kid um receives like tier um two or tier three services, they'll send um a paper home asking, but how are we intentionally getting families to

087be a part of that process um and bringing them in to sit down with us to be able to talk about what those interventions look like and seeing how, you know, is there any feedback that we can add to the plan versus just sending something home and expecting the parent to like pick that up and say, you here's my suggestions or here's the additional support that I feel like my child needs. >> Yeah. So, um at the elementary schools they did send it home but they also handed it out at parent teacher conferences and they used the conference time to have the conversation to go through the vows report. Here's what it says about your learner. Here's what you can do at home. Here's what we're doing at school. What do you think? Like and

088really worked on that. And then we try to continue in our literacy events to make sure to target the information from the VA from the reports um from the vows reports we are doing some intentional practices on like what routines and procedures the families can use at home to support what's go happening in school. So trying to build that partnership. Um it's a little like the parent conferences attendance at the middle school is a little bit different because they have the team meetings. So they don't necessarily have all students but they do invite in all of the students who are on the reading plans and this is the first year we've been really intentional and we need to grow and expand that. Um so we're trying to figure out good ways to partner and increase

089that partnership. Um, I would like to see that we really be intentional because I think that, um, again, I'm going to continue to say, um, unless we start involving our parents in these conversations and have them sitting at the table to support their kids at home, we're missing a piece of closing the achievement gap. >> Agreed. >> Um, I I have one quick question and then I have a comment. Um, I guess my first question is kind of a follow-up on what I was talking about earlier in terms of data utilization for teachers, and I'm going to say this as nicely as I can. Um, and it is not crafted the way that Miss Chuck would would do it, but I I've worked in um a few schools within this area and I've been around

090a a number of teachers. I know that there's different experience levels. And so I think one of the things that I'm I'm kind of worried about and maybe hoping that you you could address or um find find some way to speak to is I' I've personally witnessed where teachers say, "Oh, okay. We saw the data, but then the day catches up to them and they they don't have time to plan to actually utilize the PD, the PLC. Does that make sense? like how do we address that so that we have consistency in our classrooms but also have the autonomy that a teacher will need. Does that make sense? >> Yeah. I I think you're getting to the to the sort of um the now what part. We we look at data a lot of times

091we say the here's what so what now what and the now what is really the most important part of all right because we could look at it all day but the now what is what are we going to do about it and so that's what you know um we're really trying to to push our PLC's and um our teams to do is is what is the now what part so any of the lift that we can do um you know with we with pulling the data Um we've got a lot of things in educ. I know even even um Miss Swift just did a session on Monday on you know all the different tools within educ and how you can build a data wall and there were you know teachers in there eager to to

092access that and you know we've had as I mentioned earlier or specialists making um data walls so that that the data is there right like it's not the lift is not as much um on gathering or or having it together. So um that is the goal. I know um even even in our little in our workshop with coordinators we we shared the here's what now what so what and we did that ourselves and we were like we really need to focus on the now the now what part. So um that is definitely um a focus area right it's very easy to kind of get caught up in and you you look at it and then you go on and and you don't have um as much time. Another thing, our PL sessions, we're really trying

093to um I've been looking at some of the feedback already and and what our teachers, we know our teachers love is um and this is not just limited to to PL on literacy, but is is the things that they can take right away and use right away. And and I love reading that in the in the feedback of, oh, this was so great. I got, you know, two things I can do tomorrow, you know, that I can respond to. Um so that's what you know we're always encouraging um obviously our instructional leaders, coaches, coordinators to to get to the now what part. And even part of our conversations with coordinators was you know how are you helping to communicate and then what resources are you providing? If you're looking at, you know, a grade level's

094data or a school's data or, you know, a a specific your specific content area and you notice a trend like what are we doing to provide resources or to give remediation materials to alleviate some of that um off the teachers too. It's really got to be a partnership. Um so, >> thank you. I appreciate that so much. Um I I have a quick question, excuse me, a quick comment and this is more so towards the to my board colleagues. Um I think between like the cohort data and even the I think it was slide four that we were looking at and so you're still kind of looking at a cohort. I think like this is one of those data points that as an outgoing schoolboard me member I'm asking you to reconsider or at least

095start the discussion around the retention and promotion um policy. Um I think ultimately when we when we look at the 3r through 12th grade cohort model like we want students to be at 100%. Right. Um I think it's wonderful that we're we're getting growth but particularly in those earlier years if there's something that we can do um then let's let's do that. Um so I think it's worth having that discussion. Um, I understand that I'm not going to be on the board much longer, but as you know, one of your colleagues that has been asking for this in a variety of ways, um, I think what it's been, I guess it would make make two years now. You're on for two. So, it's been two years since we've had some of our former board members

096also asking for a revision of the policy. So, I just ask that you just start the discussion. You may not change anything, but I think it's worth talking about. Um, go ahead. >> Yeah, thank you, Mr. Morris. I am also interested in that conversation. I've brought it up more in an attendance um space, but I would argue probably as Mr. uh Meyer pointed out that they are probably handinand attendance and literacy. And what does that really look like? Um, I think also when we talk about discipline at the high school and what we've seen our greatest needs are again in the high school space. I just recall conversations and emails from high school teachers that say, "I can be as welcoming and friendly and engaging as I can, but if these children cannot read, I

097cannot teach them." And we have to break that cycle coming from the lower grades into the high school and recognize what that does in the high school space um to our teachers and just I hope that's a conversation we can continue to have and I don't know personally like retention and upper upper grades you know make sense to me but I I I think in that K through 2 three face that sweet spot, we we have to do something differently and I hope I have some other colleagues on the board that are interested as well. So, thank you for bringing that back up. >> Um, I think that could fit into a work session conversation just because it's going to be a longer conversation less likely than what we can accomplish in this setting. Um

