001you see us as standing around copers bemoaning the whats of our current situation oh no kids aren't in classes literacy is low phones chat GPT I hope someone does something about it we are not around many a copier in hallways parking lots lunch tables in bars and at parties much to the shagrin of our spouses we are talking about the house and the wise why is this happening and how can we actively make these issues better we collaborate we challenge each other we think outside the box we have talked about reimagining English classes Teaching Standards through hip hop our collaborations with art we have discussed the value of physical activity we talk over and over about Outdoor Learning we talk about reciprocal learning between high school and Elementary School we have researched UCLA Berkeley scheduling
002programs and Wiz IT training on Project based learning we have gone to UVA differentiation training and made Solid cases for connecting with the university with regular teaching we dream of field trips and have wish lists of guest speakers most importantly we know our students better than anyone else who is not in the classroom and yet no one is contacting us and hitting us up before policy is made maybe I'm saying your time is up thank you thank you any other members of the community in the audience who wish to speak all right Mr CUA we'll go back to the zoom anybody in the zoom room who wishes to speak can raise their hand okay I've promoted a user the last name k AZ their hand is raised they can uh unmute unmute at this time
003and they'll have that three minute for public comment okay am I unmuted yes thank you sorry um so thank you for letting me speak uh my name is Veronica Katz I've met many of you I'm a parent of kids at Burnley Moran and I'm I hope this is the right time to speak about rezoning um if it's not please feel free to tell me like no that comes later um I just wanted to say um I know that rezoning has been a very challenging process and conversation um and I've been pretty involved throughout the process and I really want to advocate for a a more even more transparency and engagement with the populations that are most affected I think everybody is being affected by rezoning but it seems especially that families at Summit uh are
004being moved and this is a a population that has been historically disenfranchized and my sense is that a lot of the families there don't even still know what is happening so I would ask that there just really be a lot more information posted to the website about how have you engaged with those populations can you show numbers of conversations and how many people came because I know that um my understanding is that a bus was sent to Kindlewood so people could attend the February 18th meeting and the people didn't even know that that bus was for them so just as an example of where like there's it seems like there's performative engagement as opposed to True engagement with these populations so similarly the survey results from the first survey were posted online but with no
005indication of how that information was used it's just kind of like here it is we got all your feedback but we're not really showing you how we are aggregating this information and really putting it to use so I would just ask that since we have time nothing is being implemented really until 2930 please take that time that you have now to show us how you are using the information that you're getting um to really make people's voices heard and just show all of us that that is that truly um what is in everyone's best interest is being taken into to heart thank you Miss Catz and as noted there is um an item on the agenda later where many of those uh topics will be covered uh information on the process of our rezoning efforts
006um Mr P are there additional uh yes there is a user with the last name of b b a g and I've just promoted that person to the um panelists they can unmute and they will have three minutes for public comment hi can you hear me yes okay uh hello my name's Mandy Burbage um I am actually a resident of Locust Grove but I am uh speaking now on behalf of uh Pont housing Alliance and the residents of Kindlewood um I'm an employee of peont housing Alliance and I do a lot of work in Kindlewood around the Redevelopment and um I just wanted to let you all know that I'm actually in Kindlewood right now in the community room and we have the the meeting broadcast over zoom and let residents know that was happening
007and gave them an opportunity to um come down and speak if they wanted to about the resoning um unfortunately um because it's Ramadan and a large um percentage of our population is um observing that holiday this isn't a great time but I did want to read um a letter on behalf of one of our residents regarding the resoning so I'm going to read that now good evening my name is Maran Bayan my husband's name is Abdul daim we live at 1116 Street here in the Kindlewood Town Homes we are unable to attend tonight's meeting but would like to say on behalf of ourselves and many of the Middle Eastern families here in Kindlewood we are in support of the city school proposed plan to bus our neighborhood children to Burnley Moran Elementary School located off
008of the 250 bypass as we look at them being busted to and from this will also resolve some of the many safety issues for us with so many of our families having to have transportation to work many of our women were already struggling with walking their children to and from school we value children's education and want them to receive the best that they can it is also important for us to expose and enrich our children to other cultures and social events we appreciate the Charlottesville City school already making plans for the upcoming growth here in our Kindlewood Community we hold our community values and being together highly but also realize that this change that change is sometimes difficult but necessary and that is the end of of her comment and I'll just add that um
009I know that there have been a lot of survey like a version of the rezoning survey has been distributed to a lot of the residents here and I I don't have a number of surveys but I've seen a stack of them it was considerable um and that has been provided to you all so just wanting to share that Kindlewood residents are having the opportunity to Pro to provide input that's all thank you Miss verbage uh any additional members of Zoom who wish to give public comment please raise your hand yes U there is a user with the last name of Jer TS o n you've been promoted to the panelist and you have H three minutes just unmute your microphone and we'll make sure we can hear you thank you very much uh hello everybody
010hello uh School Board uh my name is John Json I'm sorry I'm not able to attend in person uh I had to pick up my uh 14-month-old from daycare and my wife who works in the neon unit is is there right now uh the reason why I bring this up is because I'm a proud resident of Locust Grove and I live less than ID say 04 miles less than a half mile from berin mirand on and I dream since we purchased this house to be able to walk our kid to that school uh I know that your job is difficult and I completely understand the reasons why you're proposing what you're proposing but can we get some at least what I wish is is for you guys to at least focus on maybe allowing the
011kids that can walk to school to be able to walk to school um it's a beautiful situation right now if you show up on on Locus Grove at 8: a.m. every weekday you're going to see a flock of kids walking to school and it's absolutely beautiful it helps traffic it helps uh building a community and I would just like to keep that going and so please reconsider uh zoning at least for the people that have the opportunity to walk to that school thank you thank you Mr CR any other members of Zoom who wish to speak please raise your hand all right don't see any um so that will close this opportunity for comment from members of the community we will have another opportunity at the conclusion of our meeting um at this point um
012I would like my um board colleague Miss Burns to introduce our new student representative yes thank you chair uh if I might to the board I'd like to take a moment to welcome charlott still High School junior miss Harper ol to our board Harper will serve as a student representative for the remainder of this school year and I'm excited to have her join us we've already been working together um just a couple weeks ago to talk about how we might Elevate student voice further and how she might gather input from her peers so wanted to take a moment to recognize Harper thank you um and now miss ol if you will provide us with your update good evening I would first like to say thank you for the honor of being a student School Board
013representative I look forward to representing my peers and continuing to Advocate on behalf of all students I'd like to give a special thank you to miss Burns and to Dr Malone for all of their support to start social emotional learning during bkt has been paused as a result of student and staff feedback this work can often be implemented during the course of the regular school day Dr Malone and his team are continuing to work on creating a new best path forward best path forward and students and teachers feel very heard by this action Miss BRS and I also discussed subject areas in need of more supplies and funding I want to highlight our her program tonight there needs to be Equity of opportunity for students in art and art is a supplies based class CHS
014has incred incredible emerging artists who should not be limited because of a lack of these supplies Miss Burns will be bringing this topic to Dr Gurley and Dr Malone and students hope to see changes in this regard as it is very much needed I would also like to convey on behalf of myself and my peers frustration related to tardiness and absences many feel there's too much Focus on tardy arrival to school which often deals with many uncontrollable variables and leads to a pile up at the beginning of the school day with a line outside instead of focusing on tardiness to each class which remains a significant issue at CHS and often goes without followup many students have also received letters home about attendance including on days they were at school or had excused absences and
015parents and students feels there's there needs to be some refinement in this area while also holding a students accountable who do do need support with attendance because good attendance is the base academic success UC students met with the ccs and CHS nutrition teams and gained valuable insight into the menu across the division students along with Mr rod and Dr Malone look forward to forming a committee to include student perspectives in the menu choices I will also be working with SCA to communicate further with the wider student body the information that we all learned and to create more appreciation for our dedicated nutrition team members students have also voiced some concern about the 50% grading threshold and the extended late work policy I understand that Dr Gurley follows recommendations from the Equitable grading committee I hope
016to meet with Dr Malone and Miss Mason to further educate myself on this and then receive some more student feedback finally I'd like to convey on on behalf of my peers the positive impact our cell phone policy has had it's truly reflective of an overall more positive School culture I'm happy to report that Miss Burns and Dr M and I have been able to create a student feedback form to ensure students know the role of me as their student Schoolboard representative and to draw attention to the board meetings the agenda Etc and this form will be used to gather student feedback and provide them with information and will be distributed during bkt along with a flyer that I'm working with Mr Toler to put up around the school again thank you so much for this
017opportunity and I look forward to continue working with you all and my peers to ensure student voice is heard wonderful thank you Miss olrick and welcome to your term on the board um at this point we're gonna pivot to some recognition so miss rasnik I think you are up first to recognize social workers month good evening Madam chair Dr Gurley members of the board um I'm just here tonight to ask you to join me in celebrating our school social workers um as you know we have a fleet of wonderful School social workers um who are providing services to students and families at schools and in the community um next week we are sending a team to the Washington DC um um Central Virginia chapter of the National Association of school social work um conference and
018that conference is called reimagining Social Work advancing Unity expertise and Innovation um when we think about what our school social workers do every day um they are providing um Innovative uh best practice interventions to our students and families um and so I just wanted to celebrate them during uh National School Social Work Week thank you Miss rasnik I believe board in our packet we've got a certificate of recognition from the governor to officially recognize Social Work month um moving on to some special recognitions Dr helz good evening Madam chair members of the board and Dr Gurley this evening I will present the 2025 vsba business honor rooll nominees and resolutions to the board for approval U nominees include Carter Meers Automotive Gaston and Wyatt and our Lady of Peace Carter Meyer's Automotive is being recognized
019for their support of our students work-based learning experience participation in advisory boards and hiring events um that have aided this community in focusing on the goal of providing the best public schools we can for every child who attends them Todd Wheeler the service manager and Beth laey the community recruiting specialist are here on behalf of Carter Meers Automotive thank you come on up I think we'll do we'll Dr HS recognize each one at a time uh board we do take action on this as well so um if I could have a motion um to recognize Carter Meyer Automotive um with the vsba business honor role recognition so moveed second all right all in favor say I I I any opposed congratulations and thank you for all of your work on behalf of our students our
020next business and industry partner is Gaston Wyatt they are also being recognized for their commitment and dedication to providing ongoing support of this community's public schools Gaston Wyatt's partic participation in supporting work-based learning opportunities and active participation on advisory boards have also aided the community in focusing on the goal of providing the best public schools we can offer every child Jeff Ernie the people operations manager is here on behalf of gon one all right as he's making his way up if we can have a motion to recognize Gaston Wyatt with the vsba business honor role recognition so moved second all in favor I any opposed wonderful thank you and finally Our Lady of Peace is being recognized for their commitment and dedication to providing ongoing support of this community's public schools Our Lady of Peace's
021willingness to support our students clinical experiences participation in advisory boards and hiring events have aided this community in focusing on the goal of providing the best public schools we can offer our students Rachel Lindberg executive director and Dora Gregory the director of nursing are here on behalf of our Lady of Peace and last but not least if I can get a motion to recognize Our Lady of Peace with the vsba business honor role recognition so moved second all in favor say I I I you posed wonderful thank you again on behalf of the board and all of our students and I think we'll look forward to seeing you at Signing Day at ktech here in a few weeks has lots of our students uh come to work for you so thank you and I think
022we're gonna take a brief pause for a photo all right next up uh we have adop option of the consent agenda I can have a motion please I'll make a motion to um adopt the consent agenda wonderful we've got a first I'll second excellent first second all in favor of adoption of our consent agenda say I I all opposed wonderful all right this will take us to item 11.1 Dr HZ hopefully you have not gone too far because you're back up uh to present the 2526 Career and Technical education local plan good evening again Madame chair members of the board and Dr Gurley this evening I am here to present to you the Carl Perkins local plan for the 2025 2026 school year which is a Federal grant used to help fund our career in
023technical education programs at Charlottesville Middle School Charlottesville High School and ktech before I present the budget and goals for spending I want to give you a brief overview of the CTE programming this past fall Advanced CTE released a new modernized career clusters framework that consists of 14 clusters over 30 career Pathways and 72 subclusters that serve as the primary organizing structure for CTE programs additionally this modernized framework is designed to serve as a bridge between education and work and is the building block for highquality CTE programs RCT programs in Charlottesville City Schools currently offers programs in nine out of the 14 clusters Within These career clusters we provide opportunities for students to explore over 30 career Pathways while students are moving through the CTE program concentration concentrations or trying out a new pathway we offer
02420 different state recognized industry credentials at the end of each school year we identify the CTE completers based on who completed two state approved CTE credential courses and have met the requirements for graduation in the 2024 cohort we had 131 CTE completers on this slide you can see CTE enrollments from the 2021 2022 school year through this current school year you will notice there's an increase in CTE enrollment this year which is mostly due to the recoding of the state required career investigations course that is at the middle school as has been mentioned in previous discussions we hope to continue to increase our c pte numbers through Staffing expanded course offerings in high demand areas Recruitment and career exploration and awareness activities as previously mentioned we offer 20 different industry credentials at CHS and ktech
025the most common is the workplace Readiness assessment which assesses students on the core competencies embedded in all CTE courses and curricula in the 2023 2024 school year 133 students earned the workplace Readiness credential in total 336 industry credentials were earned with 300 students having earned more than one credential this is great for job acquisition and marketability as students can use these certifications to show they have an understanding of the soft skills and where the technical skills needed in the workforce okay so you all have heard a lot about the 3E framework uh from Miss Swift in the past few months um as you notice this original employment framework shows that students may earn up to one point if they are a CTE completer who also earns a state approved industry credential in a high demand
026High wage field various stakeholders across the state provided feedback that they believe work-based learning should be a part of this framework as such in December the Virginia State Board of Education crafted a draft of high quality work-based learning including the definition exper experiences evaluation in the criteria so that it may be added to the employment framework based on the feedback about work-based learning this draft was proposed as you see here students may earn up to one and a half points uh in the employment framework which is in better alignment with the point values that may be earned in the education and enlistment Frameworks last Thursday February the 27th the State Board of Education approved the change changes to the proposed framework with the recent proposal there are now more restrictions and requirements for work based