098my only parting thoughts are that um in the spring as we think about our school member visits to schools that maybe in addition or as an alternative to visiting classrooms that it would be helpful to be a fly on the wall in a school success meeting um or PLC's just somewhere so that folks who maybe aren't like do and I sitting in PLC's in our past like can get a sense of what that data analysis looks like. And so in the work that you guys are speaking of of um you know not just having it be this rearview mirror retrospective but what the next steps are. So whoever is scheduling those in the spring those are my my thoughts but thank you guys very much. And as we transition I keep getting distracted by the

099moon out there if everybody wants to just look at it while it's there. Um and with that we're going to move on to uh Dr. votes with our English language program overview. Good evening, Madam Chair, members of the board, and Dr. Gurley. Um, I'm here today to provide an overview of our English language program and how we serve multilingual learners in Charlottesville City Schools. Um when we think about our strategic plan um building our capacity of our teachers so that they can support our English learners is sort of woven through the strategic plan. One thing I think um coming after the literacy update that I just want to make sure that we're all aware of is when we think about that first target increasing academic achievement our English learners are in all of those numbers.

100So the literacy data that you just looked at, our students um maybe not their very first year, but their second year in the country are taking the math assessments. The vows assessment, their first year in the country, they're taking it. So our students who are still b building their language skills are also part of those numbers. And as we get new language learners um who are very new to English, that's going to affect those numbers as well. um our students who are learning um English are learning the content at the same time, but they're still held to the same expectations by the state. Um so I think that's important for us to think about um as we strengthen our um our schools and we provide a culture of safety and wellness and belonging. We also

101think about how we can do that in a culturally responsive way. Um working with our um different um different staff members to help work with our families as well. And then if you go to the next slide for priority um three, we have done a lot of work around supporting our staff with SCOP training to help our staff think through um ways that every staff member in Charlottesville City can support language development um beyond just the L teachers. And um I'm excited to say that we don't really see we haven't seen the wait list for bus transportation or any of that anymore for our L family. Students have bus spots when they come to our schools um pretty immediately now. So that's really good news. Um today I'm going to give you an update on

102our enrollment through the welcome center for last year as well as um our L enrollment and staffing changes. the language proficiency data based on the access test, our SAS program update dates, and then some challenges and next steps. All right, so this first slide offers information about the welcome center last year. Um, we've this is our fourth year that we've had the welcome center where it is a division level place that families can register their and do their language screening and gather information for registration. We work closely with our uh administrative technicians at all of our schools to kind of gather the different pieces families need for their students to start. So you can see that last year we had 214 English learners enroll. Um of our kindergarteners, about half of them, 48% enrolled from

103our Charlottesville City Schools prek. So about half of our English learners were in our programs in um as three and four year olds and moved into our kindergarten program. um we had about 30% of our students transferred from other countries and um 25% of our students transferred from Alamar. And I think that's something that we always have to remember that we see families move back and forth multiple times in their K12 schooling career. And so the more the city and the county are aligned in terms of our instruction and our expectations, that's really helpful for our families who are a little bit more transient. Um, we also had 145 English learners transfer out of Charlottesville City Schools last year. All right, this is the first time since I took this role in 2021 that we've

104seen our numbers drop. Um, so each year we have some English learners who graduate. So you can see we had 25 English learners who were still in our program who graduated last year. We had 55 English learners who exited the program and that means that they scored a 4.4 or higher on that annual language proficiency um test that they taken this spring. We had 62 new uh new kindergarteners join us as well. But that does put our number a little bit lower than when I saw you all last year at at 721. And the main reason for this is the change in federal policy around immigration. And so currently um the International Rescue Committee and other refugee resettlement agencies um resettlement is on pause essentially. And then we also aren't seeing additional um immigrants from

105other places who come in without agencies. We're not seeing that growth as well. Um this year is the first year we have to meet our um standard of quality related to our students language proficiency level. And so you can see um at the division level where our um language proficiency level falls from a one which is very beginning to a two sort of um building that those language skills. Three would be considered intermediate and for um more advanced language learners and then that's broken down. This state says there needs to be a one to 20 ratio and then that moves up as um as the language proficiency moves up. Um as of now we have um we have 28 English language learner English language teachers which does give us a little bit of room for

106growth as the year continues. Um and we have that number thanks to you all because I think for the last four years every year I have come saying that we will need more English learner um teachers to match our growth. Um I don't expect to have that request this year. So students in our L program take their an their annual language proficiency um test in between January and March each year. Um this test is called the access test and it's the only way a student could exit our program is through this one this once a year annual test. Um the state uses this language proficiency um data to measure how well divisions are doing supporting their language learners. And starting last year, um the English language proficiency growth counted as 10% of of the mastery

107part of school accreditation. Um the VDO sets an annual target that increases each year. Um and you can see that target in bold at the bottom. So this past year it was 56%. Um though we did not increase though we did increase our percentage we are still not meeting um we haven't met the expectation from the state since before co and if you break that down a little bit more and you look at our elementary versus our middle and high school if you click one more um time it'll make a little it'll make a circle for you to focus on. you'll see that our elementary school progress. And so this is our um our K through um through four has made steady progress in the past several years. So they the elementary alone actually did

108exceed the state's expectation with 57% and where we're struggling um in is both our middle and our high school. Um and you'll see that we've made growth, we've dropped, we've made growth again. Um last year when we looked at the scores um we used some of this to provide more additional staffing at Walker and CMS at CHS. So we're hoping that this year that additional staffing and more support for the students at the secondary level can help. But at the middle school um we had 38% and then at the high school we had 43% who are meeting the the expectation. I do want to say that the expectation grow um for a newer student the expectation is higher right for a student who is who is like at a level three there's less of an

109expectation of growth because there already have some language and um the state's expectation this doesn't mean that only 57% of our elementary students made growth it's just that they met the state expectation for growth we had many more who you know went higher with their numbers but they didn't meet the state expectation For example, at K2 for a level one student, the state expectation is one whole point of growth. So if they made a half a point of growth, they're not shown in these numbers. All right, to shift a little bit, um you all probably remember last year I spoke about the SAS grant which we had just found out that we received from the um federal government which is a specific grant to support Afghan students who came to the United States after 2021.

110What I don't think I knew last November is we wouldn't get that grant money until March of 2025. And so um but since we have gotten that money, a lot of really exciting things have happened in our schools. So we have hired four bilingual instructional assistants. We have an Afghan family liaison. We also have a contracted IRC staff who's working with some of our elementary schools that have a lower Afghan population. And the main um focus that those um new staff members have been working on is supporting academic um achievement for the students within the classes and also helping with engagement and helping connect the families with our schools. Um, and so our bilingual staff speak poshto and dari and they've really been able to um do a lot of great work within our schools.

111We also had a couple different summer camps that students were part of and so we had um a handful of our elementary students in the SAS program got to go to Wild Rock over the summer and we also the Ravana Conservation Alliance put together a summer camp for middle school girls and boys where they looked at different science um career paths that they could take. Um, we'll have that grant. It'll run through the end of this year for the SAS staff and we'll also be able to do additional programming over the summer, but we won't have the SAS staff after this school year um because the grant funding will end. All right. So, with all of that, um, while we're thinking about challenges and next steps, one thing we'll continue to do is work on

112helping our staff um, build their capacity and figuring out how to best meet our students language and literacy needs within the classroom with SCOP um, three and four this year. We're also going to continue to monitor um the changing landscape around federal um, federal programming. So, our title three grant that we received from the federal government this past year was delayed. So, we should have gotten it in July. We officially got it last week. And so, um there might be federal changes. The title 3 grant is about with two different parts. It's about $90,000 that we may or may not get in the future depending on if uh school funding changes at the federal level. Um the other thing that we're acknowledging is that um we continue we have changing demographics with our English learners.

113So we typically welcome 70 to 100 new refugee students in our in our city schools every year and with uh refugee resettlement pause that's not an expectation that we think we'll have in the future. And so we're thinking about pivoting the work that we do and focusing on the language learners that we have in the classroom and what do we as L teachers need to shift to be able to make sure that we're meeting their needs. Um and then we are also with reconfiguration there's lots of moving pieces um lots of lots of buildings and so we're also thinking about the welcome center for um in the future if it would move from the annex which is currently located to a different to a different home and that's it. >> Open it up to the

114board for questions. Miss Torres start down with you this time. Thank you. Um, let's see. Looking at I think it's slide nine. So, when you were just referencing the the different scores or the the struggles and scores being a little lower for the middle and high schoolers, is that reflective of just the influx influx of students at that age coming in? >> It is really hard. Okay. So, so the pro the growth means we have to have our students who for a year here for about a year and a half before they're actually part of these numbers because if they're a newcomer, they don't have two years of the test. And so our newcomers actually aren't reflected in this growth at all. But I do think that um a couple things happen. One, the um

115the access test have has different grade bands. So 6 through eight is a grade band, 9 through 12. And the access test is an it's a really difficult test. It's four parts. They have to take it in four different days. Reading, writing, listening, and speaking. And it's it's um assessing their ability to um understand like academic language in English. And so not, you know, you might have students that we could have a full conversation with and you think they're, you know, they understand English, they're doing just fine, but then when they take this assessment, they might score like a two or a three because they haven't built those academic language skills. And so that's where I think the struggle is because as the as the content gets harder um there it's a little bit harder

116to match like a a student who is their second year in the country who's in sixth grade. That's a larger gap than a a student in second grade their second year in the country right because the content expectations are so much higher. >> Okay. And then I don't I don't think it was reflected, but I think I sent you a question just in general about um the absentee rates for our students and then what what we're doing to support them and the families and what else we need to know as a board to support you all. >> You all have I think I saw you all have absentee rates for at each school level at the at the division level in each school. And so when I pulled and looked at just the English learners,

117you do do see a jump. So I think at the division level it was 21.4% was the abs was the chronic absentee. Um and it jumps to 30% when you look at our English learners. Um and then there's a couple schools that it's a bigger jump and it is our middle and our high school. Our middle and our high school um have more significant absenteeism for our English learners than for the general ed population. um which is obviously going to be part of why maybe they're they're not meeting with as much success in language and possibly in their classes as well. Um I think one thing the with our Afghan population which about 220 students um are supported with the SAS grant out of about 720 English learners. And so, um, with our students in

118the SAS program, having the bilingual IAS has been really helpful to be able to hear from the families what the barriers are. All of our schools have access to a language line so they can call home with an with a live interpreter and they can ask those questions, but the bilingual IAS have really built like a relationship with the with the families. And so those conversations um, I think are more natural and and they're hearing more because it's more sustained. you don't call and get a different interpreter every time. And so I think we are learning more about um about some of those barriers. Um at the high school level, one thing that is a little bit tricky is some of our students who are over the age of 18 who are still attending school.