027learning opportunities which will make it more challenging for both students and business and industry Partners In addition there continues to be misalignment with opportunities that count for graduation requirements and those that can be used towards the employment framework for example a work based for a work-based learning experience to count um as indicated um sorry to count towards meeting a graduation requirement the number of hours is based on the experience um that can be found in the Virginia highquality work based learning guide however in contrast for the uh for it to count for a work-based learning experience and the 3E framework The Experience must take place at a work site that is in a high demand field for a minimum of 90 hours in addition a big change um is that there were previously 12 different
028high quality work bace learning opportunities whereas now there are only going to be four that can count towards credit for the 3E framework those are registered apprenti ships including uh youth ba uh youth registered appren ships internships clinical experiences and school-based Enterprises um and Entrepreneurship these four experiences were identified as those that aligned with CTE completer goals postsecondary impact and stakeholder feedback and their potential to provide students with 3E readiness outcomes and meet Regional Workforce needs another change I would like to highlight is that previously work-based learning opportunities could align with any course a student takes however now all work-based learning must be aligned to a CTE course for example some of our science students engage in discover medicine at UVA previously that counted as a work-based learning experience as it is a great opportunity
029for students interested in science and medicine however that will no longer count because it is not aligned with the CTE course nor does it fall under one of the four approved highquality work-based learning experiences that said we would still like our students to engage in such opportunities as there's still value whether it counts towards work based learning or not there are some additional changes however I've highlighted those that will have larger impacts since this was only recently approved by the Virginia State Board of Education CTE administrators across the state will be learning more about the new 3E framework and the work-based learning definition experiences and evaluation criteria just today at the region meeting uh we were tasked with reviewing and providing additional feedback so it's still going back to the board for more review um
030in their March um meeting so that's that's a lot on the three e but I think as you've digested it all for the past few months um with Dr H can you and Miss Swift you're part of this also so the three e framework is part of the new accreditation that correct okay in the high quality workface learning experiences is part of the employment piece and if the if you go to two slides back this was the initial and if you notice the max here was one point um earned and in the new and this this one does not include work learning as it they originally proposed it um at the state level people felt passionately that work-based learning should be included and so if you go to the next one miss backer you can
031see where they've added the one and a half um up to one and a half points for and that one includes work-based learning um and the credential so it's not that students students can still earn you know all those other point values but to to get full value they have to um have meet those work-based learning requirements and what are the four registered apprenticeships um clinical experiences uh school-based Enterprise and the um internships and then sorry one more so in our region what are the high demand High I guess just high demand and high demand High wage funny enough if you go into thee all of them are high demand right now um so the key piece that is still missing is also the industry credential piece um the state was supposed to have a
032list to us in October but um they're still going back and forth um with the superintendent the state superintendent that is about what those uh credentials will actually be so hopefully they're similar at least what our for what our program do now but um we'll see any board members have additional questions at this point with the changed framework before we move on Miss Torres Dr H so do you anticipate this is going to change the direction or or what we're gonna offer I mean are we we're going to offer the same thing we have to continue to work with our business and industry Partners um and and figure this out a little more because you know the graduation requirements are one thing and and they are working on trying to align those two as well
033um through legislature but I think that didn't progress and so it's kind of messy but we need to offer the same things we're offering um the exception to the clinical there's an exception to the clinical experiences or CNA um students they have the State Board of Nursing requires 40 hours for clinicals so that is an exception their students will not now have to get 90 they will still only get need 40 because that's what the state Board of Nursing says so they're not requiring them to get an additional 50 hours but um it's going to be need to be strategic I mean um it students can get paid internships but it's that's another burden maybe on some of our business and industry Partners to you know commit to that um and we know our students
034should get paid and that's if they don't that's a that's a problem where they could be maybe working somewhere else um and that's the reality so we would we still want to continue what we're doing um but looking at some of these other opportunities I think school-based Enterprise is another area where we can maybe leverage a little bit more um and be creative about that which is you know a something for example like a school store as an example of a school-based Enterprise or um the auto tech shop at ktech that repairs cars those are are part of a school-based Enterprise mmhm I think you're good anything okay so uh okay now we shift gears to our 2526 CTE goals as they help determine spending and first we want to continue to provide more CTE
035opportunities for students which the board did approve um a few new courses for this upcoming school year such as the robotics intro to Health and Medical Science um which is part of the expanded uh path way so next we need to continue to uh expand our Career and Technical student organizations which we've worked on this year with skills USA and TSA U so we need to keep uh going with those as they are required co-curricular organizations uh that offer students leadership experiences as they participate in competitions and other uh organization projects thirdly especially with our new 3E framework we need to continue to work with our business and industry Partners to find highquality work based learning opportunities that are aligned directly to CTE courses and part of that work uh Contin uh involves continuing career
036exploration and awareness activities and opportunities such as kch tours collaboration with elementary schools um for projects trips to local business and industry sites um and career Affairs um Etc and lastly one of the required uses of Perkins funds relates to the Recruitment and Retention of qualified CTE teachers through professional learning opportuni unities uh each of these goals will lead us on a path to establishing high quality Career and Technical education programs here's Charlottesville uh City Schools estimated allocation for 2526 Perkins plan this number will go up or down depending on set allocations which are determined by the Virginia Department of Education and are usually released to us in June or July with the given allocation based on last year's budget um and our CTE goals we will continue to prioritize spending on ensuring that our
037students have access to equipment that meets industry standards uh that our staff has opportunities for professional development and that we continue career exploration and awareness opportunities recently uh at least $60,000 has been allocated to equipment to keep our programs up to date with industry standards however with the acquisition of ktech this allocation needed to be increased uh to also keep their equipment up to industry standard to the extent possible all equipment uh purchased using Perkins funds must be on the state approved list so there are limitations to what can be purchased secondly um another main component relates to the hiring and retaining or the retention of quality uh qualified CTE staff so we will continue to prioritize uh the ability of our staff to um develop um professionally whether that's conferences or bringing in speakers
038um whatever that may to work um with curriculum revisions um and then or to receive uh support with their uh ctsos so we're allocating $20,000 to help reimburse conference registration materials travel expenses speakers um Etc and lastly we want to use our funds to give um our students the ability to engage in career exploration activities and initiatives again um which I've already highlighted so we're allocating um $10,000 to support these individuals and these initiatives um which include cost of Transportation registration fees vendor meals Advisory board meetings um and so forth so that concludes my presentation if there are any additional questions um I'll be happy to answer them you Dr HZ Miss Torres do you have any questions M richson no questionss s okay thank you very much you're welcome all right moving on to
039item 11.2 we are to receive a school attendance process update good evening again um I'm here tonight to share some information about our attendance process um so it's going to focus um more on systems and processes than on um interventions and students um so one of the first things I want to make sure we all recognize is that all attendance all absenteeism matters because missed instruction is cumulative so we start working on that positive School attendance um the moment kids set foot in our schools so that might be when they're one and visiting their older sibling um and going to the awesome breakfasts that we host um but it is especially true when they enroll in our schools so we have policy Jed um there's there it's a long policy um but there's two parts
040to that one is the acknowledgement that um the schools have a responsibility to um Foster good attendance through quality instruction and a welcoming environment and that parents also share that responsibility to facilitate uh students coming a school um once when they're of compulsory school age attendance um that goes into more detail when we're thinking about what our active responsibilities are um and what the family active responsibilities are and we commit throughout our policy and our procedures to providing the supports that families need um in order for their students to have good attendance so little bit of background so um our we've been sharing chronic absenteeism data with uh the state since 2010 as part of multiple different accreditation systems the previous accreditation model established the Benchmark of 15% as being um level one um we
041until uh until Co um we never had a school that was not level one um the new accreditation model uh as Miss Swift has shared um is different um it continues to calculate chronic absenteeism um but it is part of the Readiness category I wanted to share a year-over-year comparison so this is this is throughout the entirety of the accreditation model that is changing this year so as you can see 2017 2018 and 2019 um our our schools and our community emphasis on our community these are our families and our students we're demonstrating those positive um School attendance numbers um that wasn't it wasn't calculated any differently um it's not a different measure it truly is whether kids were at school or not um we had two years obviously where we did not uh have
042to go through the the same accreditation procedures because of Co and so since covid you can see that um for a lot of our schools they're not meeting that um that 15% that was previously the expectation um but some of our schools are um and so over time um even though we know that we can our absenteeism has increased and so we really our goal is to get back to what we know we can do which is between 10 and 15% um one of the things we talk about in absenteeism work is we actually don't focus on perfect attendance anymore um so we're our goal is not zero our goal is um as many students are at school every day what is the number of absences that identifies a student as chronically absent so it
043changes as the year goes on so it's 10% 10% okay so if you've missed two days in the first month of school you're chronically absent um by the last day of school it'll be 18 so um one of the as I already shared all of those absences matter because it is missed instruction um we do have excused and unexcused absences excused absences are not considered Trent um the word truin in this work means that we don't we have not gotten communication from the family um about why the student is missing so if we don't if we get have an unexcused absence that means we don't know why the student is not at school um parents can excuse absences up to 10 school days um that's when our kids are sick for a day um they
044might have a fever um doctors can excuse absences um for longer than three consecutive days so maybe a more significant illness and then there are a number of other excused absences for a variety of reasons in our regulation which includes engagement in Civic activities attending funerals and religious observances those unexcused absences are considered Trent and they require a level of State reporting and a level of response that is more about com compliance than it is about intervention um and so that requires us to write attendance plans have attendance conferences um and can lead to Court Referral um if they continue to exceed um what's allowed we have a few different ways of communicating with families these are all automated processes so we use um two third-party vendors to provide notifications to families we do them
045at these intervals so unexcused absences that is um consistent with our state reporting requirements excused absences families will get notifications um because they do add up uh 10 excused absences over the course of the year is a lot of missed instruction um 60 hours of missed instruction and so we just want to make sure families know that um School is is important we want to see their their children there every day um and then one of the things that we've not done in the past but we are doing now is that chronic absenteeism notification so it's an opportunity um it comes in the mail uh just to remind everybody that excus and unexcused absences add up to misinstruction um if you have a student in our schools you also know that if they're not there
046at school on time or um if uh they're out for the day you get that daily automated message notifying you that they are not present um we really rely on these systems um because of the volume um associated with it as well as because uh you know the especially that daily phone call or text message that can be that's a safety measure you know if you dropped your kid off at school and you get the message that gives you that um that opportunity to call the school and find out what's going on maybe they're skipping first period additionally in our regulations we've outlined what we expect in terms of intervention for unexcused absences again that is really dictated by our um state regulations and that includes we have to hold an attendance conference with you
047at five unexcused absences at s uh we have to consider a referral to the Student Success team and an attendance plan has to be written uh and then for for further unexcused absences uh that show no improvement we need to make have the consideration of referring to the multi-disciplinary team for chronic absenteeism which it can be a combination of excuse and unexcused uh we are committed to referring to that Student Success team to look at what the root causes and match families and students with interventions to tackle the challenge at hand um one thing that uh has been an option uh last year and this year um is the use of flexible in-person instruction for students to make up school days um at this point we are moving towards uh that schools will be able
048to require that flexible inperson instruction um so it has been up until now uh kids have been able to opt out um but we are seeing uh a significant impact to achievement um for a number of our students because of their missed instruction um but we don't make decisions using one source of data so that um those Mis days are one that rate of absenteeism but we are also when we're making that recommendation for it to be required uh we're also looking at what the root causes of the absenteeism and what the students academic achievement is so that we're providing the appropriate intervention and services to the students all right thank you for that presentation and overview um Miss R we'll start with you do you have any questions I don't think I have any
049questions but I would like to say in terms of what I see at the school I noticed a lot of times when it comes to students who are often late to class or don't come to class it's kind of a question of how are we holding them accountable because I think some students really simply don't care and a lot of times especially for these older students families care their teachers deeply care but how can we kind of take action to make sure that students really see the value in their educational time uh thanks M for very interesting uh presentation and a little or very concerning actually I say uh looking at your written report uh I see here that currently Charlesville high school as through February 32.6 eight% of the students are considered chronically absent
050I think to that if I can can you pull that up and maybe Miss R can you talk us through that report first just so we can all understand what we're looking at and then return and your question so these are that's not what I'm looking for yeah that it's another so yeah so um what this shows is at the end of each of these months what the rate of chronic absenteeism is at the school um what that top what the top row is is how many days absent you need to be to con to be chronically absent so right now as you read in the chart 32.6 eight% of Charlottesville high schoolers have missed 12 or more school days um we are noticing a large uptick in cumul like consecutive absences across the board
051um for illness um through January and February um so yeah 32% of high schoolers in this 12 or more days all right yeah I mean I get kind of sickness season but a third of the students now I guess if I understood your pres previous uh I mean the presentation if you miss seven or more you're supposed to be on a a plan and that they've had a meeting so a third of our students are on plans and they've had meetings with multiple uh staff I mean it sounds like it's a mess of a amount of staff time too if I understand this so um plans are only required for unexcused absences we have a large number of excused absences um and so we have focused on providing interventions to the students that have the
052most significant barriers to School attendance so each of our school mental health professionals carry a case load of students who they providing that direct mental health Transportation um kind of matching the barrier with the intervention um but yeah it is it is an extreme amount of time spent communicating with families and students about attendance Mr Mar and and so I think one of the points that Miss rasnik just made uh regarding the excused absences um because so often we do get the commity Communications from families um regarding like my child is out we'll be out for five days we're going on a cruise we are you know I mean we're doing something leisurely um and we've been trying to reiterate that um an unexcused a an excused absence is the same as an unexcused absence