119And so school is not a require, you know, it's not legally a requirement for them to be there. They are allowed to continue until they graduate. And then some of our students have a lot of barriers with needing to ha work while they're also going to school. And so thinking about like alternative programming um we have we have a strong alternative program but thinking about how that could grow or how it could serve some of the English learners um I think is something like for future planning that would be really helpful. >> Hi, how you doing? Um, so the IR the I the IRC position. So it will no longer be >> next year. Correct. >> It that specific one unless the IRC funded it, but the IRC does have a youth programs team that

120I think has about at least two other full-time staff that have been um that have been working with our schools and they wouldn't they wouldn't go away. So, this was an additional staff member for them to specifically work with our Afghan. Um, the IRC did, I think, in like January or February when they lo they lost some funding, so they cut some of their positions, but they'll still have a smaller group of a youth team that will continue to work with Charlottesville City Schools. >> Okay. Because that was my next question. How are you going to fill in that gap once? >> Yeah. And it's interesting because the IRC is is um, you know, they they are allowed to serve families for 5 years. They do more intensive case management maybe the first year where

121they're working with families, but they can continue to serve families for five years. So, they're also shifting a little bit to think about what who what are some different ways they can be involved with students who've been here a little bit longer because they aren't receiving new families every week like they have typically. And so, um we're hoping we'll continue to work on that partnership but involve them more in some of the um in some of the family meetings that we do. Um, we just our our staff can now see we have a tag now where our staff can see families who are still being supported by the IRC. So, it provides like another um another person for them to reach out to and kind of connect with. >> Great. And are they in the

122schools all day or is it a specific time that they come in? Yeah. >> And um interact with the SAS um IAS are are shel city school employees. So, they're there all day. So, the five IAS and then the IRC um the IRC person that we're that we um support, she's in our elementary. So, our elementaryaries that don't have SAS programming are Greenbryer, Summit, >> uh Sunrise, and Trailblazer. Um I think she's at Greenbryer and Summit a little bit more because that's where our Afghan population falls in. And she works with both the L team there and the um and the administrative team. But she's not there all day. She's sort of like case by case. they call color up when they need help with things. Those are my questions. Thank you. >> Um I

123just had a couple questions in reference to I know you talked about like attendance and I know you highlighted a couple of reasons of like um you know some of our students not being able to come to school um the age of 18 so they really don't you know there's no big push there and then work. Are there other reasons and what are we doing to put services in place to kind of support those families? I think um one thing like when I was sort of reviewing some of the students who have been here who who have like a higher absenteeism and this was just at the secondary level. Um some of it has to do with like feeling like a level of comfort like are there other people who speak their language in their

124classes? Are there do they have like a group of friends that they connect with? One thing that we've seen that's extremely positive is if we can help get students connected with additional activities, being on a sports team, um joining the band in um in a theater, we really see that engagement shift a little bit. So that's one thing that we try to do um at the at the school level is help with that engagement piece beyond school. So beyond like the classroom part. Um, and I think otherwise I think for some of our students at the secondary level, it is like our our school counselors work a lot with them about like helping them feel comfortable and giving them different like opportunities like if you if you need to have a check-in and things like

125that. I think that's the other thing that we could work on is some of the smaller like um social emotional pieces to help them feel more comfortable in the classroom. >> Thank you. Thank you. So I wonder I don't know but wonder what is the city of Charlottesville our partners at the city doing to also support this work because it feels very heavy on the school district doing a lot of this work that I just as I'm hearing some of these things and and the IRC is great and seras and all these other organizations that are doing really great work but I wonder Is the city I mean is this on the radar at all of our city partners and what they could be doing differently? >> I know the IRC does a quarterly meeting

126and the last one was last week and it was actually last week's was all around um food resources right for families. So, um, Loaves and Fishes was there and DSS was there and, um, the Blueridge Food Pantry. And so, they were kind of talking about, um, different different avenues and different ways you can help get families connected. And in those in those meetings like um, the mayor joins them. There's definitely like Rotary Club is there. There's a lot of different community partners. Um, but I don't think in terms of my role, there isn't any direct uh, connection with with city partners. That's good to know and maybe something for my board colleagues and I to ponder as we continue to take on a lot of what happens in the community in our schools. Um how

127can we best partner with the city and when we talk about forming relationships and engagement and encouraging them to get here. Um, I know Miss Mohamad over at CMS when I was there talked about the Cricut team that they have formed and that's encouraging to hear. I also sit on the parks and recck advisory board as part of my duties on this board and it was a great opportunity for her and I to connect and talk about the master plan with the city that there is a plan to put a Cricut pitch over at Tonsler Park, but it's not not quite there yet. And so I understand there is one over at Darden Towel Park and maybe some opportunity for us to at least help with transportation to get the kids there, but then maybe

128they would be able to get their own way home. So I'm hoping that that comes to fruition because I think that's been from my understanding a good point of connection for our middle school students um and even some of the high school students I understand participate in that as well. I think speaking to that connection and then how the city does their part um could be some good advocacy work to make sure that they're being included in programs in our city as well. >> I know like Saka does a really good job. We have a lot of strong teams of of different immigrant youth. Um but yeah, thinking about parks and wreck and and adding to that would be great. >> Thank you, >> uh Dr. Foss. appreciate the presentation and I want to congratulate

129because what I am seeing is you're graduating people out of your program which is I think the ultimate outcome we like to see and um so thank you for that and and it feels like we're able to catch our breath here a little bit with at least you know u fewer people registering for our program each year. So which is good. Um, I mean, I think that does, you know, we caught up and and again, I hope you're successful this year and graduating more folks out. And I guess I think Dr. Gurley, you know, there's a lot of FTEEs there. You know, do we continue to support that to make sure we're getting that program graduation or are we actually going to start to maybe redeploy those other FTEEs out to a different uh to