053in this case because it's all going in that bucket as it relates to Chronic absenteeism um it's the one thing that we are being uh we're being graded on that we don't get to control um so there's a lot of vacation um and leisurely time you know and I'm going abroad time that's um included in this thank you that's partially what I'm digging into this because I I'm not necessarily holding I would say I I don't think it's our responsibility to uh we have certain responsibilities like providing transport which again I hope everyone understands the city's responsible for uh but you know there and we have to have a interesting learning environment which I think in the majority of cases we do but uh right I think you know in my mind this is a
054a parent issue and we've seen that parents used to be able to do this fine in 2017 and 2018 and I don't know what's changed well Co change things I think a lot but um finally here I just like my dream of thought but I'll stop there thank you Miss rasing okay hey um so do we track for like the the days that we have delays what do the numbers look like with the 2hour delays so we have had a number of days this school year that have far exceeded our average for absences um we actually got a great report on Wednesday that showed like throughout the year what those days were and those delay days when other school divisions were closed we had a huge amount of absences um so we do work with
055the state in those circumstances to ask for waivers um but there have also been days this school year um for engagement um so we had a day uh in in February where we had um over 700 students absent to acknowledge um what it would be like to live without immigrants so we do want our students and Community to engage in Civic activities but we also know that it it can impact attendance significantly okay thank you because I I I will say uh two hour delays do not work for my family so my kids probably will miss school because it just doesn't make sense um but I was just curious thank you I have a quick question sorry um looking at these numbers like what what type of Outreach is um being done to the families
056um that children you know are not coming to school or coming to school late is it just the letter or is it actually um Family engagement where they're knocking on the doors talking to the parents to come up with an actual plan is is that happening and if so um like I guess with CHS being in 39.2% could you tell me like how many families have been actually put on a plan to try to get their children to school and what that has look like so I can come back with that information or um Can regularly add information additional data points to that written report whichever you all prefer um we our schools use their communication methods as well to reinforce School attendance um we have a limited honestly we have a limited amount of
057resources and so we use uh a decision-making tree to decide how we intervene um with families so we have our school mental health professionals our principles and assistant principles going and picking kids up um knocking on doors connecting with families um but we cannot we cannot reasonably do that for 30% of the high school um and so we have to rely on um less intensive measures for a lot of our students I wish we could do it for everybody I also had a question about like in reference to like if a student is late um but then they show up maybe an hour later are they going back in and putting that in as a tardi um because I've seen where that has happen where they say like your child is absent and it doesn't
058get corrected in the system so I wonder if that any of that information reflects in these numbers so um since I wrote the report the numbers have changed and so I I do want you all to be aware like each year when I write that report it's going to reflect any adjustments that are made because of VOE guidance any improvements in our processes um one of the things things this year about focusing on this data has been we are finding all of those instances where like you said a student comes in late or is dismissed early and their daily attendance is excused um and so we're going through at the high school right now kid by Kid to make sure that their attendance is accurate which is also very labor intensive but it's important and
059one of the reasons that we're finding those things is some of that communication with parents you know we had a parent call and say I think these these three days um shouldn't be excused they came in towards the end of the day and so that that revealed those gaps in our um data as [Music] well so I think along the lines of of some of what Miss Cooper was asking about um I was just curious as far as like the attendance conference is that just with the student or at what point is the family brought in to some of those meetings the family is part of is part of that and are we getting a good um turnout a good response when when that's being requested I think it depends on the school and the
060root causes yeah um for some families that's a great opportunity for us to come up with an agreement that the child can see like Mom and school we all agree that school is really important and the student needs that reinforcement in other times we're identifying some significant barriers that we need to then um pair that family with a school mental health professional I mean I feel like you know you opened up with and said more than once that the important part or focus of this is that the missing the educational time right um and I think it's it's hard um I mean I'm reflecting back you know just through the years of parenting and hearing things change a little bit and what the focus is on attendance and absenteeism and and you know I I'm
061wondering if it's just one of those things that parents hear and they don't realize the impact and and that it is changing and that the state is looking at it different L and that it's impacting how how our our schools are being scored and so I don't know I mean I don't want to add another thing that we have to educate I mean and I think we are putting things out but I don't know that this is something that as a parent I would be latching on to and going oh wow I really need to make you know A Better Effort at getting my student here and so this isn't really a question it's just kind of what I've been thinking about as I'm sitting here listening to this because it I mean some of
062those numbers um and and whether it is um you know January February and flu and whatever is going around or vacations um you know I can't help but wonder if there aren't other things going on just with the political landscape too some some students and families just not being comfortable showing up so it's it's complex but um I I appreciate you bringing this to us and I think we really need to dig into this and continue um to support you you all and and the people that are trying to do that Outreach um and look at the barriers and and whatever we can do as a board you know to continue to support that please let us know absolutely and I just want just to reiterate what Miss rasnik said in terms of um as
063we do this present this um it'll be in the written report section but the numbers um are going to be refined we're working through some things we just discovered this week during our school school Success meeting um so for ex for example you you'll see the 32% this month for CHS but we've found some areas where we were marking students absent they were present and so we can go back and code so we're going to clean that data up and so it's an opportunity to refine our practices as well and and so if parents are engaged and they're looking in power school and what's the name of itare parents Square all the things and they see oh I think I think this could be corrected who should they be reaching out to to help reconcile
064their child's attendance um depending on the school so CHS is our only school that does period attendance so that is the school that those um data pieces are present at all other schools do daily attendance um and it's done by the person who checks kids in So at the high school it's Miss Gore um but they can also reach out to um their school counselor they can reach out to me um and we'll get the information where it needs to go thank you just another quick question um are all of the schools doing the attendance the same way or different schools are doing it different ways I would love to know like is it consistent on how we're tracking this information it is so the codes we use the same attendance codes across schools um
065and the expectation is the same across schools there are additional codes at CHS based on the variety of activities that happen here um predominantly at the elementary school we're using three or four codes whereas at CHS we have things like Athletics and things like that um but it is this same um interpretation of um what excused and unexcused is at each of the elementary schools if you don't experience that or if you hear from a constituent that doesn't experience that um that's a lot of the work that we've been doing this year in in refining our practices so please just share and to be clear uh Lugo maginus is calculated within the CHS band Yes um and then additionally like any disciplinary absences related to suspensions also fall into these yes so every day of
066suspension is a day of absence um and students can be chronically absent because of suspensions thank you for this report I think like my final comments before I'll kick it back over to Mr Morris is just like a plea to parents that we need you to bring your kids to school and to not take days off unnecessarily um because life is going to happen and there's going to be absences that are unavoidable and so you know I don't think anybody on the board is saying bring your kid when they're sick we do not want them in the building when they are sick stay home uh but the you know the optional absences um it's too high and this is going to have a direct impact on the accreditation of our schools and how they are
067perceived and how our community is perceived so we need your help thank you madam chair I have one quick question how does uh chronic absenteeism um impact of promotion to the next grade for a student it it doesn't um we know that retention is another indicator of the likelihood that a child will drop out of school um and so we rarely will use absenteeism as a reason for retention um we are exploring how I we award credits appropriately um credit should be based on Mastery of content I think that's really interesting uh I think we've have staff that are dedicated this or this part of their responsibilities are there certain staff allocated to schools where there's more of a challenge I mean looking at again at some schools are doing well other schools are not
068doing so well and I guess is their dedicated staff only focused on this at certain schools yes so we have three social workers that this is their primary role um and then all of our social workers and social emotional support counselors play a role in the work this year we allocated to our two elementary schools that had simultaneously the highest rates of chronic absenteeism and need for mental health support they share an additional social worker between them um to be able to meet the needs of families um and that social worker works with families but also with the school and then we have um a social worker that split between Buford and Walker and a social worker here at CHS mean for the Social Services that are basically only focused I mean are we measuring
069their ability to and outcomes on reducing absenteeism and we're seeing that or I guess I just want to make sure if we're allocating money to pay people to specifically do this are they getting the job done and if not are we making a change I guess so they're tier three interventionists um they each set goals um like I can use one example one social workers goal this year is to really focus on the attendance for the English language Learners at um their schools what we know is that by the time students are in seventh 8th 9th through 12th grade um there are some one there's been a significant amount of misinstruction and that they um they have developed some pretty deep routines uh in not coming to school that type of family systems work takes
070a really long time um that type of change in a in a student takes a long time so we measure their effectiveness by are they are they Meeting those individual student like incremental goals like increasing the number of days that the family reports why the student is absent that's often an incremental goal that builds that connection with the school then moving on to a reduced number of absences um then we might move on to ontime arrival um and so it takes a long time and the individual students that those uh staff work with um having that connection with a person in the building sometimes this is the first time that they're really connected with somebody um or the first time in a long time so we measure their effectiveness by whether the students are meeting
071the goals that they the family the student and the provider set collectively thank you um next up we'll move to item 11.3 a rezoning update with Miss pal good evening Madam chair members of the board and Dr Gurley um this evening we have a presentation for you to uh help start the work session uh the presentation covers many of the questions and concerns that were expressed during the feedback and listening session on Tuesday February 18th that was held here um our consultant Karen Jackson with walart is with us here this evening and she's going to go through the slides and then Miss Jackson myself and Miss Chuck are all here to answer additional questions and support your uh conversation so with that I'll turn it over to Miss Jackson all right well thanks for having
072me tonight um we do have a shorter presentation I promis than the last couple of presentations um so we'll get through it and then get to questions oh okay awesome so here's our overall agenda um we're going to start with a couple slides about the process why we're resoning in the first place then we're going to move on to the boundaries including including the current boundaries as well as the uh recommendation from January and then onto our public hearing results and summary which are of course preliminary because that's survey is going to remain open for a couple more weeks oops I promise I'm trying okay there we go okay just G leave my finger on it so why are we talking about rezoning um the primary goal of this rezoning process is to rebounce the
073school utilizations among the six elementary schools into the future um populations have shifted over time that that shouldn't be a surprise to anybody there have been developments over time people have moved um and it has left some of our elementary schools underutilized while other ones are more heavily utilized um along with that there are quite a few residential developments that have the potential to produce a significant number of students um we're talking in the 400 student range and this is K through 5 only so we are keeping those in mind and have been throughout this process um something else to know about those developments is the majority of them are located within that southern portion of the district um mainly Jackson via Johnson and Summit are going to be the most hit with Summit getting
074hit the hardest of any of the current boundaries and unfortunately Summit is not able to support additional space on their campus um if you've been there it is a tight campus there's no room for a physical addition there's no room for learning Cottages they just cannot support more than their physical capacity has um along with that it's really important to note that you have the existing capacity to take on these students so when I'm saying there's over 400 students we're projecting from the developments you have the space we just need to spread the students out a little bit more evenly in order to get us there um so overall resoning will allow you to better balance enrollments among schools both now and into the future and really um uh get ahead of that impact that
075the housing developments are expected to have I swear I pressing the right thing oh you are awesome thank you I'm just going to tell you when to move so I don't have a slide for each of these um this time like I usually do but I do just want to share this is our overall process um we started off the process by doing a deep dive into the data um going into where students reside versus where they live uh student densities and how that has changed really anything you could think of about resoning we looked into we then met with our rezoning committee which has been integral throughout this process I have a whole slide on them um shortly here but they have been amazing throughout this process they helped us build those initial four
076options actually they didn't help us they did build those initial four options that you saw back I believe in October um we then took all the options that the Committee created and took that to the staff work group for rezoning which was made up of me as well as the um as well as a series of Administrators to decide which options would move forward and we brought four options forward that were pretty different for the reason that we wanted to get feedback on what like each little scenario everything that could happen it doesn't really make sense to bring options to the community that all look the same because we're just going to get the same feedback over and over we really wanted to get different feedback and show different ideas we then took those options
077to the community for feedback once we got that feedback and actually there were quite a few sessions we had we had a survey I think there were three sessions at schools along with additional sessions that the division um put together at different community centers and things like that throughout the community once we had that feedback we went back to the committee and back to that drawing board um something that I have heard just uh within the survey the most recent survey as well as in the public hearing is that folks were surprised that they um the recommendation was not one of the options that was presented that was always part of this process if you go back through the slides it actually says on one of the slides that we've presented we I haven't changed
078it that we are going to revise the options based on that Community feedback so that was always a part of the process we said it over and over and over um so I I'm not surprised to hear that but it was something that came up and I just wanted to address that the committee then met another two times to go over the result of um the community as well as a draft recommendation um and that draft recommendation is of course what we're bringing to you tonight and that what you've already seen um and then next steps of course are the recommendation and implementation which I believe has been pushed a little bit further to May um so we'll we'll start working on implementation in May after we get a vote from you all oh next
079slide I forgot I'm not doing this anymore going into this process we had five key considerations for rezoning um the kind of guiding star of this process of course which is not named on this slide has to be the utilization of buildings um we would not be undergoing this process if we didn't know that Summit was going to be over utilized in the future because of developments so that was our overall guiding star throughout this process but along with that we had five key considerations for resoning um to maximize walkability maximize bus efficiency keep neighborhoods together maintain or improve diversity or demographic balance some something else that I have heard um within the survey is that folks were surprised that they thought that a new key consideration was created and that is not the case
080um the diversity and demographic balance includes that socioeconomic and English language learner percentages and then of course have a plan that lasts at least five years because my goodness nobody no division ever wants to do this again um so we want to create a plan that's going to last into the future a couple of reminders um some of these will contradict each other that has always been the case and it it is even in the recommendations some of the key consider key considerations do contradict one another um and the committee was expected to uh to consider the division as a whole not just individuals or neighborhoods and I'll get into into that when I go over the committee roles but that has been kind of a big theme throughout this process is we have to
081consider all voices and all students now a couple items that you all do not have any control over first of all where students and families reside um like I said this has changed over time student densities have shifted within the community and this is this is why you have some imbalanced utilizations um and why you will have imbalanced utilizations once these developments start coming online you also do not control the locations lot sizes or lot sizes of your existing houses um it's something you have you have to react to but you don't have any control over or the locations or timelines of housing developments whether they are affordable or not and keep in mind a lot of these are going to be on the south side of the district they are expected to get hit
082the hardest you don't control the ability or inability to place uh modulars or learning cottages on site these were decisions that were made a long long time ago you don't control the ability to add classrooms to school sites um again Summit is just in the unfortunate position where they can't take on additional space and you also don't control the capacity or locations of your existing schools because that was decisions those were decisions made by Boards years and years and years ago um so these are all uh things you don't control but you you have to react to next slide please and then moving on on to our committee um the superintendent advisory committee met a total of three times um twice in January to review feedback and discuss recommendations um this is a group of
083parent and community member volunteers and I think that's very important they gave up their evenings for us they gave up time away from their families to help with this process um they like I said they were expected to consider the needs of all students within the division not just their own neighborhoods not just any neighborhood they were hearing from everybody and some committee members were even impacted by the recommendation that is that is pretty common in these processes and it's most certainly happened in this process um their role was to advise the super tenant on a recommendation not make a recommendation to the board and to provide local information and expertise about the community Karen if I could I'm sorry yeah please go jump in um that committee I appreciate you pointing out parent and
084community members but my understanding is there were also teacher St teachers staff members and two of my board colleagues on that as well correct yes they were sorry just want to make sure I'm keeping all my people straight so um we even had City rep or a city representative there um the head of yeah NDS was there and he he was a great help he helped us um a lot with our information on developments and things like that okay thank you of course um something else to note is that we started off our committee meeting by telling the committee that it was their job to consider the needs of all all students within the district and they did an excellent job at this um it becomes very evident to me if somebody has a secret
085agenda when they're creating options and when they're doing this and I did not see that within this group um certainly there was feedback and folks like Drew options different ways but it was they did an awesome job with keeping the division as a whole in consideration um and then of course the staff work group for resoning determined the final recommendation based on the work of the committee um in the feedback they gave us next slide please all right so moving on to boundaries you've all seen the slide before these are your current boundaries um so up at the top I'll kind of explain the table the capacity shows the programmatic capacity that each building can support this is based on the programs that currently exist within the building um and there is a very specific
086formula for each School the livein enrollment is showing the number of students that live within each boundary the out of division enrollment is showing the number of students that go to each school from outside of the division boundaries um this was not factored into the utilization because those numbers can change can and du change on an annual basis the utilization is very simply enrollment divided by capacity the low sces percentage is the percentage of each student population that is directly certified um which is a similar Sim similar formula to free and reduce lunch um and then percentage this is the percentage of students that receive English as a second language services and then our sped percentage is the percentage of students who receive special education services for greater than 50% of the day um the
087plus development utilization at the end is showing the utilization upon completion of the developments within that boundary um so as you can see Summit is really who's getting hit the hardest they once all of those developments are completed um they will be utilized at 141% and they just that that poor School cannot cannot support that many students um I do want to go over some upcoming changes so in 2627 prek is going to move out of the elementary schools and fifth graders will move back in um Walker Elementary will then become the pre- center and then Buford Middle School will then become the 68 Middle School um and renamed to Charlottesville middle school so you've got some exciting changes coming up next slide please all right and then this is our recommendation from January um
088as you can see if you look at that plus development utilization column at the end this the recommendation does do a really good job of balancing the enroll or the utilizations across schools I do want to point out that Johnson Elementary and Summit Elementary are a little bit um I wouldn't say underutilized but they are less utilized than the others this is to account for the higher um El percentage at Johnson and the higher uh low socioeconomic percentage at Summit um so that they have a little bit more space for flexibility and resources hey Karen I have a question um can you remind me what was the target percentage that we were um focusing on for utilization so we can have a a number for that um typically for an elementary school it's anywhere like
089around 85% um that allows most schools to be some Flex to have some level of flexibility um if there's like an especially large class like a large third grade class moving through the system it gives them an opportunity to have that extra space that they need um but we we like schools to be right around 85% at an elementary level that does change for middle and high school though since there's more flexibility with scheduling so in looking at the number of students moved we have 321 or 177% of the division um and that's 17 321k through fifth graders so knowing that fifth grade would move on to middle school that number is a little bit inflated um walkable students is also based on K through five um so we would have 667 or 36% this
090is a 6% decrease in walkability something I want to point out about walkability is we did know going into this process that walkability was going to be impacted um Summit Zone currently is mostly a walk Zone um and because we need students out of summit unfortunately that means acting Walkers so we did know going into this process that walkability was going to be impacted um and then that bottom chart just shows the number of students U moving from their current boundary into their future boundary with the recommendation it just shows the number by boundary and that is representative of K through five as well next slide please all right and these are our phasing recommendations um the first changes which are not depicted on the slide would actually occur to the little the small little
091changes between Jackson B and Johnson these do not have any students today these are small little neighborhood continuity Street continuity changes that we want to probably make as soon as possible just so we can get ahead of it before any student is impacted um so those don't have any students in them today but again it would it would offer some Transportation efficiencies and things like that if we just went ahead and made those changes sooner rather than later the next recommended change would occur in 27 28 This Is that West of Kindlewood area like right around dice Street range street um and this would move to Burnley Morant in 2728 this would allow some of those developments um this would allow a little bit more room in Summit for some of those developments to come
092online um looking at the timelines that we have it should they should line up pretty well to get those students out of summit just in time for a couple of them to come online the next changes and this is for the remainder of the recommended changes would occur in 2930 um and that would be the Kindlewood area moving to Burnley Moran The Rose Hill area moving into Trailblazer along with the Meadows moving into Trailblazer and then the Locust Grove neighborhood moving over to Green Brier um with a longer timeline like this this would allow every student who is in first grade currently and above to stay at their current school um and with those priority exemptions which I will get to on the next slide um they would it would likely allow even kindergarteners starting
093next year to finish at their school and even beyond that go ahead next slide and these are our priority exemption recommendations um allowing incoming fourth and fifth grade students to apply to remain at their existing school and be prioritized um as well as early start students this is the early start actually came as an idea from a Community member who didn't have students in school yet um he came to one of our community meetings and gave us this idea to do early starts so that if he was moved his family could just stay at the school and we thought it was an excellent idea so we wanted to implement that as well um giving priority to early start so that they could apply to attend their future school um we also considered siblings so siblings
094of students who receive priority exemptions are also welcome to apply um that has not changed that process would not change um but they would the cut off there has to be a cut off with this otherwise we're going to be resoning for years and years and years um would be that it would be while the older Exempted sibling is still attending that school any family that chooses to participate in the cohort phasing recommendation would have to provide their own transportation to and from school each day um we have talked about people Transit offering transportation and if this is possible of course um of course we would do something like that but it is not guaranteed so we would anybody participating this would need to agree to provide their own transportation and if a bus is
095available excellent next slide please all right and this slide shows the comparison to the division wide averages so on the left we have our current boundaries um the orange cells are showing anything any of the schools that are lower in the division wide average um anything in that darker orange is greater than 10% less less than the the districtwide average and then the green cells are showing anything that's over the uh the district or division wide averages and then anything in the dark green showing anything over that 10% Mark um so you can see we do have some imbalance currently Burnley Moran is pretty low on the socioeconomic Spectrum whereas Summit is pretty high um and looking at the plus development utilizations you can see I mean Summit would be utilized 57% over the division-wide
096average whereas L Maran and green buer would be underutilized so looking how this impact or how the recommended boundaries impact these numbers um you can see there is quite a bit more balance across the board with the recommended boundaries um the only cell that is highlighted is going to be Green Brier and they would be 14% under that division-wide average for socioeconomics next slide please okay sove moving on to the public hearing results that we've already received these are as of I think February 26th and that's because I had to pull them with enough time to get you your presentation um so like I said that survey is still open please please please if people are watching please feel free to respond to it it will remain open through um the 12th of March um
097and maybe even longer than that since we have extended extended the timeline for the vote thank you um um so just some general information we held a Q&A session on the 4th of February at Summit with communities that were impacted by the recommendation um we answered questions about the recommendation as well as about the process the community feedback survey opened on the 6th when the recommendation was announced to the board um and like I said the survey will is still open and it remains open for the next couple weeks the public hearing was held on the 11th in this room for inperson and virtual feedback and the public hearing results report will be provided to you all for review upon closure of the survey um and we do have a preliminary report that I believe
098has been sent out um for the public hearing we had 23 speakers 27 uh in 27 testimonies me a couple folks did uh did come up more than once um and testimony was given both in person and Via Zoom the feedback survey as of the 26th we had 186 responses and I looked tonight we have 221 responses as of tonight so that's great keep them coming we want to hear from folks um I also want to note that we have had some people respond multiple times and I'm not just talking twice I'm talking there was one person that uh responded 14 times so that has not been ironed out of the results report and it probably won't because the the results are slightly different each time but that is something to keep in mind that
099some some folks have been uh responding multiple times the other thing and this is not unique to Charlottesville this happens everywhere there is 83% of the community or of families that are not impacted by this recommendation we are likely not hearing from them um this always happens I mean personally if I wasn't impacted by the process the entire time I probably wouldn't respond either like I totally understand but that's that's something to keep in mind so while we are hearing a lot of feedback right now it is likely from those that are impa Ed and not those who are content with the process as well as the results next slide please all right so again all of this is as of 226 um and some of this will of course have changed because we've received
100almost 40 more responses since then but of those who have responded the vast majority of the respondents have been representative of Burnley Moran Elementary School followed then by Charlottesville High School in looking at the um like the groups of people who have responded we have received the most response from our elementary school families uh followed then by community members next SL please we also ask within the survey what area that folks are providing feedback on um the majority of the feedback has come from or has been about the north of 250 area that's moving from uh Bley Moran into Green Brier that Locust Grove area followed then by all of the above so some folks have provided feedback on the process about the whole plan Al together and things like that next slide and I
101do want to go through a summary of what we've kind of heard so far um first of all many do support the action of spreading out diversity we heard that over and over in the public hearing people people like that idea um so let's see yes and for the point of not having everybody concentrated at semi Elementary um let's see another sorry I can't read it up there and um although the 250 Pi bypass looks like a good natural barrier and the cross and it's an easy walk to cross the bridge um a lot of the loc grow Community would still like to go to Burnley Moran even though that looks like a nice barrier um a 6% decrease in walk ability is not desirable for some um there is a desire for a transportation
102study to be done and back up the statements about the 250 bypass many did make note of their concern about the practicality of busing and if Transportation will be reliable there's a strong push for students to attend their closest neighborhood school um something about this if you look into our earlier slides we do have a slide on what show and it shows what the boundaries would look like and utilizations would look like if every student attended they geographically close to school and based on where populations have moved over time where your buildings were built that is not going to be possible for everybody it causes vast overutilization and underutilization of buildings um there are mixed feelings on the timelines for these changes some support a slower gradual move like we have proposed While others are
103in favor of a quicker timeline and just probably getting it over with um there are some respondents that feel like the process is rushed and some respondents do not believe that their feedback is being taken into account from previous surveys in the public Q&A sessions um I I do want to note something about that this has never been a process about um the where the loudest voices get their way um every piece of feedback that we get is important whether it's the majority or not the majority we have poured through the feedback um with this so just because there is a facet of the community that is not getting what they wanted what they responded to there are other factors at play here than just just that so I'm going to leave it there but
104this is not a latus voice wins type of process and it never has been next slide please all right so we have had a lot of ideas being brought forth to us um and I do want to note this this alternative plan we have we have been considering this um when we got those initial result results I spent weeks going through each of the responses by neighborhood if you remember we asked for a an address within that survey so that we could look at the responses by neighborhood and see what accommodations we could make by neighborhood um so this is not this is not new to us while it is it is new to you as well as the community it is something that we have looked at um already but we wanted to bring
105it to light based on the feedback that we've been getting so this plan leaves the most well it leaves the portion of Burnley Moran that is within 3/4 of a mile to the school walkable to the school um within Burnley Moran in order to do this we did have to make some changes elsewhere and I do want to go over those so the first would be um everybody so we've got Kindlewood and then Rain Street right there Ridge I keep saying range I don't know why Ridge Street my apologies would go to Trailblazer that includes Star Hill which was not an original part of the recommendation but it it was a part of an initial option um The Meadows and the Rose Hill area would also have to move back into Green Brier in order
106to keep green Brier's utilization up otherwise Green Brier would be underutilized um and Trailblazer would be over utilized something to note about this is that the Rose Hill area um the feedback we've received from them has actually been positive about moving to Trailblazer um um so we we essentially would be taking feedback that's a negative about the recommendation about the walk Zone and going against other people's wishes to do this but it does make our numbers work so if we look at the utilizations if we take just that um just that 3quarter of a mile Zone north of 250 that is within the walk zone for Bley Moran we do have balanced utilizations our socioeconomics are still pretty well balanced um with it or among the schools El there's not a huge difference in El