130further assist those students and other things? I don't know. But I think something to think about. Um I would like to yeah I would say Miss Burns and you mentioned Saka and like it seems to be that after school activities are really helpful in helping integrate these kids and I just wonder are there more that we could be doing at the middle school level especially and we've talked about this whether it be a soccer I know we don't have a soccer team for example uh a cricket club other things that are not that much money that can again facilitate I think a lot of uh integration of these students and help them uh advance also uh through these different reading progress and other kind of things that we're trying to get them through benchmarks, excuse

131me. So, uh thanks for all your work. Keep up the good work. Um but yeah, I think we can u like to see some modifications too as we advance and evolve this. Thank you, >> sir. Short spin. Any comments? >> Yeah. Um, so I see on the like list of the progress in slide nine, how the like progress rates kind of taper off after elementary school. Are those are those rates about new students joining in middle school? And are the rates within elementary school continuing into middle school? I don't know if that makes sense, but it's like are the students who are succeeding in elementary school continuing to succeed in middle school or how is that breakdown kind of happening? >> Yeah, it's tricky because you know what what we would hope does happen with

132a lot of students is they continue to make progress and then they exit. So every year we're looking at a little bit of a different group of kids because we're looking at students their second year taking the test and then we no longer have the students who who exited. And so um it's the majority is the same group of kids but things are always shifting as the new students um but as the new students arrive but the state takes that into account. So like students who are newer to the language the expectation is their language will increase a little bit faster. If they're younger their language will increase a little bit faster. We see a lot of students exit in fourth grade sort of that the end of elementary school. we see a huge group

133of students exit and then if you don't exit in fourth grade you might be there until the next grade band which would be eighth grade. We see that often because the test gets a little bit harder and so even if if you don't exit but you're you know advanced in your English skills you might still hang out for a little bit before you can get that 4.4. Um but I do think that um we've continued to shift our model a little bit at the middle and high school to try to better support English learners. And we've we've done that a lot by do by doing co-eing where um especially at our middle school, you know, in their English seven class, we have a stu a group of students who are at that level one proficiency

134and there's an English teacher and a um and an L teacher in the same room to try to really help support um language development in multiple contents. Um, so we're adding more we're adding more support that way versus in in past years maybe that was happening in English, but then they go into a science class and they're in a typical science class with with their um peers who speak English. And so it's really hard to get language development when a teacher is teaching you 20 kids on her own. So we've kind of shifted things continuously. I'm hoping that that will help. Um there might also be a tiny bit around um you know the the access test you don't have to pass to graduate. Um there might be a little bit of our kids get

135tested a lot and you have to come in ready four times. Um you know so it's it's essentially a 4-hour test broken up and so there might be a little bit of a kid not really feeling like it matters as much as an so test as well. We try to work on that but I think that we see that more at the middle and high school as well. >> All right. Thank you so much. Appreciate your presentation. Um our next um presentation is from Dr. Johnson. update on our SROU. >> Good evening, Madam Chair, school board members, and Dr. Gurley. I just handed you all a draft of the SOP, which are the standing operating procedures for the SRO program, and there are extra copies in the back for anyone in the audience who wanted

136to follow along with tonight's presentation. It's good to be with you all again this evening. For tonight's presentation, I'll be providing an update on how we've been developing and refining the foundational documents for the implementation of the school resource officer program based on stakeholder input. I'll focus tonight's remarks on updates since my last presentation on October 9th. We will we will review key themes from students, staff, and general community, and then introduce the standard operating procedure to illustrate how both the SOP and the revised memorandum of understanding incorporate these concerns. Finally, I'll conclude with our upcoming next steps. First, I want to remind everyone that as we look ahead to adding two police officers to our current safety model in August 20126, the SRO program structure will rely on two central documents. The first is

137the memorandum of understanding. Thanks to the community feedback, we refined our initial draft and published draft 2, which I presented at our October meeting. Theou establishes the high level scope, goals, and principles of of collaboration between Charlottesville City Schools and the Charlottesville Police Department. This document is still in refinement as this SRO work group is finalizing the draft based on feedback from the city attorney's office and stakeholders. The second foundational document is the standard operating procedures which was published on October 23rd. The SOP is the practical detailed guidance for daily SRO operations, implementation, training, and selection. The SOP is considered a living document, meaning that it's subject to continuous uh evaluation and refinement based on ongoing feedback. Before we take a look at the ideas of the draft SOP, let's review some of the key

138themes and feedback we've heard from students, staff, and the community this fall. Throughout this fall, we have been seeking feedback to help us make sure that the guiding documents are as strong as they can be. We've held inperson and Zoom events and have had forms and surveys available for the community staff and students. I want to take a moment to thank everyone who has participated in this process. I'll begin with student feedback first. We received feedback from students in part through the extensive canvasing through our student schoolboard rep. Thank you for your service. We conducted a student survey and through a number of lunchtime events and dedicated information sessions at Charlottesville Middle School, Charlottesville High School, and LMA. As with general public, as with the general public, we received a wide range of student opinions

139as you communicated tonight with both uh support and oppos opposition. Per the survey in face-to-face engagement, when we asked specifically how important is the topic of returning SRO or the fact that SRO's are returning to you, more than 60% of the students reported that this was not a pressing issue for them. Around 14% did say the issue was very important to them. And as you've heard our schoolboard report even this evening, we've also heard a sense of cautious optimism. Students concerns were focused on the officer's firearms and a fear that having an officer on campus would have a negative impact on groups such as our students of color and students with disabilities. There was a widespread agreement that students prioritize training officers in areas like youth mental health deescalation and working with students from different