107um or special ed looking at students move it would move 133% of the student population or 239 students and of course it does increase our walkability um at 38% rather than 36% so we wanted to present this tonight it is it is something that we've looked at already but wanted to bring it to light because of the feedback that we have been receiving and this is my last slide so if you have questions on this we most certainly want to want to go through that or other questions don't it's not limited to this I do want excuse me I do want to know um one thing that Karen didn't say so in looking at um and looking at this alternative plan the last one she just presented one thing it does do which we were
108trying not to do was it divides the Locust Grove Community um and so um you know Miss Julie and I walked with um we walked with families on last Friday and most and Miss Torres I'm sorry and Miss Torres um walk with families on on last Friday and most certainly I mean everyone's talking about the we're hearing the walkability and and so the walkability when we say walkability we're saying the walk Zone um the three the point 75 and so most certainly presenting this does present yet another issue it divides a it divides a community and so I think it's you know you know you have to what are you prioritizing when you say we we want to walk um because that means in this case when you look at it when you um laser
109down on the neighborhood it means that you your neighbor May be going to a different school um which it's happening already in Charlottesville City and so um but if you're going to prioritize the walking then this is what it does to the community yeah it pins one key consideration against the other it's it's walkability versus splitting a neighborhood and neither of those were prioritized I think the other thing to mention about this is the so the the section of students that would move into Trailblazer it is a smaller group of students um and typically while it's not a key consideration like a best practice for rezoning would be moving a larger faction of students at a time so that people don't feel isolated in their new schools and they see people that are familiar to
110them um so while that's certainly it's not a key consideration it is something something to keep in the back of your mind I would just I would just like to clarify something for people who at home who may not have heard uh Karen correctly that that arrow that moves West into Trailblazer that is spefic specifically the what we've been calling the dice Street neighborhood who live west of Ridge the dice Street neighborhood who lives east of Ridge and Kindlewood itself would continue to be rezoned for Burnley Moran that she was we were working quickly to kind of get this ready for public attention so that that circle is kind of a large Circle that isn't representative of that exact change thank you um thank you for this over rview of the process that we've been
111engaged with for several months now um this topic came up as a request from board members to have a chance to ask questions um and to be able to essentially have a work session to talk to one another to be able to provide some feedback and guidance to Dr Gurley and his team uh as we move towards a formal recommendation and then subsequent vote um so um we've got our fine folks here to answer questions questions that uh board members may have Miss Torres I will start down on your end thank you um yeah I I started to put a bunch of things together over the last couple of days and I've got papers everywhere and questions everywhere and now we got more questions um with this with this revision here or this alternate alternative
112plan to think about but I think more than anything what was important for me and and I do appreciate um having the opportunity to just kind of say um to the folks that showed up at our last meeting was that you were heard um and and whether it be via email or or showing up here or during the walk um and not just because you showed up here but and I'm speaking for myself but I know our the board is diligent and and has really taken this seriously because this is a big thing I mean it hasn't happened in a long time um and again personally I'm speaking you know that bothered me that that people felt like we weren't listening to them because we do and we spent a lot of time um pouring
113through not just the work that the committee has done and that you've brought to us but every single voice that I that I've listened to or that I've heard speak up about it I mean I do pay attention um and so it was important to me and and I sent um just my personal response um after that meeting was was asking can we have another work session um is it possible to slow this down a little bit um I I was thrilled to to be able to join Dr Gurley moui you know on the walk um and and to just continue to listen and to try and digest a lot of this and look at this from the big picture but again and that that's key I think is that we as a board have
114to look at this um wides scoped you know because it's it's the entire Division and and that's what we are um tasked to do is to just like the committee you asked the committee to to look at this and and make their and do their work um with the entire School Division in mind and and that's what we um are tasked to do and ultimately to make that decision um so I did want to just address the fact that that people have been been heard um and we have received the feedback and the emails um there was also questions about just the types of communications and people feeling like this was a rush process um and I tried to reflect back on how long this process has has been going on and when it was
115rolled out and when the initial um Communications to the community whether it be through um parent square or um individual schools putting out um Communications um and I don't know if if Miss Chuck do you do you happen to remember do you know off the top of your head how many different types just generally of communications have gone out to the community I i' would say it started really with a strategic plan that's where it began a year or two ago because that was one of the it was outlined there but uh particularly I think parents probably first heard about it in when they got that art calendar the printed calendar in August that that one had in a couple places you know stay tuned and look for information so we just wanted to capture
116people's attention earlier it went out um via parent Square not only in kind of broad messages to everybody but like you say school specific messages or even neighborhood specific messages it went out we had uh was in the newsletters it was also just targeted messages about resoning in fact we've seen some comments on on social media that you know I've almost heard too much about resoning so um and that's because I think also when you turn on the TV or the radio or read the paper there's we've sent out three press releases it was covered repeatedly it will still be covered especially um if you all choose to continue looking at this alternative plan we'll keep our Media Partners um up to date on on where you are in that um I could go on
117for a long time but I think you get the point I think we we've reached out to various Partners um like I've been especially uh just appreciative of Miss hin at ped Mount housing to to really walk with us we had five different meetings in the summit Zone alone this fall and in addition to those meetings I think she just really um took upon herself working with the summit PTO just how can I engage with people on an individual level how can I break down these complexities of resoning and help people learn what this means for their families understand what their options are you know things like that so it's not only on the schools pushing out messages but it's on good partners who come alongside us like that I could I could continue for
118quite some time but I think you get the point that we've tried a lot a lot of our um a lot of different channels yeah no thank you for that I think the biggest thing that if folks aren't already taking advantage of it ever since the fall this has been one of the um consistent Banner items on our website so if anybody goes to the homepage you find the link to extensive information that's really uh chronicled all the work and so um anyone who's looking for more transparency or looking for more information just please please uh check out that website I know as as Miss Chuck commented to see it all it's almost overwhelming it may seem like too much because it is a lot of technical work and it's it's been quite a process
119but please don't forget the website is a valuable resource thank you um and I do know and again appreciated your recap of kind of the process and and looking Karen um at at just how this started and and understanding the why I mean I think we did a really good job of of explaining the why right out of the gate um and then as a process like this unfolds um as has been alluded to I mean not all of the board was was at the table but a couple of our our board members were part of that committee and did the work um and then um recommendations for possible um plans were brought to us and and it was just kind of ever evolving and I and I I want to make make it clear
120and I think you did as well is that there was never a point in time where um anybody said that it's going to definitely be or definitively be one of these and it was very clear that that with the feedback from from people from surveys from um emails that that it would evolve and and partly because we're listening and we want to do what's best but ultimately leaning into the experts Dr Gurley and his team and you all to look at the big picture um and and dig a little bit deeper and look at these metrics you know and then in part of our work and part of of the board sessions that we had you know it became very clear that this this opened up an opportunity for us to not just look at
121capacity but to look at some other things so that we are um able to support every student in our school division a little bit better so I mean I just really I'm proud of this and and it's hard and it's a long process um and I and I do want to acknowledge that um a lot and most of us are parents and and it's okay to advoc for for your student and and I get that I mean I've done a lot of that through through the years um with my um daughter when she was going through the schools but our role is to um again look Beyond just our student and and to really make sure that we're doing what's best for every student in the school Division and so I just really want to
122encourage um the board and I want everybody to know that I'm I'm committed you know to continuing to be um int um intentional and diligent and ensuring that every student um is educated to their fullest potential and the School Division has done a lot of work right around that statement and this aligns with that and I'm proud of that and I just want to say thank you for everything thank you m Richardson any questions um yeah so as far as the the pushing Rose Hill back was that like the first try that you guys is like well let's see what let's just do these this one thing that's currently words no right okay so this is the current so what what's changing so sorry I'll let Karen speak to this but currently that neighborhood is
123zoned to Green Brier in the the first recommendation it was shifted to Trailblazer thank you and then in this alternative it's shifted back to Green Brier right okay okay okay in wrangling with the feedback I thought that change which had been uh got gotten favorable feedback the the numbers just don't work if we don't put it back to um to Green Brier in in the alternative so that's why it Chang okay okay so I I know we want to keep communities together um I just think we might need to go back to the drawing board because I I just it's not sitting well for me because I was on the committee and and we discussed um walkability in that Community specifically being able to walk to chubbler um just like um Locust Drive Locust Street
124those parents also want to walk their kids to school and have those moments and for many years they have not been able to so I think we need to sit at the table and and see some other options Miss Richard the um that Rose Hill um moving that with in the proposal to move Rose Hill to Trailblazer it doesn't bring it in that doesn't bring that into the walk zone so they that they would not be able to walk so that's why it's not a big difference so right saying so and and coming up with an option that brings the walk zone for um the Locust Grove neighborhood in um and I mean it's currently in the walk Zone to bring it in this current model we we're essentially saying we're going to continue to
125do what's already happening Rose Hill will continue to go to green brryan Miss pal can or somebody can you speak to re the most recent rezoning that impacted walkability at Trailblazers so the uh West Haven Neighborhood so um as you all as many people are aware the um West Haven Neighborhood which is highly walkable to what was ventable now Trailblazer for many years it was zoned to Burling Moran um from you know a move that is you know was likely intentional to keep those students that lived in that neighborhood um out of what was Venable school and so it's a very It's a Wonderful walk from uh West Haven over to Trailblazer and so there was action taken I want to say it was pre-pandemic I would Dr Johnson's here she could it's all a
126blur for me before the pandemic but it it was it was that that's neighborhood is now zoned to Trailblazer it the the first steps of it we we began giving options to families pre- pandemic but I believe it actually became official after Dr gir came maybe 2022 something like that I guess I need to know how many um families are in in that area that's going to be affected how many and we're speaking now we don't I mean development we don't know what's going to happen in the future like so all the future developments are ined okay the Redevelopment plans for West Haven are factored into the uh the last utilization column so every development we're aware of that's on the book so to speak is is fact in all numbers okay I think I've
127seen more options come back as um like a first pass and then if people have additional questions and comments um um did you have additional at this time no I'm fine okay Miss Cooper I had a really quick question looking at the survey feedback um I know that they did a survey in kinderwood in 90 98 out of 125 Kindlewood residents completed a survey is that captured in this PowerPoint presentation excuse me is that captured in oh is it captured in Karen's uh assessment of her survey yes that is not actually captured that came from Miss hin just a day or two ago and so that was too late to be factored into the slides that were posted but I I believe the letter that was read tonight is representative of that community of that
128information and um I like I said I'm just really appreciative of Miss hin so we definitely need to find a way to as we as Karen continues uh processing the preliminary feedback to kind of fold that all in together so that it's all of a piece so thank you for that yeah um I think that is important that we uh capture those voices as well so that we can see that you know Outreach is happening in the community and conversations that's being had thank you thank you Miss Burns thank you all right so I wanted to ask about buses um currently Miss po if you could help us understand how many buses are currently running and drivers and then I don't know which plan to go with now but I'm gonna I am going to
129go with the jary recommendation um do we know what what that is it more buses more drivers are we going to be putting ourselves in a detriment there so we're not at this point um we don't have drivers that in any type of surplus where we could you you know make changes and and be confident that we wouldn't have weight list as far as like adding routes but the buses follow the students and we are confident Renee uh dval has been who handles all of the bus routing she's been integral in this process and so as the different boundary shifts um have been put forward even the most recent uh one that is shared tonight we always run those past her to make sure that it wouldn't have any um it it wouldn't cause any
130issue that would require us to try to add more buses so um the busing the number of buses itself themselves number of drivers that we would need those aren't that's not a factor between the options okay um and I think um it's been it is not lost on me either the voices that we've heard um unfortunately I could not be present but I listened in on the zoom uh option at the last meeting and so those voices are not lost on me but I think I want to express to the community and my colleagues um the voices that weren't here and sometimes we have to be mindful of the people who are not in the room who do not have the means or the mobility to get here and I am frustrated I am frustrated
131because I go to that school those children are just such an integral part of my life and it's frustrating when I am doing work in that community and parents cannot come because they're working two and three jobs not because they don't want to be here and they don't have transportation at will in their driveway to go bring their child to school so it's not an option to walk or to drive it is only to walk and I think we need to be mindful of that and be present and understanding what that Community is truly struggling with and I love that you picked your home when you had your baby because you wanted to walk them to school at Burley Moran but a lot of people in that neighborhood don't get to pick that they live
132there they have to live there there is no other option and I am sorry but this city does not do a great job of planning where we build housing and I am incredibly hopeful I think we have a city council that's listening and I think our city manager is open to understand what it looks like when we plan development in the city of Charlottesville that we take into consideration what happens at our schools what does capacity look like what does low sces look like so that we're not having these conversations over and over and over again after they happen that we're taking people into consideration first and I'm just I'm sorry I am frustrated that we're coming to the table with another response an alternative when there was a recommendation made and we heard from
133a lot of people and we heard from committee members and Dr gley and his staff and it's frustrating um to see other communities being moved and one Community staying in the same place because they were the loudest and they had the means and they had the mobility and that just does not feel good to me um I guess I have one main question um and this is probably more so about future conversations about our aging buildings um like is this one of these plans or this process then going to drive some of our discussion in terms of our building usage or do we have a relative plan of what buildings are going to be renovated versus um request for new buildings that do we then start the zoning process over I would say that that
134is a part of that conversation that um Sam referenced in one of our work sessions about we do have to have different conversations about Capital Improvement and not just you know dropping the one one and a quarter million dollars to just give them a little facelift um really we have to think about um the long range that you know we can't wait 50 more years before we're building another um before we are erecting another building um before we're thinking about capacity so I mean I think this is going to be a part of the larger um CIP conversations in terms of how we utilize our buildings I mean we have two buildings that are 100 years old and they were not designed for how we educate students today so I think one of the concerns