140backgrounds, cultures, and life experiences. When we asked about the most important element of safety, students reported that their own knowledge of how to act in a crisis as their top priority. We also found a shared sense of how students would know the SRO program is successful. They know that they would find the program to be successful if the school culture was still warm and welcoming, but even calmer with fewer safety issues. And they want this to occur without increasing student arrest. This is also a shared goal of staff, the community, CCS, and the police. Finally, when we asked the best way for students to meet their SRO, they selected spring lunchtime visits and August events such as open house. This idea that they want to meet the SRO as a person first and not an

141officer has been present in student feedback since our initial focus groups this spring and summer. Since I last gave you an update, the community feedback has continued to focus on program accountability and oversight. The community sees their input is reflected in the second in the second draft of theou. We continue to uh receive helpful feedback. For instance, they want to ensure that when SRO's are not in school, the SRO's will not be assigned to other police tasks that would undermine the trust and positive relationships they are building within the school community. Others have pointed out additional account accountability resources within CPD. Community members continue to affirm that our schools should be places of learning and support. All feedback continues to be shared with the working group so they can be explored and added to theou

142or SOP as appropriate. Staff feedback from both the info hours and through more informal conversations affirm that the the protective language from the second draft of theou was wellreceived. One element of our conversations with staff is that while it's important to train the SRO's and to continue training our care and safety assistants, the success of this model will require all staff being trained to understand the role of SRO's and C and CSAs. Staff should understand that except in a true emergency or dangerous situation and SRO will only engage in a situation at the direction of a school administrator. Staff also confirmed the need to stress to teachers that SRO should not be contacted for behavioral issues. One thing we've heard throughout the process from staff and others is that we need to create additional opportunities

143for our care and safety assistance to offer input, especially for the standard operating procedures that will guide the day-to-day of how our CSAs and the school SRO will work together. Therefore, we we have added CSAs from Walker, CMS, and CHS to the working group as we continue to fi to refine these foundational documents. As you know, the last time I presented, I reviewed the ways that we incorporated community feedback into draft two of theou. In the same way, the SOP mirrors this feedback and addresses topics that are important to all stakeholder groups such as the selection and training of officers, mechanisms for program accountability, defining the role of CSA and school employees, and continuing to delineate student protections. Now, let's take a moment to do a highlevel review of the SOP. First, let's turn to

144page two. And at the top, you will see the operational overview section. This section includes the number of SRO's for the program, noting one SRO at CHS and one at CMS. Another request was how to clarify uh how CCS will co-select the SRO's. You will find the section on the selection process on pages five and six. This section gives additional information about the process including that students, staff and parents or guardians will be included. Pages six and seven detail required training not only for SRO's but for our care and safety assistants and administrators who will be working with SRO's. This includes mental health and crisis intervention, implicit bias, racial bias, restorative justice, and cultural competency. A chart on page seven of the SOP outlines training areas and the timing of that training. As you heard

145last month, the processes for accountability and data transparency are clearly outlined in theou. If you would like to go back and review theou, you can find that information on pages six through 10 of the second version of the draftou. The SOP does not expand further upon this practice, but it does refer to the commitment in theou. This is an example of an area where we are still considering whether this information belongs in the SOP. So, if you have thoughts, feel free to provide feedback. Now, let's go back to page three. I want to take a moment to highlight the consideration for special victims section. We had an important request to give guidance for a group known as as special victims and this is where that information is addressed. We also heard questions about the use

146of bodywn cameras and this is covered in theou. The specifics of what school spaces should be protected, such as a nurse's office, are still being developed for the SOP. Finally, there is a universal agreement that we do not want our SRO to enforce school discipline or address minor misconduct. To give clarity to when SRO's would engage, SOP contains a matrix found on pages two and three outlining scenarios when SRO's would and would not be involved. Our next slide covers the timeline that was also presented in last month's presentation and we will continue to show this timeline as a reminder that we are in the phase of this process where we are finalizing theou and SOP. As a reminder, as the city heads into winter budget season, this program will not have a budgetary impact. And

147now I I'll conclude with next steps. The Google form on our website is still open to capture feedback and how to refine these documents and our working group continues to meet. Next steps include continue to work closely with CPD and and the city to make sure we are in full alignment. In addition, as we continue to refine the documents, we may find that some ideas or operational details in theou are better suited in the SOP. This will not change the commitments or content. It will just place the content in the correct place in these guiding documents. The goal of the working group is for the finalou to be be presented at the December 4th schoolboard meeting. After any final edits, Dr. Gurley and Chief Cautious would sign the agreement. Again, thanks to everyone who have

148shared who has shared their perspective and ideas to help us strengthen these key document. And this concludes my presentation for this evening. >> Thank you, Dr. Johnson. Um we will open up to questions um from the board. Mr. Schwarzman, Yeah. Um, first off, amazing job. The representation of student voices in that was like spectacular. >> Oh, awesome. Thank you. >> But I did have a couple of questions about some student concerns surrounding the um, SRO's getting involved in like um parts of student life that they might not be supposed to but maybe still would. For example, with the like possession of contraband items, um how can we ensure that if a police officer sees contraband items, they wouldn't just immediately like intervene or like how how can we make sure that that isn't happening or

149that or that they wouldn't like go and just try and get approval so that they could intervene at one moment, I guess. So I think the key there is that um when it comes to involvement of police with contraband items and if we're speaking about things that are like vapes, drugs, that type of thing. First of all, a vape is not necessarily illegal. It's not allowed in school. So an SRO should not be asked to intervene with that. um a case where an officer maybe would an SRO maybe would intervene if they thought they saw like a sale of something going on in school. Um but really unless it's a quantity that would constitute distribution, which is something we're already required by the code of Virginia to engage the, you know, the law enforcement with

150um there would be no reason for them to um get involved. And actually within the SOP I believe and if it's not already there we'll go back because this is a great question but I believe there's a there's a like a table that we started putting in there where we tried to like further clarify where SRO's are in or out as far as involvement in different situations and that's definitely something we need to make sure is clear. Um so does that get it what you were looking for? But I think the big factor, the biggest factor is whether the quantity is something that could constitute distribution. >> Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Um, there was also one other student concern that I had heard about with physical altercations. Obviously, harming a police officer

151is like a federal offense and would not be good. But in a fight, it's like relatively common for people who try to intervene in those fights to get hurt just because that's the nature, although it is very unfortunate, of some fights at CHS. So, how does that work if there are students at CHS who so happen to be fighting and uh SRO gets involved and they like harm the SRO not realizing who it is? We've talked about that quite a bit in our workg group and it's a great another great question. So, um, understanding exactly what you said that sometimes our staff when they intervene in trying to stop students from harming each other, deescalate a situation, break up a fight, um, our staff sometimes has become injured. And just like with the staff, the

152officer will have discretion whether or not it becomes a charged situation or not. If it's an inadvertent, you know, elbow or something like that, it is very unlikely from what we have been told working with our CPD liaison that they would choose to charge just like our staff don't necessarily choose to charge, but they can. Our our staff can charge if they're injured when they're breaking up a fight. Um they can they that's not something we could take away from our staff that that option to do that. Same is true for the officers and we believe um we you know it is our belief and it has been CPD's expressed um thought that the types of people who will sign up to be SRO's will understand that. That's what we're going to be looking for

153in the people who take these jobs to understand the difference between an in inadvertent elbow or something that's not intended for them versus if someone actually goes after an officer just like just like if someone actually went after a teacher and the intention is to hurt that person. That is a different different ballgame. Those are very good questions. One of the things we're also considering um in our conversations around training is the conversations we need to have with students. And so continue to get those questions together that can help influence our training as we put it together. So thank you for those. >> Okay, perfect. Thank you. Thank you very much for the update. All right. Um, next we have some board responses uh to written reports including our committee reports, chronic absenteeism, and our

154pupil teacher ratio written report. You see Mr. over there chomping at the bit ready to go. Do you have some comments on those? >> Yeah. No, I always enjoy the written reports. Thank you for including them. Uh I will note that while some schools have been making some progress on their chronic absenteeism. I'm seeing upticks at CMS and CHS. Uh I have a a child in elementary school and I've received recent uh communications about positive things they will receive tags if they know if they get so like to see that. I have not gotten anything from CMS. Uh not saying that nothing's aren't being done but um just making that observation. Uh, I will say and and thank you for also doing the people um seeing our ratios, teacher ratios. You know, I I hope

155the community sees and and for one thing I will I don't think VOE's averages are anywhere near what they should be and they need to be adjusted and I think we've talked about that also. But I I hope that the community notices that our averages are significantly lower uh or or 50% more than in a lot of cases. Uh so we are doing you know we are staffing I think as as we should be. Um I understand also is difficult you know to project how many students we're going to have and matches to teachers with a lot of enrollment coming right at the end. Um I do see Jackson Baya having a pretty high rate or sorry classroom visa v some of the other schools and and then again then compare that to the ELLL

156learners um you know so I just want to make sure we're again allocating staff um to where the needs are also. Thank you. >> Any other questions or comments about the written reports? >> Thank you. Um, we will move on to our second opportunity for comments from members of the community. There's anyone in the media center who would like to speak. All right, seeing none, anybody in Zoom in the Zoom room who wishes to speak, feel free to raise your hand and you'll be promoted. No takers. Um, so we'll move on to comments from the board. Got to keep mixing it up. Miss Torres, we'll start with you this time. Yeah, not a lot, but if you will, um, colleagues, so coming up and when we go to Williamsburg, so I'm I'm a delegate representing

157Charlottesville City Schools, um, we often get well, every year we get in any edits or new legislative um, proposals and then the delegate assembly gets together and we vote yay or nay, up or down on those. this year. There's not a lot in here, but there is one new um legislative proposal. And since there's only one, if you don't mind, I would love to kind of get just a thumbs up or thumbs down or think about it, but it's pretty simple. Um basically, it's a proposal to um remove chronic absenteeism as an indicator and accountability and accreditation models used to rate public schools. Um and that's it. Very simple. So, um, it this passed it will be proposed to the delegate assembly and every every school division there who has a delegate in the room

158gets to vote up or down on it. So, I'm not asking for um a response right now unless everybody wants to give one or just a thumbs up, thumbs down or if you want, like I said, chew on a little bit and we've got a little bit of >> or Yeah. Is that something that you could email to us? >> Sure. Absolutely. >> Send us the link where we've probably been sent it. I mean, it's just I read exactly what's on here. That's all it is. >> And there's no supporting information or anything. >> It's just it's a brand new motion to approve that legislative position. So, this is something that then BSBA will will carry forward as their position when they >> head to the general assembly. So, just wanted to throw that out

159there. Um, other than that, really no other comments, but thank you to Charlottesville community and the state of Virginia for showing up and voting. Um, and I um personally am humbled and grateful to those that supported me and I'll continue this work and and um you know, we just kind of keep on moving. We're in the cycle and in the rhythm and and looking forward to our our budget talks with city council and the work that goes. So, appreciate you all. Thank you. >> Thank you, M. Richardson. Um, I don't really have too much to say. Uh, we are approaching holiday season, so I'm gearing up for that. And I hope everyone is gearing up to spend some time with their families and friends. Um, as you know, Thanksgiving and Christmas and all these things