135that I have and I I totally agree with you I'm not going to Discount any or counter anything that you've said um but one of the concerns that I've had and I I shared in I think our last work session is that we're then removing the option of walkability from future residents um you know in Kindlewood um so I this is what I predict um and I totally could be wrong um is that we're going to approve one of these zoning plans and then in a couple years or so we're going to get on our horse and start you know advocating for money and say Charlesville really um appreciates our neighborhood schools except for one neighborhood and so I I I think that that then shows a disservice and and I understand the logic between
136behind all of this but I think I'm worried about the future public perception and and it feels like it will be one of those moments in the newspaper or VR headset however we're consuming news in the future of this was another moment where we took a population majority of of color and said you're you're almost there but not quite yet we kept you on the boundary so that that's just one thing that I'm concerned about I I do believe and I I hear you and I remember I was there for that work session I do believe to some degree that we have to at least have a wish list of what we want for our buildings um in terms of if if we're saying Summit just doesn't it doesn't work on on its current lot
137are we we should then consider do we need a different lot um so I think there are some things there that I think I'm trying to prevent a hiccup in the future that that's what I'm looking at I I hope I'm being clear I I hear you and I think that those are all the things that we're concerned about in this process um the reality is that a marginalized group we'll have to move regardless I mean um we had the conversation I mean whether it's Carlton um Carlton can walk to Summit um in this because we're here because of utilization someone has to move and and as we talked about during the last work session the option is is not that we can't do anything and so I agree I mean what what we are
138um having to address address is that someone made decisions about housing and did not include schools um at the table and now we will be at a place where a 100 we that we will be at 141% utilization and the reality is that we shouldn't have to move people um but in this someone will have to move and and the argument is that both are marginalized groups and both can walk um because that's where the highest densi in those two um those two locations so um it is unfortunate that I mean regardless um I think Karen has said this over and over since the time we've met that someone's not going to be happy in this um and the reality is that unfortunately the P me um I have to make a I have to
139make a decision a recommendation to you all that's not going to be popular either way I I present it um and so yes yeah you're right you're absolutely correct someone's someone's going to move that should not have to move um because we were not included in where buildings get put up so thank you though appreciate all my colleagues comments and uh I reflect back on our meeting in December we did have the work session where we reviewed all of the options and I think roundly agreed that option number two which is I think what basically and some modifications around that was what we again received in January and and I was very happy to see that because I think it reflected the feedback that that we gave the administration and uh Karen wilper uh and
140that meaning is on video and is up around andbody can watch that video and listen to all the feedback we gave again the administration back in um December and I think we started this back in uh September uh I got a question and so just to clarify the alternative plan that was presented sounds like you all reviewed it before it potentially was an option that or was going to be the option that gave it to us but the one thing that you decided not to do that necessarily was because it would split Locust Grove is that the main reason and and Rose Hill which is already split but right when we say that this is splitting Locust grow like this doesn't it there's no logic to it like there's no there's a road that runs
141through Lo um Locust and one side is going and one side is staying um this is the walk Zone students would potentially stay and I can assure you that while we've had people who have said we want kids who can walk I mean some of the families that we spoke to that that we spoke to last week I mean one of those families lives almost a mile so this doesn't this doesn't benefit them but I'm sure that they would say they were here right now that that's still close enough that I want to be able to keep my child um at Burnley Moran and that's not what we're saying we're saying walk zone is there the student we we can capture those students without having to adversely impact anyone in the current recommendation um because
142again Rose Hill already goes to Green Brier so we're there's not a big shift here um the what doesn't what's not going to be favorable is there's a still a huge portion um that is now still going to Green Brier and you're essentially dividing people who live across the street um live beside each other live next door to one another um and I can tell you that it achieves what you asked what was asked is that if if my child can walk and what we call walking is the walk Zone um but there will be families who say but I live 0. n and 0. n doesn't count um it's 75 so but but we've done that too but let's in the in the spirit of what um Miss Burns is saying we've done this
143to communities already right I see Miss gilin nodding so that's um that's one for me um we're we're splitting we're splitting communities already um we split Prospect um so I mean this is nothing different so if you if you want to stay this is your way to say and what I was encourage what what I'm going to tell my board bosses is that we can go back and we can survey the Locust Community do you want to stay in or do you want to go to greenb and I would imagine everyone in the walk Zone would say I want to stay and those not in the walk Zone would say no I want all of us to go and we can't achieve that we can't achieve that um I mean there's just not enough yeah
144you just can't achieve that is that an option for kindle wood as well for if they live you know they can walk well in the Kindle and what we've done with Kindlewood is I believe that we have phased it enough and what and we phased it enough that we've not adversely impacted those who are currently there and I feel like we've done what we've called The Legacy stairs correct um that if you're already there that you still have that option in the you have that option in the future future and that does not adversely impact Summit there's no way we could do that for that big space of um for that big space which is um Locust growth I mean we just can't we can't absorb that that number of students um not and achieve
145the utilization the um balance of the sces um I just don't I don't think we can do it I mean this alternative and I know their folks on the board who like you already gave a recommendation This Is Us saying this is me saying I'm listening to the feedback this doesn't upend what I've already recommended this is just pulling back people from the walk Zone and I think we can survey back out again but it's not like people are going to be cheering because this is going to make people who live at 4:15 go to one school and 4:17 go to a different school um and that's not popular but it happens to people marginalized people Mr Meer Mr me I'm sorry no that appreciate no need to apologize appreciate that context that's I was
146hoping to hear I mean colleagues I'm struck as we can keep on kind of you know moving half of neighborhoods around and it's kind of like a whack-a-mole in my opinion because we'll get that neighborhood they will come out then or those people that again are all of a sudden impacted and we'll get you know we'll have to do another listening session which was fine but I think we'll get the same type of again concerns at us and that is I think multip of you have kind of mentioned that um so I'm I mean I'm personally because I think the recommendation that we were given the first one in January was the best uh I you know I'm leaning towards that I do think we need to eventually stop uh because we can't keep on
147having staff and spend time on this and and we do need to make a decision so and I'm a little I'm hoping that we're voting at the end of this month so um I'll leave it there and chair if we're not going to be voting at the end of this month I'd like to understand why not sure Dr gley um yes you all will not be able to vote at the end of this month because um in keeping with um protocol there needs to be a recommendation a meeting with the that we need to notice the recommendation and that's not what this meeting was noticed for um and then you would need to have a subsequent um vote um and so this meeting was not um this meeting was not noticed as the meeting where
148we would be making the recommendation this was a work session that's my understanding yeah it wasn't in February weren't we and in January we were talking about this wasn't it the I thought we I saw an agenda or a timeline when we adjusted it back in January and pushed it back yes that we were gonna be voting on this at the end of this month we did have those conversations but in speaking with and speaking with Council that we did not notice this meeting that this meeting would be the recommendation and then there would be a subsequent meeting where you would be taking action and so I think in the in the spirit of being transparent with people and we know that emotions are high for a particular you know pockets of families I think
149that this is one of the times where you want to make sure that you are doing it um in order um so that no one questions I mean I think we've talked I heard you all say this has been a a thorough process you you've put a lot of intentionality and I I don't think you want that right at the end that someone question when and why you made a vote um and it felt like it was done in haste okay so having that clear and even though I'm not happy about it but we need to give you then feedback so that Absolut we have a recommendation that we can then vote on right yes yes sir I don't think heard at least we have an A and B option at the moment right now
150and again in the idea of we're not going to continue to keep on debating this forever uh I guess all I mean all our clogs we need to basically say we want a or b or how are you how are you gonna get your well I think what I what I would say is that I asked the staff today to add this um alternative plan to the end um which does include the walk Zone I would like because that's the purpose of the work session um of any work session to give feedback now granted this is the first evening you've looked at it so most certainly um when I come back for a recommendation you can be prepared by then but I would say that I would like for you to give consideration to bringing
151the walk Zone in and in the meantime before we come back um we can survey that Community um we can can survey that Community um I think this is doing and and I want to say that I am not um you know this is not about a group of folks have been loud and I'm responding to someone who's been loud I am I did a walk I heard people say walkability and I think that everyone's definition of walkability is different um the school's definition is the walk Zone is0 75 for elementary school and if that is truly what you want um by our definition then that's what I want to present to the school boy that we can achieve that and not have to adversely impact my previous recommendation it's just pulling the Rose Hill
152folks back um and the um dice Street which was automat which we were going to move it now stays at the place where it currently goes to school um I mean yeah can help me understand also for historical sorry sorry Rose Hill was already moved several years ago right no yes no Rose Hill has always been at Green Brier Nobody Knows Why H uh Rose Hill was but Rose Hill was previously at Green Brier it's currently ATR green currently at Green Brer so committee members help me please so the The Rose Hill are we talking Rose Hill they expressed a desire to be with trailer correct I think I would defer to the survey results in response to I think it's also fair to say that at least the the the single biggest piece of
153feedback we heard throughout every single Community every single neighborhood is that people want to go to the school they currently go to so there's balanc with that but then I think on top of that the Rose Hill The Rose Hill Neighborhood understood yeah if you look at it on paper it makes more sense for us to go to to Trailblazer so I think uh if we were to tell that Community we're considering keeping you at Greenbrier they might see it as either way I get it is probably how I would suspect but I'm not I don't want to um speculate too much because we would need to get their feedback right right and I'm simply saying that when I arrived here Rose Hill was at greenb um we did not do that yes uh miss
154or I'd like to say from a student perspective we love our elementary schools they shape us they still have an impact on us and I think speaking for students not just in high school having schools and having classrooms that have resources to support us us those will shape us into the best Learners that we can be and those are going to have an impact Beyond elementary school so I think that really should be considered with this complex topic and also I think the question that I want to ask here maybe this isn't going to be answered right now but something to think about is how are we being mindful to equity and how are we balancing when making these plans the needs of the community the needs of marginalized communities over the needs of communities
155that have the privilege of being more expressive thank you more question go ahead I had one more question in reference to um something that Amanda had shared um are the buses currently doing double runs right now I don't I don't believe we have double runs I would need to check on that the buses are generally running on time which is great I can tell you that the strain we have now is if that a lot of uh if they in their days when like a lot of drivers call out if there is if there are many call outs everybody ends up driving we've even needed to offer to send Miss screen over some days to work uh the phones because they just have to it it it gets th it can get thin uh faster
156than we would like um if there are call outs but I don't believe we have double runs right now um and we are able to do field trips in general those those things that like we've we I'm very grateful for what we've been able to get back to but I wouldn't say we have a lot of breathing room yet I will say that um none of the things that have been proposed um require us to add more drivers um and none of that is affecting attendance correct um you say that again the any of the but like the buses being late or having to find other drivers to fill in um does that affect attendance in any way you know I have to admit if a bus is late what how is that marked Miss
157rasnik I apologize I'm not familiar with that that piece students aren't penalized if the bus is late um if they and if students like reported to to the school that the reason that they couldn't come was due to like our failure to provide a bus I don't think that happens ever but like if if it was like they missed the bus and there was like a huge delay we have a way to excuse that that doesn't penalize the students okay thank you so to be clear it does not work to pull the entire Locust Grove neighborhood back into Burnley Moran for both utilization and um other priorities of balancing demographics yeah we we looked at that multiple times and it I mean the utilization at Burnley Moran would be very very high like there's no
158way that Burnley Morant can support the growth that it needs to from Summit in order to clear Summit out a little bit and to the transportation piece one of the reasons why we have to hold firm to the 75 walk zone is we would never run a bus north of the 250 bypass that would go back to BME it is a inefficiency anytime you have to take a bus over that um over those bridges that cross 250 it's just a it's an expressed preference you know our having shorter route times benefits everyone so you know Transportation efficiency was one of our guiding principles and so we we prefer not to do that actually areas of the city too sorry there are are of the city that cannot be navigated with a school bus um it's
159not lost on me that when we were at city council earlier this week that their three action items were approving housing in the southern part specifically Summit um in our in our district which just drove home to me the the reason the why behind why we're doing this um to Mr Meyer's Point um we need to give some Direction about these options um have you changed your are you still in favor of option the first option can I before I'm so sorry if we go to an alternative plan we're essentially going back to a process we're going to have to have another survey we're go what what happens with an alternative plan I you don't think it does it I don't know I I would recommend that if you bring forth an alternative plan or
160even say here are two finalist plans that we would ask uh Karen to come up with a different survey and would do a push I sent out neighborhood specific information this afternoon telling people that we were talking about this possibility but that if you moved to um move it away from a consideration into a plan that you want feedback on then we would follow up with more information and ways to give feedback I mean I think like to the board we have competing interests of walkability versus keeping neighborhoods together and so in December we raised we elev ated maintaining or improving diversity and demographic balance to the top of the priorities and I think discussion tonight or I mean tonight that's why we're here is looking specifically at those other two the walkability and the
161keeping neighborhoods together that is what's at issue between these two recommendations I'm going to jump in just for a moment because I think those really that really does boil down to to it is keeping neighborhoods together more important than walkability that's the difference between these two plans when you'll notice even in the alternative plan we sustained the board's directive of diversifying all schools and of course we met the ultimate goal of using using uh even utilization at all schools I do want to add in that uh vein of keeping neighborhoods together one thing we have heard clearly from Kindlewood throughout this process and I know you all have gotten some specific suggestions and creative ideas that involve splitting kindle wood and that has been one consistent message from that Community through all of our engagements
162is Kindlewood wants to remain as one neighborhood and there have been other neighborhoods that have expressed the same thing um there were some options that split up the neighborhood that's just east of summit what's it called not Carlton it's Belmont Belmont there was an option that split Belmont early on and the overwhelming response was we do not want to be split they're already split two ways they don't want to be split three ways um so feedback from other communities has indicated a lack of support for um for neighborhood splits colleagues I I would say I think I would a at the moment and looking forward to public comment after this because I know there's a lot of parents in here uh and hear what they have to say but uh you know I'm would recommend
163the original January recommendation I'm interested in hearing from Locus Grove I think the folks in Rose Hill we didn't hear much from them because they must have been pretty comfortable with what was there but like all right if we give Locus Grove the opportunity to you know get voice their opinion and against something we have to give them and then if not we're not being fair right so and then it's again we iterate again me just from a logic perspective and what's fair and processed and everything right so um and this is why I'm a little frustrated that again we change the timeline around all this um because we had defined a process and we were going to do it so you know along those lines to a certain extent I think we achieve what
164we were trying to do with the original one when we discussed back in January um I think the mod if the phases and I would recommend stitching with with what's in January thank what we first heard in January thank you at this moment the January recommendation is the way I'm leaning January recommendation January recommendation yes to January recommendation is where I'm leaning towards thank you same yeah no I mean this I don't like it um but I think yeah I think the January recommendation I really struggle with this idea of like that kind of squiggly line through Locus Grove um so yes I think in this moment the first recommendation um but need to need to spend some time thinking on it and as Mr Meer said here's some more and any other comments or
165questions at this time on this resoning package so I just want to be clear that we will at the April board meeting which is at the end of March we will we will bring back we will bring a recommendation for its first reading thank you and just as a process I will follow back up with those neighborhoods that we alerted today that you are even having this conversation and I will let them know that the board is interested in pursuing the original recommendation from January thank you okay um at this time we will we'll move on to the second opportunity for comments from members of the community if there's anybody in the library who would like to speak please approach the podium say your name and you have three minutes good evening uh my name
166is Diana Bryant charlotesville resident so I have many concerns and comments but first I want to start with the historical elements so the rose neighborhood has been vocal For Years about their desire to attend Trail Blazer it may not have been that way when you got here Dr Gurley but it's definitely been voiced before and as it was noted by an educator it's by Design right we're talking about diversity and when we talk about diversity we often use euphemisms but what we're talking about is racism and racism and Jerry mandering and red lining and all of these processes politically have been used to keep certain students out of certain schools that's a problem um I think it's also important to note that when we talk about history we need to also talk about infrastructure what
167makes Preston Avenue more of a natural border than 250 right that was a concern that was brought forth at one of the public comment sessions that was at Summit and I don't understand why anyone would question that if you ever drive on roads but it was asked why would 250 be a border and as someone who lives alongside 250 I think it's pretty clear if you drive on it um so there's that as Dr Gurley noted our predominantly black neighborhoods have been split and bust across the city for a very long time if we have been paying attention to the conversations about Trailblazer charlott will 12 all of the history there we know that that was an issue for West Haven and so it just feels really ridiculous that we continue to act as if
168those voices aren't vocal they may not be an email to the board directly but they definitely are on social media and Miss Burns I know you understand that because I see you at everything in the community I don't think you miss a public event so that being said I'm sure that these concerns have been brought to you next process um despite how I am happy to hear that you all kind of agree with the whole January proposal it has been highlighted throughout this process that there's a real issue of transparency and that is not an attack on any particular board member but it is worth noting that there are three board members who are part of the board during the resoning process and the lack of transparency was highly critiqued so I guess I wonder
169is this going to be a trend or do we need new people at the table um to help make that transparency issue mended um I guess my last point would be that um we are missing a lot of voices and the timing of the meeting is probably a part of that meetings at 5:00 P p.m are just is not helpful for anyone whether it's a public work session or a comment session or your regular school board meeting and I think it's worth noting or thinking about how do we change that and make that better for other parents to attend or community members to attend I know it's always been that way it's been that way since I was in CCS um so I understand that five o'clock has always been kind of the standard but
170if we're talking about parents who have multiple jobs then how are we making it easy for them to be at the table I guess Zoom could be an option but the timing is just very inconvenient either way so I wonder if for the next process as we push it back if we push a can down the road and we have more opportunities for people to give public comment can that be moved to a later time thank you m BR thank you so much good evening Schoolboard members Dr Gurley and community members my name is Shannon gilin I have many roles here tonight I am going to speak as a member of the rezoning committee imagine my surprise when after attending months of rezoning committees many community outreach events at 5:00 pm today I got an
171email saying there was a new proposal on the table I took the work of this committee very seriously doesn't feel like our work was given the same respect tonight's new proposal ask the division let me pause I appreciate the board member comments and concerns about the new proposal I appreciate that you don't want to do it I'm still going to say what I'm going to say tonight's new proposal asked the division to keep Ros Hill at Green buyer which was Jerry manard racist districting to be clear from our past this was one of the first things our committee recommended fixing along with reuniting the prospect neighborhood the committee recommended in both our recommendations to Dr Gurley to reunite the prospect neighborhood that was ignored this proposal also recommends moving dice Street neighborhood another historically black
172neighborhood in addition to the previous recommendation to bust Kindlewood to perley Morant so what changed since our committee made a recommendation in January white people got loud as an organizer I commend the Locust Grove neighborhood and their organizing efforts however I also ask that the white people in this town check their privilege is it worth it to you to bust not one not two but three historically black neighborhoods so you can walk really Schoolboard members I'm beyond frustrated at the way the committee's recommendations are treated the late notice we were given about this new plan and that this conversation is even happening please do not continue to prioritize white wealthy voices over others and if you want community members to serve on committees listen to them thank you hi um I'm Jeff Fuller um I
173I'm in Burley Moran um uh I guess uh I did I did have one question about the Kindlewood and that that there's going to be 450 students coming from there is that correct of all three phases eventually is that okay okay that's just yeah okay okay was just like when I was when I first heard 450 from kle I heard that from Kindle somewhere I misinterpreted it but um that seems to that would seem to overwhelm any school if that whole group stayed together um I mean I'm I'm always a proponent for building more stuff and I felt like that was the the push for the re for the zoning um people and I know that's not in anyone's hands here but I yeah I really hear from City on those on that stuff um
174like a lot of us here um and uh I guess uh I just feel like pitting like Rose Hill against Burnley Moran and like berley man wanting to walk like everybody was very vocal because like it's a really like great thing I mean I walk to school every single day I'm I'm not gonna get moved in my based on where I live but you know like we talk to people like basically a new family like every day or not a new family but like different family every day and it's just like this it's this it's this great thing that I really wish everybody could have in the city and you know I just I think taking that away from anybody is just you know and I know why and I you know um I'm I'm
175really you know socio and economic mixing and integration have to happen you know like that's that's absolutely critical for middle school and high school and everything I mean just everybody it has to happen so um but I just don't think any anyone school should get overwhelmed with any one of them so um I like the idea of actually continuing to refine the plans I know it's like it's been a long process for everybody and like you guys wanted to this is a really big deal and like every it's six years at going to each school it's you know it's a long period of time um so like I really I just really appreciate you know the extra time you guys are taking to look at this stuff um or were and you know I appreciate
176that um so I think that's pretty pretty much just yeah where the where the rest of the development's going to go and I you know like looks like we're going have to build build building so city council where are you sort of what I'm at but um I guess that's that's pretty much it um but thank you you're probably staring at me because you have no idea what I just said now imagine living in the US navigating life being an immigrant and not speaking the language with all due respect but I just wonder when we are conducting these researches whose existence are we completely ignoring you probably saw me breaking my fast with an apple because to be here at 5:00 p.m. was completely impossible for me but I am here because there's this huge
177pressure for me to be a first gen to speak English and represent the Afghan Community there was this rhetoric recently about the absent students in school that parents should bring their school no parent hates their child it's just that we are in survival mode when you work for three shifts it's very hard when you don't have a car it's really hard recently I was volunteering for a nonprofit and interpreting for this woman who just had a heart surgery she has three minor children and her son is in CHS the doctors tell her to not work that she cannot work that she should rest her husband still waits in Afghanistan who's probably never going to make it here because of the recent political uphill that we are noticing so this woman her son doesn't want to
178go to school he wants to work to help his mother how are we going to justify his absence how can we tell her to bring her son to school to encourage him to come to school when all he worries is how to survive the day so I hope some communities existence are not completely ignored but we can provide them opportunities to be here so they can at least have a voice thank you hello again members of the board um I would like to thank the last speaker for touching on a lot of topics I also had in mind I would like to encourage you once again to think bigger I know you guys are already thinking on a massive scale but it's still such there's a much bigger world as far as where are we
179going to get new schools I don't know that we have to um I don't know the arrangement between Alba maral County and Charlottesville but I pass three Alam Marl County schools in the Charlottesville city limits on my way to work I don't understand that um there are unused areas of town like the old Kmart near the new Whole Foods that could be repurposed other Big Ideas like I've mentioned before are having one Elementary School here in this building that would unite all neighborhoods early on rather than later on we did this with Buford um in the 80s and the longevity has shown that it can last more than 5 years there are other options as well like public charter schools that are available to anyone in the community it would bypass a lot of the
180bureaucracy and open up options for other schools school bus stations instead of having to wait on the street to get to Charlottesville High School they could walk to the nearest elementary school with their younger siblings go to uh Jackson via with their younger sibling and then just get on a bus that comes to Charlottesville High School or Buford as far as the attendance um 33% is a high number the real number is much higher if a student misses six periods of the day and is marked present for one they are not considered absent for the day and that could be for many reasons maybe the teacher missed attendance not even the most um accurate teacher has made every day attendance if they decide to take two lunches they're not considered absent um if they decide
181to leave early or are in school but just not in class they are not considered absent there are Myriad issues including having to work to support a family right now there are 1,00 Surplus hours of school in the high school time from 9th grade to 12th grade shortening the school day by even an hour would still allow everyone to complete their graduate or and advanced diploma on time shortening it by two hours thank you your time is up all right and as speakers as you're approaching if you could please remember to state your name good evening board my name is des shy Cooper from the prospect Community um so just in recent years there've been up um increase of elll students uh moving into Prospect um so I just found out maybe a couple weeks
182ago that Prospect was split between Jackson vaa and Johnson um so I'm here to talk about that some of my community members that I uh live with in Prospect um I'm not here to speak due to language barriers um just want to let you know that Community matters and the family should have the opportunity to either choose between Jackson V or Johnson um without being a split Community um as the kids don't get the full experience of their best friend going to one school and then they're going to a different school um I also like to speak on behalf of other communities that will be affected I understand this is a these are difficult decisions but it's crucial to truly listen to the people respect their opinion they choose and work to improve um the
183choices rather than dismiss them um also I've been uh you know hearing from people that um you guys are not listening to them um now you're saying you are listening to them but just remember we also have to hear them too um that's all thank y'all board appreciate y'all thank you hi my name is Corey AER I'm parent of a CCS student and resident of uh Locust Grove uh yeah appreciate the time um to uh hear the feedback from the community and um I learned a lot again today about the number of issues that are being balanced in the rezoning I just had a couple of quick quick points and questions uh the first was just um along the lines of one of the earlier feedback um speakers was just whether or not we've looked
184at increasing capacity um at our schools uh in terms of capital Improvement so that you could have um you know as an example lar larger number of students attending one school um so that you could maintain neighborhood balance walkability balance sces score so like are we thinking big enough about Capital Improvements at the same time as we're thinking about rezoning um I just secondly I continue to see in my opinion a lack of data backing up decisions um so I understand um the basic math capacity enrollment SCS proportion of population I've even seen some walkability numbers but I'm as we've discussed I've heard some discussion even tonight there's not a lot of data being presented about bus transportation and community and those are still you know on the list of goals for this resoning and
185I I just I I would feel more comfortable if I was a decision maker having data to back up decisions um yeah I think the last thing is really is a question you know I'm very interested in in the uh the new zones the alternate zones that were presented and so I would be interested um in receiving that information in a way that we can consume it in the community and also um this is kind of getting into the weeds but the population surfaces that you're using um to do your uh analyses we don't have access to that in the community we're only seeing um kind of pictures of those in the slides um so you know I'm interested to to know that you'll be and I hope that you will be able to be
186transparent in sharing that data thank you Ben Henderson Locust Grove neighborhood actually first wanted to ask about absenteeism um not the neighborhood plans and I was wondering if um the board received any information about whether this is a Char Charlottesville problem or if we're seeing similar Trends across the state or across the country cultural changes work practices after covid and whether there's some room to push back to maybe the answers at the state level and changing the metrics on how we're being graded because it's ridic I I applaud all the good work that you all are doing you're planning so many things with so many different disperate pieces interacting and sometimes competing interests and then we're getting gred at the state or at the federal level or whatever it is about stuff that's totally different
187and trying to bring together all of these threads to the Fabrics of a great schools to serve a great community and and it's crazy so I just I applaud you in that work but then also and I don't I don't have a position on on any of the the plans presented tonight about the rezoning but I do hope that we can keep the discussion more cooperative not US versus them not privilege versus want not black and white um those characterizations don't really serve anybody well I live in Locust Grobe I'm Mexican American my kids are Mexican Korean American I was one of those people who worked three jobs and had Wick to put food on the table while I was living in Locust Grove I grew up in poverty uh and I spent my career
188early on working overseas doing Community Development and then for the last part of my career I've been working for the F Federal government at the policy level for USDA and for Hyde and uh the way we approach these problems and the way we characterize communities and the way we draw lines on the map they matter they have real consequences and the pain that we've seen in the black community it has huge and Lasting consequences those lines on a map and I would just encourage you when you say we want to keep communities together those lines that show Locust Grove that's not a community it's just a line that that is in neighborhood development services that calls at Locust Grove we got to talk to people about what is the actual community and that line of
189250 it looks like a big barrier it may feel like a big barrier to a lot of people but when you're somebody who walks it's not a barrier at all I walk that every day I've walked downtown to work for almost 15 years and what's a bigger barrier is the topographic lines that I didn't see on that map the Slants the slopes the hills I got to go up and down that's what breaks it up and what's able to me that's what's my neighborhood not the line that that neighborhood development services says is Locus grow so just keep that in mind for this planning exercise or future planning exercises that that Community is organic it's not just those lines on the map thank you uh Connor Welch um first I want to thank Miss Jackson