160uh approach. Um, I had something else to say you guys. Oh yeah, report cards. So, report cards came out and I just hope everybody had Did you have a good report card? Uh, good. Because my my son has straight A's. So, I just wanted to throw that out there. Go Zier, go Raiden. Um, it's always great to see uh the hard work that our children are putting out every day and um the the grades are showing for it. So, if you didn't get a good report card, do better. But yeah, thank you. Yes, I wanted to bring to the board and community attention that the community attention youth internship program is open for applications for students 14 to 21 years of age. This is a program within the city that provides opportunities to learn workplace

161readiness skills, have growth mindset, earn some money, and some really great organizations that take um take our students in to teach those job skills. Um some such as JMRL library, which I know Dr. Gurley spent some time there this weekend. um the music resource center, a few different barber shops, VABA Virginia Discovery Museum, the West Haven Clinic, Wild Rock, just to name a few. But really uh wonderful opportunity for students in our community to earn some money and job readiness skills. So I wanted to bring that to the attention of everyone and um wanted to thank uh Mr. Becker and the theater program for bringing the students over here to take some time out of their theater rehearsal this evening to share with the board. And that is all I have for tonight. Thank you.

162>> Uh a couple things. One, uh want to congratulate Miss Torres, Chair Douly on your uh reelection. Uh look forward to serving with you again. and it's been a pleasure so far and multiple years. Uh want to congratulate Miss Bryant. Thank you for attending. Also, I think that's a an example of the service you're going to bring in the future and and dedication and um look forward to serving with you. Also, uh colleagues, wanted just to flag for you that the city council did have a budget presentation the other day. Uh kind of a long term. I don't know if some of you saw that or not, but I was heartened to see they were using a 5% annual growth in our budget, which was I think generous and good. At the same time, they're

163also projecting more revenues in the future. Um, so those are just things I think we'll have to start to think about and uh for the community in general. I I hope you continue to show up for us and communicate to your city counselors the importance of funding our public school system. Uh I am also heartened by the Virginia the turnout in election and I I do hope that with a uh the new state leadership we will see a sales tax referendum uh legislation pass that again to my city residents here that would allow us to make substantial upgrades to our uh school infrastructure that are needed. So starting to start thinking about that. Um, finally, I I just want to we ulogized uh Mr. Williams a little bit this earlier and then and I had

164the privilege of working in office a couple houses down from Mr. Williams and so I can say I was educated on his porch a lot about uh it's just desegregation, segregation, the racial history here in Charlottesville, schools, etc. and not having been from this region that was uh very impactful. I can't say enough. I think a lot of our community's leaders sat with him and learned a lot and you know unfortunately he served our community during a time where he could not be elected necessarily uh which I think he would have been a great elected leader. Uh I think Dr. Gurley I first met you in his uh living room also. So, um, yes, you know, I think it was appropriate and how we've recognized him so far and and want everybody to stop by

165the the historical marker at at Tall Oaks and um, keep him and his family in your thoughts. Thank you. >> Oh, wait. >> Oh, I'm sorry. I just had a question. And I was just curious to to know the um how much for the theaters trip. We never got a price on that. How much each student >> Okay. Okay. I just wanted to have a number for that. Thank you, Mr. Shortsman. Any final comments? >> Not much. Just like Thank you guys. It's really great. >> Thank you, Emily. I also to um Chris I think I would like to say also Emily and Zy congratulations but I also want to say congratulations to Lisa because I do think you left her out. So congratulations congratulations to all three. >> He said Miss >> Oh I

166didn't hear Miss Tors sorry didn't hear it but just wanted to make sure that we capture everybody. Um so yeah >> thank you. So as has been noted there there was an election this week. Um, I know Miss uh Torres, Miss Brena are happy to be on the other side of it. Um, throughout kind of the leadup to it, I had the opportunity to speak a lot about our schools, um, and a lot of the positives that are happening and would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge that I get to talk about those things because of all of the incredible work that our teachers and staff and administrators do. Um, so thank you. Um, and I said today, um, in an interview, and we'll see if it actually gets printed tomorrow or in what capacity

167it's, uh, printed, um, but there's been a lot of excitement, um, and enthusiasm and interest in this school board race. Um, perhaps because it was the only competitive race, um, locally on our ballot. Um, and just kind of my plea and shout out to the community is to stay engaged in our education, our public education, um, even when it's not an election cycle. Um, and with that, Dr. Gurley, you're up. >> All right. Um, I do want to recognize um, just Mr. Eugene Williams. He was one of the one of my very first meetings uh, when I arrived here in Charlottesville City. Um, uh, Mr. Juan Diego Wade said, "There's someone that you must meet." Um, and it was not optional. And, um, what what was, um, very, um, memorable for me in that moment

168is that, um, Mr. Williams gave me a bow tie, um, from his closet. Um, and so I have a piece of history um, that many people don't have and and it does mean so much to me. Um we have a lot of exciting things going on in the school going on in the schools and so um we will our communications team will push those things out but um coming up soon we will do our first royal recognition um and so I'm very excited that we will be recognizing our um teachers and support staff for really embodying the core values of Charlottesville City Schools. Um so be on the lookout for that. Um, I did have a great time last Saturday at the library. Um, and we had toddlers all the way to school age children.

169Um, and so our city um, really showed up for me and I appreciate it. And we have another event that you will be hearing about pretty soon in December. Um, so just stay tuned and stay connected. >> It's quite a teaser. Thank you. Um, work session wrap up. All right. Um, and for our upcoming meetings, taking us on the road to Williamsburg in a few weeks, November 18th through 21st at the Virginia School Boards Association annual convention. Um, and then our last schoolboard meeting of the year. We will say a farewell to Mr. Morris um on Thursday, December 4th, back here at 5:00 pm. And with that, we are adjourned. Thanks all.