190for the overview of the alternative plan um I want to thank Dr Gurley Miss dly and Tores for joining the community and the walk to school um the other Friday um it is clear that you're listening um and I appreciate that um I've noted among the the board members like kind of a sense of defeat U maybe a bit of frustration where did this come from we already made a recommendation and I want to express my my personal um belief that this is exactly what I'm desirous of as a community member this is what progress It's iterative and this suggests that there's more work to be done in my view um and that um while I know a recommendation that is a first draft and seldom are first drafts first recommendations perfected they're perfected through
191the voices the many voices that come before me and that will come after um and through the future survey responses so I I just don't share that sense of defeat and frustration I know you've worked hard and I want to celebrate and appreciate that I know that and others who sered on the zoning committee I know you've worked very hard but this is an iterative process and I don't think we're there that yet um as it relates to the the plan that alternative plan um I know that there's competing interests and if everyone is going to be a little bit disappointed understood um I did want to Note One factual point is that the the alternative plan presented tonight is actually not a mere image of the Walk Zone um I know that personally because
192I'm within the walk Zone and I'm outside of that that plan so it's not the 75 or 3/4 mile so just maybe that's something Miss Jackson can look into um and then I just I want to say that uh you know the only one walk Zone was really cleaved in half um and uh in in in The Proposal um and I think that that's something that you've heard a lot of of people um being pretty frustrated about and I think that this iteration is an improvement upon it it's not an endorsement of this um specific alternative plan but I think it's an endorsement of the process toward a more you know more equitable distribution there and um uh so anyway I I I just I really strongly believe that this is part of the process
193and that we need to keep working on it and I don't support um us doubling down on like past racist things I mean there's other people brought up um bad decisions that were made um in the past I think that that's even further evidence that we should continue iterating um so thank you thank you uh Mr Cuomo anybody hanging with us in the zoom room yes uh there is somebody with their hand the last name is listed as w a l l r so you are now being promoted to the stage please state your name and address and this way we can make a record of that and have your three minutes hi I'm relijah Waller I'm member of the Kindlewood Community um one of the things that I did want to point out is
194that despite several speakers stating that um this is not a situation where the louder voices are winning based off of some of the presentations presented tonight it does feel like an alternative plan so that that ladder Community is being heard um even further or getting their way has been presented um and not that for the other communities that are in play um I do agree with what both Zion Brian and Des shot Cooper stated in regards to these marginalized communities being split for years um just to bring a little more information Forward paig Street and Piola Street and half of Anders Anderson Street were um all Venable districted whereas West Haven was Burley Moran and then you had the other half of Anderson Street where those students were going to Greenbrier at one point in
195time when I was in the elementary schools and I'm only 27 years old today um Furthermore with other splits of marginalized communities North birkshire Road which is heavily African-American and Hispanic is split between City and Alamar County as well so I do think that you know we already are experiencing these splits What cancels out Locus Grove also having to experience the same splits that other communities that are marginalized have had to also endure one neighborhood cannot be greater than the others and I think it's very important that that get pointed out and as I said these marginalized communities are not just split amongst the elementary schools in the city we're also split on the county line as well so I think that that needs to be factored in and also thought about and considered um
196another disheartening thing was there's a member of the board who wanted a vote to be done and I think it's very improper to be thinking that a vote should be had when there was acknowledgement of information being left out of the PowerPoint due to timing to present this stuff forward such as the information from Mrs how so whereas I get wanting to be with this conversation there's still so much more work that has to be done and we have to watch ourselves on being so quick to make a decision and not make sure that it's a quality one being made um that has to be done and in order to do that those missing numbers from miss hin that missing information that was not presented or was not able to be included needs to be
197added in so that the community can not only see it and be able to look at it but also to make sure that the votes are going properly with the information that is being stated um I do want to also point out to the point of Dr Gurley that this is not just a Charlottesville thing as far as rezoning I just watched Alamar County do it with kids in Woodbrook and Greer Elementary School where the north Burkshire County residents are no longer going to Greer they now go to Woodbrook which is further away from their home I just heard from some parents from LC Bird high school that's like Chesterfield County at an Alamar game that those kids are now having to go to Petersburg High School again this is something happening Beyond just Charlottesville
198and I think it's very important for us all to understand that that unfortunately your time is up thank you Mr Pomo anyone else in the zoom room with the hand raised okay um at the excuse me um yes we have someone with the last name on the screen is b r w n first name looks to be Taylor you're now promoted to the stage again please state your name and address for the record and we will put on a three minute timer for you to leave public comment hi there Taylor Brown mic check yep great uh 828 St Clair Avenue um I was there in person but had to leave to help get my kids to bed uh so my uh my comment has evolved quite a bit over the last 24 hours based on
199uh you know a slide that was going to be presented and then a new slide with the alternate plan uh that was presented uh this evening um I just wanted to say you know interestingly that you know from my analysis of the original recommendation in January uh of 2025 my my modification to kind of tweak that to enable the uh the the Burnley the BME walk Zone to be maintained essentially was the alternate plan interestingly um so I just wanted to voice my support for that I do want to I do want to say that you know to Dr gurley's uh point about the walk so being 75 miles um there are some houses that are left out of that alternate plan so I think we would want to just make sure that it was
200actually you know the 75 uh um would be the only recommendation there um but to Dr gurley's Point there's going to be a line drawn somewhere it's just it's inevitable um and I think keeping even just those houses in to BME is is a significant Community boost so I I just wanted to say thank you for considering our feedback and putting forward an alternate plan thank you all right um that is it for public comment um we will move on to comments from the board and Miss olich will start down on your end I think this is definitely a topic where it's kind of impossible to make every single member of the community happy but I think when the board's talking about this when committees are talking about this I think and I think a
201lot of students would feel the same way especially when it comes to how this is affecting our elementary school schools but I think our focus should be equity and making sure that we are supporting marginalized groups that we are changing um things that were redlined or gerrymandered in the past and prioritizing those things and not prioritizing the people who are privileged enough to be loud and to come forward and to say that they want to walk to school I think that's distracting us from what really should be focused on here when we're trying to make these decisions thank you Mr Meer uh well I want to thank miss Warren for coming always appreciate your comments uh I do hope you feel that we do listen to you at times and and I would like to
202think that uh the cell phone policy is something that we've pushed hard on and and I'm glad to hear that it's working and because I remember about this time last year I it was being asked to change uh and I know there was a lot of push back on that uh I also you know share your observations around screen time I do wonder and then I hope our board does take this up sometime because I think there's Nuance around it I'm not saying you don't you know not saying that there's Nuance around it but I I would love to see teacher leadership on it uh and I'm not saying you're not saying that but uh anyways I look forward to hopefully more conversations around that I think you know that um Coles I think yeah
203we had a lot of conversations about resoning today I appreciate the additional feedback I heard in the public comment uh I like I mentioned earlier I do think we have to make decisions to be efficient to a certain extent we have to have good processes we started this process back in September we had a lot of survey a lot of data come back from a lot of different things we Digest gested that in a very good work session in December we provided feedback we got some more be feedback and I think our progress or sorry our process so far has been rigorous there's always additional work additional people we could do and I think we've and I appreciate the staff sorry not us but a lot of the staff uh has done the majority of
204the work as of in room for improvement yes but I do hope we don't keep on pushing this decision down the road uh as yeah we need to make a decision so um thank you all right I don't know how but I got the lucky straw this year and I get to hang out with a lot of students so I am excited to share that we have a new board member to the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board and that is Penelope Ginger Craig Headway and she will be serving alongside me and the parks and recck Advisory Board as our student representative Ginger is passionate about the environment um local issues and Global scales she's also involved in the YMCA Youth and government program and leads the CHS film club so she is a excited to
205bring some of that film experience to the parks and wreck committee to help highlight some of the great things that happened there and be a contributing member to that team so I'm excited to be working with ginger and then just a reminder that summer is coming very soon I think right um and so Parks and Rec summer day camp and the ultimate adventure camp registration is now open and that is for kids ages 6 to 12 so if you haven't done that already please go ahead and do so camp programs include trips to the pool uh field trips throughout the city and Beyond City Limits breakfast and lunch are provided and financial assistance is available and lastly I just want to thank Dr Gurley his team the committee and everyone who has spoke and email
206clearly you were heard um and so I want to say that I fully support um affordable housing in Charlottesville and building more inclusive affordable housing however I do think we need to continue to consider that growth and how it impacts our school particularly as we work to ensure that every child has Equitable access to high quality education I'm urging our city leaders and have spoken with Sam Sanders I believe it's on our next working agenda with this City to understand what it might look like to have the School Division at the table potentially even having a spot in the Planning Commission to ensure that future development aligns with school capacity equity and long-term sustainability this is not about shifting numbers on a map it is about making sure that all students no matter where they
207live have access to balanced diverse and well resource learning environments without careful planning we risk deepening the economic disparities in some of our schools While others remain underutilized something that is clear none of us want and so I encourage everyone who emailed who spoke who walked who advocated on behalf of their own family and their neighbors to stay engaged in the everyday Affairs of our School Division don't check out here there is more work to be done we need mentors we need volunteers at our school we need support and so apply to be a substitute teacher go to a theater performance attend a band concert go to an orchestra concert come out to one of our many athletic events and everything else in between but don't check out here just because you think it doesn't
208affect you thank you Cooper um I would like to say uh thanks for everyone that presented uh thanks for all the public comments um I want to say everyone's voices matter um as a school board me member our decisions impact every student of Charlottesville so you know I've been in the community knocking on doors um talking to folks um so that I make sure that all voices are Amplified in this process um and so I just want to say that um you know it's never too late to send an email reach out um if you have questions or you know just want to chat for coffee to any of the school board members to learn more about this process um I I would also I'm I'm very interested in uh seeing additional data and numbers
209of students um that are currently um having attendance issues and making sure that um their families are involved and their Student Success plan so I would like to know like from a data standpoint like how many students have a Student Success plans and like what are some of the challenges and the barriers that families are facing um and how are we connecting those families to resources um I can say from personal experience I have a child that deals with mental health issues and some days it's hard to get him to go to school and and you know letting the school know that that some days you know he he shows up but he's not his best self and and then that leads to something else and so being mindful of issues like that that our
210kids are facing we have things that are happening in our community that a lot of folks know nothing about and that our kids are struggling with and so being mindful of that and making sure that we're providing the proper resources for our families to be able to thrive so our kids can show up their best self and so I would hope that through those Student Success sessions that the person on the other side that's doing the work is really intentional about making sure that we are supporting families in that process thank you thank you m Richardson taus um I just wanted to give a shout out again to prep um which is um pedmont Regional Education Program and um their next event that they're offering for the community is Life After High School Conference um
211this will be held Saturday March 22nd at pvcc it's an opportunity or it's a a gathering and they're going to uh there will be 25 local agencies um that um can help prepare you and your entire family for that next big step or the transition step [Music] um they um encourage people I mean as early as you know if you have a student who's four years old all the way up to 21 years old um to show up and to start gathering this information and it's a wonderful opportunity again and if anybody um wants more info I believe we do have it um on our website um but reach out to me and I'm happy to share it um also I wanted to give a shout out I believe I saw um an announcement that
212um registration for preschool is open for another week or two I believe so and that that is online as well so thank you you teed me up nicely there miss Torres um in the spirit of sacrificing something that's important to me and my family um I wanted to um just note as a Burnley Maran parent I am sad to see uh Dr corab be leaving um our school that we love and the community that she's created um but I'm so excited for the work that she's going to do in building out our division-wide preschool um and it's really exciting to me to think that you know she is going to be the face that many members of our community are going to see first and have as their first um entry into our school system
213um and so my congratulations to her and um I know the work ahead is going to be a big lift but um can think of a better person to be in that position um and finally just want to thank um Dr Gurley and your team um for a successful budget presentation to city council this week um I felt like it was very well received and we were well positioned to make that presentation because of all of the work um that you and your team did leading up to that so thank you oh gosh turned off my mic but with that your comments all right um I just want to start by thanking all the people that I am surrounded by there are a lot of things happening at this moment and so I just want
214to shout out principles teachers um school board members elt um there's just a lot Happening Here in Charlesville City schools and and I don't think that you know people see the products that we produce but there's a lot of behind the scenes work happening um I do want to um touch very quickly on the prospect um the comment about Prospect and where that fell in the recommendation and so um as I've communicated a couple times that um the bringing Prospect to back together is not off of the table um at the current moment bringing Prospect back together and putting Prospect at one school does push the um the seal really high um at that one school and and while some may say well it's a difference of about uh uh while it's a difference of
215maybe four or five% I mean it does make a difference because we're talking about students and S um and services and and so it's not off the T it's off the table for this recommendation but it is something that I've said um quite a few times that we will definitely come back and revisit because we're going to bring back a policy um that will include rezoning and so um we will every five years we will have this conversation about um you know are we utilizing our schools um appropriately um and then the um I do want to say the attendance um Miss Cooper that you know that's something that miss rasnik is going to um she's going to have the monthly written reports and I think I can give another level of Greater level of
216Det deta in a in a board brief about what exactly it is that we're doing um as it relates to how many plans and and things of that nature and I want to end by um echoing Miss Burns um let's stay engaged um there's so much happening in our schools and I think that one thing that this resoning conversation continues to affirm for me is the love and the joy that I have for all of our schools um every single School in Charlottesville city um we have amazing Educators um there's just something for everyone here um so you know for the families who may be moving to a new school um there's so many opportunities at the school that your child or your grandchildren or um whomever is going I mean there's so much happening
217at our school and so I don't want us to get lost um in this you know this school versus that school because it's never lost on me that you know Charlesville is just an amazing place to be um so have a great one and I'll let our board chair bring us to a conclusion Miss Swift I know you're shaking your head nothing but I'm gonna throw something at you um if we can see um the most final version of the um application for the cohort phasing for the kindergarteners once rezoning is passed presumably once that vote occurs you know what is the application for um kindergarteners for any student to start early I can't talk anymore I'm so tired you know what I'm asking for Miss pal does yes the application for the out of
218Zone students is that right okay um okay okay upcoming meetings um our April meeting on Thursday March 27th um we'll be back here at 5:00 pm um proceeded by close session at 4: um and with that we are adjourned